Trail cameras have been on the market for
several years now, and the quality varies from good to pretty
much useless. The good ones are handy to monitor game movement
in specific areas, and many have a time stamp to let you know
when the animals are visiting the area. It is also a good
indicator of the size and quality of the animals that visit a
feeder or a bait area, in locations where it is legal to hunt
over bait.
Just as there are quality differences in
other optics, the quality of trail cameras varies greatly.
Leupold has now entered the trail camera market, and in doing
so, they wanted to raise the bar, offering a camera system,
instead of just a camera. With most good-quality cameras, you
have to go afield and retrieve the camera’s memory chip,
taking it back home to view on the computer, or else take a
computer to the woods or field to view the images. Even on
cameras with a screen, they often do not work when the
temperature falls much below the freezing mark. The Leupold RCX
Trail Camera System has a controller that is taken to the
location of the camera. The controller is really a small
computer, compact in size, relatively the size of a box of rifle
cartridges. One RCX controller can be used with several cameras,
going to the camera, connecting a USB cable, and viewing,
saving, or erasing the images from each camera. Both
high-resolution still pictures and video can be viewed instantly
in the field using the hand-held controller. The camera and the
controller use up to a 32GB SDHC card, which can contain a huge
quantity of still pictures or video.
The Leupold RCX controller has a three-inch
LCD display viewing screen, and the view can be instantly seen
to properly and perfectly align the camera to view the area that
is wanted. No guessing while trying to get the camera aligned.
The RCX 1 camera has a 45 degree angle of movement detection.
The RCX 2 has a selectable 10 degree or 45 degree field of
detection. The RCX 1 has a 45 foot detection range, and the RCX
2 has a selectable 45 foot or 90 foot detection range. The
camera lens has a 54 degree field of view. Both cameras will
work in either normal or infrared mode, depending upon the
lighting conditions. The trigger time for the RCX camera to
activate is less than one second, and recovery time between
pictures or videos is almost instantaneous.
The controller makes the RCX system very
user-friendly, and greatly simplifies uploading video and still
pictures to your computer. In the field, pictures can be culled
or saved as desired, and every image on the camera’s card can
be viewed in the field. The controller has a built-in
rechargeable battery, and comes with adaptors to charge in an
accessory port in a vehicle, or from most any electrical outlet
in the world. It also has alligator clips to recharge or run
from a 12 volt battery. The RCX is available as a RCX 1 kit, RCX
2 kit, or as individual cameras without controller. You can buy
a kit with controller, and add cameras as you wish, without
having to purchase additional controllers. The RCX camera can be
easily customized with setting to adjust for length of video,
barometric pressure, temperature, delay, and other interesting
stuff, or just simply set to its default mode.
Accessories such as rechargeable battery
packs and lock down plates for a security cable are available
for the RCX cameras. The Leupold cameras operate silently, so as
to not spook the game. The quality of the pictures and video is
very good. Good enough that to demonstrate, we shot part of the
video for this review using the RCX 2 camera. Sound quality is
also very good. Finally, there is a trail camera worthy of the
Leupold brand. The RCX system is easy to use, easy to set up,
and available online or from any Leupold retailer.
Check out the RCX and other Leupold products
online at www.leupold.com.
Jeff Quinn