Trail Cam?

I haven't noticed any misalignment in our camera but the field of detection is different to the field of view of the camera.

We've seen it sometimes with the camera at ground level and a pine marten on a windowsill. The camera is capable of including the sill in the video but the sensor clearly does not include the sill in its coverage so does not trigger the camera. However, as BB has said it just learning to work with the limitations and honestly it is not that much of problem.
We found the strap supplied with camera not to be much use. It is substantial and would do a good job but it was difficult finding a tree/post at the right place. We bought a small cheap tripod from 7dayshop which is much more convenient. Sometimes the pine martens investigate it and a couple of times the badgers have just walked through it but the camera seems robust and hasn't taken any damage.

Dave
 
I haven't noticed any misalignment in our camera but the field of detection is different to the field of view of the camera.

We've seen it sometimes with the camera at ground level and a pine marten on a windowsill. The camera is capable of including the sill in the video but the sensor clearly does not include the sill in its coverage so does not trigger the camera. However, as BB has said it just learning to work with the limitations and honestly it is not that much of problem.
We found the strap supplied with camera not to be much use. It is substantial and would do a good job but it was difficult finding a tree/post at the right place. We bought a small cheap tripod from 7dayshop which is much more convenient. Sometimes the pine martens investigate it and a couple of times the badgers have just walked through it but the camera seems robust and hasn't taken any damage.

Dave

Thanks for the insight :)

PS somewhere I have a Gorillapod...............might be more effective for 'clamping' onto a tree (etc?)
 
Hope its useful. Sometime we used a very light mini tripod to get a low level view but I think a Gorillapod would be better.

Dave
 
I use a Monster Pod for standing the cam on the ground as it has an adjustable ball head type thingy and is quite heavy so unlikely to fall over.
 
Hope its useful. Sometime we used a very light mini tripod to get a low level view but I think a Gorillapod would be better.

Dave
I use a Monster Pod for standing the cam on the ground as it has an adjustable ball head type thingy and is quite heavy so unlikely to fall over.

I think my Gorrilapod is the one intended for dSLR sized cameras....plus as I recall I have the matching ballhead, so all being well should be up to the job of holding a this trail camera :)
 
OK, parcel came a short ago..................................only a quick physical check, look & feels like a nice and well made bit of kit.

All the bits seem to be in the box including a surprise (I was not aware that it was included) wall/fence post mounting plate and tripod point attachment :)

Slightly oddly there was an Amazon card (gift report?) inside the pages of the manual.................the camera itself looks pristine i.e. not a return, it still has the protective films over the curved sensor and the IR lamps window. So at what point does that card get put in, by the supplier because they are using Marketplace or by Amazon themselves?
 
I would guess that the supplier sticks it in the box. Just hope the SanDisk card is genuine!
 
I would guess that the supplier sticks it in the box. Just hope the SanDisk card is genuine!

All the SD cards I have bought so far have been sold & supplied by Amazon. Rather than using my Extreme Pro cards I got a Sandisk Ultra 32GB Class 10 from them as well ;)
 
I mean the one that should soon be coming from the review gift bunch as a reward for the review.

All the SanDisk cards I've had from Amazon, 7dayshop and MyMemory have been genuine.
 
I mean the one that should soon be coming from the review gift bunch as a reward for the review.

All the SanDisk cards I've had from Amazon, 7dayshop and MyMemory have been genuine.

Doh! I did not even read the card to see that detail :cautious:
 
Well, last night was about the worst conditions I could have had for testing the trailcam: strong blustery cross wind which would have taken most of the heat from any small animal straight off down the garden before the PIR could have sensed it! The good thing was that the card wasn't full of false alarm vids from moving branches, etc., so I was quite impressed with that. No nocturnal recordings though and just one vid of a wood pigeon and two magpies under the bird feeder before I brought the camera in to check it at breakfast time; really dull light too. I want to see how the video looks in bright/sunny weather, but all I've had round here since I got the camera is dull conditions! Anyway, try again next weekend and see if I can get a fox or a rabbit!

Talking of memory cards, I picked up a 32gb SanDisc Ultra (80mb/s) on special offer at Sainsbury's yesterday, at £13.33 it was cheaper than Amazon. @Giblets I've not noticed any obvious offset with the lenses on my cameras (the spare one arrived today), however, the lens is mounted just less than two-thirds of the way up the front of the camera, are you sure this isn't what's throwing you?

As for mounting the camera using the strap round a tree, it's quite common to have the 'shim' the camera with a twig or small piece of stick wedged securely between the back of the camera and the tree to get the required angle of view, as tree trunks are seldom dead vertical.
 
When I looked yesterday the 32GB Ultra 80MB/S was going for over £14. Perhaps, like the trail cam, the price just depends on what the deal is at the time of purchase?
 
@Giblets I've not noticed any obvious offset with the lenses on my cameras (the spare one arrived today), however, the lens is mounted just less than two-thirds of the way up the front of the camera, are you sure this isn't what's throwing you?

I don't think it's that. I stood the cam on a flat table then held the pencil at the same height as the lens above the table and the monitor screen clearly showed the pencil only a quarter down from the top of the screen instead of being in the centre which I would have expected. As far as I could tell the cam was vertical on the table but couldn't find my spirit level to check. ;)
 
Just a thought for anyone who,after seeing this thread, is thinking of buying a trail camera and a card for it. If you don't need to leave the camera out for extended periods(or it isn't somewhere with loads of wildlife every night) then a small card is more than adequate.

I've just brought our camera in from last night. It has recorded 22 one minute videos since about 6pm last night and these have used just over 700MB of the 4GB card, so I reckon it could hold close to 100 videos.

If you need to leave the camera for an extended period then perhaps a bigger card might be needed. The drawback of not checking the recordings frequently is trawling through lots of videos takes time, even if you skip.

Dave
 
Well, last night was about the worst conditions I could have had for testing the trailcam: strong blustery cross wind which would have taken most of the heat from any small animal straight off down the garden before the PIR could have sensed it!

Don't think there would any problem with strong winds affecting the heat signature from an animal, unless perhaps the animal is very small. We've used our trail camera during gales, even one that blew the tripod over, and animals were still recorded.

Dave
 
Don't think there would any problem with strong winds affecting the heat signature from an animal, unless perhaps the animal is very small. We've used our trail camera during gales, even one that blew the tripod over, and animals were still recorded.

Dave
As you say, I suspect it will depend on the size of the animal and its distance from the camera. It was really blustery on Sat night with the wind running right to left across the camera, pus an air temp of around 10C, so I suspect it would have struggled to sense anything smaller than a fox at distances over 20 feet. Anyway, I'll try again next weekend and see if the weather is anymore conducive.
 
As you say, I suspect it will depend on the size of the animal and its distance from the camera. It was really blustery on Sat night with the wind running right to left across the camera, pus an air temp of around 10C, so I suspect it would have struggled to sense anything smaller than a fox at distances over 20 feet. Anyway, I'll try again next weekend and see if the weather is anymore conducive.

I think you might be surprised. In NW Scotland we have had videos of animals in some horrendous conditions but I would be interested to hear and see your experiences.

You might not want to feed foxes but if you do, peanuts are good. Foxes seem to like them and they are too small to for the foxes to carry off.

There is a concern that putting food out will enough rats but any left over peanuts tend to get cleared up by birds during the day.

Dave
 
A bit later than planned I have put the camera out in readiness for last light of day visitors and whatever the night might bring........will likely leave it until midday tomorrow to bring in to 'catch' the morning feeder visitors.

In putting it out and completing the setup checks ~ What I found that did not match the manual for checking the PIR dectection ~ in Test mode to check the PIR detecting movement was that the Blue light was not 'lighting' but the Red one was! Once I switched it from Test to ON and closed it up.....backing away from it the Blue light flashed briefly a single time I think.

Because of this disparity with the manual ~ for peace of mind I might check it before the light goes to have a look and see if it detects me approaching and getting a video clip???

NB I have set it to video only at 10s clips and 30s wait interval and PIR sensitivity to medium (the default)
 
Seems like whoever does the soldering of the LEDs might be colour-blind! Mine is the same.
 
Seems like whoever does the soldering of the LEDs might be colour-blind! Mine is the same.

Either that or something lost in translation???

PS I did a quick check before the light went and it is recording.....only looking on the camera screen so not too sure whether it was a bird coming/going from the feeder or the feeder swinging gently in the breeze that was triggering it?

PPS so out there now until maybe tomorrow mid-day! Looking at the clips and area covered, it should/might show the any ground level visitors..... depending on where they walk ;)

Incidentally, I did use my Gorilla Tripod to attach it to our Acer. This tripod has a QR plate do will make taking it off and replacing a quick job. That position is the simplest location .....will need to consider others and ease of positioning.
 
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Right, first "results".

It recorded me walking away from setting up.
Also when I went back to confirm it was functioning
However, though there were a few random small birds coming & going from the bird feeder this morning they did not trigger the recording.
But late this afternoon it did record my taking off the tree.

So reformatted the card and put it back up.

Should be sunny tomorrow........once the rain eases the evening I am going to top up the feeder(s)........so all being well more visitors on the feeders and possibly will trigger the camera??? No doubt it will "see" topping the feeders up :LOL:

PS I have been thinking about alternate places/ways to mount & position it to cover different aspects within the garden

FWIW the quality of the recording is quite nice :)
 
I use a Bushnell something. And power with rechargeable batteries. They last several weeks...………..
 
I have a question about trail cams. I am thinking of getting one but I want one that can be hidden from people.
The reason is that sometimes I go to South America and I would like to leave it in the cloud forest for a few days and come back and see what is picked up.
Obviously I want it hidden so no one will steal it (I know that I will have to make sure I can remember the tree it was tied to).
 
I have a question about trail cams. I am thinking of getting one but I want one that can be hidden from people.
The reason is that sometimes I go to South America and I would like to leave it in the cloud forest for a few days and come back and see what is picked up.
Obviously I want it hidden so no one will steal it (I know that I will have to make sure I can remember the tree it was tied to).

Some trail cameras have what are described as 'black light' or 'no glow' lights which are said not to emit any visible light. They might do what you want.

However, I haven't seen them in action so don't know how accurate the claims are.

Dave
 
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Some trail cameras have what are described as 'black light' or 'no glow' lights which are said not to emit any visible light. They might do what you want.

However, I haven't seen them in action so don't know how accurate the claims are.

Dave

My Ape model is "black light " type i.e. no visible illumination at night.

As for securing it against human interference or theft, I recall reading of a metal housing and a chain security attachment........but surmise that is not applicable for a forest environment ;)
 
The trail cam linked to and discussed above https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07H93XQ6Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is of the 'no glow' infra red type, so should be less likely to attract attention when it triggers and the IR illuminator comes on.

Whether it will survive without being stolen will depend on how well the camouflage blends in and how well you hide it without covering the lens, illuminator and sensor. As you've said, you'll have to remember where you've put it, so make careful notes, take a few reference photos and if possible take a GPS position of where it is to give you a clue! The better you hide it the harder it will be for you to find again! Also, try not to let anyone see you installing the camera!

However, do check with the local wildlife/government agencies to make sure you're not interfering with their work or breaking any rules or laws (including privacy and data protection), and obtain any permission from the landowner and tenant, before installing the camera. You don't want to end up getting fined, losing your camera, or spending time in a South American jail! Besides, a wildlife organisation might be pleased to receive copies of any records and/or video footage you get.

A bit of an update to the rest of the thread, I've had some good results from my camera including capturing video of a fox and a badger at the same time (they were picking up sunflower seeds dropped from the bird feeder), with the fox nipping the badger's rump and running away at one point... the badger was less than impressed about this and chased the fox off! Here's a screen capture from the video of them together:

 
The illuminator on the no glow one can't be seen by the human eye (or by most wildlife) so is more covert but doesn't illuminate the scene as brightly as the low glow type. The second one is higher resolution (although how much of that will be interpolated I don't know) and you (and the wildlife, and potential thieves) will see a dull red glow from the IR illuminators when its triggered, but it will most probably light things up more brightly and give more lighting range than the 'no glow' type.

Quite how much you'd notice the claimed higher resolution I don't know, but I've been happy enough with the 720p and 30 frames per second video from the first of those two (rather than 1080p at 15 fps which can look a bit jerky with faster motion), so you pays your money and takes your choice. I don't know how the trigger times compare for photo and video between those two cameras.

If you have somewhere safe and it's not likely to get stolen then the low glow one may be a better option if it's slightly higher quality and a faster trigger time, but if you want to put a camera somewhere that's not as secure then I'd go for the no glow every time, plus the no glow version isn't as expensive if it does get stolen. Hope this is useful.
 
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The illuminator on the no glow one can't be seen by the human eye (or by most wildlife) so is more covert but doesn't illuminate the scene as brightly as the low glow type. The second one is higher resolution (although how much of that will be interpolated I don't know) and you (and the wildlife, and potential thieves) will see a dull red glow from the IR illuminators when its triggered, but it will most probably light things up more brightly and give more lighting range than the 'no glow' type.

Quite how much you'd notice the claimed higher resolution I don't know, but I've been happy enough with the 720p and 30 frames per second video from the first of those two (rather than 1080p at 15 fps which can look a bit jerky with faster motion), so you pays your money and takes your choice. I don't know how the trigger times compare for photo and video between those two cameras.

If you have somewhere safe and it's not likely to get stolen then the low glow one may be a better option if it's slightly higher quality and a faster trigger time, but if you want to put a camera somewhere that's not as secure then I'd go for the no glow every time, plus the no glow version isn't as expensive if it does get stolen. Hope this is useful.

Very useful. Thanks
 
The first two reviews on the first one are not very good.
I wouldn't make my mind up after reading two reviews when there are over two hundred to read and get the overall impression of what the camera might be like. Besides, I'm always somewhat wary of on-line reviews. The first one (the Apeman H55) has been bought by some of the people on this thread, so perhaps give the thread a read from start to finish and see what you think then, bearing in mind it's 'no glow' and costs less then £50. (y)
 
The first two reviews on the first one are not very good.


Over 90% of the reviews are 4 or 5 star which is (well, was when I was looking to buy one [ended up with one of these]) good enough for me!

The biggest benefit of no-glow is that the subjects aren't spooked by the machine. Can make a big difference in their behaviour (although cats instinctively know where to sit blocking the FoV of any camera!)
 
Blimey, just looked and it's on at £35.99 for the next 7 hours while stocks last. Now that is good value!

http://go.talkphotography.co.uk/?id=1901X550843&isjs=1&jv=13.25.1-stackpath&sref=https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/trail-cam.690276/page-3#post-8554069&url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07H93XQ6Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&xguid=a815517b9418a2318feedb02eb22065c&xs=1&xtz=0&xuuid=94d3f6204db0172357cf883ba492a6a6

Edit: Couldn't resist getting another at that price! It appears that its been upgraded to 20mp too (from the previous 16mp). Don't know if this is due to interpolation or if the camera has been upgraded. Will let you know how it compares to the original when it arrives. :)
 
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I just pressed the button on this thanks
I think it would be rude not to at that price! If it's as good as the original version then I think you'll be pleased with it. Judging by the Amazon reviews, the firm selling them seem to stand by their guarantee and replace any faulty units too (well, so far, anyway!). I think it would make an impressive looking Xmas pressie for anyone interested in wildlife or garden security too.
 
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