Day 6 Plotwatcher Game Surveillance System

Bought these to replace older cameras that were starting to fail. Software is very easy to use, my wife now reviews all of the cameras for us while I am at work. Batteries last a long time compared to other manufacturers. With the camera set on taking a picture every five seconds from sunrise to sunset I have batteries that are at 65% and they have been in the field for six weeks. The ability to lock to the tree with a python lock or equivalent helps keep these from walking away. The delay function is great since I travel a lot, I can set the camera to delay the start of the recording so that I am not burning batteries, this will be helpful for me when I start placing them out of state in preparation for next season. The only issue that I have found is that when you place in a 32GB SD card you will have a media failure sometimes, not sure what is causing this because I format the cards each time after I review the footage. No issues with the 16GB cards and since the camera just rewrites over the oldest pictures if it becomes full I may just resort to using the 16GB cards, this will hold about 2 weeks worth of data in the winter time the way that I have the camera set up. Plan on buying more throughout the summer.

This camera is for hunters. Not for taking pictures of wildlife. The resolution is not on par with your Iphone as one person suggested...but try fitting a picture taken every second , 12 hours a day, for several weeks on your phone. Several 1 star ratings completely missed the point of this camera let me highlight the upsides....1) Its the only camera I found that will take constant pictures regardless of motion trigger. There is no motion capture so you get picture coverage as wide as a football field and just as deep. You will see everything in that view, and things closer up you will get pretty good pics. The reviewer that was annoyed that you could not tell between a buck and a doe was referring to pics that are a good distance away. Other motion triggered cams would never even picked it up in the first place.2) Doubles as a security camera. Can be used as a security cam during the off season. I have had a decoy stolen so I was just as concerned about capturing thieves and trespassersWith pics at a rate up to 1 a second there is no way you will miss any action. There is something that makes me feel better when I have confirmed video that no one has been bothering the hunting site.3) Battery life is incredible! I have used this camera for two months at a time and it still had 60% battery life. I am away from the property for weeks at a time so this is a must. And only 8 AA batteries. No lugging around one of those ridiculous huge batteries that other cams require.4) Software does work well for detecting movement. Very simple to use. Without this it would take hours to go through a week of footage.5) Simple to use. The only thing you need the lcd screen is for setting up the shot.Cons or improvements:1) Camera needs to be set up in a proper location. I recommend trying a few spots prior to hunting season. The sunrise or sunset, along with wind blowing leaves can drastically effect the search of the sofware for movement. You will know what I mean after trying different places. This can be minimized by good placement. Dont put it in line with the sunrise or sunset. A better lens filter, liked a polarized lens might improve it.2) LCD does not preview images except for setting up. It would have been nice to review the pics while I was hunting. An android ap with software would be awesome so you could swap the cards and review out in the field. Without a motion capture ap you would need to sort through a crazy amount of pics.3) No night mode, not good at low light pics. It is what it is. I don't care what the deer are doing at night. This could be a must for people looking for Yeti...4) Price is high at $200+. But hunting is not something most people do to save money. I have not seen any other camera that does what this cam does for the same money though....

This is a very good camera. Used a 32GB card with it and set it up for dawn to dusk recording with a picture interval set to 2 sec.The batteries last about 5-6 weeks with the picture interval set to 1 picture/sec, or 1 picture every 2 seconds. The files it would record came in at over 2.4GB per day in most instances.The Macintosh Gamefinder software would load and play any file that was sized less than 2.4GB. Any file above this sizewould place a tiny dot in the upper left corner of the Gamefinders window. That would be all it would show.Moving the files to a windows computer allowed the time lapse movies to play. So if you have a Macintosh andwish to record at faster intervals, you will have a problem. I'd contacted Day6 about this, and they claimed it had been fixed.Their downloads/support page indicates that the software for the Macintosh is at version 1.5. However, when you perform a get infoon the application, it indicates it's at version 1.0. The date stamp is Sept 6, 2011, but it's hard to figure if that means they updatedthe app to version 1.5, and forgot to update the version being reported to get info. Perhaps a link at their web site is queueing the older softwarefor download. They were responsive the first couple of times I'd contacted them, but have ignored my further efforts to contact them. It might be that thissituation does not occur often enough to expend the effort to fix the mac gamefinder software to display files larger than 2.4GB.I was using this camera for surveillance and it was useful in catching people driving onto our property, but the higher capture rate wasneeded due to how fast thieves work. For most purposes this is one of the best systems I've used. But if you only have access to a Macintosh, then keep the pictures being captured to onceevery 5 seconds or more. That should keep the file size under 2.4GB where displaying the pictures breaks the Gamefinder app. Or find a windowscomputer to view them with. I would also recommend the optional zoom lens. This provides for more places to conceal the device than just having the standard lensavailable would allow. Changing between either lens is simple and quick. Overall, I think this is a very good system, but I'm dinging them one star for their mac support.