Reconyx Hyperfire 2 Covert IR

Our
rating
9.0/10

Overview

The Reconyx HyperFire 2 is a high-end, high performance trail camera. This thing is a photo taking machine, with incredible stamina, battery life and photo quality.

Night time pictures are the best available currently, and day time aren’t far behind.

Trigger speeds are lightning for both photo and video at 0.2 seconds, meaning it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever miss anything with this camera.

Video quality is the only thing the HyperFire 2 falls down on – not full HD, not 30fps, but not terrible.

Battery life is groundbreaking on a set of Lithiums; able to take between 30,000-40,000 photos – very impressive, and leagues ahead of any other camera trap.

It is also backed up with a 5 year warranty. That said, you’d expect all this for the cost, and around twice the price of most other trail cameras.

It is an outstanding trail camera – just a shame the video quality isn’t great. We give it a 9 out of 10.

Video Quality:

Max res: 720p (20fps)    Max length: 10 seconds
Trigger speed: about 0.2 seconds    Recovery time: about 1 second

The video quality is the one thing that lets this camera down. It’s pretty average at best. You can still absolutely tell whats happening, identify species, behaviours etc, but it doesn’t blow you away.

Please note however that YouTube compresses Reconyx videos more than usual, leading to a loss of quality and playback at 480p. In reality, the video quality is better than in the examples below.

What does work well however is the hybrid mode. The camera can do up to 90 photos and then do a video (realistically, you’d just use 3-10 photos per trigger) – and this video starts immediately where the last photo left off – no delay.

Photo Quality:

Max res: 3MP    Max photos per trigger: 90 photos
Trigger speed: about 0.2 seconds    Recovery time: about 1 second

Photos are absolutely what this camera is about. The quality is great, day or night, and it can fire them off at a rate that no other camera can match.

Don’t let the megapixel rating fool you – all other cameras use interpolation to artificially boost the sizes of the images, but Reconyx don’t do that. The image quality on this HyperFire 2 at 3MP compared to a Bushnell Aggressor at 24MP for example is much, much better.

It can take up to 90 photos per trigger if you really want it to as well – we found that using 10 photos per trigger generally worked best however.

Speed and detection

Trigger speed: approx. 0.2s (photos), 0.2s (videos)    Recovery speed 1s
Detection range: approx. 80ft    LED type: No-Glow LEDs

The Reconyx HyperFire 2 is one of the fastest camera traps on the market. The speeds on both photos and video triggers are lightning quick, making it very unlikely you’ll miss anything with this camera.

Detection, from the five-zone detection circuit, is very good and it consistently detects out to around 80ft for a human or deer sized animal. The camera has a number of sensitivity options to tweak this detection for your requirements.

Build quality & batteries

Warranty: 2 years (through NatureSpy)
Batteries: 12 x AA (Lithium strongly recommended)

A big headline on this camera is the battery life. There is no other camera with better battery life for photos. It can take 30-40,000 photos on one set of Lithium AA – seriously impressive. Taking around 60 photos every 24 hours, that gives approximately about a year and a half’s battery life.

Video battery life is a bit more average, at about 3 months taking around 30 videos a day.

The case of the camera is strong and it can endure all weathers without issue. It feels very well built (Reconyx cameras are made in USA) and Reconyx back this with their 5 year warranty – the longest available on a trail camera.

The loop for a Masterlock on the front of the camera is also a nice touch, meaning that you don’t need a separate lock to lock the camera shut.

The screen is no frills, and it can take a bit of practice to navigate the menu. There are a lot of options depending on your requirements, but once its set up its easy to use.

One nice feature is the CodeLoc – this means that you can’t activate or use the camera at all without inputting a pin code.

Ease of use

As this is a high-end camera, there are more options than on most cameras, and the small screen makes it a little harder to programme than something like a Browning Advantage camera.

That said, it still isn’t difficult. Once the date and time are set, it is generally intuitive and the camera comes with a very detailed menu.

We’re also on hand to help should you need it.