can you recommend a trailcam that sends emails

223

Distinguished Member
Hi Chaps

Can anyone recommend a trail cam that is good at sending emails ???

theres loads on ebay but which one is any good ????

also what do you guys do in relation to the sim card, do you PAYG or small monthly etc etc, cus would you need 3g or internet enabled sim to send emails not sure ????

Thanks for your time

ATB

Dave
 
As far as i no , there is only the little acorn one , which is a pretty good one by all acounts , but i may well be wrong , atb arron. Ps am sure you need to top up your credit to the sim card .
 
Thanks for posting this 223, i am also interested in this, i am just concerned it will send lots of false readings as well so it would need to be placed very carefully to avoid it.
Cheers
Richard
 
Thanks for posting this 223, i am also interested in this, i am just concerned it will send lots of false readings as well so it would need to be placed very carefully to avoid it.
Cheers
Richard

yea placement would be key, would be good to here from someone thats got one up and running and could say this is the camera you want and this is the sim you need (depending on signal/network ) etc etc
before wasting money
 
I have tried various versions of these, and the only reliable one I have found is the Spypoint Live 3G.

http://www.scottcountry.co.uk/products-Spypoint-Live-3G-Wireless-Camera-Trap-5257.htm

LIVE-3Gcopy.jpg
 
I have several ScoutGuard SG550M-8M. They operate 100% reliable once you get the settings right. I had to debug/reverse engineer the settings myself.

That said, the camera is very basic and lacks some settings found on more expensive ones. It's also quite slow to send the pictures (real time interval between pictures would be about 4min).

I won't comment on the false reading issue since it would take a special setup to find out whether there's false readings or is there a bird or something triggering the camera.

BTW, I intentionally chose a camera with "red IR" leds instead of "black IR", since the latter lacks power and range (or at least used to lack, given the same electric consumption).
 
Hi jthyttin, i also tried a Scoutguard but could not get it to work on the UK GSM network.

Perhaps Finland uses a different GSM bandwidth?
 
Hi i have used the little acorn 5210lmm they are a good camera, however have reverted back to standard versions as , 'what a pain in the arse' it is, i found that depending on location, i would be getting really excited everytime i got message only to see a bloody squirrel or a sodding badger... but if you can be sure of the position or location on known land then maybe ok..imo
 
Hi i have used the little acorn 5210lmm they are a good camera, however have reverted back to standard versions as , 'what a pain in the arse' it is, i found that depending on location, i would be getting really excited everytime i got message only to see a bloody squirrel or a sodding badger... but if you can be sure of the position or location on known land then maybe ok..imo

did you used to get the pictures via text or email

and what did you do as reguard of a sim card
 
Hi yes via text to phone or email, phone is quicker but laptop email better as i could see more and do more if required, got a kit from mate with t mobile sim PAYG, it will need to have a good reception to work at its best min 2 bars of reception i found. better off with std sd card type i reckon. but if your not ble to check it may be good, will act just like std camera all req is to reset and adjust.
atb
 
What advantage do you expect to gain in having the photos emailed to you over going and picking up the SD card and checking it at a later date? I'm asking because I fancied an email camera as well but when I actually thought about it there was no advantage as I can't shoot the deer when I'm not on the ground, so even if an email of the biggest stag on earth arrived right now I can't act on it in any meaningful timeframe,

There is always the "instant gratification" factor which allows you to feel that you are in constant touch with what is going on out on the ground but in the end this will not help you better understand what the deer are doing, it just gives you another gadget to play with. For a about a month I was unable to easily get to my camera because of traveling etc. and during that time a poor calf took up residence on the bit of grass right in front of the camera. I have literally hundreds of photos of this calf taken at all hours of the night and day and it would have done me no good at all to get the images instantly, nor would it have done my bank balance any good either.

Also we had a big fall of snow in late March this year and I was physically unable to get access to the camera for nearly a month at that time. If a branch blowing in the wind had been triggering the camera every 10 seconds for the month I'd have been pretty annoyed, and the snow brought lots of branches down so no matter how well aimed I thought the camera was there was potential for disaster. Now, I know that with some of the more sophisticated cameras starting to appear you can send them text messages to control them, so you can in theory turn them off, but this technology seems pretty unreliable at present from what I can gather from the US forums.

I enjoy my trail camera and am always interested to pick up the images and try to make sense of them but no matter how much I fancy the idea of "instant gratification" emails I can't see that it provides any advantage in terms of info on deer movement and behaviour over simply going and picking up the card. What would give me more information would be more cameras and I'd be pretty sure that you could get several decent card cameras for the money you'd pay for the email one plus the SIM card and phone company price plan. If you want more info about your deer that would seem like a more sensible way to go.
 
Caorach, it aint just deer i keep an eye on, its the scrotes that shouldn't be on the land after the deer.
Nice trail cam at Scott Country, but £450 is a tad expensive if it goes walkies!
Cheers
Richard
 
Caorach, it aint just deer i keep an eye on, its the scrotes that shouldn't be on the land

I can see that Richard, especially if you live on or near the ground then if you are trying to catch poachers and the like getting messages when strange cars drive around or strange people appear would be useful, at least until they steal the camera. In such a situation the messaging camera is probably very useful. For info on your deer, however, the £450 would probably buy you 3 of last years Bushnells and that would give you 3 times as much info adn 3 quality cameras with fast triggers and decent sensors.
 
you want the Ltl Acorn 6210MM, currently from £180 on www. MMS text to your mobile. Check the reception in your planned site. I've had one for 2+ yrs and still doing well despite the harsh exposure. Check out Ron Bury on the www, he's got all the info and upgrades you need.
 
Hi jthyttin, i also tried a Scoutguard but could not get it to work on the UK GSM network.

Perhaps Finland uses a different GSM bandwidth?

I found that there's several things you need to do in order to get the send feature to work. E.g. you have to set the "email password", which I have no idea what it's supposed to do, but the sending doesn't work if it's not set.

The manual says SG550M-8M supports 850/900/1800/1900MHz. I've used the cameras in Finland and Estonia with success.
 
What advantage do you expect to gain in having the photos emailed to you over going and picking up the SD card and checking it at a later date?

I know you're talking about deer but here's some food for thought:

We keep the local raccoon dog population (actually all small predators) at minimum by using different hunting methods. The raccoon dogs from neighbouring areas get drawn to the "vacuum". I have a trail camera with sending feature at our bait station, so I know when there's another couple (raccoon dogs usually move in pairs) and after a night or two I've shot them. Send feature saves a lot of work and keeps the ambush hunting quite interesting since there's high probability of success.

Similarly I'd assume the send feature gives you info a few days or weeks in advance if you're trying to find patterns in deer movement etc. My friend uses another camera for that. Also if there's some rare species that move around you can keep realtime track on them (my other friend does that).

Btw I've made a simple WWW interface for the sending cameras so all the pictures are saved and browsable (instead of getting stuck in your email where you need to open messages to view pictures etc). I pay 7.90e for 6 months prepaid data plan here in Finland. I pay "only" 180e per sending camera, and in some instances I've opted to buy two non-sending cameras instead.
 
What advantage do you expect to gain in having the photos emailed to you over going and picking up the SD card and checking it at a later date?

Because when its a 200 mile round trip and the deer "pass" through the area or you are targetting a big stag, you don't have to waste precious time and money to pick up an SD card to find out 1000 photos of wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, possums and foxes and no deer.:stag:
 
We played with one & found it's worth getting a trail cam that has a remote control, so you can turn it off when going into the area being scanned especially if it is placed high up a tree, which is what we had to do when we had the local drunks using our camp. That saves you getting lots of pictures of yourself being mailed to you every time you go down there. Worth doing though as it was hard for them to argue with the HD pictures & they have not been back...

For cheap SIM only data contract, from 1 month at a time if thats all you need, it's hard to beat GiffGaff; no connection to them but use it on my phone at a quarter of the cost of my old O2 contract:

SIM Card Deals | giffgaff.com
 
Back
Top