I'm finally getting some pictures and videos in from the Moultrie I45. I had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of this camera, and after looking at the images, I am torn as to whether or not to keep it or send it back.
Let me first say that I had very high hopes for the I45. At $249.00, I was expecting decent quality images and videos. After reading the specs, it sounded like this infrared game camera would do everything I was looking for. They have been backordered everywhere, so I assume the demand has been high for them. I'd like to hear from others as to what their experiences are with the Moultrie I45. Please leave a comment and let me know.
Here are my experiences thus far...
For the most part, I like the design of the camera. It has a solid feel to it. I like the leveler, as well as the V-shaped back braces which give it a firm fit on the tree. It straps on very nicely.
After hanging it for the first time though, I discovered my first problem; no way to secure it. There is a lock hole on top of the game camera that allows you to lock to top shut. This is the only lock hole available for securing the camera to the tree. I went to secure the camera with a long shank lock and a security cable, and discovered that the lock hole is too small to accept a standard gauge lock. I was forced to go buy a smaller gauge lock. The only way I could secure it to the tree was to lock my security cable with the long shank padlock, and run that through my smaller gauge lock. This is a big drawback with all the concerns about game camera theft. I contacted CamLockbox.com (which I wrote about the other day), and they will have security boxes for the I45 available in a couple of weeks.
The second draw back is the positioning of the lock hole. It is located on the rear corner of the camera. When I went to open it this evening, I had a difficult time inserting the key and turning it. I didn't have much room in between the camera and the tree to work with. I would have preferred to see this located a little more on the side of the camera, instead of towards the rear.
It has been raining heavily here in Kentucky over the past couple of days, and that is what led me to my next concern. To access the memory card, and the camera controls, you need to unscrew two thumb screws on the sides of the game cam, lift the top open, and rotate it forward. With a light rain occurring, I noticed water droplets landing on top of the camera. I did my best to wipe them dry before closing the camera back up, but I'm concerned that the design of the camera could lend itself to condensation issues. You need to really watch for dripping water or rain when changing your game cards. You may even want to keep a cloth handy just for this purpose.
On a positive note, I love the controls and ease of programming. For a camera that uses an LCD panel for programming, this was one of the most straight forward I have seen.
I would have liked to have seen more configuration options though. For example, you can choose from 5, 15, or 30 second videos. Those are the only options. And I just recently learned that at night, the video length defaults to only 10 seconds.
For the photo delay, you can choose between 1, 5, 10, 30, or 60 minute delays in between each activation of the PIR. I'd like to see the ability to configure any desired delay here, similar to what the Scoutguard SG550 gives you.
I pulled my memory card this evening to review the quality of the images. I'm torn here as well. I have a mix of very good quality images, and some that were pretty poor. Let me qualify this though.
I had set the camera to high quality video at 30 second clips. I was pleasantly surprised to see that each video was also accompanied by a still image that contained the photo strip with the date, time, temperature, moon phase, and camera identification. I wasn't expecting to see both images and videos on my card. I was only expecting to see videos. What this allowed me to do though, was see a big difference between the photo quality, and video quality. Some of my daytime images were crystal clear.
A good I45 image
They had vivid color, and excellent definition. The level of detail they caught was much higher than expected. To the left is an example of one of the good daytime images of a doe captured by the I45. This one was caught at 3:37 pm. It was shaded in the woods, but there was good light still. The upload to the blog may not do this image justice, but I can say that I was pleasantly surprised with the quality. But after reviewing some more images, I started noticing some problems. I noticed that some of the images had some pretty serious blur to them, when my targets were on the move. When inspecting the videos, I noticed that the daytime videos were a bit grainy. Not bad, and something I could live with, but a disappointment after seeing the quality of some of the stills.
Moultrie I45 - Infrared mode didn't kick in
As I inspected some of the images and videos taken around dusk or dawn is where I had my doubts about the I45. Mine seemed to have a difficult time determining when it should cut over to infrared mode. Some of the images and videos taken around this timeframe are so dark that I can barely see my game. It appears to be cutting over to infrared mode too late.
Here is an example of a photo taken at 7:28 PM EST, when infrared mode would have really helped out.
The video that I captured right at this same time was dark as well. Had the infrared mode kicked in earlier, I think it would have resolved this issue. I don't know if this is something that can be resolved with a software update or not, and would like to approach Moultrie's support for more information.
Here is an example of the video that was captured at the same time. It is darker than I had hoped for. Had the infrared kicked in earlier, the vido could have been much more viewable.
I did notice on one image about 7:44 pm EST that the infrared did kick in. That's just too darn late. In my area, there is a lot of dusk and dawn activity, and the I45 gave me too many images that just aren't viewable.
I typically am a big fan of Moultrie's game cameras, and love what whey have done with some of their prior models. That may be in part why I had such high hopes for the I45. But after looking through 100 images and videos that I've captured over the last few days, I think I've just made my decision to send this one back. It's time to take a hike back into the woods and pull this one down. I hate to say that too, but for $249.00 I expect more. I've had better experiences with less expensive game cameras. I'm not going to shut the door on Moultrie yet though. I'd like to take another look at this game cam if they come out with any modifications.
This is just one man's experience, and I urge you be the judge for yourself. Maybe I got a lemon, but at this point, I can't say that I'm very pleased with it. I am interested again in hearing from others on their experiences with the I45, so drop me a comment if you've tried the I45.