Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Trail Cameras

After David's comment, I thought I would share my results of a little over a year of using three different trail camera models.

Our first camera we deployed was a Hunten 5MP No-Glo - (I paid a bit more than the price listed here) I set up two with one facing the shed and the other facing down the aronia berries. There is no flash which is  doesn't spook the animals. One camera captured a picture of our big cat and the quality slowly got worse until there is a washed out picture every time now and we retired it. The other has given me no trouble and captured the picture of the twin fawns. The biggest drawback is that battery life is terrible. I'm disappointed with the 4 C cells dying after a couple of weeks in the winter. Switching to rechargeable batteries saved a little. 




With the price drop, I give it a neutral recommendation so long as battery life is not a concern. But I don't plan on getting another.

Our second type was a Wildgame Innovations 6MP purchased at one of the big box "home center" stores. While picture has been good, these are not durable in my opinion. One of the latches holding the SD storage card broke by spring and the bracket to hold the batteries split after being dropped off the seat of the pickup. Yeah, we shouldn't have dropped it but from the seat to the floor? Electric tape to keep things together and it still works. On the positive side, battery life is very good. I'm only on the second set of 8 AA batteries since deploying it a year ago.


There are better cameras out there at a better price. I'd give them a pass.

Our latest attempt at chronicling the wildlife was to purchase a couple of Stealth Cam 8MP P14 (unfortunately no longer available). We deployed them in the SE corner and captured our standing deer and many others. These have pre-programmed settings and are the easiest to set up out of the box and battery life has been the best of the bunch. After 6 months, I still have 4 of 5 bars on the display for the 8 AA batteries. Using a USB connection, downloads are fairly quick to my tablet without ejecting the SD card each time.

 
For an 8MP camera under $55, I was impressed enough to purchase two more and deployed one up by the pond and another in the SE corner. I would recommend to purchase more if they were available.

A search of Stealth Cams bring mixed reviews from others, with some claiming they would never get another. I'm satisfied enough that I'm looking at some of their no-glo/black light models, but the tightwad side of me wants to wait for a price drop.

This is just my experience but your mileage may vary.

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