Wildlife camera recommendation

[DwarfHog]

Can anyone recommend a wildlife camera. I have had one but it is very unreliable and I have returned it to amazon! I’m looking for one that is very reliable and – ideally – used rechargeable aa batteries. Thanks

[Nic]

Hi DwarfHog

From what I’ve seen, most of the cameras recommend to use ordinary batteries but I use rechargeable batteries in mine. I think part of the ‘problem’ is that the rechargeable batteries are only approx 1.2v and the ordinary batteries are 1.5v. So if you use rechargeable ones in a camera which says it will run on 4, it may need at least 6 and I always use 8. They just need recharging quite frequently, but before using them I was getting through a ridiculous number of ordinary batteries.

I have 2 makes of camera. One is a Bushnell trophy cam HD E3. It has an excellent picture quality 16MP (I use for video). You can set it for night only, so that it isn’t wasting battery life during the day. The drawbacks are that it doesn’t cover a very wide field of view (couldn’t find the actual amount mentioned) and night time videos are limited to 15 seconds – but the time between videos seems quite short so that compensates. Not easy to tell how many videos taken without connecting to a computer. It has a one year guarantee. Seems to have quite good battery life. Records sound. Will add date and time stamp.

Another one is a Konig SAS-DVR0DR22. 12MP. 2 year guarantee – useful as I have had 2 cameras previously (another make) which went wrong. It will record 30 seconds of night time video which I find useful for hogs. The picture isn’t as good, but good enough to see what is happening. Batteries seem to last fairly long. Again, this one doesn’t cover a very wide field of view – 52 degrees. Probably comparable to the Bushnell. Records sound.

My older camera was also Konig SAS-DVR0DR21 12MP, but has a wider 60 degree field of view, which I find very useful for hogs, especially if they are a bit closer, as otherwise they go out of view so quickly. Picture quality is similar to the Konig above. Will record for 20 seconds at night. Doesn’t record sound.

Konigs are cheaper than Bushnells. The Bushnell hasn’t gone wrong nor the newer Konig. The older Konig does occasionally have a bit of a blip, but if you format it every time not so often, and it is older than the others – out of guarantee. For me it is worth persevering with for the wider field of view.

All use AA batteries.
All will take photos as an alternative.

Things to think about:

Field of view
Picture quality – less important if using for video than for photos
length of video
Sound recording?
Date and time stamp?
Price

Hope this is of some help.

[DwarfHog]

Thank you so much! I hadn’t realised there were so many brands about and all seem to have very mixed reviews. We bought a Greenskon via amazon – partly because the reviews were all recent – late 2017/2018 and also on price – about £80 – but it became so unreliable. Great at first but then would only take shots in daylight and just ate through batteries at the rate of 8 a week. Anyway, before it died it did take a lovely video of 2 hogs – one being biffed and rolled out of the garden by the other – so not a complete waste of time! I now have a stock of rechargeable aa batteries so can always keep some on standby!
I have had others recommend the Bushnell brand. I will look at both of these and make up my mind!

[Nic]

Hi DwarfHog

The Bushnell ones do seem to have a good reputation, but are more expensive than some others. But as I said, mine produces a very clear picture. If I was going to get another one (and if price was no object – mine was one of the cheaper Bushnells) I would try to get one with a wider field of view. It does seem a bit of a minefield with so many brands. I got mine from a shop in the end, so I could take it back easily if it went wrong! Also they could tell me all about it, but they are no doubt cheaper on line.

It’s good to hear you managed to get some good footage from your old camera. It’s nice to have some hogs to look at in the winter when most of them are hibernating!

[steevo]

I’ve been using a Ltl Acorn 5210A for about 2 years with rechargeable batteries. Robust and reliable I’d recommend it. Lots of useful info about Ltl Acorn cams on Ron Bury’s site.

[AlanB]

Currently I am using the Crenova RD1000 and Toguard 12MP 120° Wide Angle. The Toguard has a particularly wide field of view, much better then the Crenova. So it is overall the best of my two for getting hedgehog videos. But the Crenova can record up to 10 minute clips, with the Toguard maxing out at 90 seconds. Although I usually just set the Crenova to 2 minutes.

I find that cameras with narrower fields of view are perfectly fine for watching something specific like a feeder. But take some care with how you set it up and also do a test shot. I find that the field of view shown on the screen can often be a bit wider than what you actually get in the videos. I am not sure why that is and it could be down to just how the IR lighting works. A camera with a wide field of view, like the Toguard, is great for watching an area, like a patio. Although the quality of the video will be slightly less than one with a narrower field of view.

As for batteries I use rechargeable ones and have about 1 and a half times what is needed to run all of my cameras. I recharge them during the day using multiple chargers so that they are ready to go at night. Having done this now for over a month I am not noticing any issues with battery life yet.

[dju0mro]

Have been using Ltl Acorn 5310 for last 3 months and found it very satisfactory. Good video and sound it has space for 8 AA batteries which seem to give several days of use without recharging although I’m only recording 10 sec video clips.

[Author]

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