Review – Hunten Outdoors GSC30-30IR
***Because this review is pre-picture stage I will only be writing the review based on the features and the first impressions of the camera. In about two weeks I will bring the camera "in from the cold" and see how it did for pictures and then revise the review***I finally broke down the other day while shopping on Amazon.ca and ordered a Hunten Outdoors GSC30-30IR.
The main feature I liked about the Hunten Outdoors GSC30-30IR was it was cheap, and I mean cheap, but definitely not your normal cheap game camera. For $65.00 you get a camo case with a camera featuring burst or video mode and you are able to use up to a 32GB flash drive in the unit. The downfall is the 3.0 megapixel camera which most of the higher end cameras are 8-10 megapixels but the plus side of this is I should have no issue with the flash drive size keeping up with the battery life of the unit.
The camo case on the Hunten Outdoors GSC30-30IR is maybe a little too dark of green for my area but it still blends into the foliage enough for this kid. Luckily if the camera does go missing I'm out $65. This has always been a worry of mine since I could think of better things to do with $300 than to donate an expensive camera to a thief for their own personal use…
The closure on the Hunten Outdoors GSC30-30IR seems a little Mickey Mouse and I wouldn't want to be messing with the camera in extremely cold weather. I don’t think the plastic would stand up to being handled in extreme temperatures and the closure tabs would break off.
The strap to attach the camera to a tree is pretty basic but did stand up though a very windy night the first day when I put it up. I don't see any issue with the strap holding the camera in place but it definitely doesn't have security in mind.
As for setup and usability it was an easy camera to operate even without using the instructions. Everything is done on one screen using up and won arrows. The screen is not backlit so don’t plan on setting the camera up in the dark without some sort of headlamp available.
So far I give the Hunten Outdoors GSC30-30IR a score of 3.5 out of 5. The build of the camera is definitely not the same quality of the higher priced cameras but for a quarter of the price of some of the other game camera on the market it seems like it might be worth it. Once I get the camera after it has been outside for two weeks I'll update the review based on the total package but for now this is the best I can do.
Do you have experience with this camera? Leave a comment with your thoughts.