Maybe of interest to some of you staking out potential sites. The cost of the video surveylance camera traps has significantly fallen since I last specced them. I have now bought a basic Acorn unit and have been trialling it on the railway embankment at the bottom of my garden to see what is about. Its taken a bit of experimenting to prevent the passing trains setting it off so I cannot point it quite where I want to, but even so the unit has so far captured four different foxes (identified by tail shape and length), badgers, muntjac deer and even a mouse sp. set it off, certain species can be a bit of a menace - grey squirrels and blackbirds figure very high on the wasted footage stakes as do disappearing rear ends!.......
For night time work the angle of unit and nearby herbage reflecting the LED light can play havoc with video quality, to get a consistent set of results I've set up a fixed stake and strapped the unit to an old piece of drainpipe with elastic bands which fits over the stake which enables me to have a fast turnaround of card retrieval and unit reset - crude but works!
I've uploaded some of the more successful footage video clips here - ie not disappearing tails!
As you can see, David Attenborough's day job is still safe, but you will get an idea of the capabilities.
Posted by John Robinson on April 24, 2012 at 7:11 PM
Interesting stuff !!
JR
Posted by Bob Johnson on April 25, 2012 at 3:04 AM
Posted by Neil Burton on April 25, 2012 at 5:48 AM
Have been using Stealth cams for a while, very useful for getting times or day etc. day time footage is better than night but far from great. I never did get to shoot this fellow :( I replaced the standard strap for a velcro one, much easier to mount.
Mike you have some very good results ,its a very interesting trial you are doing.
Keith.
Posted by Paul Whippey on April 25, 2012 at 5:00 PM
Great footage Mike.
I use a Spypoint IR5 and a Bushnell for very similar work. They are coming down in price lately. A friend of mine bought a Chinese Bushnell knock off for under £90 on eBay. It has a colour viewing screen inside too! Trail cameras are much more useful if they are set to video I have found, especially for wildlife. For me, its cut down on the false triggers. As you say, you need to be careful where you site them, especially for night work. I nearly lost my Spypoint to a group of hoodies in a local wood recently. I was very lucky they didn't see it!
Thanks all, Bob yes its the LTL-5210 which shoots still, still plus video and video. Trigger time is a bit slow in pure video ode so going to try still plus video this feel.
The most useful thing for wildlife work, apart from the footage of course, is the date stamp function so you can pick up any pattern of movements. My badgers for instance start to appear at 9-9.30 regular as clockwork, stump tail fox is a late riser and tends to appear from around mid day - she is possibly a vixen with cubs. Long tail fox looks lean and mean and is probably a young fox, but what a tail!
Posted by Nick Mckeown on April 26, 2012 at 3:31 AM
Excellent footage you have there Mike....Simon King look out!!
Discussion
8 repliesFor night time work the angle of unit and nearby herbage reflecting the LED light can play havoc with video quality, to get a consistent set of results I've set up a fixed stake and strapped the unit to an old piece of drainpipe with elastic bands which fits over the stake which enables me to have a fast turnaround of card retrieval and unit reset - crude but works!
I've uploaded some of the more successful footage video clips here - ie not disappearing tails!
As you can see, David Attenborough's day job is still safe, but you will get an idea of the capabilities.
JR
Bob
Matt
http://NeilBurton.smugmug.com/gallery/5002665_SxT3Wx#1515265248_HMwzRMJ-A-LB
Keith.
I use a Spypoint IR5 and a Bushnell for very similar work. They are coming down in price lately. A friend of mine bought a Chinese Bushnell knock off for under £90 on eBay. It has a colour viewing screen inside too! Trail cameras are much more useful if they are set to video I have found, especially for wildlife. For me, its cut down on the false triggers. As you say, you need to be careful where you site them, especially for night work. I nearly lost my Spypoint to a group of hoodies in a local wood recently. I was very lucky they didn't see it!
The most useful thing for wildlife work, apart from the footage of course, is the date stamp function so you can pick up any pattern of movements. My badgers for instance start to appear at 9-9.30 regular as clockwork, stump tail fox is a late riser and tends to appear from around mid day - she is possibly a vixen with cubs. Long tail fox looks lean and mean and is probably a young fox, but what a tail!
Nick.