Trail Camera issues

Jelster

Jelster

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Steve
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I have been enjoying footage of our local hedgehogs using my trail camera, but for the past 3 nights i've been getting water over the lens at some point. It starts off OK, and I get reasonably good video, but the output gets worse as the night goes on. Last night for instance, it's fine around midnight, then the next file is at 02.34, and you can see the imaging has started to deteriorate. By 04.51, it's useless.

I don't think it rained last night, so is this dew forming? If so, can I do anything to try and keep the lens clear?

The camera is on a post about 6 inches off the ground monitoring a feeding station. I have an old tripod a I could use to get the camera higher and look down on the station from, say a metre high. I wondered if putting an angle on the camera would help any dew run off.....

I'm sure there's a few on here with more experience of these things than me.
 
Seems likely to be condensation, if there's more wind it won't happen so much.
Two approaches to stop it, gentle heat - not really practical, but an option for other cameras e.g. astrophotography
- or something applied to the lens.
A spot of washing up liquid wiped on and rubbed off would be the first thing to try, how exactly it works is debatable but it does help and is a common trick for scuba masks.
They will also use toothpaste or spit.
 
4wd said:
Seems likely to be condensation, if there's more wind it won't happen so much.
Two approaches to stop it, gentle heat - not really practical, but an option for other cameras e.g. astrophotography
- or something applied to the lens.
A spot of washing up liquid wiped on and rubbed off would be the first thing to try, how exactly it works is debatable but it does help and is a common trick for scuba masks.
They will also use toothpaste or spit.
Click to expand...


I did think about the old washing up liquid trick, something I used to use on my visors when I was riding.
 
I've had this occasionally when it's been belting with rain but not to the extent where the video is useless.
It's only been when its raining heavily and it quickly clears ... my trailcam is very active and does reach some high temperatures from the I/R LED's (up to 100F) so I guess that helps but even in quiet times I haven't experienced any dew forming.
If it is running down, could you create some sort of drip-strip above the lens, using Blu-tack or something?
 
Jelster said:
I have been enjoying footage of our local hedgehogs using my trail camera, but for the past 3 nights i've been getting water over the lens at some point. It starts off OK, and I get reasonably good video, but the output gets worse as the night goes on. Last night for instance, it's fine around midnight, then the next file is at 02.34, and you can see the imaging has started to deteriorate. By 04.51, it's useless.

I don't think it rained last night, so is this dew forming? If so, can I do anything to try and keep the lens clear?

The camera is on a post about 6 inches off the ground monitoring a feeding station. I have an old tripod a I could use to get the camera higher and look down on the station from, say a metre high. I wondered if putting an angle on the camera would help any dew run off.....

I'm sure there's a few on here with more experience of these things than me.
Click to expand...

Had the same on our trail camera now and again and it has always been condensation. I haven't bother trying to tackle it as it happens very rarely, but the washing up suggestion might be worth a try. I'm guessing the cause is the recent hot, humid days followed by clear, still nights.

Dave
 
I've now done both, the washing up liquid (that's an old biking trick for visors too) and I've put some run off protection around the lens and the last couple of nights it's been fine.

We've now identified 4 individual hogs using the garden, one of them is quite big compared to the others. Hog poo on the lawn and in the feeding station :rolleyes:.


Next project is to make a Hog House for the winter, and get a camera with better night resolution. We actually witnessed them in the garden the other night, great to watch.
 
Jelster said:
I've now done both, the washing up liquid (that's an old biking trick for visors too) and I've put some run off protection around the lens and the last couple of nights it's been fine.

We've now identified 4 individual hogs using the garden, one of them is quite big compared to the others. Hog poo on the lawn and in the feeding station :rolleyes:.


Next project is to make a Hog House for the winter, and get a camera with better night resolution. We actually witnessed them in the garden the other night, great to watch.
Click to expand...

Glad it worked for you :)
A bit pricier than the cheaper eBay/Amazon types but for quality I can recommend the Browning Secure Force Edge (2020)
 
gramps said:
Glad it worked for you :)
A bit pricier than the cheaper eBay/Amazon types but for quality I can recommend the Browning Secure Force Edge (2020)
Click to expand...

That looks very good indeed. I was wondering if there was a unit that didn't run on AAA batteries, and had a rechargeable battery pack?
 
Jelster said:
That looks very good indeed. I was wondering if there was a unit that didn't run on AAA batteries, and had a rechargeable battery pack?
Click to expand...

I run mine on rechargeable batteries, (though not recommended), the only issue is that they can drop voltage suddenly when getting to around 35% capacity and then everything stops. To compensate for this I bought an external power pack (box to hold 8 more batteries) and when connected to the camera it will switch automatically from camera batteries to externals when required.
The power pack has LED's to check remaining power so you can easily check when it's starting to be used and hence when you need to change the batteries in the camera.
Got mine from Naturespy and they are very good.
 
gramps said:
I run mine on rechargeable batteries, (though not recommended), the only issue is that they can drop voltage suddenly when getting to around 35% capacity and then everything stops. To compensate for this I bought an external power pack (box to hold 8 more batteries) and when connected to the camera it will switch automatically from camera batteries to externals when required.
The power pack has LED's to check remaining power so you can easily check when it's starting to be used and hence when you need to change the batteries in the camera.
Got mine from Naturespy and they are very good.
Click to expand...


This one?

shop.naturespy.org

Browning External Power Pack

The Browning External Power Pack, available at the NatureSpy Shop. All purchases support our non-profit environmental and social projects.
shop.naturespy.org shop.naturespy.org
 
Jelster said:
I've now done both, the washing up liquid (that's an old biking trick for visors too) and I've put some run off protection around the lens and the last couple of nights it's been fine.

We've now identified 4 individual hogs using the garden, one of them is quite big compared to the others. Hog poo on the lawn and in the feeding station :rolleyes:.


Next project is to make a Hog House for the winter, and get a camera with better night resolution. We actually witnessed them in the garden the other night, great to watch.
Click to expand...

Four hedgehogs - that is good. Do any of them meet? When two meet in our garden there is often a fair bit of pushing. When we first saw a hedgehog in the garden I wondered about making a Hog House but never got around to it. It might be that we are in the a very mild area of the country and we have a very untidy and overgrown garden but the hogs seem to have survived a couple years, though it could be different hogs.

They are fascinating to watch.

Dave
 
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