Thank you MagicEagle for providing us with a review sample of the EagleCam 5!

We have been blessed with the opportunity to review several cameras for our house and multiple dashcams for our cars. This is our first review for a trail camera! Trail cameras are typically deployed in remote areas not covered by Wi-Fi signal. Our chicken coup is at the edge of our Wi-Fi’s range, and after losing eight chicks from predators last summer, I thought it would be a great place to deploy a trail camera.

MagicEagle EagleCam 5 is a complete bundle that includes the EagleCam 5, a 32GB SD card, two straps, and a solar panel. Two straps can wrap around many youngish trees, but I would need three or more straps to go around our 175+ year old oak trees. For this review, I used a younger tree and had plenty of strap left over!

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is initially needed to pair the camera with the Magic Eagle app. The app will notify you of events, and it was nice to know when there were vehicles and people on my property responding to the free wood ads I have placed. I was also notified via e-mail when the battery was getting low.

The EagleCam 5 is equipped with an eSIM card. If you don’t mind using their data plans, this solution works well. You CANNOT use Wi-Fi or a physical sim card of your choice. Without one of their data plans, the camera will not save videos to the SD card. During the free data trial (which lasts a few weeks) you can view two-second long video clips of nearby activity.

MagicEagle offers a 5% discount on 2-5 cameras and 10% off six or more devices. I wish the data plans didn’t have a hard set time expiration. I’m not a fan of paying more for services than the device itself.

Here’s their available data plans and prices:
$7.99 for 1GB, 30 days
$45.99 for 6GB, 90 days
$85.99 for 12GB, 1 year
$159.99 for 24GB, 1 year

The MagicEagle app is really nice and has a lot of useful features. The analysis section will show you how often different alerts have been triggered per device. You can adjust the motion detection and sensitivity. If desired, you can have it sound an alarm and specify how long you want it to sound for. This would be great for potential predators or intruders!

The AI detection is nice in theory but not very accurate. It identified one of my dogs as a white tailed deer. Sadly, during my testing I did not pick up any deer, fox, coyote, skunk, opossum, or wild turkey activity. Only dogs, humans, and vehicles.

I like the weather app, as it shows a five-day forecast as well as the times for the sunrise and sunset. The moon phases and moonrise and moonset are displayed as well. Humidity, precipitation, wind speed, and air pressure are also shown.

If you’re looking for a reliable outdoor camera that’s easy to setup, MagicEagle’s EagleCam 5 is worth considering. The picture quality is good and I had no connectivity issues. The app is intuitive and has a lot of customization options. Amazon reports that this camera is returned often, and I’m guessing that’s because people are getting sticker shock from the data pricing plan. If you don’t mind the data plan pricing structure, there’s a lot to like with the EagleCam 5.