The best solar trail cameras

What solar actually fixes

On a hog property the problem with trail cameras is not image quality. It is visits. Every trip to swap twelve AA batteries leaves scent at the exact spot you are trying to keep hogs comfortable in, costs you an hour, and usually happens at the worst time of year.

Solar fixes three things at once:

• No battery runs. A panel and a pack keep a cellular camera alive through a season without you touching it.
• No scent at the site. This matters more on hogs than on deer. A sounder that catches fresh human scent at a feeder shifts its hours or its route.
• Fewer dead cameras in cold weather. Alkaline AA cells lose capacity when it is cold, which is when hogs move in daylight. A charged lithium pack does not fall off the same way.

What solar does not fix is signal. A solar cellular camera with no bars is a solar camera that quietly stores nothing you can see. Check coverage before you spend — our cellular vs non-cellular page covers that decision.

Integrated panel or external panel?

Two routes, and they suit different sites.

• An integrated panel (Moultrie Edge Solar) is one object to mount and nothing to cable. It is also fixed to the camera, so the panel points where the camera points. If your camera has to face north into a feeder, the panel faces north too.
• An external panel into a 12 V or USB-C input (Tactacam Reveal X Gen 3.0, Moultrie Edge 3) lets you aim the camera at the feeder and the panel at the sun — usually a few feet up the same tree. More parts, more cable to protect from squirrels, far better charging on a shaded site.

The Tactacam Reveal Pro 4.0 sits in between: there is a solar listing, and the same camera also accepts 12 AA cells or Tactacam's 5,000 and 10,000 mAh FlexPacks, so a bad week of weather does not take the camera down.

The shade problem, stated honestly

This is the reason we do not recommend solar for every hog camera. The spots hogs use are frequently the spots with the least sun: creek bottoms, cedar thickets, brush lines, the shaded side of a feeder pen. A 2.5 W panel under a closed canopy will not keep up with a cellular camera uploading photos all night.

How we picked

We took every cellular camera in our registry that is either sold as a solar model or accepts an external panel, re-read each maker's product and plan pages on October 17, 2026, and ranked on how well each one suits an unattended hog site: power route first, then flash type (glow matters at a baited spot), trigger speed, ingress rating, storage and plan terms. Each is scored on our published trail camera rubric — see how we choose. We do not test cameras, and every figure here links to the maker's page it came from.

The picks side by side

The picks in context

1. Moultrie Edge Solar

The only camera here where the panel is genuinely part of the product: an adjustable 2.5 W panel charging an included 2,600 mAh / 28 Wh pack, with USB-C as a backup. It auto-connects across all four major networks, claims a 0.4 s trigger — the fastest of the Moultrie models we list — shoots 40 MP stills and 1080p video over a 50° field of view, publishes IP65, and stores to built-in memory so there is no card to pull. Against it: the flash is low-glow only, which a pressured sounder can notice at a feeder, and Moultrie requires a paid plan with no free tier.

2. Tactacam Reveal Pro 4.0 Solar

The most capable camera on this page, sold as a solar listing. Selectable no-glow or low-glow flash (96 ft low-glow, 80 ft no-glow), dual image sensors for silent captures, simultaneous 4K photo and video, GPS, a side-facing LCD for aiming, and 8 GB internal storage plus an SD slot. Crucially it also runs on 12 AA cells or a FlexPack, so the solar panel is a convenience rather than a single point of failure. Tactacam does not publish a trigger speed for it, Live View needs an extra subscription, and the warranty is one year from activation.

3. SPYPOINT Flex-Dark

The pick if you want solar and a free tier. SPYPOINT gives 100 free photos a month per camera, the flash switches between no-glow and low-glow in the app, it runs dual SIM to auto-connect to the strongest carrier, shoots 40 MP and 1080p with sound, carries GPS and a two-year warranty — and is sold in a Flex-Dark Solar listing alongside the standard one. The gap is paperwork: SPYPOINT publishes no battery type or runtime on the product page, and the trigger claim disagrees between its site (0.3 s) and the Amazon listing (0.4 s).

4. Tactacam Reveal X Gen 3.0

Not a solar listing, but the cheapest solid route to a solar setup: a 12 V DC input takes any standard panel, so you aim the camera at the feeder and the panel at the sky. Auto carrier selection on an integrated SIM, 4K stills, 8 GB internal storage, GPS, IP66 on the listing, and plans with no activation fee that you can pause off-season — which suits a hog property you only hunt part of the year. Low-glow only, 12 AA cells not included, one-year warranty.

5. Moultrie Edge 3

The budget solar-ready option. USB-C power in, and solar status reporting when paired with Moultrie's solar packs, on a camera that auto-connects to all four networks with 40 MP stills, GPS and Moultrie's AI tagging. It is last here because the panel is entirely a separate purchase, the flash is low-glow, and the plan is paid with no free tier. For covering several stands cheaply it is still the right call — see our cellular trail camera ranking.

The plan is the real running cost

Solar removes the battery bill and leaves the subscription, which is the larger number over three years. The terms differ in ways worth reading before you commit to a brand:

• SPYPOINT publishes 100 free photos a month per camera, with paid tiers above that.
• Tactacam publishes monthly and annual tiers with no carrier contract or activation fee, and lets you pause a camera off-season.
• Moultrie requires a paid subscription for all its cellular devices, with monthly and annual tiers and no free option.

If you run several cameras, that difference compounds. Our cellular vs non-cellular page works through what each plan actually caps you at.

What to look for in a solar trail camera

1. A fallback power source. AA cells, a battery pack or USB-C. A camera that can only be solar is a camera that dies in a wet week.
2. Panel wattage and pack capacity, published. 2.5 W and 28 Wh on the Edge Solar is the only fully published pairing here; treat an unpublished panel as a question mark.
3. No-glow if the site is pressured. Hogs at a baited site get educated. Selectable no-glow on the Reveal Pro 4.0 and the Flex-Dark is the feature to pay for.
4. An IP rating. IP65 on the Edge Solar, IP66 on the Reveal X Gen 3.0 listing. A panel adds a seam and a cable entry to keep water out of.
5. Internal storage. No card to pull means no visit, which is the whole point of going solar.
6. Plan terms you can live with. Free tier, pausable, or neither — decide before the camera, not after.

Setting one up so the panel actually works

• Face the panel south. In the northern hemisphere that is the most sun per day. Tilt it rather than leaving it flat.
• Mount above browse height. Hogs rub, and a knocked panel is a dead camera. Six to eight feet, angled down at the bait.
• Watch the canopy through the season. A spot that is sunny in February is shaded in June once the oaks leaf out.
• Protect the cable on an external panel. Conduit, split loom or a cable run flat against the trunk. Squirrels chew.
• Clean the panel when you pass it. Dust, pollen and spider webs cost real charge over a summer.
• Charge the pack fully before you hang it. A panel maintains a charge far better than it builds one from empty.

Mistakes buyers make

• Buying solar for a shaded site. The commonest one. Hog spots are shaded spots.
• Assuming solar means no subscription. It means no batteries. The plan is unchanged.
• Taking a low-glow camera to a pressured feeder. See best trail camera for night for what glow actually costs you.
• Mounting the panel where the camera needs to look. On an integrated-panel camera those are the same direction — plan the position around both.
• Skipping the signal check. Solar power and no bars is a camera photographing hogs for nobody.
• Leaving the pack flat over winter. Store it charged, like any lithium cell.