Buckeye Cam - Looks Cool But Is It Legit?

JH
John Honovich
Apr 25, 2013
IPVM

We're looking at trail cameras and ran across this product called 'Buckeye Cam.' Not only is it a camera but it claims to include solar options, long range wireless transmission and computer / smartphone viewing. Here's their promo video:

Anyone have any experience with this? Typically, it seems most trail cameras (like Bushnell) don't have these advanced features but maybe I am missing something or there's exaggerated claims here. I'd appreciate any input.

SP
Sean Patton
Apr 25, 2013

One of my old bosses was an avid hunter, and had a hunting buddy who had a ton of property and had a couple of these. It seemed to work really well, but was extremely expensive for the average hunter on a monthly basis.

JH
John Honovich
Apr 25, 2013
IPVM

Good feedback, Sean. There appears to be a PC base kit which is a one time cost of $549 and a cell base kit that has an up front cost of $1,999 and then monthly fees of $59 or so.

I was thinking this might be useful as security/surveillance offering for people with big properties but limited budgets for full on enterprise systems.

SR
Scott Reames
Apr 26, 2013

I always have reservations about proposing limited lifetime products such as any gadget with 3G, 4G, capability because eventually these communication protocols will sunset.

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James Talmage
Apr 28, 2013
IPVMU Certified

If the marketing materials posted all over my ADI branch are to be believed, 4G LTE is the next long term support cellular technology, and is replacing GSM in new alarm panels. As I recall it mentioned carriers have committed to keeping it around for a while. Verizon has been pushing M2M communications hard recently, and their marketing material suggests the same.

Of course - all of this is marketing speak.

JG
John Grocke
Aug 07, 2013

While doing some research for an update on a similar product, I contacted BuckeyeCam to find out more about their system. Their cameras use 900MHz wireless to connect to a "central base" PC located somewhere on the premises. The PC then stores the images which can be reviewed later. Their "LiveCam" option is a misnomer, it is a piece of software that uploads the recorded images from the PC to a website via the internet so they can be reviewed remotely. With "LiveCam", one is not viewing what is happening live, but rather looking at the last recorded images which could be minutes or hours old, if not longer. If no internet connection exists, they have an optional cellular modem base station to transmit the images.

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