Moultrie M-880C/June 27, 2014

This is a small camera virtually identical in size to the M-880 we covered in 2013. The layout of the buttons and switches have changed. The display is still the two line LCD thus no photo viewer on this one. The 880c uses a hinged, camera in the back design which is convenient as the camera does not flop around when you open it.. It requires 8 AA batteries which are stored in a pop out tray.. It has slots for a strap and a python cable hole on the back of the camera as well as two tripod mount threaded receptacles one on the rear and one on the bottom. It supports photo, video and time lapse modes. Basically this camera looks like the M-880 and M-880i but has white flash LEDs which means it takes color photos and videos at night using full spectrum LEDS.

The set up was easy and somewhat familiar and I had this camera taking photos on the range quickly. I noticed a new setting called WI-FI SD Card. Years ago I tested many cameras with a Wi-fi SD card from eye-fi and found that because the power was cut off after the image was saved the wi-fi card did not have time to send the image over wi-fi. My guess is that this setting will leave power to the SD card longer or all the time. Also notable are settings called AC Connected and Overwrite.

When I triggered the camera in a dark quiet room I could not hear any tones or noises as I did with the M-880i. There is no filter clunk as far as I can tell and there shouldn’t be.

I managed to get some day time range sample pictures. In comparing this camera to last year’s M-880 I feel that the image contrast is poorer and that the color saturation is less realistic. The sunny photos have a haziness which I believe is an over exposure problem.

This evening I tested the camera (like MOULTRIE A-30 GAME CAMERA ) on the range and gathered some color flash samples. I must say these night shots are the best I have seen in this technology, white LED. The 60 foot coyote is clearly visible. Their claim of 70 foot flash is closer to reality on this camera. While the photos are not quite as crisp as I have seen using a strobe flash camera, I think they are pretty good. Like the day shots, I feel the color saturation is less realistic.