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Tactacam Defend for Home Security
Tactacam’s new cellular security cameras may be a game changer for those remote homesteads looking for an affordable, reliable security camera that doesn’t tie into the home WiFi.
I get frustrated with all the game camera’s on the market and often wonder if they would make a good exterior home security addition. It seems a true remote security camera is difficult to find and If you’ve thought that, you’re not alone. The people at Tactacam recently branched out from trail cameras to tackle this very issue. Specifically the rural homesteaders.
When we were looking to do this review we reached out to Tactacam and unfortunately the first impression was not great. Specifically, we wanted to interview someone from the company, as we had several questions about this camera. We called and after 45 minutes on hold, we hung up for another day. But that day gave us the same results and so we sent them an email. However, all we got back was a reference to “message us on Facebook”. Next, we tried again and had to fill out a “service ticket” and from there we got a link to join their affiliate program. Never once were we ever able to speak to a real person from Tactacam.
Living on a rural homestead, this product looked like it could be a game changer for preppers, off-griders and the farming community. We purchased the product from our local Bass Pro Shop and the biggest selling point of the Tactacam Defend is how it delivers data. Rather than passing it over Wifi, it taps into major cellular networks to send photos and videos to the DEFEND app on your phone.
You don’t have to change your phone’s cellular plan or carrier, but there is no free lunch either. Tactacam offers plans starting at just $5 a month for 250 photos per month and 60 days of cloud storage. Like most data plans companies offer, you can increase the data plans and take advantage of discounts when you pay annually. Once again, we had trouble with the company! Within two weeks we received a notice that we had used our allotment of 250 photos and the camera stopped working.
We received a notice to upgrade the plan for an additional $9.00 a month which we did. However, we still had that nastygram notice even thought we upgraded and the camera still would not work. We tried once again to contact them and finally had to send a service ticket in and it took a couple days for a response. The service tech was professional, but in the end we did have to upgrade and they handled that for us, but now at a substantial cost over the initial $5 bucks. If you reach your allotted number of images, you must wait out the remaining days on our month till you get a new allotment of 250 photos. When were talking “security” the last think you want is to wait days for a response from the company or worse wait days till your renew date and the camera to work again.
The camera offers 30 second long clips at 4K photos and 1080p video. With low IR, it can detect something movement within 100 feet and take a photo or start recording within a second, day or night.
The Defend comes with 8 GB of internal storage, and you can add as much as 32 GB with an optional SD card. The battery life varies depending on use and environmental conditions, but you can extend that with a Defend solar panel and a rechargeable battery pack which we didn’t purchase.
The set up and install was fairly easy and we are pleased with the images. At times it captured the image late and we only got a portion of it, other times image was perfectly centered.
TACTACAM DEFEND SPECS & FEATURES
Specs
- Cellular Network: LTE
- Photo Resolution: 4K
- Video Resolution: 1080p
- Trigger Speed: 0.5 sec
- Flash Range: 100 ft
- Memory: 8 GB (internal) plus up to 32 GB (optional SD card)
- Power: 2 AA batteries
- Warranty: 1 year from activation
- MSRP: $149.99
Features
- Transmits images over a cellular signal rather than Wifi
- All-weather tough
- Take control with the DEFEND ap
Overall the camera is performing well, however due to this company’s customer service issues, it would be difficult to recommend a TACTACAM product and it’s truly unfortunate!
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