Trail camera position/ timing

[shotguntom]

I have been setting up my camera for a week at a time on different parts of my ground then moving it to another spot for a week, just to see whats around on the ground.

However i see far more evidence on the ground through slots, droppings and damage from deer than what i capture on the camera. I know the area holds a high population of deer and i am thinking it is due to the delay on the camera being 1 minute before a photo is taken.

I have had a look in the maual and i can drop it down to 10 secs but i cant help but feel that the deer are just walking past the camera before a shot can be taken and so no photo..

What are your thoughts?

The camera is a spy spoint HD 7 i believe.

Cheers, Tom

 

[mereside]

Tom how high is the camera i have found you need it around 4ft or less for roe ,i dont have a spypoint ,atb wayne

 

[shotguntom]

Tom how high is the camera i have found you need it around 4ft or less for roe ,i dont have a spypoint ,atb wayne

I have set it up at waist height on the tree. I have captured a muntjac on it so dont think height is the issue..

Cheers

 

[caorach]

I suspect the delay you are talking about is the delay BETWEEN taking photos and not the time the camera takes to trigger. So, the camera will take one photo as quickly as it can and then will, in your case, wait a minute before it allows another trigger to activate it.

All cameras take some time between detecting a deer and actually taking a photo and it is an important factor in deciding which camera to use - my Bushnell takes 0.6 seconds between detection and the first photo but there are cameras that can take up to 4 seconds and, as you say, this is enough time for a deer on a trail to walk past. However, if this were the problem then the camera would still take a photo it is just that there would be no deer in the picture. Are you getting a lot of "empty" photos with no animals in them?

As stated height is important as is the aiming of the sensor - so if you point the camera slightly upwards then it can shoot above the heads of the deer or if you point it slightly downwards then this can greatly reduce the range and effectiveness of the sensors.

To show you some photos for example - in the following photo the camera was positioned up high and tilted slightly down and if you look carefully for the position of the centre of the photo you can see that the camera is shooting into the ground. In this location I was using it on time lapse mode and have pictures of deer taken with the time lapse but they didn't trigger the camera because the sensor was pointing into the ground and didn't detect them:



On the other hand in this position the camera didn't photograph a single deer, despite lots of slots in the area and if you look carefully you can see that it is actually aimed about 15 feet up the trees on the far side of the ride and so, probably, was shooting over the heads of the deer. The blur in the bottom left of the frame is a bird wing and birds were the only thing that triggered it in this location:



In this location the camera is about knee height, or even lower, and it is aimed straight out parallel to the ground. This location, although not showing signs of many slots, can produce over 100 photos per day, I will also add a photo of a fox (somewhat cropped) taken from the same location to give you some idea of how low the camera is: