Moultrie A5 Low Glow Trail Camera Review

ModelTrigger SpeedFlash RangeResolutionStorage

Moultrie A-5 Low Glow

Moultrie A-5 Low Glow

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1.16 sec30 ft.5 MP usableSD Card Not Included

Pros

  • Very inexpensive
  • Average-to-good trigger speed
  • Excellent battery life

Cons

  • Will not work with rechargeable batteries
  • Difficult to install the batteries
  • Low quality images

Howdy, and welcome to my review of the Moultrie A-5 Low Glow Game Camera. This is a 5MP game camera sold for the budget-conscious, widely available at most outdoor stores for less than a hundred bucks. Is it worth the money, though? That all depends on how serious you take your game cameras, as you’ll find out from my review below.

How Well Does the Moultrie A-5 Low Glow Game Camera Detect Movement?

The camera has a trigger speed of 1.16 seconds, which is actually pretty good since it is fast enough for most animals. However, the camera suffers quite a bit of lag in getting ready to take the next shot—62 seconds worth of recovery time, making it unacceptable for many users.

Even more unfortunate, the detection circuit for this camera is far wider than the field of view, so it detects movement in many square feet of terrain that will never make it into the pictures. This means I received quite a few “false” triggers when I tested the A-5. There were so many “false” triggers, in fact, that I captured almost five times as many pictures of empty terrain during my 5-day test period than I did of animals.

This extra-wide detection circuit isn’t something that only the A-5 suffers from. There are plenty of other cameras out there that suffer from “false” triggers for just this reason, but the Moultrie A-5 seems to suffer from them far more than other cameras. This tells me that the camera was not really well tested before it was released to the market, which is unusual for Moultrie.

How Reliable is This Field Camera?

This depends on how you define reliable. Will it snap a photo every time it detects some sort of movement? Yes, absolutely, I never had a day during my test period when the camera failed to take a picture. Now, will the animal actually be in the picture is the more accurate test of the camera’s reliability, and for that I have to say, “Not really.” Because of the field of detection being so much wider than the camera’s field of view, you’ll get tons of pretty pictures of your cornfield, but not nearly as many pictures of the deer you are trying to catch on camera.

What Is the Image Quality Like?

Moultrie states that this camera has a day or night range of 50’, but my experience is quite a bit different than that. In fact, I’d say the flash range is really just 30’, and anything beyond that range looks almost ghost-like. The pictures within the 30’ range are dark and grainy, and animals are almost undetectable on the edge of the pictures. The camera only has 12 infrared LEDs, though, which is probably why the night quality is so poor.

During the day, the pictures are pretty typical of an inexpensive camera. Colors and contrast are fine, but the camera fails to properly focus, so pictures come out looking blurry and distorted.

The good about the pictures is that the camera automatically stamps the moon phase, time, date, and camera ID on each image. This is pretty standard, but there are still a number of cameras out there that don’t do this.

What Picture-Taking Modes Does This Camera Offer?

The A-5 only offers two picture-taking modes: photo and video. You can change the resolution to either high (2560 x 1920) or low (640 x 480) for photos, but only get 640 x 480 for video. The camera does not have a time-lapse mode, but does offer variable picture delays of 1, 5, 10, and 30 minute intervals, for cutting down the number of pictures taken each day.

How Many Pictures Can the Moultrie A-5 Low Glow Store?

This is all dependent on what size memory card you install. This field camera does not have onboard storage, so you have to install an SD card to capture any photos. The camera supports SD cards up to 32GB. If you install a 32GB memory card, you can capture up to 24,000 images on the card at high quality, or 128,000 images at low quality. Video capacity will be around 54 minutes of video, assuming your camera shoots 10 second videos or longer.

How Is the Battery Life?

The battery life on this camera is quite good. Moultrie states that you can shoot 8,000 shots on a single set of batteries, and that sounds about right. The camera requires 4 C-cell batteries for use, and I could not fit my rechargeable batteries into the battery compartment. I also noticed that the batteries were very difficult to install because of the way the battery compartment operates; sticking the batteries into the part of the tray with the spring was more difficult than it really needs to be.

Is This Field Camera Easy to Use?

The Moultrie A-5 is very easy to program, but there aren’t many options to choose from. As I stated before, there is no time-lapse mode and the picture delay modes are pretty limited. The camera includes an integrated strap loop with Python lock compatibility, and also has a ¼” x 20mm threaded insert on the back and the bottom of the camera for mounting it to a slate river mount.

Summary of the Bushnell X-8 Field Camera

Thanks for reading my review of the Moultrie A-5 Low Glow game camera. This is a low-end game camera for those who are on a budget crunch but still want to capture some photos or videos of the wildlife on their land. The camera has limited options and is difficult to set up, and it takes poor quality pictures. If you’re fine with all of the above, go ahead and buy it. If you want a quality camera, though, you should probably pass on this particular model. Take a look at Amazon.com’s price on the Moultrie A-5 Low Glow if you’re interested.

4 Comments

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  1. I stumbled across your sight while having a discussion about my ten point Titan extreme crossbow with a couple hunters who use a different brand. The first thing I noticed was how much info I gained about my chosen weapon that I had no idea about. Thanks so much for covering products from top to bottom. Since then I have read your reviews on all my hunting products you have covered. Some I came out smelling of roses, others were a waste of money bought strictly on the belief that what manufacturer told me was correct. Lesson learned. I will definitely use your reviews when in the market for a new product before deciding on models. Best part? I can do it right in the store via smart phone. Thanks again for not letting sponsorship dictate your reviews and being very HONEST about your research. More hunting time for me. :). Kurt H. Michigan

  2. Moultrie m80 worked for a while, then reads card err! called Moultrie 3 times got 3 different answers The last rep told me the camera was no good!,But offered 50% off a new one 75.00$ on line you can buy it for 59.99$ free shipping 2 yr. warranty No offer to repair it Done buying Moultrie products. Do your homework, check the reviews, spend a little more and get a better camera.

  3. Glad to see you posting again. I’m a bow hunter from the Little Rock area. I enjoy your posts. Thanks for writing!

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