Game/Trail Camera questions

reible · Post by **reible** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 2:13 pm

I was watching PBS Nature show Coywolf last night and now I want a camera that I can set up in the backyard to see what passes by in the night (or day).

The thing is I have no idea what to look for. I figured maybe someone here is a user and could outline some points to look for and what to avoid. More or less get me on the playing field so I can get one.

Anyone, anyone at all??

Ed

bffulgham · Post by **bffulgham** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 6:26 pm

I think you have lots of options, Ed. I've seen the 'game trail' cameras around here in the farm supply stores and Academy Sports. I have no experience with any of them.
I do have quite a bit of experience with a couple of inexpensive wireless IP cameras I use in my poor man's security system here at home.

These are relatively inexpensive cameras and they have IR lighting that is good for about 25-30 feet at night. But, the picture quality on this particular model ain't gonna impress you. They are 640x480 so you ain't gonna get a quality pic out of them. Having said that, Foscam has come out with a couple of new models since I got mine. The FI9826W is supposed to be 1280x960 and the FI9821W is supposed to be 1280x720 pixels.

These are all listed as 'indoor' cameras, but I have one on my front porch that is well protected from the elements. They have fully protected outdoor cameras as well, but are more expensive......

The other half of my poor man's security system is the iSpy Video software (free-ware) that I have configured to trigger and record the video. iSpy will also grab individual images if you want.

Here's a couple of stills from the camera on the front porch and one from the one watching the inside of my garage.
[ATTACH]23846[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]23847[/ATTACH]
(Looks like I need to blow the dust off the lens in my garage camera

)
[ATTACH]23848[/ATTACH]

I'll try to remember to grab and post a couple of IR shots later this evening.

paul269 · Post by **paul269** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:15 pm

I can tell you want NOT to buy.
http://www.ruralking.com/wildgame-innov ... sh-n4.html

I purchased this camera made by Wildgame. I put it out in late summer and checked it once a week. It worked for about a month and then just stop taking pictures. (and yes I changed the batteries) The LED screen stopped working about two weeks later. JUNK.

sawmill · Post by **sawmill** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:34 pm

paul269 wrote:I can tell you want NOT to buy.
http://www.ruralking.com/wildgame-innov ... sh-n4.html

I purchased this camera made by Wildgame. I put it out in late summer and checked it once a week. It worked for about a month and then just stop taking pictures. (and yes I changed the batteries) The LED screen stopped working about two weeks later. JUNK.

I have 4 of these and they do take excellent pictures until they are a year old. Then they quit. I have a couple that are home built by a guy in Wis. that are very good. They have a Sony camera in them that you can remove. One of these is going on 10 years old. I don't think they guy makes them anymore and I lost his name and address. I have a couple of cheap Tasco that work very good but you have to be smarter than me to use them. Got them working last year thanks to my son.If I knew how to post pictures I would post some on here that I took last fall. I have yet to get a pic of coyote but I have pictures of bear and bob cats. I also have a pic of a bear appox 400 lbs coming up on our front porch last May that I took from the slider with our Nikion when he was about 6 foot away. Bushnel makes one that I guess is good also but like any other thing some can get them and are trouble free while others are junk. The cost of them vary alot and you just pay for more pixels and options that you may never use. If you live in a bear area use a guard as they like them. I usually lose 3 or 4 a year on the 200 acres that I use them in

bffulgham · Post by **bffulgham** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 9:41 pm

Here's a couple of IR snapshots:
[ATTACH]23849[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]23850[/ATTACH]

The neat thing about this type of camera is that I can watch real-time via my wireless network at home......

YMMV

reible · Post by **reible** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:37 pm

Thanks for all the information thus far. I saw a bunch of these cameras on sale at rural king a month or two back but wasn't that interested then. Looks like maybe I'll avoid them for now.

Menards is closing them out according to the sales flyer so if I can I'll check them out tomorrow.

BTW I have pictures of a local male that I took. I got him to pose for this shot. They walk right down the sidewalk and then check certain yards and off down past the park into a more wild area. I had followed him for a couple of blocks on foot and got 12 shots when the camera battery gave up. So that was that.

[ATTACH]23851[/ATTACH]

Where we live there are no bear, moose, deer, or other larger animals, well none that I have seen in our backyard anyway. We do have our noises in the night so I'm sure we will get some cats, dogs, raccoons and the like.

Ed

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:57 pm

I bought one of these about 10 months ago and have been very pleased with it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AU6DZZG/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We bought a new place with 7 acres, including about 5 acres of woods with a creek, so we installed this thing on a tree with this attachment:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DUHS6S/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

When triggered, it takes 3 photos one second apart and also concurrently takes a 10 sec HD video (you can change the # of photos taken and the length of video with each trigger). It has infrared for triggering and has "black LEDs" for the flash, which basically flashes without the flash being visible to who/whatever is being photographed - this results in animals not being spooked by the flash, and if two-legged critters are what you capture, they will not notice they were just photographed.

It runs on a bunch of AA batteries, which I still have not needed to replace despite continuous deployment since I bought it. I records onto a SD card, so with a larger size such as 16gb, it has the capacity for way more photos than you'll likely ever get (i.e. it won't fill up and run out of memory).

So far we've captured all kinds of critters with the thing - bears, deer, skunks, raccoons, foxes, possums, a coyote, squirrels, owls, neighbor's dog, unknown cat that apparently roams our property quite regularly during the wee hours, etc.

Anyway, the thing has worked flawlessly to date and been lots of fun for me and the kids to go retrieve the card and download the photos…kind of a treasure hunt to see what's on there.

reible · Post by **reible** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:52 pm

I did get to the big sale at Menards but the "better" ones were all gone and what was left must be a few years old technology wise. So that was that.

Now I have a couple in mind but the best prices I have found for them is still a little to high for me at this time. Since this will be out of the same budget as my tools I have to thing long and hard about how much I want/need this.

Again thanks for the inputs.

Ed

paul269 · Post by **paul269** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 5:31 pm

After my prior post I starting thinking about the purchase of a new camera.
I was hoping consumer reports would have tested these cameras. But during my search I found this. Hope it helps

http://www.chasingame.com/

reible · Post by **reible** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 5:36 pm

I'll check it out, it looks like they at least are not trying to "sell" you anything. Thanks for the information.

If you do happen to decide on a new one let me know what you found.

Ed

paul269 wrote:After my prior post I starting thinking about the purchase of a new camera.
I was hoping consumer reports would have tested these cameras. But during my search I found this. Hope it helps

http://www.chasingame.com/