Cuddeback Capture
27. Jul, 2008 
22 Comments
Cuddeback has released the Capture for 2008. I would assume that it was Cuddeback's intention to compete with Moultrie on the entry trail camera. The standard flash Cuddeback Capture can be found for around $199. The Cuddeback Capture IR is the infrared version and can be purchased for around $220. With both models being relatively new there are not many reviews available. Only time will tell if the Capture will be Cuddeback's answer to Moultrie.
CUDDEBACK CAPTURE 3.0 MP GAME CAMERA NEW
 | US $199.99 End Date: Friday Sep-10-2010 12:43:57 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $199.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Cuddeback Capture IR 5.0 Megapixel Trail Camera NEW
 | US $157.99 End Date: Friday Sep-10-2010 7:11:30 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $157.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Cuddeback Capture
 | US $80.00 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Sep-09-2010 16:09:03 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
Do you have a Cuddeback Capture? How has it performed in the field? Please let us know.
I just bought two cuddeback capture cameras, and they are awesome. They are easy to set up, and take really nice pictures. Cuddeback really hit one out of the park with this line of cameras.
Just picked up one of the captures, and tested it at home for a couple days prior to taking it in the field.
The camera will die after 1-3 photos are taken, then the batteries have to be removed, placed back in again to take another 1-3 photos before it dies.
The photo quality under the flash is horrible. It looks like the complete color spectrum in the background of every photo.
I’m assuming this camera is not supposed to function in this manner, so I will return it to the retailer.
It would have been nice for cuddeback to catch this before I brought it home.
I purchased a cuddeback capture and I like it so much two weeks later I bought a second camera. These cameras are easy to use and take great quality pictures day or night. The battery life is also exceptional. The 4-D batteries in my first camera lasted 6 weeks with over 1500 pics taken. This include temps from 15-85 degrees F. I have not changed the batteries in the second camera and it has been in use for over 2 months, but has only taken a couple hundred pics. For the price and quality this camera is a steal.
Has anyone had any problems with the capture yet?
My buddy had a few problems with his.
ANd i’m VERY hesitant to buy another cuddeback after my then $300 excite had to be sent back 2 times and now not under warranty flat out doesn’t work! For all of you that buy a cuddeback and think it’s great right away, I will agree. Just give it time, time is the true piece that cuddeback still to my knowledge hasn’t completely put together such as the Moultrie I-40.
Please leave comments of any problems or any non-problems and in particular PLEASE reply to how long you’ve had it.
I am very curious to see if cuddeback has stepped up and finally made their cameras stand up to what they claim!
Thanks a bunch, Cody.
I got a brand new Cuddeback Expert and I am very aggrivated about the camera. It won’t save the images to the card, it will save them to the camera when I don’t have the card in it, but it won’t save them when I do have the card in. I tried reformatting the card 4 times and it did nothing. I then called Cuddeback and they said the problem was in the card and to get a new card. That didn’t fix the problem. I would like to think that I just got one of the very few bad cameras from Cuddeback, but it sure doesn’t appear to be that way based on what everyone is saying about them. I thought that Cuddeback was supposed to be the Cadillacs of all trail cameras. Maybe the Capture is better, I don’t know, but I WILL NOT be getting another Cuddeback trail camera.
I bought a cuddeback capture some time in the early 2008 summer and the machine operated perfectly until the 2009 turkey season when it was completelly submerged under water in a flood on my property. I know what your thinking, that should have been the end of the camerea’s life, but it was not. I simply took the the camera completely apart and let it dry out for about a week, put some fresh batteries in and it will still take pics. The batteries die in two weeks but still, I think that is pretty cool. Anyways I am buying another one ASAP!!!
I am on my 3rd excite as well. I took my first one back to the retail store after a month and they replaced it for me. The second time I had to send back and pay to have fixed after only 2 months of use. I have just put the refurbished model back out, hope it works better than the last two.
I have the ir and like kyle i have found it in the field dead pulling the batteries out and re inserting them. tried to take it back to cabelas but it was past 60 days so i have to go to cudde with it. with season so close i am going to use it and hope for the best. I have gotten over 900 pics in one week with out a problem but last week i got six. its hit or miss.
I bought a Capture (flash) last November….I didn’t use it until this past July….I left it out for 3 weeks (and dumb me I didn’t test it first) I picked up the camera and no pictures, nothing…I started working with it…set it up at home..on the deck…had some flashes…checked no photos…flash worked, but no photos…tested some more…looked at “trouble shooting”…thought maybe “formatting to fat” was the problem…formatted the sd card…tested by walking by…flash…no photo but got a time and cuddeback logo on a black photo…tried the card in a camera….camera worked fine….I went to cudde and asked technical…the answer was “send it in to cudde” still under warranty now…very disappointed….I liked the ease of set up…but what good was that with no photos…I don’t like not being able to take a common digital camera and pulling the sd card and looking at photos in the field without having to “purchase” the cudde viewer…just another gimmick to make you buy something else….I’ll keep this cudde when I get it back, but I’m looking at other cameras that may be just as easy to set up and don’t have to have “special” sd card setup…
I HAVE HAD 3 DIFFERENT CUDDEBACK IR’S. NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS. WENT THRU BATTERYS EVERY COUPLE DAYS, TOOK BAD PICTURES AND WASTED ALOT OF MONEY. I RETURNED FOR REPAIRS,EXCHANGES AND NEW CAMERAS. ALL THE SAME. FINALLY RETURNED THE LAST ONE AND GOT MY MONEY BACK. WORST BIRTHDAY GIFT I EVER RECIEVED. WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND ONE TO ANYONE.
I bought a cuddeback expert which worked fine the first fall. This august after I put it out, it would take 2 or 3 pictures and then would not take any more. Since it was guarenteed a year Cuddeback wants half the price of a new one to fix it. Do I throw good money after bad? Very unhappy with it!!!
We’ve had the Cuddeback Capture 1125 for a year, now. The camera worked fine at first. Then, after 4 months, we started getting quite a few “white” pics. Stayed this way until late fall of ‘09, then just plain quit. Will power up but won’t take any pics. At all. Have tried numerous times to get live help via phone and they never answer, will cut you off after 15 minutes hold and tell you to call back.
Owned moultrie i40 for about 4 years, every
moultrie display slowly faded away. Went to
cuddeback capture, what a difference hopefully
if I have to send back to cuddeback there
customer service is as good as moultrie. Cuddeback
takes great pictures and batteries last along
time and very easy to set up, great product so far.
spend six hundred on three cuddebacks all junk customer support was a joke ,how on earth can three cameras have the same problem as whats posted here and support saying they never heard of the problem,save your moeney like i wish i did and buy froma diffrent company
I have had the Cuddeback Capture for about a year now an all i can say is it’s the best game camera i have ever had. it take’s nice clear pictures,supper easy set up an my battier life is awesome. every time i had it set up i came back to hundreds of pictures on the sd card the camera did not miss a thing over all im going to buy another one asap.
Guys i have a capture and it quit in three weeks…..sent it back and got another but guess what…maybe 3 pics…I tested it with three cameras in the same location…one being a cheap Wildview…49.00…the other a Moultrie D40they tool 180 to 200 pics during the same test period…..And as Usual for Cuddyback….No damn response. I think its a one man show there with automated voice …never did get to talk to a tech…Hell they are all probably in China anyhow……say the least i’m Pissed Eddie
PS still trying to get someone to talk to me …been two weeks
Just goes to show you that more expensive doesn’t mean better quality….The service speaks for itself…..Moultrie….They are great in that department….and you will get a call back usually in a hour if you don’t get them right then…..As far as Cuddy…..No support means the product is going down….They need to have a regular support person there to help.
No more Cuddys for me for sure…and i have over 8 cams in the field.
I have a Capture and have sent it in twice….and right now i have it sitting next to a wildview…50.00 camera. The Wildview will generate say a 150 photos…the capture may have 3 to 8…now mind you they are side by side…and like the rest you can never get anyone on the damn phone…very poor public relations ….will be moultrie all the way now for sure
Finally got a hold of Cuddeback and their answer is the heat….ran all the tests they had and said it all checks out but it still won’t take a picture farther than 2 to 3 ft out….and they say since the test check out they won’t give me an RMA number to send it back….the problem is obviously in the trigger sensitivity…so they need to look at it. I’m going to send it back in without an RMA will let you know where it goes….Way it is now they need to keep it as its worthless
I wish I would have read this before my purchase. Spent an hour trying to get this new out of box Excite to work… nothing… card error.. my butt. JUNK. Plus, SCHEELS dimwit salesman sold me the wrong card.. so, back to town for that right one, only for it not too work… Did I mention JUNK… PLUS, the series of buttons to push is rediculous. tay away from em from the sounds and experience.
I bought a Cuddyback 1 1/2 years ago, and it has a one year warranty. Had problems from day one. The first thing Cuddyback doesn’t have any instructions, that you have to format your SD card, meaning take the SD card, put in a didital camera and take a picture first, before you put into your trail camera. Learning this the hard way, I blew out two SD cards, because we put them directly into the trail camera, not knowing you had to format it first. That was problem one. Now you put your camera up, the camera shuts down after two days of work, or it works just when it wants to, until you pop the battery out, and have to reset it, and then it just takes a few more pictures again, over and over, you have to do this. I get mostly just white pictures. I called Cuddyback, and explained to her what was going on, and she said try a certain brand of SD card, and asked if my batteries were good, been there, did that stuff. Now its off warranty, after one year, $200.00 camera, I am supposed to send them $110.00 plus $10.00 shipping, plus my camera, and they said they would send me a new one. What I am I supposed to do here, I feel when you spend this amount of money, it should work for more than what it did, especially since it did not work from day one. There customer service sucks, and their camera sucks. My son and son-in-law have the same problems with their cuddybacks. They should go good on their camera, and I feel that I should get a new one, with no strings attached. If I did send it in, what are the chances that they would just send me my camera back rebuilt, and still have the same problems. I guess they think on the phone, that I have the words stupid printed on my head. So this would be over $300.00, and whats to say that I still would have the same problems. All I hear about cuddyback, from others, is problem after problem. I don’t think that I will ever buy from this company again, it is bogus. I might even think of taking them to small claims court, just to prove a point, of what junk these camera are. Don’t ever think of buying one of these, because you will get the bad end of the deal. This camera is a big big let down, never worked when I needed it to work, I am done with cuddyback, and please don’t make the same mistakes with your $200.00, you will be sorry!!
First off, George you have a real problem, lmao! What kind of chip do you have in there? It reccomends 1GB standard SD Chip with 2 being max but not reccomended. Maybe that is part of your problem??
I have over a thousand pics on my card and the alkie batteries just keep takin a lickin, but keep on tickin! So either you got unlucky with a real lemon or just plain need more smarts to operate the simplest camera in the world
Anyhow, here is my very honest review on the Cuddie 5.0 IR.
First off, cons
1. I wasn’t the happiest when I seen what used to be a previous US Product, now made in China like all the rest. No wonder we are going down the shitter!!
2. Cuddie brags about how simple they made that camera, which is the truth. But the simpleness bragging covers up the real truth which they don’t want to admit. That is, they cheapened what once was a fantastic camera up bigtime by removing many previous essential features.
3. It doesn’t take multiple pics at once which is a feature I like. The best you can do is set the delay to 30 seconds and you will enjoy quite a few pics.
4. You can’t set it to take video clips.
5. About every 30 pics or so, you will get one picture that won’t develop if you click on it. Maybe that’s a problem on my end with the card. I just flopped in a old 2 GB card I had laying around because I’m too cheap to buy a brand new 1GB card.
Here’s the pros:
1. The daytime pics are absolutely fantastic, better than any other game cam I owned. They are photo album quality. The night IR pics are like any other average IR camera. Good enough to see what’s lurking around and perhaps a good idea how many points are on your trophy buck but nothing spectacular.
2. The batteries last forever. I was thinking about modifying that camera by voiding the warranty and drilling a small hole through the back cover and hooking up wires to the terminals for external battery. But, after I seen how long budget alkalines last, I put that idea in the closet.
3. The trigger speed is extremely fast or faster than previous models, putting Cuddie in a class by itself with that feature.
4. By removing all the advanced features, they did make it extremely simple for any plain moron to setup. Well, almost any moron
Hope this review helps you. I may be somewhat outspoken, but I tell it like it is!