Hands on with SpyPoint Cameras

Perusing the basement of SHOT Show is a special type of thing. As the main floor is only rented out to tenured attendees, new companies or those without the mega bucks are relegated to the first floor – affectionally called “The Basement.” Down there is where you find the wacky and the weird, but also the innovative and cool. One of the latter is SpyPoint who had a few game cameras for me to check out.

Pictured above is their budget friendly Force 10 camera. Capable of taking 10 megapixel pictures within .3 seconds of motion triggering, it retails at the $100 mark, but can be found on Amazon and other popular etailers for $90. It features an LCD screen for setup and the ability to shoot 720P video while being powered off of six AA batteries. 

Moving up the line, they’ve got the Force 11D which takes slightly better pictures, faster (.07 seconds), at 11 megapixels along with 720p video including sound. Additionally, the LCD screen is capable of reading the memory card so you can review your photos in the field – so need to remove the card. Retail there is about $150, but I can find them online for about $140. 

The last one in the group is the Solar which combines all the features of the 11D with a slightly better flash and photo sensor (12 megapixel) with the added benefit of being solar powered. Never again do you have to worry about batteries going dead and missing that big buck on camera. Like the 11D, you can take 720p video with sound and review it directly on the camera. 

New for 2017, and rolling out to the market at large in March, is the cellular enabled Link line. Above is the 4G Link-Evo which utilizes either AT&T or Verizon’s 4G Network to upload photos six times a day. You can review the photos on their secure website or on their smartphone app available for both Android and iPhone. MSRP will be $250. 

The grand daddy of them all is the Link-S LTE which runs on the faster LTE networks for Verizon or AT&T. Along with the faster speeds,  the Link-S includes the solar charger module mentioned earlier. MSRP will be $499. Both cameras come with a two year warranty. 

SpyPoint certainly isn’t the first company to make a cellular enabled game camera so the first question out of my mouth was, “How hard are you going to poke me in the eyes on data charges?” Turns out, SkyPoint actually has a free tier included with any of their cellular cameras that will allow you to transmit up to 100 photos per month no charge.

Should you want to get more photos, plans start at $5/month for 250 photos and five day retention. Bump it up to $15 for the Annual+ and you can get unlimited photos and unlimited retention. You can also manage your camera remotely so you can change trigger settings, photo bursts, video capture, etc. They also offer a slightly more expensive “Hunt” plan for three months that gives you all the benefits of the Annual+ at a slightly lower annual rate. Once your three month contract is up, customers default back to the free tier which includes 100 photos per month.

I’ve asked for a sample to review as my game camera is two hours away from home and usually requires the help of a family member to retrieve photos. Stay tuned for our review.