Trail Cameras

[Neil]

For the last year we have used a Little Acorn 12 megapixels scouting camera (Ltl-5210A:12MP). I can't recall exactly how much we paid for it (we bought it on line) but I think it was just over £100. It has been reasonably satisfactory, and we have obtained some excellent pictures of badgers, foxes, rabbits, deer, pheasants and other birds, many of these with the night-time infra-red. One problem is, as ncrawshaw has mentioned, the delay (about 1 second) between the sensors picking up movement and the camera mechanism being activated, which results in rapidly moving animals either being missed or having just the tip of their tail photographed. We usually set the camera to take single shots with a 1-second delay between shots. We have found that 10-second videos are fine, but if these are triggered at night the infra-red illumination drains the batteries very rapidly, and the cost of eight lithium batteries is not inconsiderable. A major problem with the Little Acorn camera is that access to the menu settings involves separating the two halves of the camera which are connected by a rather flimsy plastic hinge which broke off within the first couple of weeks: however, we have replaced the hinge with a piece of thin garden wire and this works just as well. We set the camera as high or as low as we want, either on a tree or on a fence post, and angle it appropriately. It is important to remember that any movement will trigger the camera, and so one has to avoid mounting it on too flimsy a support (e.g., a tree with a very narrow trunk) which will move in the wind, or too close to branches or tall vegetation which will similarly move. It's great fun. We leave the camera set up for days on end, and it's always a thrill to retrieve it and see what, if anything, we have managed to capture on film.

[DuncanB]

I have a similar acorn camera and get good results. I use cheap Maplin AA batteries in mine (they come in boxes of 100 which were on offer for about £15), and these last for months at a time - though I don't use the video. Agree that the 1s delay is a minor nuisance, but it's better than the near 3s delay I had with a previous trail camera!

[cruickshs]

Hello, I bought a Brinno TimeLapse Camera which takes an image every few seconds, minutes, days or weeks, and stores on a memory card. Good for checking out the wildlife. Image quality is ok. I put mine in a bird box. Over £100 though.

[rabrah]

Hi, unfortuantely my tale is not so positive. I have recently bought a wood up in Copsale, and eager to see what wildlife was living in it I set up my Ltl Acorn 12Megapixel. It was reasonably well camoflagued, unfortunately when I returned a few days later it had gone, and I am sure that it wasn't a squirrel that took it!

Whilst it would have been difficult to spot with the naked eye, anyone with a night vision scope would see the IR flash from miles off.

I had used the camera before, down in Midhurst, and the pictures that it took were excellent.

So now I have started to look for a new one, with a metal case so that I can lock it. I will be looking for one that has GSM capabilities, that is it can email or MMS the pictures to me. I will let you know which one I finally opt for.

[Hobby]

You wouldn't fancy hanging this one up !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n6ccZWv ... re=related

[tracy]

Looking forward to seeing some pictures and videos!

[docsquid]

We have been using five Bushnell Trophy Cams in Camo over the past three years, plus one Scout Guard cheap Chinese camera near the entrance to our woods to pick up vehicles. The Bushnells produce good quality night pictures, but during the day they can be flaky, and sometimes the colour is weird, with pink images. One has failed after a year, with the blue low battery light on all the time, even when the camera is switched off, and regardless of whether batteries are new, the make and capacity of the SD card, and firmware updates. Bushnell still to come back to me on that one. We rely on the camouflage and this has mostly been successful - until this week when two of them were stolen. They were on the main path at the thinnest bit of the woods and at the entrance to Betty's Wood (our newly-planted extension).

We do not lock them to the trees as cable locks are a waste of time, and we don't want to screw them to the trees, as the thieves will simply prize them off and damage the bark. But for three years we were OK. They are easy to camouflage with ivy and undergrowth but in the winter this looks a bit obvious.

The pale red glow is an issue - you can see it at night (I can see it when I'm walking round with the moth people or just walking round at night). I would say that the black IR LEDs would be better - but still visible with night vision.

The Bushnells are good cameras, but not entirely reliable although to be fair they are out all year. But the Scout Guard is cheaper, does just as good a job (image quality not quite so good but then half the price), and has had no reliability problems whatsoever. Replacing the Bushnells we have had stolen with higher spec black LED ones would come in at too high a price, even though we have a friend who is a dealer. They are now in the high £200s each. I think that is too much for a camera that can be stolen and that has reliability issues. So we are probably going to get the Little Acorn ones as replacements. We have marked everything with Smart Water and put notices to that effect on our entrance, our building and stickers on the cameras - that should also make them much less appealing to thieves as they can't sell them on nearly so easily. We will also probably use a cable lock to deter opportunist thieves.

[Landpikey]

We bought one of the Ltl Acorn cameras. Very impressed with it. Trialed it in the garden and was quite impressed. Caught the kids looking in to it, the Black lab heading into the distance and the father in law strolling passed.
We put it in the wood by some deer scrapings and caught a good few shots of deer and some bunnies. Then we hung a couple of fat balls up just to see what would arrive. I got the position slightly wrong as the trees in the background are in focus and the birds are slightly blurred. It's all a learning experience though.
I'm away again so we've left a peanut hanger closer to the camera and I'm hoping as it is much larger the camera will focus much better. Time will tell anyway!!!

[Landpikey]

This is the deer caught early in the morning.

[Landpikey]

This is the same placing (as the daytime deer shot) at nighttime. There is a little bit more blurring but we're still happy with the camera. Battery life seems very good and we've only put in 4 cheap AA and not 8 quality ones. You need to set up the timings so that you don't end up with over a 1000 pics of the same birds on a fatball.....