Stealth Cam STC-P12 Review – Trail Camera

Model	Trigger Speed	Flash Range	Resolution	Storage
Stealth Cam STC-P12 Check Best Price	1.1 sec	50 ft.	6 MP usable	SD Card (not included)

Pros:

• Simple setup dial with 3 presets
• Python-lock compatible
• Beautiful daytime image quality

Cons:

• No camera ID information stamped on images
• Slow trigger speed
• Blurry nighttime pictures

Hello, and welcome to our review of the Stealth Cam STC-P12 field camera. This is a 6MP trail camera that operates on 8 AA batteries (not included), and uses SD cards (also not included) to store the pictures. It’s designed to fit into the budget trail cam niche, and can often be found for well under a hundred dollars. How well does it perform in the field, though? That’s what I set out to find out!

How Well Does the Detect Movement?

I tested the P12 for about 3 weeks, in an area that I knew had a fair bit of small and medium game traffic. This same area was also covered by another, more high-end trail camera. The P12 seems to be prone to false positives, getting triggered by such mundane things as blowing leaves and the sun coming up. The manual even warns that sunrise can often trigger the camera, but my other cameras don’t suffer from that problem.

When the camera did register movement, the slow trigger speed (more than a second) resulted in either missing the critter altogether or only catching the hind end of the animal. Now, when I threw out some corn for the deer, I did manage to pick up some great shot of some does and a good-sized buck feeding off the corn I’d left behind.

Bear in mind, this is a budget camera, so it’s not going to be as efficient at catching wildlife as more expensive models. With that said, the detection range is quite good compared to the field of view, so at least the camera tries to pick up pictures of creatures within its field of view.

How Reliable is This Field Camera?

I’ve had the P12 set up for several weeks, and it has worked reliably as far as actually taking pictures. It hasn’t mattered what the weather conditions were like, the camera would reliably snap shots whenever it detected motion within its field of view. Sometimes on a particularly snow-driven night, it would false trigger on the blowing snow, but even those times were pretty rare—blowing leaves seemed to be more of a problem than the white snow.

I’ve heard from friends who have had this model set up for more than one or two seasons, and their cameras have worked reliably since setting them up. For a camera under a hundred bucks, that’s pretty impressive durability.

What Is the Image Quality Like?

Daytime images on this field camera are quite good, with excellent color and contrast. The daytime images are in good focus, and while the camera is not an HD camera, it still captures some excellent daytime shots.

Night shots with the P12 are also good quality, but not as good as daytime. The flash range, illuminated by a dozen infrared LEDs, is around 40-50 feet, and the pictures have blurry or soft edges, especially the legs of animals. For the price point, though, the P12 generates some fine looking night shots.

All of the images taken by this trail camera are stamped with the time, date, and moon phase information. It would be nice if the camera would also stamp a camera ID on each shot, but that does not appear to be an option.

If you opt to shoot video, you’ll get decent video quality during either day or night times, but will notice a lack of focus at night resulting in some blurriness. That’s really to be expected at this price point, though.

What Picture-Taking Modes Does This Camera Offer?

There’s no time lapse mode with the P12, but it does offer burst mode with choices from 1 to 6 images per burst, and a 5 second recovery time. The camera also features quite a few different options for setting the trigger delay: you can set trigger delay between 5 and 120 seconds.

Quality of the pictures can be set to High (6MP), Medium (4MP), and Low (2MP). Of course, the lower the quality you choose, the less detail you’ll be able to see in your pictures, but the more pictures you’ll fit onto your SD card. I kept my camera set at High quality, with a 32GB SD Card, and never managed to fill up the card.

You also have the option of video recording in VGA 640×480, with options to set your length between 5 and 30 seconds. Video quality is not the greatest, since it’s just VGA, but it is good enough to see the traffic patterns and sometimes capture a scurrying raccoon.

How Many Pictures Can the Store?

The P12 does not have any on-board storage, so how many pictures the camera will hold depends on the size of SD card you install in the cam. The camera will handle SD cards of up to 32MB, which should hold enough pictures or video to last you for several weeks, even in a busy animal trail area.

How Is the Battery Life?

This camera operates on 8 AA batteries, and I was pleasantly surprised at how long the batteries last. Moderate use over a period of 3 weeks, and the camera still shows the batteries have a full charge.

Is This Field Camera Easy to Use?

Programming the P12 is probably the easiest of any trail camera I’ve ever used, since it uses a simple dial to set the shot mode. You get 3 presets, or you can set up your own custom mode. The settings are easy to understand, and the camera is versatile enough that you can set it up to your particular recording needs.

Summary of the StealthCam STC-P12 Trail Camera

Thanks for reading my review of the StealthCam STC-P12 camera. This is an excellent budget camera with some very useful features. The picture quality during the daytime is stunningly beautiful, and even the nighttime pictures are good for the inexpensive price tag on the camera. The camera is easy to use, and is solid like a rock in terms of reliability. Take a look at Amazon.com’s price on the Stealth Cam STC-P12 if you’re interested.