Game-Trail Cameras

Art-
Yes, more pixels means higher resolution. There are a couple of cameras that take color pictures during daylight and B/W with IR, and one that takes IR pictures all the time that look pink in daylight, but in general, response time, resolution and IR capabilities means higher quality and therefore higher cost. There was a trail camera comparison/review a few months back in North American Hunter magazine. Take a look at the link Bitmap posted for some more good info.

Great link, Bitmap!
 
Art,

Megapixels is simply a measure of how many pixels are in the final resultant image. width x height = # of pixels. Divide by 1 million (to be pedantic, divide by 1048576 (1024x1024)) to get megapixels. For example:

3072 x 2048 = 6291456 pixels

6291456 / 1048576 = 6.0 Megapixels

Extra pixels provide better results when printing (especially large prints), and for images you intend to manipulate. For on screen viewing, anything past 2 megapixels is overkill, and not worth the extra expense and storage requirements.

Camera manufactures like to use megapixels as a marketing button, as most folks infer that more is better (kinda like magnum-itis). But the fact is, once you get past the initial threshold of 2 megapixels or so, pixel count becomes less important than other features, such as battery life, infrared capabilities, etc. Perhaps unfortunately, usually the more desirable features are found on the higher end cameras, which usually have a higher pixel count.

I've had personal experience with the Moultrie infrared cameras, and they give excellent (unbelievable) results.

-nosualc
 
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Thanks, guys.

What's on my mind at this point is to mount the camera on my front porch. I have critters coming at night to eat leftovers from the kitchen, and to drink from a water pan at the corner of the porch.

The water pan is the curious bit: For a day or two the water level goes down just slightly, mostly from birds. Then, overnight, it will drop about a gallon's worth or more, which is more than I'd expect a coyote to drink. Bambi? Dunno.
 
Here is another game cam website...
http://trailcameras.net/

For $299.99 from various vendors including Wal-Mart online (Amazon has them for $319), there is the Moultrie I-60 with 6.0 megapixels and an onboard viewer, color day and B&W IR at night,
http://trailcameras.net/store/moultrie-game-spy-i60-infrared-trail-camera-p-7.html

but if this is going on your porch and you want to save some money, then the Moultrie I-40 with 4.0 megapixels and no onboard viewer would be the way to go...
http://trailcameras.net/store/moultrie-game-spy-i40-infrared-trail-camera-p-6.html
 
nosualc pretty well summed it up. The megapixel thing with cameras is starting to resemble GHz for microprocessor speed; there have been diminishing returns for clock speed bumps and sorta the same thing is going on with attempting to improve image quality by merely bumping resolution.

2 megapixels is good for screen viewing, but for printing, artwork and for when you might want to crop a small portion of a photo and still have high resolution, more megapixels are better.
 
Well, do you have a porch light on? I would get a wireless cam for your computer on a motion switch and have it record to your pc. Since you are doing it at home I don't think the game cam is the best way to go.

If you do get a game cam make sure you have the appropriate card reader for the one that comes with the cam. My two point and shoot cameras are different, one an xd and one a compact flash and then the game cam is an sd card. Three different formats means nothing but trouble and gear.

Good Luck.
 
wireless cam for your computer on a motion switch
Click to expand...

This might be a good idea for Art's purpose here and he could end up with a useful item he could employ as porch security or maybe elswhere... after he pops the yote!:D
 
I have a video infant monitor that works in the dark but not at far ranges (about 10ft max for night illumination without an additional IR illuminator). It can be set up to record on a VCR. It's wireless video sent on 900mhz. I think it cost about a 120 bucks new. I think it has a resolution of 320 lines, but I'm not sure. A camera will likely have a much higher resolution.
 
Art

The $99 Moultrie camera a.k.a "The Wal-Mart Special" would be fine for porch distances, day or night. In my experience if you don't use the battery they recommend they tend not to last too long. Mine uses one of the big square 6 volt latern batteries. They come with enough memory to do the deed on the porch but SD memory is cheap if you get a wild hair and stick it on a fence post. I have been using one for three years and it works pretty well. Not the fastest shutter speed but the light is so bright you may notice it from inside the house when it fires at night. Our back porch turned out to be a real zoo from about midnight till 5 AM.

I also have one of their newer Moultrie infrared models, which is also a good unit but it's not as easy to rig on a tree and you need to put it in the open or the transition times [dark to dawn; dusk to dark] confuse it. A set of D cells lasts forever.

Far as the mini cams go I saw a post from a THRer [or was it on TFL?] from one of our shooting comrads that also does the model rocket deal. There was a website that showed movies made with the tiny cameras they put in the nose cone of those rockets and they provided details as to where to get the tools and how to set it up. We're takling rockets that go 100s of feet if not a 1000. It was a lot cheaper than I would have thought and would seem to have a lot of applications. The system used transmitters and receivers that came as part of the package and pipelined the shots right into a computer but I imagine you could run it on a TV also. I might go that way in the future rather than buy more game cams.

Let us now what happens.

Best

S-
 
Thanx, guys. Looks like for now that the "Wal Mart" Moultrie is the easy way.

Whatever's coming in is hitting between midnight and daylight, generally. It (they) is a thirsty lil devil. Sometimes two gallons of water goes from the pan, overnight. Not every night; more like second or third nights.

My house is roughly halfway up the mountain, and there are plenty of pools down in the creek. I doubt that the drinking is by something coming up; more likely, some critter coming down. Lion? Deer? Dunno.
 
I need to get a trail camera for the woods near the house here. All kinds of trails made by some critters. I know there are yotes in the area and plenty of coons, but I'D like to see what comes along at what time.
 
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