Yet Another Cycling Forum
Random Musings => Gallery => Phototalk => Topic started by: Woofage on 05 June, 2019, 12:06:34 pm
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For night-time use. Got any recommendations?
We get 'hogs, deer, foxes and who knows what else in our garden. I reckon it's a riotous party at night down by the pond. We have a garden building in a good position that can provide wi-fi and power (with some fettling) and the camera could be positioned under the eves for some weather protection. Buy a dedicated unit? Security camera? R-Pi with bits? I open it up to the panel.
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I think a proper trail camera is the way to go. It will be properly waterproof, and very long battery life. Mine can last about 3 months on a set of batteries. Just need to check the memory card every so often.
I have a Browning camera, it is pretty good. Decent quality photos and images, including at night.
Naturespy have a good range, useful for comparing models. https://shop.naturespy.org/
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We have a Spypoint Force 11D at work, for wildlife activity in our biodiversity area. It's been great. Runs best on posh lithium AAs or good rechargeables, as it depletes alkalines in short order.
My Mum and Dad bought one for their garden and seem very pleased with it.
Edit: The trail cam was a piece of utter rubbish, actually. In fact, both were, and both failed at a similar time in exactly the same way: the screen malfunctioned to the point that the menu-driven operation became impossible. Not even firmware flashing cured it. ~Ed. May 2022.
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I have a Bushnell trail camera that can take video or stills. I've left it out for months, it isn't wireless, you have to open it and get the SD card out.
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Thanks for the tips. I'll check those out.
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Thanks for the tips. I'll check those out.
Did you ever buy one of those cameras? I'm thinking of getting one.
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Yes, I got a Bushnell. Don't know the model number but it's got "dark" LEDs and does stills and video. It runs on batteries (6 :o) and will go for a couple of months between charges.
We've seen badgers, deer, various birds and lots of shots of the cats. No 'hogs yet though :(.
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Thanks.
I just read a few reviews on Naturespy and ordered one of these:
https://shop.naturespy.org/product/browning-recon-force-edge-wildlife-camera-btc-7e/
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Good choice. I think that one was out of stock when I ordered ours. Got this one instead:
https://shop.naturespy.org/product/2019-bushnell-core-no-glow-119938/
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After I had placed the order, Dez, useful as ever ::-) said "You shouldn't have ordered that one - you should have ordered one with Wifi!"
I had a look round to see what was available and the one I found had a review that siad the wifi and the app were really clunky and not worth having.
The chances are that this camera will sit in the granny annex looking through the patio doors, where it will be able to see the entirety of our not-very-big back garden.
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For some reason I have yet to fathom, my camera has failed to take any photos for the past two nights. In fact, 3 nights ago is suddenly stopped recording at 1am or thereabouts. Normally it happily records videos from about 10pm, when the first hedgehogs turn up, right through beyond dawn. I think my record is 17 videos in one night, from only a few days ago.
I changed the batteries the night before last to a new set of rechargeables that I hadn't used before and I wondered if they were too low-powered to be able to operate correctly, so I charged the set that I've been using for the past 3 weeks or so and they were in the camera last night. It seems not to be the batteries that are at fault.
I looked around the internet for troubleshootin help for Browning cameras and came across some USAnian who was complaining about the battery drawers getting stuck and lumps breaking off them. I can see how this might well be an issue - the battery drawer is quite difficult to extract, but I don't think it's that.
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I bought a low/mid range Apeman trail camera for the allotment.
It has been working well picking up when the trees move, the sunflower plants are blown by the wind, and it captures the occasional blackbird having a bath in the pond it's pointing at.
Have I seen any nightlife? None, nada, not a cat, not a fox or hedgehog - I'm starting to think my allotment 'wildlife area' is as sterile as it gets.
It records for about 10 seconds when it detects movement, and has a 32gb SD card - I take my Kindle Fire tablet every visit and review the (disappointing) footage. I know its IR vision is working because I've used it at night at home. Mrs M tells me to be patient!
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My problem a couple of posts ago turned out to be my Apple Mac telling the SD card it was full when it wasn't, and the camera believing it. I phoned naturespy.org, who flog these devices in Llangollen, and they were extremely helpful. I cured the problem, with the guy on the phone talking me through it, using the menu items on the camera.
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Mrs Blade has decided that she wants a garden camera to view the hedgehogs at night.
The criteria for a camera seems to be, decent battery life and wifi connectivity so she can get alerts of activity which she can view in real time on her phone or laptop. Distance from house to camera would be about 15 metres.
Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
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I've just seen the above post.
I bought one of these: https://shop.naturespy.org/product/browning-recon-force-edge-wildlife-camera-btc-7e/
and I have had pretty good results with it. I ahve been using rechargeable AAs with it, but I haven't put it out since October as hedgehogs stopped turning up and I was getting fed up with photographing foxes acrobatically shitting in large plant pots.
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A follow up about my Apeman from up above.
The battery (4 AA) was showing around 60%, but nothing was recorded on a few subsequent visits - initially no night recordings, then nothing at all.
The battery indication lies consistently.
I also take a spare SD card in a key-ring holder and swap it out, rather than taking my screen to the allotment.
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I'm thinking of getting one for the occasional Red Kite swoop for meat scraps that we put out for the Jackdaws ect.
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I'm thinking of getting one for the occasional Red Kite swoop for meat scraps that we put out for the Jackdaws ect.
It's a Crenova 20MP 1080P wildlife / trail cam I have. Quite a few available on Amazon etc for around £50-£60.
Here's a sample capture from mine, a hedgehog visiting back in October 2019. Probably I hadn't positioned the camera close enough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYMwde0LGgM
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We had an owl visit the other night*.
"Fat" badger and "Kinky Tail" fox are regulars. As is the odd deer. Still no 'hogs though...
* they're not what they seem.
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Some good tips here, a sparrowhawk has taken down 2 pigeons in the garden since Xmass. A cheap camera would be ideal., but its getting it in the correct position . Was thinking about an RC Servo to pan the camera, easy to do if you are into RC toys.
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I think I'll call him Cooper.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50982121107_8140624c42_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kF7Gq4)
152441358_10159429398924994_7465072230320658659_o (https://flic.kr/p/2kF7Gq4)
by pencyclist (https://www.flickr.com/photos/38357939@N02/), on Flickr