Anyone Have Experience with a Game Camera?
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I put one up the last week of hunting season, it showed me just how nocturnal deer can be feeding all hours of the night.
Lots of interesting stuff shows up on mine, they are fun, I am a hunter but I would imagine even a non-hunter would get a lot of enjoyment out of one.
I am thinking on getting one or a plot camera. I've been looking around but haven't decided yet. But hears a good site they do comsumer reports type testing on them not just reviews.
http://www.chasingame.com/
Billy
http://www.chasingame.com/
Billy
Cowboy Billy said:
Thanx for that link. I've been mulling over a new one and the market is flooded with these things. The little research I've done so far has made my head spin. And buyer reviews are not helpful . Too much emotion and user ignorance to get an unbiased review.
Lee, you are correct there!
I've had 2 Cuddeback's. One a regular trail cam and the other an IR. The IR was junk. The regular camera was good and took excellent pictures but did not do well on battery life. It had a couple other problems too and one time was sent in for repair. One really aggravating thing with it was when the battery got down to 1 it would suddenly start taking pictures at the rate of one per minute until the batteries died.
This fall after seeing a new one a neighbor got from Wildgame Innovations, I bought one. Although the picture is a bit less quality it still is good. The IR takes good pictures with decent night range; much better than the Cuddebacks did. It also takes 30 second video where the Cuddeback took 10 second video. Naturally you can set it for still or video. One thing I do like on the Wildgame is that it will also take a still picture before it starts the video. Battery life I cannot tell how long because I had the camera out for well over a month taking video pictures and it never needed a battery change.
The neighbor also stated he got excellent battery life and I know he took somewhere near 1000 pictures on one set of batteries.
The trip time for the cameras vary a lot. The Cuddeback was said to have the best trip time but I did not find that to be exactly true. I found the trip time to vary a lot.
One very interesting thing my neighbor tried (he had both Cuddeback and the Wildgame) was he set them both side by side. Most of the time the Cuddeback did take the picture the quickest but not always. Sometimes it would not take a picture at all! It also took several pictures with nothing in the picture while the Wildgame did not do this. The picture quality was best on the Cuddeback.
One more thing the neighbor found was when he set the Cuddeback up to take a night flash picture and had the Wildgame set for video, with the Cuddeback taking the first picture, when we looked at the pictures from the Wildgame camera we were surprised to see the deer (both bucks and does) fleeing! That told us the flash does bother most deer. Yet, when my old Cuddeback flash camera went into it's one minute per picture taking we saw the same deer over and over and not bothered! So sometimes it does and sometimes not.
Overall, I am very satisfied with the Wildgame camera. I purchased it at Dick's when they had a sale. Got the camera, a set of batteries and a SD card for less than $100. Compare that to the Cuddeback cameras priced over $300.
For me, the IR is the best way to go with the cameras because you don't get the flash to warn someone and for deer it does not scare them whereas with the flash, sometimes it bothers and sometimes not. With bucks though, many times it does scare them! I was surprised at this. Someone also told me to check my old pictures; regular vs. IR. I was surprised to see that when I got a nice sized buck with the regular flash, I would not get any other pictures of that buck. But when I got the IR then I began to get multiple pictures of the bigger bucks. I was surprised to say the least.
The Wildgame camera does not have as many settings as the more expensive cameras but I found it did all we needed done and the price certainly was right.
If you have any specific questions I will be happy to answer them.
I've had 2 Cuddeback's. One a regular trail cam and the other an IR. The IR was junk. The regular camera was good and took excellent pictures but did not do well on battery life. It had a couple other problems too and one time was sent in for repair. One really aggravating thing with it was when the battery got down to 1 it would suddenly start taking pictures at the rate of one per minute until the batteries died.
This fall after seeing a new one a neighbor got from Wildgame Innovations, I bought one. Although the picture is a bit less quality it still is good. The IR takes good pictures with decent night range; much better than the Cuddebacks did. It also takes 30 second video where the Cuddeback took 10 second video. Naturally you can set it for still or video. One thing I do like on the Wildgame is that it will also take a still picture before it starts the video. Battery life I cannot tell how long because I had the camera out for well over a month taking video pictures and it never needed a battery change.
The neighbor also stated he got excellent battery life and I know he took somewhere near 1000 pictures on one set of batteries.
The trip time for the cameras vary a lot. The Cuddeback was said to have the best trip time but I did not find that to be exactly true. I found the trip time to vary a lot.
One very interesting thing my neighbor tried (he had both Cuddeback and the Wildgame) was he set them both side by side. Most of the time the Cuddeback did take the picture the quickest but not always. Sometimes it would not take a picture at all! It also took several pictures with nothing in the picture while the Wildgame did not do this. The picture quality was best on the Cuddeback.
One more thing the neighbor found was when he set the Cuddeback up to take a night flash picture and had the Wildgame set for video, with the Cuddeback taking the first picture, when we looked at the pictures from the Wildgame camera we were surprised to see the deer (both bucks and does) fleeing! That told us the flash does bother most deer. Yet, when my old Cuddeback flash camera went into it's one minute per picture taking we saw the same deer over and over and not bothered! So sometimes it does and sometimes not.
Overall, I am very satisfied with the Wildgame camera. I purchased it at Dick's when they had a sale. Got the camera, a set of batteries and a SD card for less than $100. Compare that to the Cuddeback cameras priced over $300.
For me, the IR is the best way to go with the cameras because you don't get the flash to warn someone and for deer it does not scare them whereas with the flash, sometimes it bothers and sometimes not. With bucks though, many times it does scare them! I was surprised at this. Someone also told me to check my old pictures; regular vs. IR. I was surprised to see that when I got a nice sized buck with the regular flash, I would not get any other pictures of that buck. But when I got the IR then I began to get multiple pictures of the bigger bucks. I was surprised to say the least.
The Wildgame camera does not have as many settings as the more expensive cameras but I found it did all we needed done and the price certainly was right.
If you have any specific questions I will be happy to answer them.
The one I ordered is a Wildgame Innovations 6.0 Mega Pixel Digital Game Scouting Camera With Infrared Flash, $109 shipped, no SD card.
Nice write up Dennis!
Velvet, will be eager to hear how you like your when you get it....I know that there are several on this forum (including myself) to see how it works out for you.
Velvet, will be eager to hear how you like your when you get it....I know that there are several on this forum (including myself) to see how it works out for you.
Yes, that was a nice write up.
I just now clicked the chasingame.com link. I'm GLAD I didn't discover it before. My head is spinning as it is!
I just now clicked the chasingame.com link. I'm GLAD I didn't discover it before. My head is spinning as it is!
Thanks Lee
I feel the same way! I read on the forms section there that there is a big show this weekend with all the new products that are coming out. I'm going to wait a while and see whats new. But what Dennis said about the Wildgame Innovations sounds good to me!
Billy
I feel the same way! I read on the forms section there that there is a big show this weekend with all the new products that are coming out. I'm going to wait a while and see whats new. But what Dennis said about the Wildgame Innovations sounds good to me!
Billy
I tried it to see if it works and it seems to. It's like a watched pot though: I don't know if you can go look at the pics constantly, especially if you don't see any animal tracks in the snow. Right now I have it on a post under the deck. It is easy to get to and retrieve the sd card. I got a package of two 2 gb cards so that if the camera is mounted more remotely, I can just switch cards. I didn't realize they used so many batteries (8 AA cells). I guess it's because it operates in cold weather. I got some rechargeable batteries for it. I'm not totally sold on infrared over normal flash though. I don't think the ir pics will look too natural, and I wouldn't mind if the critters were scared by a flash since the camera is aimed at my wife's shrubs out back!
Cold weather will eat the batteries up. I have a inferred cam and the night pic's look grey. I will take the grey over scaring game. But thats not at my house thats in the woods
The party is ON in my little piece of woods![[Hearth.com] Anyone Have Experience with a Game Camera?](/talk/data/attachments/39/39278-fe7fba7dc0991eb2eaf6ad2557d9e63b.jpg?hash=8d1jboQCZB)
I recall many, many moons ago when we lived where we had some close neighbors. In fact, it was a 4-corner with a small store on the corner and we lived behind the store on the road heading north. The people who owned the store also had a pair of big Weimaraner dogs. They would let them loose a couple times every day and the first place they would go would be to our back yard. You know what happened then.
I was polite with them as I'd known these people since my youth and they were nice. However, nothing got done with the dogs and they got even worse with the night time barking. Sometimes they would bark for hours and never stop for a breath! Amazing they could go that long and that steady. Anyway, I finally got tired of it so started taking care of a few things. The store would open around 9:00 am and for many days they could count on a large pile of dog crap.....right in front of the store door! Sometimes it takes some drastic things to make other things happen. I would even go outside during the night, usually around 2:00-3:00 am with trusty shotgun in hand. Two or three shots straight up in the air was usually enough to wake them up.
Personally I thing it is one of the rudest things neighbors can do is to let their dogs just stand around barking all day and all night. Also the letting the dogs go free to make fertilizer deposits in neighbor's lawns. I hate to be rude but sometimes it does seem to be necessary.
I was polite with them as I'd known these people since my youth and they were nice. However, nothing got done with the dogs and they got even worse with the night time barking. Sometimes they would bark for hours and never stop for a breath! Amazing they could go that long and that steady. Anyway, I finally got tired of it so started taking care of a few things. The store would open around 9:00 am and for many days they could count on a large pile of dog crap.....right in front of the store door! Sometimes it takes some drastic things to make other things happen. I would even go outside during the night, usually around 2:00-3:00 am with trusty shotgun in hand. Two or three shots straight up in the air was usually enough to wake them up.
Personally I thing it is one of the rudest things neighbors can do is to let their dogs just stand around barking all day and all night. Also the letting the dogs go free to make fertilizer deposits in neighbor's lawns. I hate to be rude but sometimes it does seem to be necessary.
I love my 6.0 Outfitter IR Scouting Camera game cam. I got many good pictures of deer, coyotes, turkeys, etc. this year. I'm going to probably buy another Moultrie or that Bushnell game camera for next year.
I bought my game cam from bass pro with a giftcard. They ranged in price from $50 -$300. Like anything else you get what you pay for. The one I got was $180 then I got an 8gig flash drive. I had no idea what went on in my back yard. I also didn't realize how nocturnal deer and other wildlife are. Mine is IR and daytime. It can shoot pics every 30 seconds or 30 second videos every 30 seconds. It can be set to take shots every couple minutes to 10minutes to save battery. I bought a cheap solar panel from wallmart and wired it up with a plug that plugged into the exteded battery inlet on the camera. It works pretty well and shooting 100 pictures a night it can stay up with a good charge every day of sunlight. The flash uses up quite a bit of energy though as well as the 8 megapixel camera.
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A little late on the update, but I've found it to be somewhat useless since the movement of a branch in a small amount of wind sets off the camera, even when the branch is far away.
Velvet, that is one of the first things you learn when setting a camera. Do not have brush or even weeds in front of the camera! Do not set it so that it will point directly into rising or setting sun either. When placing the camera on a runway, do not attempt to get a broadside shot; most cameras are just too slow in trigger speed and the animal will either already be out of sight or you'll just catch a small part of the animal. Better to aim down the runway a bit to get the camera time to turn on.
Height of the camera is another consideration. Set it low and you may get rabbit or squirrel pictures or any other little critter. Lots of folks set them about 3' high. I set them higher and aim them slightly down and have good luck with this.
One big consideration that I learned the hard way is to be sure the camera is turned on before leaving. It is a bit frustrating to leave a camera for a week or more and then go to see you have not even turned it on....
Height of the camera is another consideration. Set it low and you may get rabbit or squirrel pictures or any other little critter. Lots of folks set them about 3' high. I set them higher and aim them slightly down and have good luck with this.
One big consideration that I learned the hard way is to be sure the camera is turned on before leaving. It is a bit frustrating to leave a camera for a week or more and then go to see you have not even turned it on....
I'm telling 'ya, I've tried a bunch of times, these moving branches are pretty darn far away.
It'd be nice if the sensitivity was adjustable.
Strange velvetfoot. I have 4 game cameras and just do not have that problem. Of course a few times I did set the cameras wrong and did have that problem but it is easy to fix. What is pretty far away? And yes, some cameras sensitivity can be adjusted.
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