Trail Camera

[markiver54]

In my experience there have been times that there are many pics yet nothing very interesting. I think that a lot of the pics were because of wind blowing tall grass or shrubbery branches. The squirrels and birds and such are annoying but occasionally we get some very good pics of Deer, Foxes, Bobcats, ( at the cottage) and some interesting critters here within city limits.
The camera settings can be a PIA but I still think it's worth it for the special pics and videos we get sometimes.

[Mags]

... other than birds and squirrels I haven't seen any signs of wildlife so I'm not anticipating seeing anything else

When we first set ours up. Same thing, mostly birds and squirrels. Took patience leaving it set in any one locations for several days before deciding to repeat at another location. We eventually found a spot where we got more traffic variety. A lot of disappointment until we found a good spot. Even so, there were still days with just birds and squirrels.
We pretty much shoot videos only. Lot more interesting than still photos.

[rickhem]

Mine are all set to record videos too. I have units on either 15 or 20 seconds, and I think 15 seconds is enough.
Part of the learning curve is to get all the vegetation out of the immediate vicinity of where the camera points. That cuts down on the wind generated captures. For mounting, I prefer the little screw-in hooks with the 1/4x20 end that the unit screws onto. It's way, way less obvious than a black strap around a tree trunk, and offers more options when aiming the unit at where you want it to point. I have cameras on smaller, 6"-8" trees, but those sway more in windy conditions, giving empty videos. Bigger trees are more stable, and help hide the camera better, but yuou don't always have that option.
My highest activity units are placed at gaps in the treelines where a tractor or other vehicles would pass, or pointing along a road/trail that runs along a treeline. Aiming the camera down the road/trail gives better results than aiming across it. Seems like the deer and coyotes cross from field to field through the gap, while the fox, racoons, porcupines, bobcats, and other small stuff cross from within one side of the treeline to the other side, preferring to stay within the treeline.

[JEBar]

thanks for the suggestions and comments about using a trail camera .... this rookie really appreciates it

[Mags]

In garden areas close to the house I use a tri-pod. So much easier to quickly change locations. When we get a good spot or when we leave town I'll strap it to a tree so that it is less obvious.

[markiver54]

In garden areas close to the house I use a tri-pod. So much easier to quickly change locations.

That would be nice, and I thought about it once. I do have a tri-pod, however where I live, I don't want it to be obvious to critters of the two-legged type.

[Mags]

In garden areas close to the house I use a tri-pod. So much easier to quickly change locations.

That would be nice, and I thought about it once. I do have a tri-pod, however where I live, I don't want it to be obvious to critters of the two-legged type.

We're pretty secluded, so not too much concern here with two legged critters. When we're not home the camera is well hidden to capture license plates. We sometimes get trespass drive-threws despite the signage to stay out.

[rickhem]

[/quote]
We're pretty secluded, so not too much concern here with two legged critters. When we're not home the camera is well hidden to capture license plates. We sometimes get trespass drive-threws despite the signage to stay out.
[/quote]

This would be my sole purpose for getting a cell service camera. I'm rural and secluded enough that if someone came down the driveway when we weren't home, nobody would see anything. Having a cell service unit that gave immediate notification would at least let me know if/when someone was there. I put one of my chip cameras elevated on a tree and facing the house, which worked well, but you only get to see what it has observed when you pull the chip.

[markiver54]

Keep in mind that anyone with ill intent can just remove the card if they see the camera.

[Steve51]

The MUDDY brand trail cams that I have take pretty good daytime pictures but night pictures lack clarity. Pretty sure a license number would be impossible read on a night photo.

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[Mags]

...
This would be my sole purpose for getting a cell service camera. I'm rural and secluded enough that if someone came down the driveway when we weren't home, nobody would see anything. Having a cell service unit that gave immediate notification would at least let me know if/when someone was there. I put one of my chip cameras elevated on a tree and facing the house, which worked well, but you only get to see what it has observed when you pull the chip.

We also have a Ring camera. It will catch and give immediate notification of walkers and pull through traffic, but it's not real good at license plate clarity due to distance from the front door. For that I too have to pull the SDcard of the trailcam.

[Mags]

The Browning I have has pretty good night time resolution. This is a GIF created from one of the trailcam videos.

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[markiver54]

That would definitely satisfy me for nighttime quality.

[JEBar]

after being setup for 2 days I went out and brought our trail camera back into the house .... the good news is, it took 6 pictures .... whatever caused it to take the pictures could not be seen .... sorry, I have no clue how to save them to where I could post'um on the forum .... all settings were left at the original settings .... quality was OK but not as good as some I've seen posted in this thread .... they were also to small .... I've decided to switch it to video record and to place it where it will focus on our driveway .... that should result in much more recording .... next I need to figure out how to adjust the camera settings .... did find out that the solar panel kept the camera built in battery fully charged

[wvhills]

well i was / am a wildgame cameras user, mostly because of the battery life,,, from fall to mid spring, but it is harder for me to get to the cameras weekly to pull the cards;
I did some digging, Spy Point cameras have a cellular camera BUT also have a free plan of 100 pics per 30 days, repsonse is pretty quick to my phone, the batteries are doing ok,,, installed in oct. one is now at 54% and 1 is at 68% ;
i also have ordered a couple of "cell packs" that you can plug other cameras into thru the usb port...
we'll see, going to try the wildgame with the cell packs. attached are a couple pics dark and daylight..
should prob do a review on them and their cell packs..

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[JEBar]

UPDATE :

well, I'm happy to say, I'm on my way to figuring out how to use the trail camera .... its been slow because of my shortcomings, nothing negative with the camera itself .... basically, it took me a while to correlate the functions with the terminology .... we now have pictures that prove we do have deer moving through the woods behind our house .... we have 3 for sure (all does or at least none with visible antlers) .... sorry, no clue yet as to how to get the pictures out of the camera and into my computer where I can then post them .... the sound is good, in fact, better than I expected .... I'm still adjusting the settings trying to improve the picture quality .... so far this has been a slow process because there have been more nights that no pictures have been taken that there are that they have ..... in addition, my knowledge of what settings it takes to make the best pictures is very limited .....