Best trail cam to get?

DazT

Well-Known Member
Hi got a fox doing its business on my front lawn :mad:
So think its time to get a trail cam so i can see what time its arriving and sort it out!
Any recommendations on which cam to get and 1 that i could use for deer too

Cheers
Daz
 
Just thought - might do the alarm clock trick to see what time its arriving - but fancy a trail cam anyway :D

Daz
 
Bought a Bushnell Trophy Cam a couple of weeks ago, can't say its the best but it does what I wanted it for so far. I wanted to check out a couple of areas on my little bit of stalking ground so I set it up covering a ride and left it for a few days. Got some lovely video of Fallow but does unfortunately but still it confirmed that I need to move one of the high seats. Not so lucky on the other location I sited it as I drew a total blank on that one in spite of evidence to the contrary only a short distance away. I also have pictures of next door's dog wandering over my garden late at night when I set the camera up to test it.
 
Argh! Bum! Just noticed that SD now seems to drop the right hand side of some pictures which kind of makes some of the ones I posted look a bit stupid. Hopefully they will display Ok in your browser.

I recently bought myself one. As always the answer to this depends on the question you ask. I was looking to capture sika on trails and under cover and so decided that a fast trigger speed along with good flash range were important to me. It seemed to me like a lot of cameras missed shots because the animal was out of frame before they triggered so the fast trigger speed was pretty much at the top of my list. I then took a look at some of the internet trail camera review sites and found that many cameras didn't come close to matching their advertised trigger speed when tested.

I decided that the "no glow" flash facility probably wasn't of high importance to me and so didn't want to pay more for it. I also decided that I'd prefer a smaller camera to one of the huge ones - it is amazing just how big some of them turn out to be once you get one in your hand.

After balancing all this stuff up I found that the 2012 Bushnell Trophy Cam with the red glow flash was probably the camera that best suited my needs and they sell them in the USA for £112 which seemed reasonable to me for something I was going to leave up a tree. Please note that with Bushnell there are a lot of "last year's models" about in the UK, often at very high prices, and they don't have the very fast trigger speed of the 2012 models. The model number of the one I've got ends 437C and the model numbers are really the only way to ID Bushnell cameras so if you are going for Bushnell be sure to decide on a model number and be sure to get the one you want.

I've since had some photos out of it, and discovered that aiming the sensor is a critical factor in getting decent photos, or indeed any photos. The trigger speed does indeed seem to match the claimed 0.6 seconds and while the photos have some motion blur, a function of a long shutter speed allowing good flash range in the dark, they allow me to see what is there. I can't recommend the Bushnell to you as I don't know exactly what your requirements or budget are but I will append some photos with comments so you get an idea and perhaps to help with your decision making process:

In the following picture I was walking as fast as I could on the ground and you can see that the camera has triggered very quickly indeed, almost all cameras have a significantly longer trigger time than the Bushnell with the majority taking 5 - 10 times longer to trigger:

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You can see the deer in among the trees - the Bushnell gets a good reputation for its sensor and I think this is pretty impressive. I have a few shots taken from this spot where the deer is behind the branches and requires the full resolution picture and a lot of time to spot it:

EK000052.jpg


What is called a "transition" picture taken when the camera has decided that there isn't enough light for a daytime colour photo but when there is still a goodly amount of light about, again you can see how quickly the camera triggered as this deer entered the frame. This is a difficult time for a trail camera and sometimes you can get very over exposed photos during the transition but that is just a fact of life with all cameras:

EK000088.jpg


A shot taken in pitch dark - the hind is a little over exposed as it was quite close to the camera but you get some idea of flash range and the like from this when you look at the trees behind her. Bushnell say flash range is 60 feet, which is pretty good for a trail camera, and I'd say they are on the money with that:

EK000004-2.jpg


Hind and calf - you can see the motion blur on the calf:

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A daytime photo, just because it is a good shot of a deer :)

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Very good pics mate!
It does look to be a very good camera!
I am happy to spend £150 to get 1 that is good and gets me the pics i'm after.

I've just set up the alarm clock and will bait it up just before dark - i'll update the thread tomorrow if the bait is taken ;)

Any more info on trail cams would be good - model number/make/battery life etc......

Cheers
Daz
 
I have a couple of Bushell Trophy Cam HD. You can get the blacked out LED's id recommend them... i have alot of photos of a nice buck and then the next one of its arse where the LED's lit up..! Check out ebay, i got mine for £100 under the RRP, just wait and bit last minute :D
 
I forgot to say, the battery life is amazing, ive had over 7 months from mine on some rechargeable energizer batteries. The sensor on it is great and you can adjust sensitivity. The field scan mode is handy too if youre looking at a large area for the deer grazing. All the best, Jack
 
I had a couple of Bushell trail cams and had problems with them both so returned them. Apparently since they started getting popular they moved production - which isn't as good. One would fog up the other over exposed everything, ended up buying a Little Acorn for half the money...it's OK, plus does video and black LEDS compared to the Bushnell model I tried.

Just my experience...
 
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