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Author Topic: New trail cameras  (Read 6104 times)

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Offline deadeye

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I needed to replace some old ones and add a few so after looking around a bit, I bought a 5 pack of these.  They had good reviews and all the options I use so I thought I just give it a shot and see.  I setup (very easy) and put out 4 of them today.  So far I really like them.  I hope they take good pictures.  They have a 2 inch color screen that can be used to view the pictures and videos. 

***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline birdswacker

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Let us know how they work!

Offline deadeye

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I bought a 5 pack for $330 or $66 each.  The designers obviously studied cameras and talked to people about which features should be included. This camera has all I use plus some new things I did not know of.  One of these is the option to turn on or off side motion detectors.  This results in very fast trigger speed by having the camera in "standby" mode which saves battery life by pre-activating the camera (making it ready to be triggered).  Now when the subject enters the normal trigger, a picture can be taken in .1 second.  The camera reverts back to standby mode after 5 minutes of no triggers.  I found it very easy to program. The mounting strap works better and is less work than others I use.  Now, if it just works as it should, takes great pictures, batteries last and it doesn't crap out, I will be happy.  :laugh:

Other notable features.
1. Motion detection or time laps (also known as "field watch" or "field scan"
2. Photo or video modes.
3. ability to set MP from 2 - 20.
4. Photo burst from 1-5 pictures per trigger
5. Video length from 3 sec to 5 min, frame rate, and 720 or 1080P.
6. Detection delay or time after trigger that it can be triggered again from 0 sec to 60 min.
7. Side motion detection. see above.
8. Camera name, info strip, date time formats.
9. Loop Recording.  can be on or off basically if SD card (handles up to 128GB) is full oldest files will be overwritten.
10. Operation hours -
11. Ability to view and manage photos and videos from the 2" color screen.
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline Smokey Hills Bandit

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Good luck with those DE. I started using a similar camera a few years back and its made a world of difference. 

The On-Setup-Off  power slide is by far my favorite feature. No more guessing

Looking forward to those 20MB pics.  :wowza:
JL

Offline deadeye

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Yesterday I pulled cards from three of the new cameras.  Overall the pictures were great but I did notice a couple functional issues with the playback or image view.  There doesn't appear to be a way to zoom in on an image so pictures that are more distant would need to be viewed on a different device to really zoom in to see the detail.  Also, I could view pictures from a card that came from another camera brand that was not formatted with the new camera.  However, without formatting the card, I was able to use successfully in the new camera without disturbing the original pictures.  It creates a second file with the new pictures while preserving the other pictures in a different file.  This is not a big deal as I usually swap out cards with a formatted card. I need to experiment a bit with this.  One good thing is you and "manage" the pictures through the viewer. It's possible to delete unwanted photos while keeping others which could be useful in some applications. The objects appear to be farther from the camera than they really are.  This means you may have to have the camera close to where the animals will be.  It's too early to comment on battery life.  Some pictures are posted below with my comments, good and bad.

All camera were set to photo mode, 4 MP, detection delay from 5 seconds to 20 seconds, side motion detection on, and cards were formatted in the camera.

Night photos were excellent at various distances with little or no washout at close range.


Great detail of animals. 


Some washout on this buck but he was within a few feet of the camera and background still looks good.


This one is a little closer than others.


Closer yet and still looks good.


This one is farthest in this group.  Could be better but still not too bad.
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline deadeye

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Some day time photos.

Although the photo is excellent, it demonstrates the need to position the camera close to where you
expect the deer or animals to pass by.


Good news is when you zoom in on a picture, it remains clear even at 4 MP.  Note: camera can be set up to 20MP.


Good daytime action photos.


This deer is very close to the camera. See fawn in background.


Very clear pictures. Probably 8-10 feet from the camera.
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline deadeye

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There's a deer to the right and behind the biggest tree.


Again, a deer behind the tree. I never saw this trail they are on.  I wonder if they are going there to avoid the camera.


Maybe this answers that question.  Or he just doesn't care.


I really need to checkout that trail the deer are using.
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline deadeye

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Two bobcats in the picture. This camera is probably positioned too far from the subjects.


Twilight porcupine.  Not bad for a distance picture at twilight of a dark object.


I will check the distance but the pictures are triggered fine and look ok but just too distant.


This was the only daytime picture I got that was impacted by sunlight. Bright sun coming from behind the camera.


Deer hiding behind the tree on the right. 
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline deadeye

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Night time close and far pictures are of good quality and clarity.  This is one of the few that the deer
appeared to be looking at the camera.  I could not see any noticeable light from the flash.


I see some washout on the trees to the left. Not sure if this impacts the overall picture but it' something
to be mindful of when setting up a camera.




Bobcat in left side of picture.


Some washout on the head. However this deer is pretty close to the camera. 
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline dakids

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Nice pictures for sure.
Anything that is free is worth saving up for.

Offline deadeye

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Pulled some more cards from the new cameras yesterday.  I'm still impressed with the pictures and also I had set one to video. As a bonus you can set it to take a picture as well as a video. Great videos but I don't know how to post a video.  Battery life looks to be good as all camera still indicated full battery charge.  At this point I would buy more of these.  below are some varied photos and my comments.


Getting good quality day time pictures of running deer is not a problem.


One second after the picture above.


This was a day later.  I'm thinking it's a bit fuzzy because it' early AM and not light yet.


Hard to see by this doe is running from the buck in the brush just to the left of her head. If you click on
the picture and blow it up a bit, you can see two other deer, one of which is a buck.


This was taken one minute after the one above. There were several other in between so I know it's the same deer.
Cool sequence showing that the bucks (at least little ones) are moving the does.
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline Steve-o

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Great shots!

Offline Jerkbiat

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Yah nice pictures.
Hey look your bobber is up!

Offline deadeye

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These pictures show the cameras pickup small animals and show very good detail on night time photos.
I am more impressed with the cameras all the time. 

Small animal, chipmunk on stump.


Slightly bigger animal.


Very good night time detail.


Moving subjects at night still get good quality pictuers


Again nice night time detail at distance


***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline deadeye

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This photo sequence is a good demonstration of the cameras ability to take twilight pictures. Most trail cameras have a difficult time taking photos at twilight and the last day pictures and first night pictures are usually very poor.  This camera adjusts for this "twilight" time and the pictures aren't too bad.  This was an unexpected camera feature.  I continue to be impressed with the cameras.  So far the pictures and videos are great both day and night. Also, close or more distant subject is not an issue. Battery life looks to good at this point as all the cameras I checked for this still had a full charge indication.  If this continues, the only things left are cold weather (working fine down to 24 degrees) and durability.  The color viewer is ok but you cannot zoom in to get a detail look at the subject.  All options very easy to use.   

Time 6:40 PM


Time 6:54 PM


Time 7:00 PM
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline snow1

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Indeed,well done,thanx for sharing ...

Offline deadeye

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This morning I pulled cards from three of new cameras.  Still take excellent pictures day and night and now with a blanket of snow.  I'm still impressed with the cameras. I probably will not post more pictures here as the ones posted cover most environments that will be encountered. 



First full snow picture


Nice doe in the snow.


Flying birds


More but scary. I think this shows just how good the camera takes pictures of moving objects.
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline mike89

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good pic's the last one was very interesting!!!  thanks!!!  :happy1:
a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work!!

Offline deadeye

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I accidently winter tested one of the new trail cameras I bought last fall.  I was missing one and just couldn't remember where I put it. I did some memory tracing and then remembered that I put it 10 feet up in a tree over looking the road across a field near my shed. I pulled the card on Friday and to my surprise I had set it to take a photo and a 10 second video when ever it was triggered. The pictures speak for themselves (also great videos) but the real thing is the camera was taking pictures and videos all winter and continues to take pictures and videos while still on the same batteries I put in when I set it out for the first time last October.  Not related to this accidental test, I was very impressed with how they performed last fall so a couple weeks ago I bought 4 more of the same cameras. So far I have only one negative comment.  When set to "field watch", Field Scan" or in this camera's setting, "time delay" there is no "Day" setting so you have to set the time you wish to take photos.  You can select the time between photos but my Bushnell cameras have a day only setting so it doesn't burn up batteries taking night time photos. 

NOTE: Time and Date are correct but it looks like I wanted to rerun 2018.  Should be 2020 into 2021























***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline LPS

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Did you know all of those people were driving though????    :rotflmao: :rotflmao:  Nice pics DE.

Offline birdswacker

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I’m curious which brand?

I use 6-Browning 4 covert cameras and leave them all out all year. The Coverts are probably 6yrs old and get good pictures with decent battery life. The Brownings all around better pictures settings and battery life I get about a year and a half with about 1000-1500 pictures a month.

Offline Leech~~

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I accidently winter tested one of the new trail cameras I bought last fall.  I was missing one and just couldn't remember where I put it.

Hey don't feel bad, happens to all us old folks!  :sad: 
Suggestion.  Mark them with a GPS or a Drop-pin on Goggle maps.  :happy1:
Cooking over a open fire is all fun and games until someone losses a wiener!

Offline dakids

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Are those trespassers hunting in the 1st picture?
Anything that is free is worth saving up for.

Offline deadeye

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birdswacker, for the detailed information on them go to the beginning of this thread where I describe these new cameras.

dakids, At least one of them is hunting however, it's me.  :rotflmao:



 
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline deadeye

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Here are a few more pictures taken throughout the winter. 



Fun videos to watch












Something close triggered the camera while a herd of deer are feeding about 150 yards away.


Peter Pan deer sees his flying shadow
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline LPS

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Nice pics DE.  Looks like cranes in that one.  Lots of critters in that spot.

Offline dakids

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I see a new, warm box blind in that spot.
Anything that is free is worth saving up for.