Reconyx hyperfire 2 cell vs Spartan gocam which one is worth the money! 

I am currently running 67 Spartans and 35 non cellular Reconyx. This review is pretty accurate to what I have been seeing with my Spartans. Some Spartans work great, others not so great. I have all of my Spartans set up on a 10 second video. The trigger speed isn't as good as my Reconyx non cell cams and I get a lot of false videos as a result. Thanks for the review. I'm gonna order some of the Reconyx cell cams and see how they do.

thank you!

Very good video.

I’m Elizabeth Swoope, and I’ve been a camera test team member for Spartan since summer 2014. I’d like to clear up a few things based on my several years of experience testing and writing documentation for Spartan. (I’m not a regular full-time Spartan employee.) Verizon charges: it’s $5/month to add it as a connected device, but Verizon charges taxes, fees, and surcharges on top of that. Some people only pay a few cents. I pay $4.80 TFS every month on top of the $5, then $3/month for premium. Even at that high TFS, my total monthly charge for a Spartan is under $13. I don’t have unlimited data, but for people with unlimited data plans, that’s all the thumbnails, HD photos, and videos you care to request for that monthly fee. There’s on additional charge for anything. GoCams and Ghosts send either regular (640 * 480) or large (1280 * 960) thumbnails, not HD photos. You can get the full resolution photo by requesting it once you’ve viewed the thumbnail. GoCam and Ghost transmitted videos are either 320 * 240 or 1024 * 576, not 1080p. However, on my iPad Pro 11” screen, those videos are good quality. I don’t have a big TV and have never tried watching them on a TV screen. The reason for the delay in getting the HD photo or video is to save power. After the camera sends the motion-triggered photo, it checks for pending requests (HD photo, video, settings update, format SD card, FW update) and completes them at that time, then it gets off the network until the next time it sends a photo or there’s a scheduled event. I use scheduled events (a combination of status reports and photo events) to get my cameras to check in about every 3 hours throughout the day and night. (There’s a four-hour gap from 3 AM to 7 AM then a two-hour gap from 7 AM to 9 AM so I have time to look at photos at 6 and request what I want to see before the 7 AM event.) Photo + video made may have some advantages over the rapid fire photo mode of the Reconyx, but that depends on your use. With Photo + video, the photo is taken and a thumbnail is transmitted. Two seconds later, the video starts recording, so you have video from 2 seconds to 12 seconds after the photo was taken. The nice thing about photo + video is that you can look at the photo and if it’s not “interesting”, move on. If it’s interesting, you can request the video. That 10-second video may show you more about an animal than several photos in sequence. I noticed that one photo you posted was from a V4Gb. The V4Gb was the first Spartan 4G camera. I got my first test camera in August 2017 so it was released several months after that. It was replaced in 2018 by the Z4Gb, which has a more robust modem. There’s a definite difference in connectivity capability between the V4Gb and the Z4Gb. I have to be careful where I put my Vs, my other 4G Verizons work well just about anywhere. Spartan doesn’t typically release new models all that often, unless you count releasing a new carrier model (GoCams are available for AT&T, Verizon, Bluegrass, Cellcom, Nex-Tech, and US Cellular) as being a new model. There are currently three basic models: GoCam, Ghost, and GoLive. With the GoCams, there have been more Verizon models than other carrier models. There were two models of 3G (VZW, which required a data plan from Spartan; VCT, which you could add to your phone plan). Both were available in black flash or infrared. Then there were the 4G versions, the V4G and then the Z4G. A year and a half or so ago, The Z4G was released in a new case design (Z4Gb2 or Z4Gc2) that you can open and close with external power plugged in. The working parts are the same. You do not have to have batteries in GoCams connected to external power. However, on the old style case (the one that you can’t open and close with external power plugged in), it’s usually a good idea to run four batteries (two top, two bottom, preferably in the left bay) so that you can turn the camera to setup, take/send manual photo, then turn it on and plug it in. In the new style cases (anything with a “2” at the end of the model number), you don’t need to have any batteries although I usually do as backup in case something unplugs the external power. I have several Spartan battery box/solar panel setups with 12 Ah 6V batteries that were deployed in October 2018 that have not been touched. I had to touch the cameras one week short of two years to aim them down a bit since the trees they are in had grown, but I haven’t replaced the 6V battery and haven’t ever seen the power below 5.7V. I have quite a few more that have been deployed since and have not had the problem you describe so I’m not sure what happened with your setup. Spartan cameras are designed in the US. Like most other cell cameras sold in the US, they are manufactured in China to Spartan’s specifications and manufactured in a different facility than many of the other brands of US cell cameras. Support is US-based. We are proud of our diverse group of employees headquartered in the Atlanta, GA, area. Without seeing your setup, there’s no way to say whether changing the sensitivity or tweaking the camera aim might have reduced or eliminated the false triggers you experienced and the missed triggers. I have some cameras that are in locations that false trigger during the heat of the day in the summer. The GoCam cannot batch send to save power, but the other two models (Ghost and GoLive) can. If you want more pictures and power saving, you can set those two models to transmit pics up to nine times a day. You said you won’t ever buy another Spartan, and that’s okay. You may be interested to know that the new GoLive does some of the things you want to do, including completing requests immediately. The camera stays online (if you set it that way). Videos can be up to 30 seconds long, at three resolutions (up to 1080P) and there’s no gap between the photo and the start of the video. The thumbnail and HD photo are actually taken from the first few frames of the video. The Ghost and GoCam can both be connected directly to a solar panel without the need for a battery box in between. Thanks for taking time to post your video review.

Thanks for sharing. Strange that image quality is not a priority with Reconyx. I'm going to use the security model hyperfire for monitoring a garage a few miles from my house. So reliability, build quality and the 5 year warranty sold me. Also, they seem to hold their resale value well. I was going to buy used on eBay but prices on old beat up models were still going for $250+. Cheers

A better comparison video would be the Spartan GoLive and Recoynx Hyperfire 2 cell cam. I have several of both and there’s no comparison! The GoLive will run circles around the Recoynx in everything

Is the reconyx still up and running well? I’m trying to decide between the two

Reconyx are built here in America but the parts come from over seas

What brand and model of solar panel did you use?

can we see more pictures and videos on the spartan?