Trail cameras side by side

[jmorris]

The recent trail camera thread made me realize I never put more than one game camera at the same location to see what they did side by side.

It also made me think back when they were all 35mm, so you had to wait a week to see what had been there the week before that.

That lead me to make the first digital game camera that I know of. Used a couple of 555 IC’s and dip switches to go from 25 seconds up to 15 minutes between shots. Activated by an IR motion sensor, servo to press the camera button. It had to be activated once to “wake up” then would take pictures for some amount of time before it “went to sleep” saving the batteries, used 2, 6v deer feeder batteries so I could get 12v for the sensor & timer circuit and 6v for the camera. It was “high tech” at the time as you could see what was there, while you were hunting somewhere else the same day vs the next week. Led me to make the game radios but that’s a different story.



Anyhow I had thought a side by side of a few I use now would be cool but my newest Moultrie was stolen a few weeks ago and that put a damper on that idea. I had an old Bushnell that I replaced it with (many feet higher and better hidden, because it seems folks can’t help but return to the scene of the crime). I went to check on it yesterday and noticed the stolen camera had been returned. From the photos it looked like “Dad” made him return it, good for him and thank you!

They kept the memory card, I guess because it contained photos of them stealing it. And they didn’t notice the old camera above or he wouldn’t have bothered wiping his finger prints off in this photo.


So, I was back in business. Drilled a couple holes in an aluminum angle so they were all in the same plane and screwed them to a tree.



The Browning is my oldest Browning camera, the Bushnell is the newest model we have as is the Moultrie. I had always favored the Browning’s but that one didn’t do so hot this weekend.

I tried to set them all the same, 1 min between single shots, highest resolution, etc (might not have done a good job because I couldn’t even get the month right on all of them).





Thoes make the Browning look pretty good but it only took 22 photos yesterday/last night the Bushnell had 70 and the Moultrie 144. It took none after dark, not sure why brought it back to see if I can figure it out.

These are from the other two though.



The moultrie seems to be more of a zoomed in and not as crisp photo, it also is more sensitive because a lot of its photos are of birds or nothing.

I might gather up the other 4 or 5 cameras to compare all of them while nothing else is going on.

 

[sage5907]

If I have a really active feeder I often place two cameras at the same location so I can get a better idea of what is happening. In this case both cameras take a picture of the same deer at the same time. The pictures were taken on 12/22/18 at about 7:21 am with a temperature of about 20 degrees. The feeder is empty so the deer is not going to the feeder. It would really help if I would have had the cameras set up so the year, date, time were the same. It's easy for the minutes to be off but to miss the year and am/pm is inexcusable. This happens when you have several cameras and constantly changing batteries. Pictures like this really help in determining what time the animals are coming, the direction of approach and the direction of departure. I have the hardest time with this system trying to get pictures to appear in full screen in the area I want them to appear.

 

[Tilos]

jmorris:
Do you know/recognize that crew of former thieves in the pic?

 

[22250Rem]

This happens when you have several cameras and constantly changing batteries

.... I can relate to that; and if some of those trail cams use "AA" batteries have you tried "AA" Lithium batteries for cold weather use yet? This past winter was my first experience with them in trail cams and they outlast regular alkaline batteries; but then , they also cost more but at least they last longer. The Energizer "Ultimate Lithium" AA's I've been using are claimed to work down to minus 40 deg. F. . Never had it that low around here but at least they're not as sensitive to cold as the conventional ones are. I get a 12 pack of them at Wal Mart for somewhere around 15 bucks. Haven't decided on summer use for them but I'm sold on them for cold weather use.

 

[sage5907]

.... I can relate to that; and if some of those trail cams use "AA" batteries have you tried "AA" Lithium batteries for cold weather use yet?

I haven't tried the lithium batteries. I check the cameras once each month and I usually get between 1500 and 2000 pictures each month. The regular batteries last about 2 months but there are times when they are completely gone when the 2nd month is over. I will try the lithium batteries to see if I can get more than two months before I have to change them. Several years ago when I started using the cameras I was using 2 GB SD cards and now I am using 32 GB cards. The lithium batteries may be better with the larger capacity cards. Thanks for the information.

 

[22250Rem]

I don't do anywhere near that many pictures a month so now I know why you change lots of batteries, lol. Although this past winter myself and a friend are both using lithiums and both noticed how much better they hold up in the winter. They are all cams that take 4 or 8 AA batteries and even in the summer using alkaline batteries those things last a lot longer than the ones with "C" or "D" cell alkaline batteries in them. Those type seem to eat lots of batteries, in my experience. I've only got 4 cams out now in two different areas but sometimes have as many as 8 out at once. They all have "AA" lithiums and are holding up great. I'm just gonna stick with lithiums for winter time use.

 

[jmorris]

jmorris:
Do you know/recognize that crew of former thieves in the pic?

I do not, there has been an influx of folks looking to get their kids “out of town”, so they drive up land prices (in small tracts) and their kids that have no boundaries, not to mention, everything is owed to them these days, right there...is just across the fence.

The “SMU” sweater on the left seemed to me like someone that would have been “that smart”. Hats off to the “Dad” that forced them to clean up their own mess, finger prints I guess would have been smart with the gloves and wiping down, if they had enough situational awareness/noticed things around them.

It’s across a public road from most our property and was actually purchased to be a “buffer” so thoes kind of folks would stop at the artificial boundary of another road.

The local paper was a thought, they report all police calls, small town obviously. If I capture more images of them coming back, that will be the next step. I see some honor in recognizing and reconciliation of injustice without being “busted”. I knew they would Be back but didn’t expect the return of property, so I blocked them out. I have a number of images of them and will certainly have more if there are any new problems. That and the fact that the range the Sheriffs department uses is also owned by us, should make it a simple soultion, if it’s required to go that far.

 

[FL-NC]

Cameras are... weird. I have had 2 side by side, or even in a L configuration on a bait pile. Many times, they were not "working together". Also, my friend has the moultrie cameras with the modem that send pics to your phone. I can't even count the times last season where I saw deer in the camera's FOV that were not captured on the SD card. I also had a cheap one that was WAY too sensitive. 300 photos in 24 hours- twigs blowing in the wind, leaves falling, once I got like 20 photos of a millipede climbing a tree. And God forbid it rains!