By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoor Perspective
Trail cameras are popping up everywhere people have an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors, and the number of models now available reflects this growing trend, outdoor supply giant Cabelas offering more than 20 alone.
But, all trail cameras are not created equal, and if you're trail camera shopping for that outdoorsman or woman in your life, here are a few points to consider.
The first is the camera's intended use. Both hunters and nonhunters use these cameras, but for different reasons. The hunter may want to pinpoint the location of a big buck, and setting up the camera on a runway can help. For the nonhunter, the trail camera, also called a scouting camera, could be a wildlife observation tool, a device used to find out what is roaming his or her neck of the woods. Birders sometimes tie them near a feeder because stationary objects rarely scare birds.
No matter what your planned use, all trail cameras have a basic structure — camera with some sort of tripping device (a solenoid) that sends off a light beam that the animal breaks, thus setting off the camera. All this is enclosed in a waterproof box with a plastic or glass window. This box must be attached to something like a tree or some other stationary object by a strap or elasticized cord.
The camera is the heart of the unit. I started with a Trail Timer unit equipped with a Samsung camera back in the early 1990s, the first trail camera of its kind on the market; it used film. With that simple setup, I managed to photograph more than 50 wildlife species on my woodlot alone, including coyotes, deer, fisher, fox, mink, beaver and bobcat, along with turkey vultures, ravens and wild turkeys. The photos I got were, for the most part, very good, and some were used to illustrate my articles on the Outdoors Page. But, as you know, film is on its way out.
My experiences with digital trail cameras, until recently, have not been good. I have owned Bushnell, Leaf River, Stealth and Moultrie models. The key factors I look for are picture quality, ease of operation and quick tree attachment. Of the previous mentioned units, none gave the quality photos I needed for publication; they would, however, be satisfactory for someone who just wants to see what wildlife is in the neighborhood.
I like an elastic strap that conforms to the tree. If I need to angle the camera downward, I stick a twig behind the box. The easier the camera is to use, the better for me, since I am quite technologically challenged. Lots of toggle switches, automatic viewing devices and other bells and whistles are secondary to simplicity.
I recently found out about the Trail Watcher 2035 from Saranac's Bob Heath, who sent me unbelievably sharp photos from his trail camera, even sharper than my old Trail Timer. I then went online to the Whitetail Deer Management Web site (www.whitetaildeer-management-and-hunting.com), which did a thorough analytical study of trail cameras, comparing picture quality, batteries, ease of operation, trigger speed and ease of attachment of most brands. The Trail Watcher of Heath's scored an "A" overall, while the Moultrie Game Spy M60 I used got only a "C."
The Trail Watcher is pricey, costing $495, but I ordered one last summer anyway and found it to be as good as advertised. The Trail Watcher 2035 is a compact, lightweight unit that requires only one switch to turn on. It has an easy-to-use tie strap (I added a small elastic bungee cord to one end for flexibility). The heart of the system, enclosed in a hard waterproof Pelican plastic case with small holes in the bottom to release condensation, is a Sony Cyber-Shot 7.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens. All functions are preset, but can be adjusted. I changed the picture quality from "normal" to "fine" because I wanted publishable photos. To deal with the extra sharpness and memory card space, I added a 1 gigabyte memory card. The Trail Watcher people are a small operation (I actually got the owner when I called to order it) out of Monticello, Ga. (www.trailwatcher.net).
No matter which trail camera you buy, either for yourself or as a present, keep in the back of your mind its intended use. For many, an inexpensive device will be fine. When I was quite young, I built my first trail camera-like setup using a Polaroid Land camera, a popsicle stick with roofing nail attached as a plunger, and a fish line tied to a ham bone for bait. I actually got photos of bears, raccoons, skunks and goshawks, albeit in black and white, one photo at a time. I got a kick out of watching those Polaroid pictures develop before my eyes and seeing what animals I had captured on film. It was all I had at the time, but it was good enough for me.
E-mail Dennis Aprill at daprill2000@yahoo.com and check out our Web site at www.pressrepublican.com/0105_outdoor_perspective for more photos and past articles.
