Need recommendation for a decent trail camera. Not cheap Chinese POS, nor
Zei$$ either. For taking pictures of deer, coyotes, and prowlers.

SteveB

Heart surgery pending?
Read up and prepare.
Download the book $10
http://cabgbypasssurgery.com

Steve B wrote:
Need recommendation for a decent trail camera. Not cheap Chinese
POS, nor Zei$$ either. For taking pictures of deer, coyotes, and
prowlers.
SteveB

Heart surgery pending?
Read up and prepare.
Download the book $10
http://cabgbypasssurgery.com

Kodak makes an easyshare line , mine's an M530 . Pocket size 12 Megapixel
, pretty decent zoom , and includes a rechargable and replaceable battery .
Has several modes , including digital video and uses SD cards for memory .
Interfaces easily with your comp via USB or you can remove the card to read
it . I think this one was around $200 .
Oh , and it's autofocus/exposure .
--
Snag
Learning keeps
you young !

On Mar 4, 3:10*am, "Steve B" wrote:
Need recommendation for a decent trail camera. *Not cheap Chinese POS, nor
Zei$$ either. *For taking pictures of deer, coyotes, and prowlers.

SteveB

Heart surgery pending?
Read up and prepare.
Download the book $10http://cabgbypasssurgery.com

For pictures of wild animals you probably want a telephoto lens. You
might consider a SLR film camera. You will not be shooting lots of
pictures of animals, compared to the number of pictures of people and
scenic pictures. So the cost of the film would not be too bad.

Dan

wrote in message
...
On Mar 4, 3:10 am, "Steve B" wrote:
Need recommendation for a decent trail camera. Not cheap Chinese POS, nor
Zei$$ either. For taking pictures of deer, coyotes, and prowlers.

SteveB

Heart surgery pending?
Read up and prepare.
Download the book $10http://cabgbypasssurgery.com

For pictures of wild animals you probably want a telephoto lens. You
might consider a SLR film camera. You will not be shooting lots of
pictures of animals, compared to the number of pictures of people and
scenic pictures. So the cost of the film would not be too bad.

Dan

I'm pretty sure that critters are not scared off by an unattended trail
camera cabled and locked to a tree.

On Mar 4, 12:20*pm, "Bob La Londe" wrote:

I'm pretty sure that critters are not scared off by an unattended trail
camera cabled and locked to a tree.

Mea Culpa. I was thinking of a camera to take with one when hiking.
As opposed to a camera to take pictures at home.

Dan

On 03/04/2011 08:10 AM, Steve B wrote:
Need recommendation for a decent trail camera. Not cheap Chinese POS, nor
Zei$$ either. For taking pictures of deer, coyotes, and prowlers.

SteveB


I have been using a Moultrie that I got from Cabellas. It is a 5mpixel
camera with an SD card slot. It has IR flash and runs on D Cells for
months. I bring the camera in the house and download it through the USB
port. It has a little keyfob transmitter if you want to trigger it
manually or the IR motion detector.

It works pretty well. Images are not SLR quality, but with no person
around to scare the critters, you get some serious closeups.

The camera is chinese made, but it works OK.

The model I got is a Cabellas special, and I emailed Moultrie about
getting the keyfob trigger stuff and they responded with exactly what I
was asking about. I would deal with them again.

BobH

On Mar 4, 1:10*am, "Steve B" wrote:
Need recommendation for a decent trail camera. *Not cheap Chinese POS, nor
Zei$$ either. *For taking pictures of deer, coyotes, and prowlers.

SteveB

Like other digital stuff, these change very fast. What you want is a
weather-tight box that has decent attaching points and can be locked,
if needed. Just had to retrofit the b-in-l's camera with a metal
plate because the attachment point was on the lid of the box, not the
back. Meant that every time we wanted to access the SD card, we had to
dismantle the setup, then get it all back together again and repoint
the camera.

What these have been is a microcontroller connected to a cheap webcam
with some kind of storage card slot and an IR movement detector. As
they've been developed, they've gone from B&W to color and with an IR
LED flash array. Some can do limited video. As webcams have
improved, so have the game cameras. None I've seen are even close to
the same quality as even the cheapest pocket digicam, so don't get
your hopes up of getting a wall-sized portrait of Bambi from a game
camera. What they are good for is determining what's walking through
the area and when. If no deer, then don't hunt there. Most any of
them will do that.

Extras to look for:
External battery connection for extended use
SDHC card slot for extended memory storage, there must be a ton of SD
interface chips in some Asian warehouse that still keep getting stuck
in things. Thumbs down on SD-only.
Laser for aiming
Uses regular D cells, not funky special batteries or battery packs
Maybe video clips
IR flash
A strap or harness long enough to go around the biggest tree you might
want to use, additional rings, loops or hangers are quite welcome.
The b-in-l uses a T-bar stake with a chunk of plywood bolted to the
top and a hook to hang the thing from. Works well in the swamp.
A real lens, not a pinhole camera

I really can't recommend any particular brand, they've all got
shortcomings. Now is the time to get one, though, a lot of the web
operators are getting rid of older stock for cheap.

I use a small EEE netbook with a SSD to go get the pictures off the
cameras, very handy. No hard drive to worry about when rattling
around on the 4-wheeler.

Stan

On 2011-03-04, wrote:
On Mar 4, 3:10*am, "Steve B" wrote:
Need recommendation for a decent trail camera. *Not cheap Chinese POS, nor
Zei$$ either. *For taking pictures of deer, coyotes, and prowlers.

[ ... ]

For pictures of wild animals you probably want a telephoto lens. You
might consider a SLR film camera. You will not be shooting lots of
pictures of animals, compared to the number of pictures of people and
scenic pictures. So the cost of the film would not be too bad.

Except that film is becoming progressively less available.

But (assuming you have the money to spare) a good zoom lens with
VR (Vibration Reduction) or IS (Image Stabilization) (two manufacturers'
names for the same thing) on a DSLR will give you better chances of a
good shot than film will. Among other things, "auto ISO", which allows
the camera to boost the ISO (sensitivity -- used to be called ASA) to
allow a reasonable shutter speed to minimize motion blur, and a
telephoto magnifys motion blur, unless you have the VR/IS option and
turn it on. That option adds a lot to the cost of a lens, FWIW, which
is why I *don't* have it.

My (now obsolete) Nikon D70 has an ISO range from 200 to 1600.
200 is about half of what Tri-X gave by default (it could be pushed, at
an increase in grain size). Color films really did not play in that
range, except one high-speed Ektachrome, which was 160 ASA IIRC, and
which could not be pushed that much. :-)

The two main contenders in serious DSLRs are Nikon and Cannon.
My choice of Nikon was because of already owned lenses for older
cameras, but otherwise they are mostly about the same -- give or take a
few specialized features. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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Except that film is becoming progressively less available.

What's "film"? ;-)

I used to have a whole darkroom with Beseler 45 MCRX enlarger and a set of
Zeiss lenses. It was a lot of fun.

Film is film, but on arrival of the 5 mp digital camera, the world changed.

Steve