Trail Cam

Peter Eaton

Well-Known Member
Just got a Little Acorn trail cam 6210MC (940nm) but intitial tests of it not as good as I thought. I placed the camera in two locations over 8 days and it seems to take great pictures in the day but at night it is very poor. In one location , which I know is packed with Sika I have have only had two photos of a fox in the night and the photos are of a very poor quality (very grainy) and flash illumination dire. Has anyone had experience with this model camera or had any experince with the version above which is infra red? My understanding is that you shouldnt be able to see the infra red when it fires but is this correct as I dont want the locals to see it when it fires.

Regards

Pete

or can anyone recommend a camera that wont cost the earth that does as it should?
 
Hi Pete interesting post, I have a couple of old trailcams and thinking of updating so will watch your thread and see what others recommend.
There is a post today by Appollo showing some brilliant shots at night of Boar and Fallow, dont know what camera he used though.
 
Hello chickenman.
I got an Swan, OutbackCam as a present very good so far, day time pic's or vidio brilliant , Night time also good but only to maybe 15mts,
Thomas Jacks have some on their sight and if I was to buy one I would go for the live action one sends pic'v or whatever imediatly to a smart phone or your PC. Plus you can add accessories if you want. In my humble opinion after seeing some others that friend's have I think you only get what you pay for same as scopes and bino's.
Regards WIDU.
 
I've been in a similar situation testing a Bushnell camera trying to get photos of sika. I was of the view the deer were largely nocturnal. So far I haven't got a single photo of them at night but have managed quite a few of them during the day! It must be said that I'm putting the camera in cover and clearly they hold up in cover during the day so in the end it is to be expected that I'm seeing them in cover in daylight.

Aiming of the camera is very important. On the first 3 week stint my camera was out I didn't get a single photo of a deer and it was suggested that the sensor was aimed slightly too high - I've found that aiming in the vertical plane is crucial and aim too high or low and there will be no pictures on the card even on well used deer tracks with fresh slots on them when I go to pick the camera up. Maybe you are aimed too low and just detecting the foxes?

Another thing, and this might be the key to your problem, is that I think sika are clever enough and nervous enough to avoid the camera for a few days after it is put in place. I've found that if I leave it out for a week there are never any photos at all on it for the first few days and then the numbers start to pick up. Recently I left it in one location for exactly a week and had 102 photos, 99 of them with deer in them, but none were taken until about 4 or 5 days after the camera was in place.

My advice is to take a digital camera and some door wedges with you next time you position the camera. Set it up and then do some walk past tests, take the card out and view the results in your digital camera. Make sure that the centre of the image is right bang where you want to be detecting the deer - if it is a little high for example it might be shooting over the backs of the sika. Use the door wedges to adjust the camera so it is pointing to the right place. My experience is that your aiming needs to be much more accurate than you might imagine.

For example in the photo below I suspect it was the top of my head that triggered the camera, this camera didn't detect a single deer in 3 weeks because they were all passing below the sensor:

EK000004.jpg


On the other hand this position took 99 pictures of deer in a couple of days and you can see the centre of the frame is aimed at deer height right across the open area:

EK000023.jpg


Give this stuff a try before you blame the camera, I was doing the same thing until I realised how important accurate aiming was. Also, the Bushnell I have (Model number ending 437C) is available for about £112 in the USA. Fast trigger, good sensor, good quality photos, good flash range at reasonable money.
 
Thanks for the replies gent and top reply Caraorch ...I will try what you say. I would say the camera was around 4 ft off the ground facing forward and slighty down. The were two pics of dear during the day one was around 14 ft from the camera as the deer walked past and it also caught another deer leaping a fence about 40 mtrs away but I think the first deer set the camera off as the other was leaping. I the evening a fox triggered the camera but it I could only make out the eyes of a fox. It just seems odd that in the place it was that no more deer triggered it as the area it was in was very well used by deer and I have seen them there in the day. I also set up the camera in the garden but once again , lots of day light triggered shots but hardly anything at night, though did get a fox visit three times in the night....oh and a black lab whole stole the deer I left for the fox....bet he is still crapping now after all that rich offal )))
...that camera idea is a good one!
ATB

pete
 
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I would say the camera was around 4 ft off the ground facing forward and slighty down.

If you imagine the detection zone of the camera being like a beam of light coming from the camera - the beam is very wide left to right but is very narrow in the up/down axis. So when you tilt the camera down a little your beam is effectively aimed straight into the ground. It will detect anything that passes through the beam where it is reaching the ground but beyond this distance it will see nothing because your detection area is effectively shooting into the ground.

Now, there are lots of people who operate their cameras tilted down but you have to realise that it reduces your detection zone significantly and may mean your effective detection zone is only a few feet in depth at a fixed distance from the camera. If you aim the camera parallel to the ground then your detection zone will reach from the camera to the limit of its ability to detect heat which is usually in the 40 - 60 foot range.

I would suggest putting the camera about 2 feet above the ground and doing your best to ensure it is pointed straight out, the 2nd photo I posted is a fairly good example of this as you can see the centre of the frame is about 2 feet above the ground at the trees on the other side of the clearing which means it is llined up pretty much straight, this location resulted in lots of photos. As you can see in the first photo the centre of the image is, when you look carefully, about 20 feet in the air up the tree opposite, this resulted in no photos of deer but one of a bird!
 
I have the same Trail Cam put some pics up last week. first try with it and wasn't too bad.

http://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/showthread.php/46498-Ltl-Acorn-6210-trail-Cam

Light is the basis of all photography. Without light, we are all left in the dark. But what is light? Light it turns out is a form of electromagnetic radiation (EMR), fluctuations of electric and magnetic fields which move through space as waves move over the surface of a pond. The electromagnetic spectrum includes radio waves , infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays.

Scientists classify EMR by its wavelength, the distance between two consecutive crests of a wave. Human eyes it turns out are only sensitive to the range that is between wavelength 780 nanometers and 380 nanometers in length. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. These are very tiny waves! This very special area is called the visible spectrum or visible light.

The IR is 940nm so therefore outside of the visible spectrum.​
 
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Hi Pete. If you bought your 6210 recently it will have an issue with night illumination/exposure. I work with these cameras and provide a free, on line technical support service with genuine manufacturer firmware upgrades. If you email me, I'll send you the bin file and instructions to upgrade your camera which will correct your problem. I'd give you a link to my website but I'm not allowed as I've only just joined the forum; but if you search ronburyswildlife in google, you'll find me, no bother. Regards Ron.
 
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