[kodiak06]

The tasco cams photos come from the SD card and can't be compared to the Reveal pics being sent unless you're requesting HD photos or pulling the sd cards and viewing. My HD photos are clear as a bell. My tascos take good pic/video as well. If used as a non-cellular camera the reveals take great photos. My cams in the field that are getting whitetails like crazy are going through batteries at a good clip but, I have other brands that eat them quicker. I'm gonna grab some solar panels for the out of state cams. My 6v/12v batteries last a long time

 

[kodiak06]

I’ve run 30 or so Tactacams over the last 3 years and 1/4 have a battery issue. Good luck getting ahold of customer service. I switched to Moultrie.

Customers service is a breeze to get a hold of, FB MSG and by phone. I just dealt with an issue in a few minutes on the phone.

 

[kodiak06]

The ones I'm using are the rechargeable lithium packs (Amazon knockoffs), not lithium AAs. Even if they only last 3 weeks or a month, still cheaper than replacing AAs a couple times. My cameras aren't out in the middle of public or anything either. Just around a 10 acre or so wood lot near my house, so not a big deal to change it. Just annoying.

Cheap batteries/generic batteries SUCK. The most economical way is an external battery or alkeline. I run about 40 cams and cheap batteries have failed me miserably.

 

[flair]

I've currently got a Reveal X 2.0 and a Reveal X Pro and it seems like they are eating through batteries like crazy, even using the rechargeable lithium cartridges.

I'm only up to 200 photos for the last 30-ish days and I have to swap out the cartridge every 2-3 weeks. No vidoes, 16mp, no multi-shot, "balance" night mode, low flash, daily settings check, timely photo send, no check-in picture.

The picture quality isn't great, which I don't care too much about (although my $20 Tasco car camera blows it away for pic quality).

I read that some older model Tactacams have better battery life. Any suggestions on an older model to look for to get better battery life out of them? I tried Muddy/Stealth cell cams before and they didn't work well at all. Tactacam seems more reliable, but I'm open to suggestions for other brands that are affordable, dependable, and still only $5 or so per month per camera.

How's the cell service where you have them? I have roughly 15 of the 2.0s and 1 Gen 1 that I've have great longevity out of the batteries. I do use the Lithium Rayovacs. The one time I had a camera eating batteries, I found that the cell service was terrible for both Verizon & At&t. I ate through 2 sets of batteries within 2 weeks. Move the camera and no issues. I guess these things work like a cell phone, and with bad service the camera keeps "pinging" for location which uses allot of battery power.

 

[10essee]

I have 4 tactical and use the solar panels. I have had one out for 4 years on the same pole and it’s never dropped below 100%. I swapped out some to the lithium packs with solar panels and the packs go dead fast. Switched everything back to lithium AA and solar panels and haven’t touched them in 6 months still 100%

 

[b1004u]

Try using standard AA. I stopped using Lithium and don't use their packs either. Standard AA last forever for me

 

[primitivist]

Customers service is a breeze to get a hold of, FB MSG and by phone. I just dealt with an issue in a few minutes on the phone.

I had just the opposite experience as did a few friends. Maybe we were just unfortunate that the issues were all coming to light in the fall and there was a lot of call volume but I’ve never had more issues with cameras than with them.

 

[kodiak06]

I had just the opposite experience as did a few friends. Maybe we were just unfortunate that the issues were all coming to light in the fall and there was a lot of call volume but I’ve never had more issues with cameras than with them.

Yea hunting season across the country by then… They al ays quick to reply on th FB page, I cant remember the exact one

 

[Alaska at heart]

I've only run the original Gen 1 Reveal and it was great on battery life. I most often put them on shut-down mode during the off-season (early Jan thru mid-July) and get them running mid-summer through the end of the year with a fresh set. Never had to replace my budget Ray-O-Vac AA batteries during season and have had them last for nearly a year. I left my old Gen 1 out all winter and it stopped communicating with Tactacam in January, but showed battery life. So I left it out as a conventional SD type in the same spot on our property an hour to the north of home. I've been up to our property, but had other projects and need to pull it out to see what is on the card.

In place of the Tactacam, I've been also running the Bushnell Cellucore 20's the past few years and have a new pair of the Moultrie Edge to try out for '25. One of my Bushnells has been out in the woods nearly a year at a local private land spot and sent me a pix of a turkey on Wednesday and a fawn yesterday.

 

[smokin x's]

@Mossy-Back I've got two gen 2's. Battery life was really good on both of them up until early last year. One still runs a good while on a set of alkaline batteries. The other one eats right through them now. I've tried lithiums in the problem cam and I also added a solar panel (had the same issues as you with it. By the time I got it pulled and was going to reach out to Tactacam, the 1 year had already passed).

Settings are identical between the two cameras and picture count is roughly the same between the two. I'd heard the newer models were worse yet on battery life, so when I added more cell cams last year I looked elsewhere.

 

[jbabbzr2]

Im running the OG reveal x and get an average of 2-3 months of good battery life out of mine.....the new 3.0 im lucky to get 2 weeks and yes this is over bait piles so they take lots of pics....good quality double A batteries seem to be the ticket also manually wiping the SD card everytime you change batteries.

 

[copperman]

Ya I dont get it with tacticams Year one worked great, last fall I had two eating through batteries. I did the firmware update and no change. Garbage one year camera?

 

[ghyde716]

I've had tacatcams that chew thru batteries and some that will last 6-9 months. What I did was buy the rechargeable lithium battery pack ($40-$50 bucks) and the solar panel ($50-60 bucks).

I am going on over a year with 3 cameras set up this way and I have not had to touch them since i set them up. Not the cheapest route but when I factor in time, gas and batteries I think I'm coming out ahead.

 

[archer8030]

I’ve run 30 or so Tactacams over the last 3 years and 1/4 have a battery issue. Good luck getting ahold of customer service. I switched to Moultrie.

I don't need good luck because, like I said, I had no problem getting ahold of their CS and my experiences were both stellar. Sorry you can't say the same but that doesn't mean that applies to everyone's experience. I've been running multiple Reveal X 2.0 cameras for 3-4 years myself and like I said, I've only ever had an issue with two cameras. Both times, I've followed Tactacam's trouble shooting suggestions on their website and both times that didn't fix the problem so as instructed on their website when their trouble shooting suggestions don't work, I emailed their CS. the first time, it was decided that I needed to have a camera replaced. Within 3 business days, I had a brand new replacement camera in my hands and they sent a prepaid shipping label for me to return the faulty camera. The second time, through emails, their CS was able to trouble shoot my issue and the got the camera to work. This was last year and as we speak, that camera is in the woods working as it should. As far as battery life, like I said to OP, other than using alkaline batteries when I should've been suing lithium batteries, I've never had any issues with battery life in any of my Tactacams. I guess I've had "good luck." Sorry about your bad luck.

 

[Mossy-Back]

How's the cell service where you have them? I have roughly 15 of the 2.0s and 1 Gen 1 that I've have great longevity out of the batteries. I do use the Lithium Rayovacs. The one time I had a camera eating batteries, I found that the cell service was terrible for both Verizon & At&t. I ate through 2 sets of batteries within 2 weeks. Move the camera and no issues. I guess these things work like a cell phone, and with bad service the camera keeps "pinging" for location which uses allot of battery power.

Good Verizon service at least 4 out of 5 bars.

 

[KSQ2]

I've currently got a Reveal X 2.0 and a Reveal X Pro and it seems like they are eating through batteries like crazy, even using the rechargeable lithium cartridges.

I'm only up to 200 photos for the last 30-ish days and I have to swap out the cartridge every 2-3 weeks. No vidoes, 16mp, no multi-shot, "balance" night mode, low flash, daily settings check, timely photo send, no check-in picture.

The picture quality isn't great, which I don't care too much about (although my $20 Tasco car camera blows it away for pic quality).

I read that some older model Tactacams have better battery life. Any suggestions on an older model to look for to get better battery life out of them? I tried Muddy/Stealth cell cams before and they didn't work well at all. Tactacam seems more reliable, but I'm open to suggestions for other brands that are affordable, dependable, and still only $5 or so per month per camera.

I didn't read through the thread, so this has probably already been addressed. I ran an x pro for 8 months last year with lithium batteries and their solar panel battery. I just tested the lithiums after off season storage, getting ready to set it back up, and the batteries were still reading 1.6 volts. They never even got used while using the solar battery. My advice: find a place to run your cam that gets some sunlight, and use the their solar battery.

 

[KSQ2]

I’ve run 30 or so Tactacams over the last 3 years and 1/4 have a battery issue. Good luck getting ahold of customer service. I switched to Moultrie.

Hmmm, their customer service is the main reason I use them. Are you calling on the weekend or something???

 

[Mossy-Back]

I didn't read through the thread, so this has probably already been addressed. I ran an x pro for 8 months last year with lithium batteries and their solar panel battery. I just tested the lithiums after off season storage, getting ready to set it back up, and the batteries were still reading 1.6 volts. They never even got used while using the solar battery. My advice: find a place to run your cam that gets some sunlight, and use the their solar battery.

I had their newest solar panel and it didn't work worth beans. Made sure it was in direct sun most of the day.

Hmmm, their customer service is the main reason I use them. Are you calling on the weekend or something???

I had a great experience with their CS.

 

[KSQ2]

I had their newest solar panel and it didn't work worth beans. Made sure it was in direct sun most of the day.



I had a great experience with their CS.

I purchased the solar panel a year and a half ago; maybe not the same one? Herd360 offers some really high quality cell camera accessories and the reveal reps I talked to had nothing to say but good things about herd360. We have our camera in a bad coverage area, so I had to use the antenna booster too. I was putting together a backup plan if the reveal booster wasn’t powerful enough, but it was.

 

[madman350]

They're lasting 3 weeks, maybe a month. I've only tried them in the X Pro, which I hear eats batteries faster than the X 2.0 so I'm going to swap out cameras today or tomorrow and see if that makes a difference.

I had a stealth cell cam killed all the AA's in 2 weeks, for my first try at a cell cam I was really disappointed . Changed them out muzzleloader weekend and by Nov 3 dead again. Haven't had great cell service in the region so im sure that had a large part trying to send 12 or 16mp images but i only had 2 cams on the piece and the academy miniature browning I've had good luck with in past but the SD card or something apparently didnt format so my cam adventures in 24 was a massive flop.