2016 remained the year of the cellular trailcam for HCO Outdoors. Their Spartan Cameras led the way last year throughout the cell cam market.
2016 HCO Trail Cameras
Stellar photo from @georgeaparris cellular HCO Spartan trailcam. #cellulartrailcam #wildlife #wintertrailcams pic.twitter.com/tdm14lAxeD
— Trailcampro (@Trailcampro) January 17, 2017
While HCO makes other trail cameras, they specialize in cellular trail cameras. So that will be the main focus of this post.
HCO Spartan Trail Cameras
The Spartan cameras were our go-to cell camera last year. Customers looking for a good combination of affordability and performance seemed to gravitate to the Spartan's. The trigger speed won't "wow" you, but the cameras just seemed to work. For a cell camera, that is pretty stinking important.
Like every cell camera, they haven't been without their problems, though. Lately, we have had regions of the country that needed firmware updates for Verizon cameras (still not sure why) and they don't have a solar panel option. Both issues are frustrating, but the good easily outweighs the bad.
The Spartan's have been our most reliable cellular unit this year and they seem to work in lower reception areas better than other models. You can also choose between Verizon and AT&T, which isn't the case on some other cameras.
HCO Premium service allows users to pay $4 a month (to HCO) and it enables transfer of larger images, two-way communication, and ability to use the HCO phone app. While the premium service is great and works really well, HCO is making a huge mistake by not offering this for free. This would be a great way to gain and retain customers to their platform, and trust me, in 2017 you will have plenty of good, affordable cellular cameras to choose from.
2017 HCO Trailcams
Other than offering a 4G camera, no notable changes are on the horizon for this year.
While I really like the HCO Spartan cameras, and continue to highly recommend them, I fear that HCO could be left behind in the coming years if they don't do 3 things:
- Offer the Premium Service for free
- Improve trigger speeds
- Come up with a good 6-volt Solar Panel that works in combination with internal batteries
If you have questions on cell cameras, or anything else, don't hesitate to send me an email (nick@trailcampro.com) or write it in the comments section below.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!