Trail Camera For Back Garden? (2 Viewers)

[canonman77]

Hello People, I need some help about Trail Cameras, there’s loads!!!!!. I’m wanting one for Holiday to Scotland (Gatehouse Of Fleet, Dumfries) in a gorgeous converted forestry workers office, it’s basically in middle of a forest & to see what’s about, mainly at Night & after for back Garden use when back home. I was looking at Browning HP5 recon force elite, but at £180, it’s quite a lot. As anyone got any recommendations for me. Really could do with one around £100 area. It’s a whole new area for me & am struggling & I go away end of May. Cheers Guys

Sean

 

[AnotherNoob]

Spent quite some time looking into these recently, decided to go for Ceyomur CY95. It's the first wildlife camera I've had so can't offer any comparison to others but I will say that the solar charging built-in battery is great, not put any batteries in it ever and the built-in battery is still at 100% after a month of use (solar charging in a forest may be a different story). The Bluetooth and WIFI is also a real boon as you don't have to disturb the camera and remove a memory card to see what you've caught; just connect via your smartphone. 4K @ 30-fps, 40MP, comes with a 32GB Micro SD card and it's bang-on your budget at £99.99 from Amazon.

 

[canonman77]

Cheers AnotherNoob, I’ll give it a look over.. thanks

 

[canonman77]

Anyone else got any recommendations for a trail camera or any other battery powered camera with night vision & motion detection..

Toodle Pip
Sean

 

[Mono]

There are so many on the market that it is difficult to give any actual recommendations. A lot of the review sites are so full of affiliate links it is difficult to know if they are giving an honest assessment or just recommending those with the biggest payback.

The main things to look out for are...

Low-glow vs no-glow. All trail cameras will have infra-red illumination for night time use. These come in two types, low glow 850mm LEDs these have a greater brightness and more range but they do give off a dull red glow when they illuminate. This is a disadvantage when using trail cameras in places with public access as people can see the camera when it is triggered. No glow 940nm emit no visible glow when triggered but they aren't so bright so will have less range.

Battery life. The stated battery lives should be taken with a pinch of salt, the actual battery life is dependant on the number of activations rather than a number of day. If you have a suburban garden with birds, cats, hedgehogs and whatever walking past your camera will burn through batteries compared to a camera on a mountainside that gets two detections a week. This isn't really a problem if you are just using the camera in the garden, just get two sets of rechargeables and swap them out every day. If you are going to use the camera out and about and foresee lots of activations then get one with bigger battery life.

Activation time. There is a finite time between when the camera detects something and when it takes the photo, on older models this could be over a second. This has got better over time but it still needs to be taken into account. It is not so much of a problem if your target is a large mammal such as deer or if you are using a bait station but if you are trying to capture small mammals or birds they can be across the field of view of the camera before it has taken the picture.

Extra tech. Modern cameras can come with Bluetooth, wi-fi, 4g and the rest, and whilst they can come in handy in some circumstances they are often just another thing to go wrong and to use the batteries.

I have been using an Acorn 5210A for years with few problems. It is on still on sale but it is quite an old model but tech standards.

 

[canonman77]

Hi Mono, thanks for your reply. It answered everything I needed & the Acorn 5210A looks like a good fit for me, as a newbie to trail cams. Just a few more questions, Is there any particular re-chargeable batteries to use or would any AA’s do. I was looking at using non rechargeable Energiser Lithium batteries for it. I would be mainly using it at night for the Badgers & possibly Fox and fingers crossed a Deer or two. I’ll be there all day most days taking photos so like I said it’ll just be used at night!! Is the Acorn 5210A easy to set up for motion detection video & how long are the videos each trigger. A lot of questions, I know. I do apologise & appreciate your time.

Thanks
Sean

 

[Mono]

There is a good how to guide here

Ltl Acorn 5210A - information, set up guide & maintenance by Pakatak Ltd

Set up guide, information and maintenance for your Ltl Acorn 5210A wildlife trail camera. This is the English version written by Pakatak Ltd.

pakatak.co.uk

 

[canonman77]

Thanks

 

[canonman77]

Hello, I ended up buying Browning recon force hp5. I’m glad I did end up going with my gut feeling. It’s awesome!!!!! Can’t wait to see what I video when I get in that forest in Dumfries & Galloway (pine marten perhaps)!! Be nice wouldn’t it! Cheers people