I am going to suspend all the lead into these cameras because they are exactly the same as the IR5 camera that has already been reviewed except for the resolution. The reason is that this camera gained popularity last year and many still are using and enjoying that old model. This year it is the same look but manufactured by another company with much better QC than last years cameras. If it was not for the popularity of this camera we would have gone on to the next one in line to catch up on a little of our backlog. On the market for around a hundred dollars these little cameras have been real work horses for many. This year we have been asked several times to go ahead re do another IR-4 review by this new manufacture.
The same size as the IR-5 camera which is around six by eight inches it hides pretty well on a tree. This camera is satin black with a couple rounded bark grabbers on the back to help it fit on a tree. Small bungee loops are on the corners to take the supplied hooks on the small bungee cords. Any additional information about programming and such is all in the IR-5 review if that information is needed. I ran the usual pre testing and all looks well and the pictures appear to be satisfactory. The initial trigger looked to be in the two second timeframe, but I was hoping for a little faster. The delay can be turned down to 30 seconds which is alright but not that desired 15 second thing that Moultrie just did to a couple of their cams. We were pleased with there 5 MP camera, so we feel this camera will do well also. We are headed for the testing lab to do an in depth look, to see if our guesses about this camera are correct. So far this they have put a hurt on the Moultrie and Stealth sales with their hard working sub $100 cameras. The main short fall when it comes to the competition is battery life. These cameras have been going just over a month on 4 C cells and the competition lasts longer with 6 C cells, depending on the picture count. Those cameras with the minimum one minute delay will be getting far less pictures than these cameras with a 30 second delay when placed in the same circumstances.
08-29-2010 update: Managed to get lined up for some trigger testing and they came out somewhat on the positive side. Day was 2.18 and night with flash came in about 2.25 seconds which is just over that magic two second mark but anyway it would be acceptable by most for the price. The day range and sensing was good and the day color a bit grainy still was good enough to get a decent 200% zoom on the 8 plate. The night range showed the flash somewhat weak but still good past 40 feet. This last year favorite will still probably hold a high degree of favoritism this year with new users. We will repeat the night flash range tests tonight as thunderstorms prevented it last night.
09-03-2010 update: Looks like a page out of the BTC play book when we viewed the day pictures. Most appeared to be somewhat dark and this cam did not want to give us a single white out because it would hold to taking color pictures way into the transition time. Most of the pictures both day and night were pretty good but dark. Our area is a tough area so many cameras show with pictures that are darker than normal but this camera seemed to take it a little further. The night IR pictures showed a small degree of blur but for the most part they had very good blacks and solid whites which is marker of better IR pictures. The small flash showed the need for additional light in some areas. This camera needs to be mounted a little closer than most because of the flash range. We will shift to video and see how well that gos.
10-27-2010 update: This cam is still going and showing having plenty of battery left. We are in hunting season now so out picture count is way down so battery life estimations will be much longer due to the lower picture count.
12-27-2010 update: We have about 1092 pictures so far and the camera has not died yet but the support of the flash is very weak so it should not be very long before we have to pull the plug on this camera.
01-23-2010 update: We pulled this camera nad found that its batteries are finally dead. In total the camera took 1154 photos and 49 video clips over a period from 08-29-2010 to 12-24-2010. This camera has performed faithfully and we are now closing this review.
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