This is a good review. I have this setup with 15 cameras and one base cell unit at my barn. You covered most of the good points. I would add a couple things: 1. these cameras have a true black flash (there is no flash perceptible by the human eye) night time pic quality suffers from this as expected. Daytime pics are pretty good quality. 2. The camera takes good pics and you can configure them to take a series of pics, but what is sent to the cell unit is only the first In the series and is not the full-sized pic, but a thumbnail of lesser quality. This is one of the trade-offs for having a system that you don't need to check to pull pics. YMMV, but I find this an acceptable trade. 3. Another trade-off is that these cams cannot send videos to the cell unit, only pictures. The cameras are video-capable but become standalone trail cams if you set them to take video. 4. I have not had the same quality problems that you encountered. I have had one camera go bad in my system and have not yet attempted to replace it so can't speak to customer service but you covered that well. 5. being able to see pics each day from my entire property without having to mess with cameras for 3 months at a time is priceless in my opinion Product improvement ideas for Cuddeback in the next-gen: 1. Figure out how to allow videos and full-sized pics to be sent. In today's 'unlimited data' world, it's the next logical step 2. improve range for black flash cams - looks like the powerhouse line might be addressing this need, but make sure this is compatible with cuddelink 3. move away from default "AA" batteries and don't make me spend another ~$25 for a 'D' battery pack so the camera doesn't need new batteries after 30 days
Hey Brett, completely agree with you on the added points, thank you for bringing these up. I especially missed your #5 and should have covered it in the video that not going into my property for months was another big reason for their purchase. I also agree with your recommendations. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I have seven Cudde cameras out right now. Took a few weeks to understand the operation.....but after the learning curve they seem to work quite well. I learned to not place them as high as I originally planned....that helped with picture quantity allot. I don't think they have the best photo range......as they only reach about 40 yards or so. I like the Cudde-link system and have not had to pull cards or tend the cameras frequently. Battey life has been quite good. I do have two cameras on solar and battery packs.....and will leave these as a security system 24/7/365. The other 5 will come in after the deer season. Mine are all white flash....and I am considerening changing to black flash. All in all pretty happy at this point. Been easy to just check my pics each day. Nice.
Hey Tom, thanks for the info. I have been considering the solar setup to reduce my need to go into certain areas of the property to change the batteries, especially the cellular unit. Please keep me updated on how well they work over time. Good luck!!
Looks like you had a great hunting season! I'd love to get a long term update on your camera system. Having multiple cameras on the same data plan sounds great.
Really enjoy the videos and going back through some of your videos. We just bought 36 acres and going to try to set up the property similar to your 40 hunting the edges and creating a sanctuary in the middle. Question for you, I have a bunch of moultries and wg camera and am looking at getting a cuddle link system but they are pricy and was curious if you are happy with your purchase or what you would go with if you could do it again? I Like the idea of 1 plan vs 5-6 cell plans. Thanks for all the videos and knowledge from actual trial and error. Good luck this fall.
Hey Andrew, thanks for the kind words. Congrats on your new property! Hmmm, what would I do now? The Cuddeback were certainly a problem at first, but once they switched out the cell camera and a couple of the bad non-cell cams (at their expense) to the reliable series, I haven't had a problem now for a long time. So, ASSUMING I would get a batch of the "good" cameras, I would do Cudde again. If I had to go through the same batch of "bad" camera's again, I would choose something different. Not a definitive answer for you, but an honest one. All the best to you.
Thanks Mark. Keep up the good work, I think we might bite the bullet in the spring and get them all tuned up during the spring for next fall. Good luck this fall!
Man I love the idea of these cameras as far as being able to have multiple communicate with a home camera especially with some in places with no service. I’ve just heard such a mixed reviews on them howeevr
Hey Melvin, I'm with you there! Last year I didn't have any problems with any of them, so go figure..... But the first year, after shooting this video, ugh, it was rough. Seemed like I was sending one back every few weeks. Maybe they just had a bad batch that I was lucky enough to purchase????? All the best to you.
I used to have cuddeback cameras but I would get wierd error messages when checking them. I was careful to follow the directions new batteries clean chip. The tactacam cameras were sold out so I went with Stealth cam and it’s been good.
Good to hear I'm not the only one with a few issues. Although this year seemed to go pretty well for some reason? Keep us updated on how the Stealth cams work out over the next few seasons.
I have used these cameras to two years now. 1st year non-cellular. 2nd year w/cellular. I own 1 G-series of the infrared for the cell connection, 4 of the G-series, and 2 -series. These cameras cannot deliver on my use case. Your use case may be different. But after 2-years of using these, I plan to find another system starting in '22. My use case: I'm managing 40 acres with improved habitat for deer and 28 acres 1 property over for which I have permission. The 40 acres is terribly brittle and pressure sensitive. I've learned that I cannot check my cameras with any frequency. I use the cameras to a) inventory animals at community areas; b) monitor trails between bedding; c) monitor areas for activity to understand under what conditions deer choose to use this area; d) collection of historical data for use yoy; e) collection of MRI to make stand decisions. Why Cudde doesn't meet this use case: #1. Cell camera does NOT send all pics. This means you are missing data eliminating requirement a, b, c, and e without constant card retrieval. #2. Images sent via cell are so poor that characteristics of some animals are lost making the image of the animal unidentifiable. This means I cannot perform a, b, and e. #3. Photos are sent non-sequentially. You miss context of certain images when they are non-sequential. This inhibits c and e. #4. J-series cameras take really poor pictures; I have plenty of pictures of back halves of deer bodies; in addition, their night pictures are extremely poor unless the animal is right on top of your camera. This impacts nearly every use case that I have for the camera. #5. Cudde's cloud storage is very poor. Getting their cloud storage to load is slow, image quality is only as good as what you get in email. Curation tools are basic. There is nothing about their cloud that really helps me with any patterning. #6. No weather conditions in information frame. When accurate, this can be super helpful especially with use case d. #7. No State of device in frame -- frame could easily tell you the battery life and pic # so you could see if you are missing any in your sequence. Cudde sells their product based upon YOU operating your own network which will save you $. Cudde requires that you war chest Rayovac D batteries and if you want an extended battery life, purchasing solar panels or battery extenders ($50-$60 / camera). D batteries are double the price of double AA which alternative cameras run on. I have no idea why Cudde did this, but their Cell home camera should have a black flash as standard. Deer react to infrared. They don't react to Cudde's black flash which I really like. Other things I really like about Cuddeback Cuddelink is their mounting system. I hated it at first, but then figured it out. And that's really slick. For those of you with G-cams, the camera slides easily in and out of the battery extender. For J cameras, it doesn't work, another negative for Js. One of the things that is really old school is the camera's interface. I imagine that this UX is a by-product of technical limitations. Its a bit like having your first taste of tech in the 70's or something you would have found in the Lunar Module. Customer Service for Cuddeback is excellent. I have had issues with my cameras. In some cases, they were able to fix the issue on the phone (which was great!). In others, I had to go to their office and drop the camera off. Now, thankfully, I live near there and that was convenient. However, for those of you who don't, you need to be mindful of that. In the case where the camera as defective, it was out of warranty and they replaced it for no charge. IMO, that is world class!!! To close, I can live with the battery issues, maintenance, etc. I can't live with pictures failing to send, missing information and still having to rely on card pulls. The point of the system was to move away from card pulls. If you can't trust the system to be accurate, then there's no point to using it. Cuddeback and their are great people. They have a great company where I am sure there are 1,000s of happy customers. Their product doesn't meet my use case. And I will be looking for alternatives.
Thank you for sharing this with all of us, I'm sure it took along time to write this! Very well written and to the point. It appears we have very similar experiences with their very average to below average product, and their excellent, way above average service staff.
Hey Steve, yes, the cell cam batteries do not last as long. Average time on that one is in the 30-45 day range. The non-cell cameras can get around 90 days. All the best to you.
Hey Anthony, you can set the time lapse in the setting to whatever you want. Right now I have it set to send once per hour, but there is a "security" mode you can use that will send it immediately. However, when sending photo's, they are not able to take pictures, so if something sneaks by during that transmission time, you'll never know it was there. This is why I try to batch the photo's hourly.
Hey Ramon, you can use a strap system which is provided with the purchase of each camera. However, the pivot bracket I purchased does require driving two screws into the tree.
I personally run energizer lithium AA in all my cameras, not cudde back, but I get almost a year out of them even running them in the winter, much better than D batteries.
I have heard lithium have long run times, too, but they are only available in AA's, can't get them in D size. I'd have to test the lithium AA's vs the alkaline D's for a true test and conclusion. Thanks for the feedback.
@@plumberguy6334 I still have the original battery pack I can swap back to use AA's. After the D's run down, I think I'll do a test to see how it goes. Thanks for the feedback!!!
Hey Mik, it's a good system as long as you can tolerate a few of the cams going down every couple of months. Good luck whenever you decide to make the move.
Mark...I have ten cameras and most are white flash, as we prefer the quality of the photos. We do not have a lot of pressure on our borders and are not concerned about spooking mature bucks with the flash. I sure like the ability to view the pic's daily from my computer and not disturb the area. After using them for two years I think they are ok in quality and price, but not great. I probably would buy them again, knowing that I'm going to have a certain amount of failures each year. I guess I have gotten use to using them as a cellular solution.
I WISH we could use white flash, the pics are much better, but I have pics of bucks running away from the white flashes. Sounds like we have had the same experience with their quality. If you can tolerate a bad cam every month or two, they are a good value.
Interesting.....we have 4 and 5 yr.old bucks that have gotten used to them. The one thing I forgot is a more timely pic of recent buck movement to help strategize your hunt. Bob
@@rfb7117 Good point. I am trying to stay off the property as much as possible, and like you, use the cams to let me know when there is a buck hanging around. Only then do I go in for a more surgical hunt. Too many hunts on 42 acres just stinks it up and repels bucks, not attracts them.
I totally agree, pressure is what moves the mature bucks off quickly. My experience is that the does will tolerate the pressure much more, but not the bucks. My challenge is I live on the farm and am doing something all the time on the property, but I try to stay out of the woods and cover especially from August on.
@@rfb7117 We have the exact same strategy! Once Labor Day hits, I am no longer allowed on the property. IF I MUST go on the property, like retreiving a non-functioning camera, it is only on my tractor since the deer are used to the sounds and smells.
You said that you can't send video over the CELL but does the video still at least transfer over the cuddykink to the master camera SD? I am ok if I need to pull the video off of the SD card but I don't want to have to do that at every camera and I only wanted to put an SD card in the master camera.
Sorry, but no, video does not transfer over Cuddelink, nor cell, it only stays on the local camera. I like videos, but because of this, I only go with pictures.
@@theback40 Thanks..Have you tried the Cuddelink 2 firmware ? I heard you can do remote live remote monitoring and setting changes to any camera. But I 'm not seeing any info on it, was hoping there might be a way to pull videos that way.
@@crimsondecade7420 I do have the Gen 2 software loaded on all my cameras. It does allow more configuration changes from the online portal, which is nice. However, I have not seen anywhere that video is part of this. BUT, I haven't really dug deep to try to find it, either. If I run across something for video, I'll let you know. FYI, my latest camera's have all been working for over a month now, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the quality issues have all been addressed!
Hey Ray, I did the unlimited pictures plan for $360 for the whole year. They have others where you can just turn it on and off for the months you want and would save you some cash, but I like getting pics year around.
These cameras absolutely suck compared to others on the market. So they replaced that junk and then made you spend more money to get the black flash? Yeah terrific customer service!!
@@connorthomas6267 Thanks Connor, so far so good this year. But I'll wait until further into the season or after season to do the review. All the best to you.
This is a good review. I have this setup with 15 cameras and one base cell unit at my barn. You covered most of the good points. I would add a couple things:
1. these cameras have a true black flash (there is no flash perceptible by the human eye) night time pic quality suffers from this as expected. Daytime pics are pretty good quality.
2. The camera takes good pics and you can configure them to take a series of pics, but what is sent to the cell unit is only the first In the series and is not the full-sized pic, but a thumbnail of lesser quality. This is one of the trade-offs for having a system that you don't need to check to pull pics. YMMV, but I find this an acceptable trade.
3. Another trade-off is that these cams cannot send videos to the cell unit, only pictures. The cameras are video-capable but become standalone trail cams if you set them to take video.
4. I have not had the same quality problems that you encountered. I have had one camera go bad in my system and have not yet attempted to replace it so can't speak to customer service but you covered that well.
5. being able to see pics each day from my entire property without having to mess with cameras for 3 months at a time is priceless in my opinion
Product improvement ideas for Cuddeback in the next-gen:
1. Figure out how to allow videos and full-sized pics to be sent. In today's 'unlimited data' world, it's the next logical step
2. improve range for black flash cams - looks like the powerhouse line might be addressing this need, but make sure this is compatible with cuddelink
3. move away from default "AA" batteries and don't make me spend another ~$25 for a 'D' battery pack so the camera doesn't need new batteries after 30 days
Hey Brett, completely agree with you on the added points, thank you for bringing these up. I especially missed your #5 and should have covered it in the video that not going into my property for months was another big reason for their purchase. I also agree with your recommendations. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I have that same Bushnell, and same story. That thing is the most consistent and reliable of any and just keeps going.
And going, and going, and going.... Thanks for the feedback, all the best to you.
I have seven Cudde cameras out right now. Took a few weeks to understand the operation.....but after the learning curve they seem to work quite well. I learned to not place them as high as I originally planned....that helped with picture quantity allot. I don't think they have the best photo range......as they only reach about 40 yards or so. I like the Cudde-link system and have not had to pull cards or tend the cameras frequently. Battey life has been quite good. I do have two cameras on solar and battery packs.....and will leave these as a security system 24/7/365. The other 5 will come in after the deer season. Mine are all white flash....and I am considerening changing to black flash. All in all pretty happy at this point. Been easy to just check my pics each day. Nice.
Hey Tom, thanks for the info. I have been considering the solar setup to reduce my need to go into certain areas of the property to change the batteries, especially the cellular unit. Please keep me updated on how well they work over time. Good luck!!
Looks like you had a great hunting season! I'd love to get a long term update on your camera system. Having multiple cameras on the same data plan sounds great.
Hey Connnor, I have added that to my list. Give me a few weeks. All the best to you.
@@theback40 Thank you for your responsiveness. I always enjoy your videos and perspective!
Really enjoy the videos and going back through some of your videos. We just bought 36 acres and going to try to set up the property similar to your 40 hunting the edges and creating a sanctuary in the middle. Question for you, I have a bunch of moultries and wg camera and am looking at getting a cuddle link system but they are pricy and was curious if you are happy with your purchase or what you would go with if you could do it again? I Like the idea of 1 plan vs 5-6 cell plans. Thanks for all the videos and knowledge from actual trial and error. Good luck this fall.
Hey Andrew, thanks for the kind words. Congrats on your new property! Hmmm, what would I do now? The Cuddeback were certainly a problem at first, but once they switched out the cell camera and a couple of the bad non-cell cams (at their expense) to the reliable series, I haven't had a problem now for a long time. So, ASSUMING I would get a batch of the "good" cameras, I would do Cudde again. If I had to go through the same batch of "bad" camera's again, I would choose something different. Not a definitive answer for you, but an honest one. All the best to you.
Thanks Mark. Keep up the good work, I think we might bite the bullet in the spring and get them all tuned up during the spring for next fall. Good luck this fall!
@@andrewbooms5536 I did the same thing, got them running in the spring so they were ready to go in the fall. Hope they work out great for you.
Man I love the idea of these cameras as far as being able to have multiple communicate with a home camera especially with some in places with no service. I’ve just heard such a mixed reviews on them howeevr
Hey Melvin, I'm with you there! Last year I didn't have any problems with any of them, so go figure..... But the first year, after shooting this video, ugh, it was rough. Seemed like I was sending one back every few weeks. Maybe they just had a bad batch that I was lucky enough to purchase????? All the best to you.
I used to have cuddeback cameras but I would get wierd error messages when checking them. I was careful to follow the directions new batteries clean chip. The tactacam cameras were sold out so I went with Stealth cam and it’s been good.
Good to hear I'm not the only one with a few issues. Although this year seemed to go pretty well for some reason? Keep us updated on how the Stealth cams work out over the next few seasons.
Thanks for this video - very informative. Definitely a lot to consider & your in-depth review really helped me in my decision-making
Hey John, thank you for the feedback. All the best to you this season!
I have used these cameras to two years now. 1st year non-cellular. 2nd year w/cellular. I own 1 G-series of the infrared for the cell connection, 4 of the G-series, and 2 -series. These cameras cannot deliver on my use case. Your use case may be different. But after 2-years of using these, I plan to find another system starting in '22.
My use case: I'm managing 40 acres with improved habitat for deer and 28 acres 1 property over for which I have permission. The 40 acres is terribly brittle and pressure sensitive. I've learned that I cannot check my cameras with any frequency. I use the cameras to a) inventory animals at community areas; b) monitor trails between bedding; c) monitor areas for activity to understand under what conditions deer choose to use this area; d) collection of historical data for use yoy; e) collection of MRI to make stand decisions.
Why Cudde doesn't meet this use case:
#1. Cell camera does NOT send all pics. This means you are missing data eliminating requirement a, b, c, and e without constant card retrieval.
#2. Images sent via cell are so poor that characteristics of some animals are lost making the image of the animal unidentifiable. This means I cannot perform a, b, and e.
#3. Photos are sent non-sequentially. You miss context of certain images when they are non-sequential. This inhibits c and e.
#4. J-series cameras take really poor pictures; I have plenty of pictures of back halves of deer bodies; in addition, their night pictures are extremely poor unless the animal is right on top of your camera. This impacts nearly every use case that I have for the camera.
#5. Cudde's cloud storage is very poor. Getting their cloud storage to load is slow, image quality is only as good as what you get in email. Curation tools are basic. There is nothing about their cloud that really helps me with any patterning.
#6. No weather conditions in information frame. When accurate, this can be super helpful especially with use case d.
#7. No State of device in frame -- frame could easily tell you the battery life and pic # so you could see if you are missing any in your sequence.
Cudde sells their product based upon YOU operating your own network which will save you $. Cudde requires that you war chest Rayovac D batteries and if you want an extended battery life, purchasing solar panels or battery extenders ($50-$60 / camera). D batteries are double the price of double AA which alternative cameras run on.
I have no idea why Cudde did this, but their Cell home camera should have a black flash as standard. Deer react to infrared. They don't react to Cudde's black flash which I really like.
Other things I really like about Cuddeback Cuddelink is their mounting system. I hated it at first, but then figured it out. And that's really slick. For those of you with G-cams, the camera slides easily in and out of the battery extender. For J cameras, it doesn't work, another negative for Js.
One of the things that is really old school is the camera's interface. I imagine that this UX is a by-product of technical limitations. Its a bit like having your first taste of tech in the 70's or something you would have found in the Lunar Module.
Customer Service for Cuddeback is excellent. I have had issues with my cameras. In some cases, they were able to fix the issue on the phone (which was great!). In others, I had to go to their office and drop the camera off. Now, thankfully, I live near there and that was convenient. However, for those of you who don't, you need to be mindful of that. In the case where the camera as defective, it was out of warranty and they replaced it for no charge. IMO, that is world class!!!
To close, I can live with the battery issues, maintenance, etc. I can't live with pictures failing to send, missing information and still having to rely on card pulls. The point of the system was to move away from card pulls. If you can't trust the system to be accurate, then there's no point to using it.
Cuddeback and their are great people. They have a great company where I am sure there are 1,000s of happy customers. Their product doesn't meet my use case. And I will be looking for alternatives.
Thank you for sharing this with all of us, I'm sure it took along time to write this! Very well written and to the point. It appears we have very similar experiences with their very average to below average product, and their excellent, way above average service staff.
Does the main cell camera battery last shorter? How long do the batteries last?
Hey Steve, yes, the cell cam batteries do not last as long. Average time on that one is in the 30-45 day range. The non-cell cameras can get around 90 days. All the best to you.
@@theback40 thank you for the reply. I am thinking about using a 5 cam setup for security purposes when away from house.
I see there is a $15/mo for 2k pics plan. Is there a plan with unlimited pics (for all cameras)?
Yes, I think it's around $350/year???? Check their website to confirm pricing. All the best to you.
What's the time lapse from when it takes a picture to when you receive a picture?
Hey Anthony, you can set the time lapse in the setting to whatever you want. Right now I have it set to send once per hour, but there is a "security" mode you can use that will send it immediately. However, when sending photo's, they are not able to take pictures, so if something sneaks by during that transmission time, you'll never know it was there. This is why I try to batch the photo's hourly.
So do you have to drill into a tree to mount the cameras or can you also use straps?
Hey Ramon, you can use a strap system which is provided with the purchase of each camera. However, the pivot bracket I purchased does require driving two screws into the tree.
I personally run energizer lithium AA in all my cameras, not cudde back, but I get almost a year out of them even running them in the winter, much better than D batteries.
I have heard lithium have long run times, too, but they are only available in AA's, can't get them in D size. I'd have to test the lithium AA's vs the alkaline D's for a true test and conclusion. Thanks for the feedback.
@@theback40 I strongly suggest giving them a try. I used to run the old cuddeback with D batteries and was nothing but frustrated with them.
@@plumberguy6334 I still have the original battery pack I can swap back to use AA's. After the D's run down, I think I'll do a test to see how it goes. Thanks for the feedback!!!
👍thanks for the video... I've been wondering about the CuddeLink... I might try it at some point... but not there yet.
Hey Mik, it's a good system as long as you can tolerate a few of the cams going down every couple of months. Good luck whenever you decide to make the move.
Mark...I have ten cameras and most are white flash, as we prefer the quality of the photos. We do not have a lot of pressure on our borders and are not concerned about spooking mature bucks with the flash. I sure like the ability to view the pic's daily from my computer and not disturb the area. After using them for two years I think they are ok in quality and price, but not great. I probably would buy them again, knowing that I'm going to have a certain amount of failures each year. I guess I have gotten use to using them as a cellular solution.
I WISH we could use white flash, the pics are much better, but I have pics of bucks running away from the white flashes. Sounds like we have had the same experience with their quality. If you can tolerate a bad cam every month or two, they are a good value.
Interesting.....we have 4 and 5 yr.old bucks that have gotten used to them. The one thing I forgot is a more timely pic of recent buck movement to help strategize your hunt.
Bob
@@rfb7117 Good point. I am trying to stay off the property as much as possible, and like you, use the cams to let me know when there is a buck hanging around. Only then do I go in for a more surgical hunt. Too many hunts on 42 acres just stinks it up and repels bucks, not attracts them.
I totally agree, pressure is what moves the mature bucks off quickly. My experience is that the does will tolerate the pressure much more, but not the bucks. My challenge is I live on the farm and am doing something all the time on the property, but I try to stay out of the woods and cover especially from August on.
@@rfb7117 We have the exact same strategy! Once Labor Day hits, I am no longer allowed on the property. IF I MUST go on the property, like retreiving a non-functioning camera, it is only on my tractor since the deer are used to the sounds and smells.
You said that you can't send video over the CELL but does the video still at least transfer over the cuddykink to the master camera SD? I am ok if I need to pull the video off of the SD card but I don't want to have to do that at every camera and I only wanted to put an SD card in the master camera.
Sorry, but no, video does not transfer over Cuddelink, nor cell, it only stays on the local camera. I like videos, but because of this, I only go with pictures.
@@theback40 Thanks..Have you tried the Cuddelink 2 firmware ? I heard you can do remote live remote monitoring and setting changes to any camera. But I 'm not seeing any info on it, was hoping there might be a way to pull videos that way.
@@crimsondecade7420 I do have the Gen 2 software loaded on all my cameras. It does allow more configuration changes from the online portal, which is nice. However, I have not seen anywhere that video is part of this. BUT, I haven't really dug deep to try to find it, either. If I run across something for video, I'll let you know. FYI, my latest camera's have all been working for over a month now, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the quality issues have all been addressed!
What is the price of the cellular plan?
Hey Ray, I did the unlimited pictures plan for $360 for the whole year. They have others where you can just turn it on and off for the months you want and would save you some cash, but I like getting pics year around.
These cameras absolutely suck compared to others on the market. So they replaced that junk and then made you spend more money to get the black flash? Yeah terrific customer service!!
I have been pleasantly surprised this season that they seem to be working without issue. I'll do another review after two years of use.
@@theback40 I'm looking forward to the 2 year video!
@@connorthomas6267 Thanks Connor, so far so good this year. But I'll wait until further into the season or after season to do the review. All the best to you.
@@theback40 Sounds great. I'm really enjoying your food plot content by the way! Happy Hunting!
@@connorthomas6267 Thanks Connor, good luck this season!