The reviews I read of them prior to buying were overwhelmingly positive in as far as they did what they said they would do, take pictures of animals and give you the time and date of the picture and what # camera took the pic and you can set the picture interval as well as taking a single picture or 3 pictures per episode. It is listed as having a maximum 50' trigger distance.
All in all 90%+ of the reviews I read of the Tasco 8mp TC were FOR THE PRICE a good all around, although very basic trail cam for the price I paid off Ebay of $25 each with free S&H. I purchased four. Yes there are much better trail cams in terms of options and more functions and longer trigger distances but those trail cams cost anywhere from 4-10x more each than the Tasco.
For what I want from a trail cam, that is to take pictures of the deer and or turkeys on my property I hunt and help me plan my deer hunts accordingly and to be my eyes 24/7 on property that is 2.5-3.5 hours travel time 1 way from my home, and what I can afford the Tasco seamed to fit my requirements better than any other trail cam available to me at that time.
I feel I should include I also bought two Moultrie G5 Gen-II 5mp trail cams for $75 TMD prior to the Tasco's and once I got them and tried them out I was so impressed I tried to buy more but they were sold out and they were close outs due to Moultrie discontinuing this particular model so no more were available at this price ($37.50/ea) and everywhere else I found them still available I was unwilling to pay more than 2x what I had originally paid.
I did aside by side comparison of the Moultrie and I feel for the price the build quality of the Tasco is more than acceptable although the Moultrie is of a noticeably better build quality but in my opinion not by a dramatic amount.
I am not going to review the Moultrie as they are no longer available and the Taco's are, but will use the more expensive Moultrie as a basis for comparison. Now for my initial impression of the Tasco 8MP/TC and how well it worked during my first use of it. SIZE>It's a very small unit being 5-7/16" tall, 3-1/2" wide including hinges and hasps, and 2-7/8" in thickness. It is smaller than my out stretched hand. MOUNTING>like most trail cams it has attachment points molded into it that allow the use of a strap (supplied with it) or Bungie cords to secure it to a tree. Also has a tripod socket located at the bottom of the unit. PROGRAMMING>In my opinion VERY simple to set up and program. A person could have it programed and working in under 5 minuets less once you become familiar with it. I like the units option of being able to erase all photos on the SD card if you wish. One thing I didn't like was you can only set it to military time, but that's really no big deal and more of a very slight inconvenience as I had to learn how military time worked, took less than 5 minuets courtesy of my cell phone and Goggle. It does have a quick set up procedure on the inside of the cover, although here is another complaint the print is so small if you made need help by way of prescription glasses if you use them regularly to read it. I am presently borderline so I needed my wife's +1.5 glasses to read it. You also have the option of setting the camera to take a single pic or a series of 3 pics rapidly. I didn't try out the video option as I don't plan on using it at this time. BATTERY AND SD CARD INSTALL>Both very easy and quick. Takes 8 AA batteries. As I haven't any long term usage of the unit yet I have no first hand experience with battery life for this unit. Tasco advertises it at 6 months. I will have to wait and see. PERFORMANCE>I set two of my four units up in my back yard and tested it to confirm the advertised 50' trigger distance for the camera. I am happy to report it consistently triggered to a measured 63 feet in both day time and at night. But due to my limited knowledge of trail cams in general I don't now if the additional 13' of trigger distance at night was due to the increased amount of ambient light in my yard from surrounding homes helped to increase the trigger distance. This unit depending of course on distance, takes good to very good quality to excellent color pictures in daylight and good to VG pictures at night but night time pictures are black and white only. Daytime picture quality is better over all and able to take good quality pictures at a farther distance VS at night by about 25 yards based on my limited testing distances of 117 yards. Based on the photos it took during daylight hours you could easily recognize and judge a buck's antlers to 117 yards which was the maximum distance (confirmed with a Sig LRF) from the camera to my neighbors dark brown garage door across the street from my home. In my opinion based on the quality of the daytime pictures I have no doubt you could see and judge a buck beyond the 117 yards How much I'm not sure but my best guess would be another 15 yards at least. The night time pictures were of less quality and I have no doubt the units maximum effective range for usable pictures is less at night VS the day. I set one camera for a single pic at 1 minuet intervals and the other at 3 pictures at a 5 minuet interval and both worked perfectly per the time/date stamp on each camera. It also successfully stamped the camera # on each picture. Camera one took 137 total pictures in the 24 hours I had it out set at a single pic every 1 minuet. Camera two took 243 pictures set at 3 pictures every 5 minuets. PICTURE QUALITY>Bottom line is at 100 yards and under picture quality in the day time is very good you can easily recognize fine details as small as what type of shoes a person in the picture is wearing and I have no doubt they are much better than needed to judge a buck's antler quality as well as you could ever need to. I know I said 117 but I'm going to reduce that for the sake of caution. You should still be able to judge a bucks antlers at 100 yards if it's a shooter buck. I can see if its a small buck you could have difficulty judging his antlers if its a single picture is at a bad angle, but I'm more concerned with bigger bucks VS smaller ones and for MY PERPOSES I'm not worried about not being able to judge the rack quality of a non-shooter buck. At night the picture quality to 70 yards is noticeably less but I'm confident you will be able to judge a buck and decide if he's a shooter or not, you likely won't be able to tell intricate details of his rack the same as you would in day light, especially if again its a single picture of the buck at a bad angle.
CONCLUSION>Based on this ADMITTEDLY limited test I am so far 100% happy with the Tasco 8MP trail cam as FOR THE PRICE of under $30 it fills MY PERSONAL requirements very well in it takes as good if not better of pictures as one can expect for a sub-$30 trail cam and the price allows me to buy enough units to effectively scout my property, monitor and inventory the deer on it and plan my hunts and just as importantly my travel routs into and out of my property accordingly. For my requirements and situation as it applies to hunting the $25 Tasco 8mp trail cam serves me as well as needed. I feel I am far better served being able to buy six total trail cams for $175, or less than $30 each than at best 3 higher priced trail cams for the same money that would actually not serve my purposes as well let alone better and would cut the amount of my property I can monitor in half. If you are like me on a budget and are looking to buy 4 or more trail cams that take good pictures out to 100 yards in day light and 70 or less at night you might want to give the Tasco 8MP trail cam your consideration. I applologise for not having posted any pictures but I some how (I honestly don't know how I did it) messed up and deleted all my pics I downloaded to my computer and used the trail cam to erase the SD card once I put it back in. I'm guessing I deleted them from my computer as I can not locate them anywhere I know they should be. I am heading down to my land for a last doe bow hunt and will put them all up then. I will test one out for both day and night and down load them to my computer and save the SD card as I have enough I can spare the one I use for the testand will post them here once I get back after the 1st of the year. Hope this was helpful to at least some budget minded person as am I.
