Stealth Cam P12
The Stealth Cam P12 is an awesome game camera that also comes in well under $100. The P12 has a good sensor size of 6MP, and a nice 50 foot sensing range to go with it.
The Stealth Cam line is one the easiest on battery usage. You will be extremely happy when you’re not constantly changing out the AA batteries like you do on other cameras.
The P12 takes very good quality photos, and using the 6 shot burst setting is one of my favorite things about the camera. At night it uses an IR flash that is nearly invisible to wildlife, resulting in excellent night shots. The price of the P12 is fantastic, considering the high end features and overall reliability of the camera, making it a best buy for the cheap trail camera segment. Check out my full review of the P12.
Moultrie A-5 Gen 2
This is the popular budget camera from long time manufacturer, Moultrie. I did a full review of the original A5, and the Gen 2 is the updated design that remains an excellent low cost, entry level game camera even as it nears two years old.
It features a 5.0MP camera sensor with a low glow infrared motion sensor. It has an advertised range of 40 feet, but I have found it to be closer to 30 feet in practice. Each photo is time stamped with time and date information as well as the moon phase, which is a nice bonus.
Moultrie listened to their customers and did away with the C cell batteries. The new Moultrie A-5 Gen 2 now operates on 8 standard AA cell batteries and also has a 12V external port if you’d like longer deployments. The AA batteries will last you 6-8 weeks in the field and take 100’s of photographs.
10 Best Trail Cameras under $250-200
This list of premium trail cameras has been updated for this hunting season. We replaced some older models with better or newer ones. These scores are based on aggregated customer ratings from multiple online stores, and forum conversations, combined with our own field experience.
At the $250-$200 and under mark you can get a much more advanced trail camera with more advanced technical features. These 5 cameras are excellent performers in the field, and yet are still attractively priced for serious hunters and avid outdoorsmen.
Moultrie A-20
The new Moultrie A-20 is an upgraded version of the popular A-5 camera. You can still get the A-5 if you want, it’s still highly rated and on our list. The A-20 offers some upgrades in most of the specs. You go up to 12MP from 5MP, faster trigger, and still get 640×480 video for nearly the same price.
The case has been redesigned as is now more compact. The battery compartment still opens with a single solid latch to reveal an 8AA capacity. The case design looks good this year, and smaller is usually better.
Daytime photos show good color range and saturation, if not a little blur when an animal moves past the image sensor. The night illumination is not as powerful as more expensive cameras, but that is to be expected to an extent. Here is a really good review on Amazon that showcases what this cheap little trail cam is capable of.
Stealth Cam P18
The P18 is the third Stealth Cam model in our Top 10, which should not be a surprise, as we feel they produce some of the most reliable trail cameras on the market.
You can get a pretty sweet deal, sometimes if you can find it with a 4GB memory card and an 8 pack of AA batteries bundled with the camera. The P18 is the big brother to the P12, so it has a 7MP image sensor, 10 foot further range, and a slightly faster trigger sensor.
The slightly higher cost for marginal performance increase is why we still rank the P12 ahead of the P18. It should be noted as well, that the P18 has a camo finish, while the P12 is flat grey.