Trail camera

[Franco]

Just in case anyone is thinking of purchasing a trail camera, here are some photos from mine to maybe get a better idea of what to expect at a particular price point.
Aldi recently advertised a "12MP " trail camera at $129. I had a look at the specs and found that there are several vendors for the exact same camera at anything from $65 USD (do not ship to AU...) to $169.
I bought one from a local vendor ( on EBay) for $98 inc postage.
It arrived in 4 days.
One of the versions of that camera :

trail camera.jpg (33.84 KiB) Viewed 67596 times

As I knew already, the 12MP bit is the interpolated image. The sensor is 5MP and that is , according to the manual, the best setting for it ( totally the opposite of the typical ad blurb..)
Anyway , it works but I have noticed that several times it has been triggered but was not fast enough to capture the triggeree (!)
Some un-retouched shots from it .
Me going for a walk with the cat :

Blondie, a very small fox that happens to be almost all blond, no red .

A young male. This one seems to be by himself most of the time. I see him occasionally during the day :

Both that particular roo and Blondie have been captured several times. Another fox made an appearance (typical red fox) as well as a pair of beagles, at 6:30 PM, that I don't know were they come from.

[Franco]

BTW, this is the one :
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201998475529
as mentioned, it is sold under many different brands. They all look exactly the same so it should not be difficulty to tell it is the same camera.

[Nuts]

On your place?, leave something smelly & pauseworthy in front?
It's interesting to see how natives (and ferals) use make use of the same trails.

[Franco]

No , I don't want to use any baits, the same as I don't feed the birds just to take some photos.
Foxes have been eating all the pears up to about 1 meter off the ground. That is inside the enclosed orchard but there is a small gap in the gate . Too small for the roos but not for foxes and rabbits.

[Nuts]

I wasn't exactly thinking 'bait' but I guess that is what it would be, some essence on a twig.
When i first played around with trail cams the target was the dog, found plucking blackberries off the lower rows. (thornless /domestic type, not growing weeds )

[Ms_Mudd]

Trail-cam-me-s.jpg

Edit: I wanted to attach the image of the sleek black feline, but failed. Oh dear.

Panther!!!!!

Nice quality images, looks like a good camera. Go Aldi.

[Franco]

BTW, this camera is not the Aldi branded one but the same camera with a different brand on it.
There are several sellers/brands for it.
I paid $99, the Aldi version was $130.

[blakey_]

I was looking at trail cams vs a raspberry pi zerow build for doing motion triggered & time lapse wildlife captures. Good to see some real sample shots to get an idea of sensor quality. 5MP is fine for downsampling and putting together FHD timelapse videos. Slow lens at ƒ3.1 though.

The one you linked appears to have an intervalometer function (5sec to 24hr interval), is that correct?

The slow trigger is probably an issue for capturing birds though.

[Franco]

The interval timer is for the time it takes between photos.(from 1 sec to 60 min)
So if you set 1 sec it will take another photo , if triggered, in 1 sec (sort of...) after the first one, but if you set 30 minutes it will not take another shot till at least 30 min have passed. So basically is a way to preset the minimum delay between photos.

[blakey_]

Ah, bummer, I was hoping for triggered or interval operation modes. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Maybe a Pi is the way to go after all.

So the quoted "5sec to 24hr" interval isn't a thing (vs 1sec to 30min trigger delay) at all?

[tastrax]

Have a look at this site - there are heaps of different cameras for specific purposes.

http://www.trailcameras.com.au/

If set at one second delay then a camera will normally take an image every second whilst something is still in view and only stop when nothing is there versus 30 seconds in which case it would take a shot every thirty seconds whilst something was in view.

I think some will do a 'burst of pictures' for a period of time before the reset. I am not sure that many do sub second intervals. If you are just after straight timelapse then cameras like the Garmin Virb will do that, but with no trigger to set them off - just on or off..

I gather you are wanting to do a timelapse (say once an hour) AS WELL AS any triggered images (once a second whilst triggered) - I am not sure any do that

Last edited by tastrax on Sun 22 Apr, 2018 1:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[blakey_]

I'd be happy with timelapse/intervalometer OR motion triggered operation modes.

For some reason I hadn't even thought about action cameras, they'll have much better lenses/sensors. Will look up some specs for intervalometer / battery life / weatherproofness.

[tastrax]

Lots of suggestions for these types of cameras at Mapillary forum - the good, bad, downright ugly, cheap, expensive, great resolution, 360 degrees... they are all there!

https://forum.mapillary.com/c/tools

https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/tast ... 4830799268

[Franco]

Yes that interval timer does not work like a standard camera interval timer.
You can set my camera to take from 1 to 3 photos every time it is triggered.
With the interval timer you are telling the camera not to take another single/sequence for ...anything from 1 sec to 60 minutes but it is possible that the range is extended with versions sold under another brand.
From the photo I have seen I think that the Reconyx are the best but are also 10x the cost of mine.

[Franco]

This is the other fox. About twice the size of Blondie the fox I posted above.

[Franco]

captured this one last night.
It looks like a fox cub in one but a cat in the other.

smaller than Blondie, the small fox I posted above (not the last one...)
Any suggestions ?

[Neo]

Big ears and thick tail, I'd say fox. Maybe this one's a bit smaller.

[Franco]

Yes , I think so.
The tip of ears are at about 33cm , measured against a piece of bark that sticks out from one of those trees.
so this means I have at least 3 foxes roaming at my place.
not much bigger than a rabbit :

[Franco]

still can't get the mystery animal but a fox stopped for a pee

[jobell]

Hey Franco,

Interesting to see the pics that your camera managed to capture. Thanks for sharing. I love that your cat goes for a walk with you! But these cameras have me a little worried.... given they are used more and more for wildlife research etc out in the national parks and so forth.... what I want to know is, what's the odds of rather than capturing a fox having a pee they get a really nice pic of my rear? Hahahaha. Sorry if TMI.

Cheers. Jobell

[Franco]

The reason for getting that camera was to find out what animal leaves a particular scat that I have not been able to identify.
It has been around since I have installed the camera but only a few times, it used to cross my property pretty much every night for over two years .

[stepbystep]

Not sure if you've done any real research on the range of trail cameras around, I've done none, but...

I'm interested in a system that can transmit from a remote area via 3G mobile signal. I'm thinking it would need a significant battery system to keep camera active and mobile charged.
I'd like for it to be controlled remotely, perhaps with a pan/zoom function. Anyone seen such a beast?

[tastrax]

Heaps available that do 3G etc but remote zoom pan etc will cost you big bucks. Also depends if you want video or stills. All will require great batteries and probably solar so making it discrete can be a problem.

https://www.securitylab.com.au/3G-4G-Security-Camera

http://www.reconyx.com.au/index.php - these are very well regarded

[tastrax]

Here are a few more for you - these are at the upper end of the $$ scale!

http://www.starweb.com.au/rural_surveillance.html

https://spectur.com.au/features/

[stepbystep]

Thanks heaps Phil. I can probably do without pan and zoom for what I have in mind if I can get decent resolution.

[ofuros]

Any trail camera's out there with a minimum focus range of around half a metre instead of the usual 1-1.2m outwards ? Seperate Macro lens ? Mainly for closer, full frame bird pics around a water feature, capturing our garden blue tongue lazing in it's favourite sunny spot or small mammals on their tiny beaten track through the leaf litter.

[tastrax]

I suspect that you may find its easier to get a higher resolution camera that takes shot further away and then use editing software for cropping images. I am not aware of any macro trail cameras.

[ofuros]

Thought it was a long shot, so to speak...thanks tastrax.

[Franco]

This one :https://www.proschoice.com.au/products/bushnell-natureview-cam-hd-liveview-119740
can take photos at 25 and 46 cm using the supplied close up lenses.
No idea on the photo quality.
I found a video clip from a local user :

try this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OFxmXWgzc0

[ofuros]

Interesting, thanks Franco.