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Scoutguard SG550
Price: 199.95
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Scoutguard SG550C
Price: 209.95
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Quick Facts
Price
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Trigger Time
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Recovery Time
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$199.95
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1.3 seconds
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6-10 seconds
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Detection Range
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Detection Width
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Flash Range
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50 ft.
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Wide
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40 ft.
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Battery Life
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Battery Type
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Memory Card
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3-5 months
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8 AA Battery
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SD Card
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Pictures in Action
Click on picture to enlarge
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Click on picture to enlarge
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Click on picture to enlarge
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Pro's
- Small, compact camera design
- Long battery life
- Fast Trigger Time
- Wide detection zone
Con's
- Limited detection range (50 ft.)
- Flash range could be better (40 ft.)
Best suited for:
Variety of conditions; trails, scrapes, food plots, feeders, security, and research studies
Trigger Time: 1.3 seconds
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Detection Range: 50 ft.
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Flash Range: 40 ft.
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Detection Area: 985 sq. ft.
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Conclusion
The HCO Scoutguard SG550 has only been around since April 2008 but it is quickly becoming the most popular trail camera on the market. The first thing you will notice about this camera is its tiny stature. The camera is 5 1/2" tall X 3 1/4" wide, or roughly the size of your hand, if not smaller. The two main benefits I can see from being so small, is it is much easier to conceal from thieves and it is super battery efficient. In fact, on 8 AA batteries you can expect this camera to last almost a full season out in the field (obviously this varies by how many pictures it takes in your area).
I found that programming the camera was a breeze. The Scoutguard comes with a remote that plugs into the bottom of the camera. Follow the prompts as it takes you through all the programming options (which I found was just the right amount of options not to confuse the user). One important note on this camera is that it has a very quick recovery time. Essentially, when the camera takes a picture it takes 10 seconds for the trigger to go off, take a picture, store the picture, and then recover to take the next picture (6 seconds if you set the camera for a lower Mpxl). Compared to cameras in this same price range, the SG550 is VERY QUICK! You can set the time between triggers anywhere from 6 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 10 minutes, etc.
You can also take up to 60 seconds video. The video quality is 16 fps. It is decent video but not compared to the 30 fps quality of a camera like the Leaf River IR-5.
One concern I had with the camera was how easy it would be to lock. On the face of the camera is a pretty deep groove. This groove is designed to enable a Masterlock Python Lock to cinch down the camera to whatever it is you have attached the camera to. Early in the life of this camera there were problems with the firmware needing to be updated and there were some issues with the camo on some of the cameras. Those problems have since been fixed. It would be nice if the camera would have an added 20 ft. detection range and a better quality night photo. However, then we wouldn't be talking about a $200 camera but a $300-$400 camera!
In our opinion, this is the best all-around camera in the $200.00 - $250.00 range. It serves a variety of purposes, and while it won't rate as the best in any one category, it will rate very well in most.
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Scoutguard SG550
Price: 199.95
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Scoutguard SG550C
Price: 209.95
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