I will start off by saying that I am by no means a camera expert. In a way I believe that this qualifies me to review this camera better than anyone. I can tell you exactly what it is like for someone who has not used a digital trail camera before. Up until now, all I had was a 35 mm, which I actually stopped using because of the cost of the processing. It was not fun to pay for images that were sometimes not useful and the clutter of having a million prints lying around was inconvenient.

After doing some research on prices and functions, I settled on the Cuddeback Excite Camera. I have seen a lot of people using Cuddeback and I wanted to get a name that I knew. The word on the hunting blogs was that the trigger speed was good, the battery life was sufficient and that is was a good value for the price. It came in right around $250 which fit my budget. I did not want to spend a fortune on the camera and hear the grumbling from my wife about spending money on toys.

Unpacking the Excite

Like I said, I am not an expert when it comes to digital photography. For all of you that are in the same boat and looking to get into it, there are a few additional things that you will have to go out and purchase when you go to use a digital trail camera. The unit does not come with an SD card, only a small amount of on-board memory that is not sufficient for use. I know now that this is normal, and you wouldn't want to buy an SD card every time you buy a camera but I wish that I knew that when I bought it. I meant taking a special trip out to the store after I got the camera home. When at the store I also needed to get a few more D size batteries, as this unit uses four of them.

Getting the batteries into the camera was not as easy as it should be. The locking system one the battery case works sufficiently now that I know how to use it but something a little easier might be better. I can say that by this time I was feeling a mix of frustration and anxiousness to see what the camera could do.

Using it in the Field

Once I got it out and took some pictures with it I was pleased with what I got. The battery life was good as advertised, albeit not stellar. The picture quality was also pretty good; excellent in the daytime, decent at night and not so great at dusk. Overall the percentage of shots that turned out was alright with me. I would still recommend this camera to someone that is looking to get out and do some field photography. Simply remember to grab an SD card (which should set you back about $40) and some batteries and you will have all you need to get a leg up on those deer.