StealthCam Prowler HD … My Next Game Camera
March 17th, 2010 by Deer Tracking Cameras
I think I may have found the next game camera that I need to test. The Stealth Cam Prowler HD. Let me tell you why I'm drawn to this camera...
Check out the following link that has an example video from this game camera: Prowler HD Video (link will open in a new window). This is a 1280 x 760 HD video of a little buck in velvet pawing at a doe and ends up bumping the camera. I was definitely struck by the quality of the video. The incredible detail, the color, and the clarity of the video from the Prowler HD beats out the video from any other game camera that I have seen to date. Add the recorded audio to the equation, and you end up with a realism that makes you feel like you are in a blind, watching the action unfold in front of you. The H.264 video compression gives you this widescreen format at 30 frames per second for a fluid video.
A few other features caught my eye while looking at the specs. The video length is adjustable like with many other game cameras on the market, but this one can shoot videos from 5 seconds to 300 seconds (5 minutes). It accepts a memory card of up to 16 GB, so a large number of videos (even long ones) can be stored to the memory card. It can shoot 8 megapixel still pictures as well, giving you high definition quality stills, but lower resolutions can be set too. It has all the other standard features that you are used to seeing from Stealth Cam. The Burst Mode allows you to fire off multiple still pictures when the PIR is actived, and this one will let you take between one to nine images. You get the Date, Time, Moon Phase, and Temperature stamping on images and video files. This information remains visible on the bottom of the screen though, as opposed to just being displayed in the first frame like other digital game cameras. That is a welcome change.
What don't I like is that some of the advertising details from Stealth Cam conflict. For example, this link says that the 54 infrared emitters have a range of 30 feet. But look at the Stealth Cam Product Specification Chart says that it is 40 feet. I'd like to think that it is the 40 feet, as many other game camera manufacturers have been increasing their ranges with HO (high output) infrared emitters. I'll tell you one other thing that bugs me is the built-in 64 MB of RAM. Seriously? What I would love to see is a game camera manufacturer placing 16 GigaBytes of built-in memory in their cameras. Why do these trail cam manufacturers even put such a small amount of memory in a game cam? And the 64 MB is generous compared to what some game cams have built-in. Such a limited amount of memory is not usable. I mean, does anyone reading this post actually make use of internal memory, or are you like everyone else I know, who swaps external memory cards in and out of the cam?
I think those issues are minor compared to the benefits offered by this trail cam. The Stealth Cam website has this camera for sale for $309.00. I have found this camera selling elsewhere for less, and in some cases as much as $60.00 less. That's about 20% less, at a price of around $249.00 with free shipping. You can see those deals here:
