Recommend a Trail Camera

[this_is_nascar]

I'm in need of a trail camera that I'm going to use in my backyard. I need to find out what's disturbing my trash cans all of a sudden. This happening in the over night hours, so I need something that's good in the dark. Since it's in my backyard, I don't necessarily need something that's overly secure.

I don't even now where to start looking. I'm not it a positions to spend much on this either, as it's not something I'll be using with any regularity.

 

[46er]

I'm in need of a trail camera that I'm going to use in my backyard. I need to find out what's disturbing my trash cans all of a sudden. This happening in the over night hours, so I need something that's good in the dark. Since it's in my backyard, I don't necessarily need something that's overly secure.

I don't even now where to start looking. I'm not it a positions to spend much on this either, as it's not something I'll be using with any regularity.

Try Cabela's online, and read the reviews.

 

[this_is_nascar]

OK, thx. I just figured someone here would probably have one they could recommend.

 

[46er]

I took a look at Cabela's site and they are having a sale on them, some as inexpensive as $60. I have no knowledge about them, but from some of the reviews it seems some of them take a lot of pictures with nothing on them, probably a good idea to get one that is motion activated, if they make them with that.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Seconding Cabela's. Maybe even something cheap off of eBay.

 

[Hewey]

I'm pretty sure Dick's will have some in the $50.00 range. Moultrie cameras are quality cameras for the money. I would stay away from Wildgame Innovations cameras. They eat batteries and tend to have issues. All cameras are good at night/low light conditions.

I have a bad camera habit. I only have three out at this moment. I will have a half dozen out sometimes scattered around Ocean and Monmouth Counties.

With the three I have out, this is what I have sitting at home.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

[Oriental]

I have purchased 7 trail cameras from Dick's in the last few years and haven't had any problems with them. Even the cheap ones are reliable. Unless you actually want to go and marvel at all the cool stuff at Cabela's, just go pick one up from a local store. They are easy to set up and use. I don't know that I would buy one used if a new one can be had for only $50-$60. Perhaps you can find one on clearance at the end of deer season!

 

[Boyd]

If it's in your back yard, do you really need a trail camera? If you already have a video camera, maybe you could just use that? Or maybe just invest in a supply of your favorite beverage, sit back in a comfy chair and do a stake-out?

 

[dragoncjo]

I've switched fully over to plotwatcher cameras but the standard Moultrie ones work pretty good from my experience. But everything I've bought had been at least 100 bucks, some of the real cheap ones are pretty terrible.

 

[Teegate]

If you buy a Plotwatcher only buy the Pro.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll have to wonder over to Dick's this weekend. I haven't had any activity in the last several days, so maybe whatever it was is gone.

 

[ecampbell]

I have the pro and after 289 hours I still have 57% battery left. With a 32 G card, on 12 hour day I can get easily 10 days at 2 pics a second.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

We have a Bushell trophy cam that was about $100. The battery life is great, although it takes AA's. They have lasted for months.

The quality of the pics is not perfect but not too shabby either. Here it is in nighttime mode. It shoots in color when it's light out. I like it because you can adjust the sensitivity, have it shoot in bursts for quick animals, and it even shoots video in infrared.

 

[this_is_nascar]

I went to Dick's and picked up a Moultrie D-5 for $59 and change. They had a big sale on trail cameras and this was the 2nd least expensive camera. I forget the name of the camera that was $49.

Anyway, I put this sucker to the test right away last night. We roasted a chicken in the oven yesterday and I knew the scraps would provide pretty good bait, so the time was just right to have that ready for the night. Now that I was able to see what happened, I think we're both freaked-out a little bit and not sure how to handle this. I figured we might of had one, maybe two, critters that we're dealing with, but never in my life would I have thought we actually had four and a curious cat.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Haha, awesome. That is the beauty of those things. Who knew what was lurking out there?

We got a snap of a fisher cat really early on with ours. Keep setting it and you may be surprised at what else you see out there! I actually got a couple of still shots of some guy once (not a neighbor). Scared the crap out of me until I realized it was just the propane guy.

 

[Teegate]

It looks like a tiger

 

[Teegate]

Now that you know what it is you should get the camera closer.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Now that you know what it is you should get the camera closer.

Why would I want to do that?

 

[Teegate]

Just to get a close up of the animals.