Wildgame Innovations IR4 Scouting Camera
Colin Anthony 07.17.11
For the past five years I’ve seen the trail camera industry quickly and dramatically evolve. New features like infrared flash, multi shot and video have now become almost standard. Heck, now you can even view your trail camera photos from your home without stepping foot in woods. Overall, the trail camera industry has come a long way and hunters are reaping all the benefits. Today I’m going to share with you my review of the Wildgame Innovations IR4 Scouting Camera.
Disclaimer – I am not sponsored by Wildgame Innovations nor have they provided this camera for me to use and review. I bought this camera at a local retail store for $99.99.
Now a days the trail camera industry is much like the compound bow industry, in that each year someone has to make it bigger, better, faster, stronger or cheaper than the other guy. They even have to top what they offered last year. However, the great part about trail cameras is that consumers keep getting better features at lower prices, not to mention that, unlike a bow, it’s easy to convince yourself you need more than one trail camera. A few months ago I stood in front of the trail camera aisle for almost 20 minutes before even touching one of the packages. Pretty packages and lots of fancy words almost had me nervous. Finally, I came to the decision that $100 for a trail camera was probably about the price point where I should start to look.
I then started to think about what features I wanted. Do I want one with Flash or infrared? Do I want my trail camera to take video? How do I look at my trail camera pictures, digitally or on film? Yes, film: the ol’ boy who ran the store had some older inventory sitting around. Finally, do I need camo or will black do?
In the end I decided that I would buy a Wildgame Innovations IR4 Scouting Camera. I did so because I liked how clear and simple the information was conveyed on the package and the price seemed right. I’m really a sucker for good marketing. The final reason I bought this one was because I wanted to test video captures against still photos over my salt lick this summer.
After buying a 2 gigabyte SD Card and a package of C-Batteries I quickly went home to play with my new toy. To test it out, I set it up in my pitch black office and attached it to the back of a chair, then I sent my trusty hound dog in for a test run. I got 1 video and 7 photos of a good-looking dog. The next day finally came and I installed the Wildgame IR4 camera over my turkey blind and then after my spring hunting season I put it over my deer mineral lick.
The following sections will outline my complete unbiased review of the Wildgame IR4 Scouting Camera as I tested throughout the spring and summer on turkey and deer.
Before I get started here is a features list for this Wildgame IR4 trail camera:
- 4 megapixel resolution
- infrared Flash up to 40 feet
- Sensor is infrared with a 40 feet range
- 64 megabytes of memory onboard, not including an additional SD memory card
- Shoots Digital Still Pictures
- Shoots Digital Film
- Can accommodate a removal SD memory card up to 8 gigabytes
- USB port
- External battery port
- Runs on 4 C batteries
- Can be set for day, night or both
- Comes with bungee cords
