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Thread: Trail Cam Suggestions

  1. #41
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Recent Nanaimo transplant to Williams Lake
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    2,132

    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by wos View Post
    On second thought what do i know! Spend as much as you can afford on a high quality camera and put it in a magical spot. That should get the job done. Sorry about the bad advice earlier .
    I think you were right the first time. You only need a camera to give you a picture or video of what is in your area. You do not need perfect clarity so you can frame for the wall. My buddy and I have been using cams ranging from $50 to $200 each and very few have failed and when any of them get stolen or eaten by a bear it hurts far less lol Only ones that have failed were the higher end $ range. Also two or three times more cameras out would be better than one pricey one in the wrong spot
    "People who know the least always argue the most."

    "You should not use a rifle that will kill an animal when everything goes right, you should use one that will do the job when everything goes wrong."

  2. #42
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    Feb 2007
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    Recent Nanaimo transplant to Williams Lake
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    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by HighCountryBC View Post
    It's not what you capture. It's what you miss.

    Interesting comparison btw.
    You can not keep spouting this cause you have no idea what or IF you missed anything. If you have cams set up for crossing in front only sure you might miss becasue of 1 second longer delay, which I do not see any with long delays like that. There is a lot of experience here and sounds like you also have lots of time in the field with your cameras. Between my friend and myself we have about 20 lower end cams and sometimes we might have more than one in a area. So IF we think we might miss on one the other might catch a different direction. And you know what ? They all seem to find their mark. It might be possible that expensive cams also miss things cause they are set up badly or wrong direction. Also if this site you offer for comparison only sells mid to higher range cams, why would they ever tell you otherwise ? I would suggest if someone wants to get into it, try to get 3 or 4 of what you can afford
    "People who know the least always argue the most."

    "You should not use a rifle that will kill an animal when everything goes right, you should use one that will do the job when everything goes wrong."

  3. #43
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Aldergrove, BC
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    4,466

    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by HighCountryBC View Post
    Take a deep breath and relax.

    You do a lot of talking on certain topics when listening would be most beneficial.
    Ok. I'll take that as a no.

    Too bad. Wouldve been a good test to run and actually have some proof behind what you claim.

  4. #44
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Aldergrove, BC
    Posts
    4,466

    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by caddisguy View Post
    I brought the cold/drain issue up. All batteries drain faster below freezing. If I'm copying stuff off cams to my tablet at -15 I have to use a power pack. Same deal watching a movie at night on my cell phone at those temps, I have to leave it plugged in to get through half the movie.
    Well yes, but cams still DO continue to run in -15, right? Albeit with degraded performance. My question was about what kind of degradation to performance takes place and what temps etc.

    Also curious when they absolutely freeze up. Someone like sitkasprice would be a good one to answer this as I'm sure it gets COOOOOLD up in his country

  5. #45
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    Dec 2003
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    A desk, truck, stand and blind in BC
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    5,829

    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    I have around 16 cams and run them year around. Been doing it for 10+ years, ever since I got a home made Sony. Addicting as hell!!

    I run a few 7 year old Bushnells and Spypoints that keep going strong (although one SP died this year), 4 Simmons 7mp, a Browning and two Stealthcam G series whiteflash cams and the Sony. The Sony takes the best pictures by far! I have been slowly adding cheap cams as I want to try to see if there is a really a difference. I picked up 2 Tasco 8mp for $45 each, a Simmons Blackflash for $29, a Bushnell Blackflash for $39 and just received one of those Chinese ones from Amazon for $45 on a flash sale. Will pick up a few electrical boxes to make bear proof boxes for them and give them a run in the bush this year.

    I have run the Simmons BF, the Bushnell BF and the Browning all together for pictures around the house and the two cheapies took the same # pictures and there was very little difference in quality. But I run my Browning for video and the Simmons and Bushnell's for pictures. The Stealthcams have been great for video, especially with white flash. And the animals don't run from them. Will post some videos later. I have one of the Tasco's out in the field for the last 45 days with a spypoint to see how they compare, will post up the results.

    Experiments in the field to see if saving $100+ makes a difference to the picture/video/sound quality and to my scouting and hunting.

    Cheers

    SS

    Quote Originally Posted by 358mag View Post
    "In spite of what some members of this site choose to BELIEVE, None of our opinions are any more important than Dog Shit"!

  6. #46
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Aldergrove, BC
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    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by Sitkaspruce View Post
    I have around 16 cams and run them year around. Been doing it for 10+ years, ever since I got a home made Sony. Addicting as hell!!

    I run a few 7 year old Bushnells and Spypoints that keep going strong (although one SP died this year), 4 Simmons 7mp, a Browning and two Stealthcam G series whiteflash cams and the Sony. The Sony takes the best pictures by far! I have been slowly adding cheap cams as I want to try to see if there is a really a difference. I picked up 2 Tasco 8mp for $45 each, a Simmons Blackflash for $29, a Bushnell Blackflash for $39 and just received one of those Chinese ones from Amazon for $45 on a flash sale. Will pick up a few electrical boxes to make bear proof boxes for them and give them a run in the bush this year.

    I have run the Simmons BF, the Bushnell BF and the Browning all together for pictures around the house and the two cheapies took the same # pictures and there was very little difference in quality. But I run my Browning for video and the Simmons and Bushnell's for pictures. The Stealthcams have been great for video, especially with white flash. And the animals don't run from them. Will post some videos later. I have one of the Tasco's out in the field for the last 45 days with a spypoint to see how they compare, will post up the results.

    Experiments in the field to see if saving $100+ makes a difference to the picture/video/sound quality and to my scouting and hunting.

    Cheers

    SS
    ^^^ this man delivers!!! looking forward to seeing the results.

    Is the home made Sony a point and shoot turned into a trail cam? Got a pic? Curious how you got it set up

  7. #47
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Langley
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    6,032

    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by twoSevenO View Post
    Well yes, but cams still DO continue to run in -15, right? Albeit with degraded performance. My question was about what kind of degradation to performance takes place and what temps etc.

    Also curious when they absolutely freeze up. Someone like sitkasprice would be a good one to answer this as I'm sure it gets COOOOOLD up in his country
    Mine all function just fine no matter how cold. -20 is about as cold as it gets for me though. It's just the battery life I'm referring to. My personal experience is that once it hits -5 any batteries drain 2x as fast and they give off less voltage as well so they hit rock bottom sooner. It doesn't affect your trigger speed, video quality or anything like that. I suppose when the batteries are half dead and it's cold, there might not be enough voltage, so the lights might be dim or flicker. Some of my vids do show flickering on night vids with low battery and cold temps and recover when its warmer. Say I change the batteries late in October, I'll start seeing it in Feb. Keep in mind I do 30s vids and get 300-600 in that time span. I notice issues in the cold more with lithium, but lithium runs like a champ spring to fall.

    Its a fact of life with batteries... even lead acid. If you look at buying a portable jump starter for your car, it has a whole graph for temps.

    They should sell block heaters for cams that take more than 300 vids LOL

    Like you I think cheap cams are the way to go. Expensive cams fail just the same and generally someone buying expensive cams has fewer points of failure before they are out of the game. I've only really had 1 cam fail and I I have running 5-7 cams for several years wintering them. I've had a few eaten by bears though, so dang glad I go with cheap ones.
    Last edited by caddisguy; 01-10-2019 at 11:58 PM.

  8. #48
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
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    Aldergrove, BC
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    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    I've had some gaps in my videos over the winter and havent been able to figure out it out. The batteries were showing OK life when I checked the cams so I doubt they got so cold to stop working yet come back to life fully a couple weeks later. Dont think it got that cold up there.

    I will have to throw one in the freezer for a day then check if the cam itself being cold has an effect on its trigger time... wouldnt surprise me with the cheap cams.

  9. #49
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Cranbrook, BC
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    1,159

    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by twoSevenO View Post
    I've had some gaps in my videos over the winter and havent been able to figure out it out. The batteries were showing OK life when I checked the cams so I doubt they got so cold to stop working yet come back to life fully a couple weeks later. Dont think it got that cold up there.

    I will have to throw one in the freezer for a day then check if the cam itself being cold has an effect on its trigger time... wouldnt surprise me with the cheap cams.

    I had one camera that over a two year period I started to question its operation. The thing that tipped me off that I may be correct in it missing pics is I spooked a few deer off my bait when going to check. Low and behold no pics of this. So I swapped it out and took it home to test. Sure as shit it was working but still missing a lot for some reason. The camera was working correctly intermittently off and on and I had no idea until I seen the deer run and got no pics of them. So you could be getting gaps, and I like you had a sneaky feeling that it might be going on with no proof. I have had some cams that were flaky as crap, gave them a BIOS/Firmware update and it was like I bought a brand new camera. So you could try that option as well. I have 3 cameras that go year round and as long as I put fresh batteries in them in the end of Oct/early Nov they will pick right back up in the spring taking pics. I strictly use Duracell Quantum no matter the type of battery.
    You can take the man out of the wilderness but you cant take the wilderness out of the man.

  10. #50
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    563

    Re: Trail Cam Suggestions

    Question: I am just getting into Cams myself and love this (albeit surprisingly emotional at times) thread. Thanks for all the knowledge being shared.

    I read a lot about bears going after the cams. I apologize if that is a stupid question, but: How do they know they are there? Do bears see IR? Some cams are advertised as "low glow", can I assume that some of the "IR" LEDs are spilling into the visible spectrum?

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