LAST UPDATED: May 8th, 2015
Over the last five years it seems I have owned nearly every brand of trail camera out there. Well, not quite, but I’ve been around the block. Some have been pretty decent, while others I wouldn’t even give a second look at.
This Summer I decided to order five new DLC Covert II Assassin cameras with bear boxes. When they arrived, the first thing I noticed was the small size of the camera. After my previous purchases of larger cameras, this was a relief. Of course, I couldn’t wait to get some batteries in and set it up to see what the quality of pictures would be like. When I opened up the battery compartment to the camera the battery slots were all labeled AAA but the package said it ran on 8 AA batteries. After a few seconds it was clear that it was a misprint in the camera and it indeed did run on AA batteries.
After a quick look at the owner’s manual I was ready to plug in the little remote that is used for set up. It only took a couple of minutes to master setting the time and setting the options just the way I wanted them. One of the things I noticed during the programming is the number options there were. I was amazed that you could set the picture spacing down to just one second or all the way up to 60 minutes. The one, two or three shot bursts are also very handy to have, as well as a video option, which I am just starting to use.
A small remote is included with the purchase of every DLC Covert II camera, and is used for programming your settings of choice into the unit before placing it out in the field.
Like a kid I had to get one of these out in the field for a test run, so I grabbed a bear box, a couple of screws, the camera and headed down the road. Attaching the bear box to the tree was a breeze with the two screws and the camera fits in it just perfect. I’m not worried about theft here, so I just used a wire to keep the bears from getting lucky and opening it up, though I doubt they could. If you were worried about theft, it would be simple to just throw a padlock on it.
After letting it sit a few days, I had to check the pictures. When I popped the 2GB SD card into the computer I was very pleased on the range of the IR lights, the night pictures and the clarity of the daytime pictures.
Over the last 6 weeks and checking the cameras multiple times, I am also very impressed with the battery life. One particular camera has around 4000 pictures and the battery meter on the remote still reads full. I’ve also noticed that I get very few pictures of nothing. With previous cameras I have owned, there was a tendency to get a lot of blank pictures. With the Covert, the only time I get a few is in extreme wind.
Overall I am very impressed with this camera and would not hesitate to buy another 5 more or to recommend them to anyone. The camera size, battery life, picture quality and ease of use are a welcome relief.
