BEWARE!!! When Buying A Covert Wireless Trail Camera!

BEWARE!!! When Buying A Covert Wireless Trail Camera! These trail cameras can operate on the AT&T or Verizon network. One of these trail cameras worked really well and the other one was a total FAIL! Which trail camera should you buy in 2023? We let you know if the Covert WC20 or Covert WC30 is any good or if it is worth the money. Also, we will let you know how much the wireless plan is for the Covert Wireless Scouting Cameras.
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[@MattPatterson1411]

I have a WC30-A along with three Code Black Selects and an older AW1-A. The WC30 is going on a year now in the field with a 12v external solar\battery setup and I haven’t had to touch it. However it’s not without its quirks and I would much rather prefer the more expensive Code Black as I have never has issue with those and they offer more in app features such as real time photo and the ability to turn the camera off remotely if desired.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

The code blacks were awesome cameras. I had a few of them but the sun toasted the lenses and they couldn’t be repaired. Aside from horrible battery life, the code black was my favorite camera. Glad to hear the WC30 is treating you well. 👍🏼

[@MattPatterson1411]

@@JoeTheFarmer yes sir. The trick to any Covert camera is to run an external battery + solar panel with it. You can buy theirs or build your own. This takes care of the battery issues and the camera will run indefinitely until there is a hardware issue. However, this is unfortunate as it adds some additional cost upfront but you’ll make that back in battery savings in the long run as these thing will chew thru a set of AAs in no time as noted in your video.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

You are 💯 right. The batteries end up costing more than the camera! Lol.

[@atlashydrographics]

Two years ago I found your channel specially looking for honest reviews and you turned me on to the Tacticam and I’ve been a fan of those cameras ever since. Great cameras and good customer service. Thanks for all the time and effort you put in to these videos!

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thanks Erik! You have been with us since the beginning brother. I really appreciate the support. I promise to always keep it real. 😁👍🏼👊🏼

[@briansweeney4758]

I've been using a couple covert WC20A for the last 2 years and haven't had a problem. I always put a second camera in over top when testing cameras just to make sure I'm not missing pictures and they have been great. I have used them on trails and also on food sources.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thats great to know. Feedback is pretty mixed on them but I believe that they are being discontinued. Appreciate you watching and good luck this season!

[@PracticalKen]

Are you able to hook up a solar panel to the WC-20? Also, is the door lockable to deter people(trespassers) from swiping SD card? I just ordered 6 of them.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Yes and yes. There is a loop to pull a cable lock through and solar panels can hook up through the bottom of the camera. Good luck!

[@huntersparadise7400]

We run over a dozen covert cameras on our property some stay out seasons at a time without changing batteries and having a solar panel connected, some of the cameras are years old. 5 of the cameras are the $129 ones and they work flawlessly anytime I have issues customer service answers right away and takes care of any problems. I have dealt with spypoint, tactacam Moultrie, and browning and have always came back to covert. Hands down the best cameras on the market and the most I've had to do is a simple firmware update.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

That’s great feedback; thanks for sharing. I loved the Blackhawk and ran 5 at one time. Very solid camera; just used a lot of power. The solar panels helped, but when they eventually died (camera lenses basically melted) I went to a more energy efficient camera. The WC-20 from the video is still working great; the other design was a dud. The race to the bottom on price has made quality suffer (like all things I guess). Thanks for watching and good luck this season!

[@rfb7117]

Joe, I'm not familiar with these units. I bought into the Cudde program 4 yrs. ago and I'm still using them with good results. I have had some minor issues, but over all four seasons and quite happy. I currently have 13 on the farm. Bob

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thanks for sharing Bob! I have heard great things about cudde cameras. Glad they are working out for you! 👍🏼👊🏼

[@coltonbullard5255]

I have a gen 1 tactacam still working as welll!

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Crazy how long some of them last!!! Thanks for watching buddy. 😁👍🏼👊🏼

[@nealwvickers]

I have a WC30-V and it has worked well. I also have a Code Black Select that has started giving me trouble but works now, and an E1 Blackhawk. I have had great customer service support so I plan to stay with Covert. I hate it that your 30 hasn't worked. Good hunting. Neal: Returning to Basics KZbin channel

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Hey Neal, glad it’s working out for you! Covert was great to work with and the code black was a great camera. The WC30 was just a let down. All good though brother! Will check your channel out!!!

[@vicgustafson8514]

I have the WC20A. It's junk also. Night pictures are black. I did have some pictures that were black and white. After about 24hrs that went away. Waiting on tech support. I am a code black fan but it has been discontinued. I was told a better model of code black will be available next year under a new name. I was thinking about swapping my WC20 for a WC30. Not now. Thanks for the video.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thanks for watching my friend! Covert was SO good for a long time. Now I’m afraid they are trying to cut too many costs. Too many other options out there. Appreciate you watching

[@tractorrookie]

Nice job. On my second stealth cam. It’s still going so far. Thanks for the review.🚜🇺🇸👊

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thanks brother! You can put it next to that fancy new shooting house!

[@ryanrayburn1492]

Just got the WC20 for free through Onx. Looking forward to getting it out in the field

[@ParkerEdwards-s3n]

That's what I'm about to do. Have you tried it yet? what do you think

[@Cajunrich]

I had over a solid year of perfect 5 sec VIDs from The W30A covert Then the cam needed an update ….struggling with this update Right now! Got 10 Spypoint’s running …cheap …got 7 Cellucores Not bad …Moultrie has been the best! Browing video to App weak… browning pics to app Awesome Anyway hope I can figure this out bc I like video send to my phone apps! Thx cajun

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thanks for sharing and for the info cajun. 👍🏼👊🏼

[@herbertnewman4595]

Have 3 WC-30 on Verizon with no issues after 1 year plus $25 per month covers 3 cameras and unlimited pics.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Glad that they are working well for you!!!

[@t8archeryoutdoors425]

I got 3 wc30 on there second session and are still running good probably gonna get some wc20

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thats great! I may have gotten some duds. The wc 20 is still working well so happy with that. Good luck this season!

[@n0nps]

I just got one thru a onx promo. So far I'm not impressed I want to see how it runs in the field

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Keep us all posted!

[@lucasbrasil7656]

Having my first problem with the WC-20 after 1 season. Doesn’t connect to service and keeps shutting on and off

[@JasonVelten]

I have a wc 30 and I'm having troubles with it keeping my settings. I have a coyote issue eating my chickens and I need rapid shots to alert me when a coyote is actively at the chicken shed. Anyway It keeps switching to minutes instead of seconds. I'm not sure if it's user error or a product issue.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

I have stopped using that camera my friend. Too buggy and wasn’t what Covert used to be. I believe you can bring the delay to 5 sec and do a rapid 3 shot but can’t recall. Sorry about your chickens!!! Good luck!

[@barryanderson1747]

Hey joe i have ran all 3 of the covert the wc30 v is garbage like you said the black hawk needs a car battery the wc20v is the way to go but the only problem i have found is no gps on the camera! Any thoughts

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Is the gps for locating the camera? If so I would use an app or just document on Google Earth. I don’t personally use the gps/location feature but its on my land. On public I probably would. Appreciate you watching and sharing with the group!

[@KPVFarmer]

Hey Joe, what’s your favorite covert camera that handles the largest number of cameras per app and plan? You’ve seem to have already done the research.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

I think the A20 is a solid camera. But the battery life is so far below that of the Browning cameras. Browning and Tactacam seem to last twice as long as the Covert

[@Kamotor1980]

@@JoeTheFarmer what Browning model do you prefered?

[@JoeTheFarmer]

@@Kamotor1980Defender Pro Scout Max. I’ll have a video out on their new Extreme camera…but the former is so reasonably priced snd a good camera.

[@buckhunter3746]

Thank you for all the great videos

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thanks for watching!

[@ReneVandenBrand-o6j]

WC20V - Terrible experience trying to get it set up, multiple calls to customer support, incompatible with a lot of SD cards, (which the user manual is not clear about); not sure why they wouldn't automatically send a compatible SD card with it if it is so limited in what SD cards are compatible. So frustrated that I could not get this working before I headed out of town. Waste of time and money. Probable will just through it out. Stick with the Browning!

[@JoeTheFarmer]

These cams are oddly complicated. The 20 at least worked for us. Hope you have better luck!!! Thanks for watching.

[@KPVFarmer]

I’m already looking forward to your review! Can never have enough security but don’t want to waste the money on junk. 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Amen brother! Thanks for watching!

[@KPVFarmer]

@@JoeTheFarmer Great video of you with Josh at Stoney Ridge! That’s where I first heard of you and the others and just recently became a new follower. I like the diversity!

[@JoeTheFarmer]

@@KPVFarmer AWESOME!!! Josh is a great guy and spent a lot of time with me when I was starting my channel. He didn't know me at all but wanted to be helpful. Dude is a class act. He laid the groundwork for a lot of us that enjoy sharing our love for the outdoors. Hope you enjoy our channel and keep in touch!!!

[@conservativestatesofamerica]

I’ve got 17 covert cell cams in all 2 Blackhawk lte neither one will read the SIM card it’ll take pics for a few days then I have to go reset it no sim error every time! Why?

[@JoeTheFarmer]

No clue brother. Mine have all since died off. Not impressed with the new Covert cams. I’ve been happy with Tactacam and Browning. Far better battery life. The covert loves batteries! Appreciate you watching brother. Good luck this season!

[@danielvickery9244]

Can you review the Barn owl tech Cellular cameras?

[@JoeTheFarmer]

We’ll see what we can do!

[@jordandguillot]

I just received one of these cameras through the OnX promo and was wondering is it can hooked up to a 6v or 12v battery?

[@JoeTheFarmer]

They both have a battery input so yes, they can accept an external battery. The one that we installed in the video is still working great! 💪🏼👍🏼

[@jordandguillot]

Awesome! Thanks!

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Anytime! Thanks for watching!

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Good luck!

[@nikkoavila7161]

I have a WC20-V, was working perfect for about a month then it stopped doing firmware updates by itself did about 4 of them by itself then all of a sudden it won’t update just pending

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Sorry man. I would send it in and have them replace it. Their customer service is very good at that.

[@dohboy4571]

Hello, have you heard of the wc20a just shutting down and losing power after doing the 10 second count down?

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Hey! I haven’t heard of that. But with this batch of cameras seems like anything is possible. I would send it back for a warranty replacement before they get busy with the season coming up. I have zero tolerance bro; if they put out a dud I make it a point to send it back to them for replacement. Thanks for watching!

[@dohboy4571]

I got it free, for renewing my OnX subscription… this should be fun, lol

[@dohboy4571]

@TheMaryjanelaney nope. Trashcan of a camera. I’m sorry you fell victim to the same thing as me, truly upsets me. The life lesson I learned is, stop being lazy… go get a regular trail cam you have to physically check, much less of a headache

[@JoeTheFarmer]

The non cell cameras are MUCH more accurate and reliable. Sorry you had a bad experience brother

[@jakerodriguez3923]

Hey man, I just set my av20 out today and had a few question about what I experienced. I set my camera up on a tree and it took a picture of me walking away then when it got dark out at captured me lowering my bow from my stand, but I went up to after the hunt to check if it was setup good and it did not capture a picture of that… any thoughts? I’m going to go out tmw to check it.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Hey! Lots of things could be off. Could have the delay set too far apart, trigger speed and sensor sensitivity could be off. Honestly it is best to play around with a cam before putting it out to get it dialed in. Hope you saw some good deer!

[@jakerodriguez3923]

@@JoeTheFarmer okay sounds good. Thanks for the input. Bought it today and I put it out impulsively for the night to watch a scrape near my stand LOL. Tmw is an all day sit so I’ll mess around with it at lunch time.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

@jakerodriguez3923 awesome man! good luck!!!

[@jakerodriguez3923]

@@JoeTheFarmer Hey Joe, one more question… have you had any issues with the cam not taking videos? I have it set to dual but it’s only capturing pictures

[@JoeTheFarmer]

I haven’t set it to video. All of ours are set to photo to save battery and card space.

[@greenridgeoutdoors5422]

I have the WC-V and it won’t even connect to my app or take pictures…. I’m pissed covert has went down hill since the new owners took over completely junk!

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Man, they used to be great. I agree that they are on the struggle bus. Thanks for watching!

[@KevinJones-pf3vg]

Just had 3 WC30 cameras die!! Sent to covert , to old for warranty ,

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Covert jumped the shark.

[@Ragincajun337]

WC20-A. Had it for 2022 Season. Worked for a few months then stopped working. We changed SD card Crap 💩 we set it up inside works. Set it up outside don’t work.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Man those are just bad designs. Make Covert keep replacing it until they make it right.

[@Ragincajun337]

@@JoeTheFarmer we mailed it back today. $20. We have 2 of the Code Black and Love them. If it wasn’t for the trail cam the 1st week of Bow my husband would not have known what was at feed 100yds away. A huge 8pt in Velvet.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

@Ragincajun337 yeah; its never convenient. I moved to pretty much all Browning and Tactacam. Don’t want to spend $500 per cam but for $120 they are as good as it gets…

[@Ragincajun337]

@@JoeTheFarmer I agree.

[@user-gz4ft3wb4j]

Just got the WC20A through OnX promo as well, can’t seem to find a security box for it. Anyone have luck finding one that works? Would prefer not to use a cable if possible.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

My cameras never even worked!!! Lol

[@jimmyblades3740]

I have 2 30's. 1 was good the other does nothing but take pictures. Pic after pic after pic of nothing every 5 seconds. The good one just stopped sending pictures a couple days ago. Switched out SD cards several times. Won't buy another

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Covert has fallen off man. They used to be phenomenal. Now, I lean towards Browning, Tactacam or StealthCam. Browning has the best battery life by far.

[@kermitreed2021]

What part of middle TN? Im in southern middle

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Not far from you. 😉👍🏼

[@coldham706]

am i able to not activate a plan and just use these covert cameras like a traditional sd card camera?

[@JoeTheFarmer]

yep; you can use it as a non cell cam. I do that pretty often with all brands when it's not hunting season or it's not being used for security.

[@coldham706]

@@JoeTheFarmer ok thanks!

[@JoeTheFarmer]

@coldham706 anytime

[@coldham706]

@@JoeTheFarmer im having issues getting this camera to work like a normal sd card camera. i set the date time/ pic frequency etc. when i go back to the main menu, the count down timer begins and gets to 0. i try walking in front of it, but no pics are taken and saved to the sd card. however, i am able to do the test pic that saves to the sd card using the arrow key with success. any tips to get it to work like normal?

[@JoeTheFarmer]

@coldham706 really hard to tell without having it here, not an expert on that camera. I would call their customer support; they are very helpful

[@DarrylWilson-zt8tp]

My menu screen will not come on on my wc30a 😡😡

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Had the same problem. WC30 is a surprising disappointment from Covert.

[@mileshiles1287]

Great review.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Thanks Miles!

[@Retirementlifeforbeginners]

Mine was a POS. It never worked.. not once. Their CX isn’t worth anything or they’d be happy to replace it without me paying for shipping both ways. Rip off all the way

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Sorry you had that experience man.

[@klappy803]

I have a blackhawk, my battery life is fine, it will take and transmit thousands of photos, but man is it hit and miss with connecting to the network, and i'm in good cell service area. I will not buy another covert product. Going to buy the el cheapo tacticam and just throw em away when they start acting up.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

I had similar issues as the camera got older. Don’t sleep on Browning man. They have been solid cameras. But Tactacam has been solid too. But yes, 💯 disposable. Thanks for watching!

[@klappy803]

@@JoeTheFarmer Funny you mention browning, they were my go to and i guess still are, before cell cams. They best i have found for prices less than reconix. If you have the money reconix is the way to go.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Full disclosure; Browning has sent us cameras. Both other brands have too and I wouldn’t give them away. Tactacam and Browning seem to be solid. And StealthCam Fusion X has been good, but I put them below the others as of right now.

[@P.Trim69]

😅 yelp Gameboy and then Gameboy color.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

🤣. If you know you know. 👍🏼

[@P.Trim69]

@@JoeTheFarmer if the remote doesn't work I got the batteries out of it. Lol. Until Papa says hay boy get out front TV. No give me the batteries out of that gamie thing. You touch this remote again I'm busting your @$$. Lol. That wAs back in late 70 early 80s. When we was allowed to get whipped. And our parents didn't get charged for child abuse.

[@JoeTheFarmer]

@@P.Trim69I have literally heard that conversation more than once!!! Lol

[@JayN4GO]

All made in the same Chinese sweatshop

[@JoeTheFarmer]

Unfortunately no camera that I know of is made in the USA

[@kermitreed2021]

Don't matter, I love cameras lol!

[@jefffrancis6824]

👀

[@JoeTheFarmer]

👋