steve b Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 I get a fair bit of willdlife visiting or living here and would like your experiences with trail-cams etc. Bearing in mind I'm no tech whizz, I'd like to keep it basic with the following 1. motion activated 2. infra-red for low light or dark 3. memory card or built in data storage? 4. fully weather-proof 5. solar powered? Any pointers or advice welcome Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaklander Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 I have these ones as security cameras Tapo C520WS. I'll describe what they do and it will be a start for you. I knew nothing about cameras before and now I know a little! The price moves around between £65 and £85, depending on when you look and where. Connects via wifi or Ethernet. It isn't self powered and power-over-Ethernet isn't available for this one. Maybe others in the range have it. It needs a micro SD card to store locally or you can pay a subscription for cloud storage. It can pan and tilt but sits motionless until it sees a movement. There's lots of 'at-rest' storage positions, so you can pre-set different views and select the appropriate one. What it reacts to depends on what you want to detect. Humans / Cars / Animals / 'Motion' can be enabled in any combination and it uses "AI" to determine which it is and thus whether to alert or not. Also lines can be drawn for 'across the line' detection. It has very high resolution in visible light but also has an IR lens for dark. When detecting in the dark there's configurations to switch-on visible light 'spotlights', if you so wish. Once movement is detected it will follow the object to the limit of pan / tilt. The event that has been detected is then stored on the card - some seconds before and then until it ceases. You can pull that event off the card with a simple download of that file. There will be loads of other suggestions I'm sure and probably cheaper ones. This works great for me as a security camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 I've got a more basic (but only marginally cheaper) camera - bought to use as a wildlife camera trap. The one I've got isn't available any more, this seems to be the nearest equivalent: https://www.kentfaith.co.uk/wildlife-camera/KF35.062_24mp-1296p-night-vision-120°-wide-angle-0.2s-trigger-2-inch-screen-hunting-camera?sort=p.price&order=ASC It's been very reliable, batteries last for ages (way longer than the three months they specify). Captures pretty decent video on night vision. Collecting data is a case of retrieving the camera and taking the memory card out - which has been fine for my purposes, but if that's inconvenient for you then a wifi/ethernet option like @Peaklander has is going to be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve b Posted August 26 Author Share Posted August 26 Thanks for the pointers , it might end up with a combo of both those types. For now I've left the car with dash cam covering the main area where there might be "activity"....... Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason110 Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 The tapo range of cameras are excellent for the price point. You just 240v power and either WiFi connection or access to an Ethernet connection. I’ve also got the Hik-Connect brand of cctv cameras. They are power over Ethernet cameras. They feed back to a storage box called a DVR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallfry Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 15 hours ago, steve b said: Thanks for the pointers , it might end up with a combo of both those types. For now I've left the car with dash cam covering the main area where there might be "activity"....... Steve So by wildlife, do you actually mean "Pond life" ? Got one here for just that purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve b Posted August 27 Author Share Posted August 27 both really , lots of Deer, foxes etc. as there is plenty of wild ground around my place but also recently (school holidays ???) too many night-crawling two legged incursions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderzander Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 I’ve been thinking of getting one too. I spotted a dear up on our field the other day. I thought I’d seen the signs of where they sleep, but that was the first time I’d caught sight of one there … no power or internet so a rechargeable trail cam is the only option and I’ve bee. told these are a good starting point .. https://amzn.eu/d/dzSLmyF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyoldgit Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 I use cheapo trail cams that accept SD cards for placing in and around our land that will record both still and video images 24/7 [plus sound if required] and use them for keeping an eye on furry & feathered vermin / game etc. We have a number of wired CCTV cameras on the exterior of the property and yard that feed into secure DVR's here and there. The pukka trail cams are a handy bit of kit. These are screen caps from videos... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 45 minutes ago, Happyoldgit said: So the wild Steve animal only has legs? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve b Posted August 27 Author Share Posted August 27 Some good stills there from the cams Steve, I've ordered a £22 Ebay jobbie to try out , there's no electric or wi-fi where I really want to see what's about so start small? Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyoldgit Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 (edited) 15 minutes ago, steve b said: Some good stills there from the cams Steve, I've ordered a £22 Ebay jobbie to try out , there's no electric or wi-fi where I really want to see what's about so start small? Steve Best way for casual use. If it doesn't capture anything, goes missing or gets trashed you haven't lost a lot of coin. Edited August 27 by Happyoldgit Typo. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arjan Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 Next stage is remote control g.n ? Loops useful dealing with the 2 leg ones.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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