Looking to get a trail camera, need help and suggestions

[Gasitman]

In my area people are getting robbed, a lot! A friend of mine had her house broken in 5 times in 6 months. She added cameras, bars on the patio door, everything. It was not unit she got a pitbull that it stopped.

One of the guys who had his tractor stolen had a trail camera set up. I took a very clear picture of the individual however, the thief had a face mask on. My dog has alerted me twice in the few years of people walking up my driveway. And while she has done a good job of scaring most off, I am sure that one day, the perp may not be so scared of a black lab.

How do they work? How can I set it up to take photos? I am sure it will get a pic of me every time I drive in and out of the driveway. How long do they last and how often should I clear the memory? Does it flash at night or does it use infrared? I have a security light on my storage shed, and I wanted to place the camera across from it.

I am learning most burglaries are happing in the day time when people are at work. Someone posted on facebook that thieves took their entire 1000# safe. That is concerning to me.

[3584ELK]

I just bought a Primos Ultra 46 HD and have been learning its capabilities. My reasons were two- fold, random home security rolled into a trail camera.

http://www.amazon.com/Primos-Truth-Camera-Detect-Sensor/dp/B00AU6DQ5U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1426798189&sr=8-3&keywords=Primos+Ultra+46+HD

After using for a few various locations around the home and yard, I have noted the following:

a) It takes a LOT of photos, it got me 6 times during mounting and I was being careful.
b) It photographed patrol cars and others on our street, but not mine in the early a.m. (must not have been enough engine heat)
c) Nighttime photos are black and white and not so "HD"
d) The camera does seem to have a good detection range (60 feet or so).
e) There is a slight delay between when an infrared object enters the field of view and the trigger breaking (about one second)
f) The daytime photos are brilliant
g) Every photo has a footer with date, time, and temperature.
h) You will want a big SD card
i) The online reviews are great and they claim this particular camera is the best for its price.
j) There is a security box and steel cable lock available so no one can steal your camera.
k) It is fairly covert as it requires no flash- all you see is a mass of red light as it detects and then triggers the camera.

Read up on the reviews before you purchase, but I would recommend this one to anyone interested.

[Gasitman]

That is one thing I do not want, red lights so a thief can see it. Thanks for the link, I will look at it.

[3584ELK]

The red lights are more glow than bright. You have to be staring at the face of the camera to see them. Let us know what you decide on...

[golddigger14s]

Don't let them in:
http://armorconcepts.com/EZ-Armor/?gcli ... oCocjw_wcB

[Itchin4Fishin]

What ever you do get, make sure it's infrared.

Amazon usually has deals on moultries

[Gasitman]

I was looking at the Moultrie 990i and 990i gen 2. They seem pretty good.

[glockgirl]

Bummer. I bought an awesome Bushnell infrared trail cam a while back from Sierra Trading Post (had kids thinking it was funny to dump their garbage on my corner), but they don't seem to be carrying any trail cams right now.

[dogfish]

A very inexpensive but decent trail camera I use is the Tasco/Bushnell and sold at Walmart. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tasco-3-Megap ... a/27735865 They are $59.00. Lower price allows more cameras and better coverage.

I've had the expensive Bushnells, Moultries, ($300+) and others but these little cameras are great and take decent photos day or night. If you lose one or it gets destroyed there is no big loss. I also have a Wild Game Innovations "lights out" camera, about $100 at Bi-Mart. We used them extensively during our bear and deer hunting.

Both take SD cards, both run on AA batteries. Get an 8 GB card and a big pack of quality AA batteries and they'll last for months. I'll post a few pictures in a bit.

One major suggestion, place the cameras up high, 10-12 feet minimum, build a simple bracket to angle them down. Paint them, disguise them, and get a bear proof box for them if they are to be mounted low.

Last edited by dogfish on Fri Mar 20, 2015 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[dogfish]

Camo ideas for camera bear boxes. We use these on various projects.


Great stuff foam and paint. Camo paint was in process.

Tasco camera


Bear proof box. http://www.amazon.com/Bushnell-Security ... B003DUHS4A

Wild Game innovations.
Trespassers during elk season.


This year's target bear




Brackets are made out of scrap wood and screwed to trees.

[funugy]

If you aren't dead set on a trail-cam I'd suggest something a little more techy. I got one of these a month ago to test it out and see if I want more. So far I like it. You can control if from you cell phone, tablet, or computer remotely. I like the fact that I can set motion alarms while choosing specific areas of the frame and set times as well. Alarm options are ring (make a buzzing noise on the camera itself), take picture and email immediately (this one I like- I get the email within a minute usually and I can review what set off the alarm), record (haven't messed with it yet, but I think it could save to a hard drive or email it to you) and at least one more, but I can't remember for sure. You will need 120v AC though and it hooks up via wifi or cat5. You can also listen and speak through the camera as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Foscam-FI9821W-Me ... rds=foscam

Here is an outdoor option:
http://www.amazon.com/Foscam-FI8919W-Au ... rds=foscam

My preference is to not catch the intruder in the act, but hopefully deter them from entering, place the cameras in obvious locations. Let them move down the street to someone else's property. I don't want to hassle with calling the police and insurance. And I definitely don't want to have to worry about them coming back when my wife and or kids are home alone.

[DeltaBravo]

I have a really low end BUshnell game camera, but it works very well. One aspect of it I like is it doesn't use a box full of batteries to power it. It uses 4 AA and will last several months.

There's two main type of infrared (from what I recall in my research)
Infrared that glows red and "invisible infrared"

I can see the red glow when my camera sense my motion and starts recording.
Photo, not really an issue unless someone knows exactly where the camera is.
Video - that's a problem if someone moves around and see the camera.

I always have mine set on video - so as long as it's recording, the infrared LEDs are glowing... and the DEER can see it....they will come up and stick their nose on the camera.

some of my videos:

https://youtu.be/IJny_M6KoIw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1wOETpAreg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9okgbz17cA

One minor annoyance is that there's a 5 second delay before the camera fires a picture or starts recording video.
THe delay is adjustable, but 5 seconds is the shortest delay.
If I were looking for another camera, I'd dig deep in to the specs to see what kind of delay it has.

[MadPick]

Doug, that second video (the fawn) was cute as hell!