Spypoint Flex-S Solar Cellular Trail Camera Testfired

I was recently given the chance to trial Spypoints latest cellular trail camera, the Flex-S which is now available at Hunting & Fishing New Zealand. This camera has all the great functions of its predecessors but also has a built in rechargeable lithium battery and solar panel, meaning you could have months of uninterrupted battery supply and no need to return to change batteries. This has the added advantages of reducing fuel costs and leaving your hunting area undisturbed until you are ready to head there to fill the freezer or bag your trophy buck.  
 

One of the best things about this product was the ease of setup, other cellular cameras I have dealt with require purchasing NZ sim cards and adding fiddly settings into the camera itself. With the Spypoint Cellular models it is as simple as installing the Spypoint Trail Camera App onto your smartphone, making up a login,  scanning (or typing in) the activation code inside your camera and picking a plan. Plans range from Free (up to 100 photos a month) to unlimited at $15 a month US$, I am currently on the standard plan which offers 1000 photos a month at $10 US$ ($17 NZD) on a month-by-month basis. You can also save another 33% by purchasing your plans on an annual contract. 

Once I had the plan sorted all that is required is a good quality micro-SD card of 2 to 512GB at Class 10 (which needs to be formatted in the camera). From this point all settings for the camera can be done through the app and is extremely simple. I would suggest you do a good test of the unit at home to make sure you get all your settings correct and uploaded before taking it out to your hunting spot, as changing settings or finding your Micro SD card does not work hours from home and in little service area can be frustrating and expensive.  

I loved the fact that this camera already has a built in dual sim card meaning it will work on nearly any available network giving you far more chance of getting enough signal to get images out to you from these remote areas. Unfortunately it seemed the area I picked to show off this camera seems to be the one place on the property the deer seem to avoid!  
 
Though I still managed to get pictures of all the other residents including birds, hedgehogs, hares and possums, and after seeing these turning up regularly, I am absolutely positive had deer walked passed I would have had some great photos of them (and still will eventually).  
 
One thing to note about these cameras is that they do not have an invisible flash like some on the market, the uv lights glow red to take night pictures, this may be a worry for some but I feel it is not a major issue for this as if you are using this camera for security reasons or worried it might be noticed and stolen from your hunting spot, you should remember it is taking photos of all movement and sending it back to you.