Trail Cam questions

I tried to get into the hunting side of thing, but couldn’t login.

So, my wife wants me to get a trail cam. What recommendations do you folks have out there?

Lots of really good cameras now, look for battery life and speed to activate the camera. Browning cameras got good reviews for the sub $150 cameras.

Check here for reviews.

http://www.chasingame.com/index.php?id=1

http://www.trailcampro.com/

I’ve had great luck with the Bushnell cam I bought last year. I like the size of the cam as well as the fact that it operates on 4 or 8 AA batteries. IMO it’s much easier to have a AA-battery cam rather than using those big C batteries.

The Bushnell camera was easy to set up, takes good pics, and I like the compact size. I also like the fact that the settings make it easier to reduce redundant pictures and therefore save space on the memory card. I’ve got it set to take one picture every 20 seconds once activeated, which seems to be more than enough.

Whatever camera you get, add to your shopping list:

1. 2 memory cards. How big depends on if you intend to take video as well as pics and the MP settings you intend to use. Having 2 cards for each camera means that you just walk to the camera, pull out one card and replace it with the other. A quick battery check and you’re out of there wiht minimal disturbance.

2. I have one of those camera mounts that threads into a tree and allows you to aim the camera as if it were on a camera tripod. Pan and tilt are both easily adjustable. This is a vast improvement over hanging the camera on a tree because there’s never a tree in just the right position.

As an added bonus, this camera mount enables me to put the camera up higher in a tree where it’s very unlikely to be spotted/stolen by a tresspasser. It’d have to be a very motivated individual to first spot the camera, then climb way up in a skinny tree, and then cut the cable lock.

3. Related to the above, you need a security device or lock box if the camera is anywhere where it could be spotted and stolen. Even on private land, you’ll probably be amazed at who’s wandering around out there.

Grouse

It depends on where you are getting pictures from. I bought the cheapest ones out there that run on C batteries. 4 batteries lasted me August until hunting. It took great pictures in the dark and during the day time. It didn’t bother the deer. I had mine over feed pile so I didn’t need to worry about shutter speed for catching deer just passing by. There are ways to make the cheaper ones work for areas that your just trying to watch them pass by. I wouldn’t spend more than 60 bucks on a trail camera. All you need is simple picture of whats going by your stand not some professional grade pic. Plus of buying the cheaper ones is you can buy more of them and if someone happens to rip it off your not out a couple hundred bucks.

What are you trying to capture? Day or night mostly? Need instant notification of the picture? How important is the quality of the picture.

Please answer these questions and I can give you a lot more advice.

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I tried to get into the hunting side of thing, but couldn’t login.

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Have you registered on the hunting side? If not you will need to register there same way you did here on the fishing side. You can use your same display name and password if you like or choose a new one.

Some other things to also consider when looking at cost per unit. Does anybody else have access to the property you intend to place it on? People will steal them given the chance. I lost one last year that way on private property Also, be sure they seal up real tight. I just lost another to a colony of little brown ants. They had it sooo plugged up with eggs and themselves that something must have short circuited cuz it don’t wok no more! Both cameras were Coverts, @ $235 a pop! Wife has not been impressed with my losses.

I love my little scout guard cameras. I’ve had one of my 550’s for 5 years and its still my ‘go to’ camera. I have them out from ~fourth of July till January and usually only have to change batteries once. Descent quality pictures and pretty good trigger time for the price. I also have a 570, but I like the 550 more, they both have the same ‘guts’ but the 550 case is sturdier.

Just learned this summer after 5 years, make sure to zip tie or something the bottom cover onto the rest of the body. Went Sat. to check cameras and had what I can only figure was raccoon pull of and take away the bottom cover.

Really good camera in my opinion for less than 200 bucks, its no Reconnyx, but you can get 2+ of these for one reconnyx.

Once you have your camera, biggest piece of advice I can give, when using in a ‘trail watching’ situation, whether you get a ‘cheap’ one or a top end model, try as much as you can to have the camera looking ‘down’ the trail (parallel(ish)) instead of ‘at’ the trail (perpendicular). This really helps correct for the slower trigger speed cameras so that you get less pictures with the head already out of the shot. You will still get a fair amount of deer rear pictures, but, so long as they still have their heads up you’ll know whats on his head, and the head on pictures are nice.

Other word of advice, if you have the camera set up on a ‘feeding’ situation, don’t have it set to a really short delay between shots. Put one of mine on a wild apple tree that was showing signs of a lot of ‘traffic’, forgot to turn up the delay (was set at 5 sec. delay), filled up a 2 GB card (1300 pics) in 7 days, I didn’t check the camera for 20 days so it sat there doing nothing for 2 weeks, but I had A LOT of pictures of every deer that came in during that first week it was up.

I’ve run a lot of different cameras over the years. Run all coverts now. Have had good luck with all of them, from the least expensive to the most expensive. Battery life is fantastic. I’ve had a red 40 taking hundreds of pictures a week running on the same set of batteries since last October.

To keep ants from getting in, I remove the little rubber grommet on the bottom for external power and fill it with silicone. Raccoons like to pull the rubber plug off and then the ants move in.

I’ve been thinking about a second camera lately and saw this camera this camera in field and stream magazine.

Anyone here used this unit?

CatchnRelease – can’t speak for that camera but I have an older I-40 that is still running strong. Trigger speed isn’t the fastest and the LCD screen took a dump on me a couple years ago (fortunately I have the sequence to turning it on/off memorized, just can’t do any other adjustments or check battery life), but it takes nice quality pictures and has a very good IR flash. The old I-40 is a monster (size) of a camera too, but that new one is much smaller. Not sure how the new one compares performance wise, but you’d like to think they’ve gone uphill and not downhill.

John – the Covert, Scoutguard and Uway all share the same ‘guts’ don’t they?

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What are you trying to capture? Day or night mostly? Need instant notification of the picture? How important is the quality of the picture.

Please answer these questions and I can give you a lot more advice.

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To begin with I have a very active mineral lick that I want to put a camera and watch what wanders in. I don’t hunt over it, but it is to give them all a boost. I don’t really need a top of the line camera, but don’t wnat any issue with it either. And if the FW likes what she sees she has said we will buy more. She just likes deer pictures.

As for getting into the hunting side I have tried everything so far that has been suggested, but no dice. I’ll give it another try or two before I get the tech weinies involved.

My general comments.

Get a camera with a flash if you want the best photos, day and night. The IR photos serve my purpose, but the old man loves his flash photos. Get a camera that runs on AA batteries. If you have an area that is extremely secluded that you don’t want to access often, consider a cellular camera. Just note, they are very signal sensitive.

The following is my personal experience and it’s not meant to knock anything anyone has said before or after this post. You get what you pay for when it comes to cameras. I’ve had just about every brand outside of the top end stuff like Reconyx. The customer service I’ve received from Cuddeback was less than stellar. I also feel the top shelf price for the camera is a negative. However, our old Cudde does provide some great pics. See pic 1. I feel a good middle of the road priced camera to consider is Bushnell or Covert. Pic 2 is from my Covert. Pic 3 is from our most recent Bushnell purchased. All three of these cameras take great daytime pics.

Cameras I’ve had bad luck with Moultrie, Wildgame and Primos. I will say Primos has the best customer service I’ve dealt with. Great folks there. In fairness to these companies, I’ve only run their entry level cams….but the Covert I’ve got is as entry level as it gets and it runs circles around these others.

Any other questions, let us know. Nothing like deer porn!!