A Trail Camera can give a fascinating insight into the nocturnal habits of Wildlife cameras have grown in popularity recently due to the cost of technology becoming less, and their use on TV programs such as BBC Countryfile, Springwatch and the fantastic Lost Land of the Tigers program where researchers used a Bushnell Trophy Camera to capture footage of the elusive Bhutan tiger.
How does a Trail Camera work?
A Trail Camera is essentially a digital camera housed in a secure, watertight casing with infrared LED’s to illuminate wildlife at night, best cheap trail cameras and a motion detection system.
Spypoint have a range of wildlife cameras from the IR-5 to the market leading Pro X Plus. Unlike many other camera manufacturers, Spypoint cameras use a dual detection method.
The cameras have a motion detection system which also looks for a heat signature of an object. The idea here is that when a deer walks into the detection zone, the camera sees movement AND a heat signature so knows it is a living object that has triggered the camera and it should take a picture or video.
With some cameras, branches of a tree, blowing grass etc will cause a false trigger resulting in blank images of the background scenario.
Another common cause of background only images is a slow unresponsive camera with a slow trigger time, for example a roe deer runs past the camera, and it takes a moment to react, power up and then take a picture, the roe deer is often already out of the zone, or the camera catches the tail end of the deer as it leaves the area.
The latest cameras feature an innovative Instant Trigger facility (when powered from an external power supply) which actively monitor the area constantly, and when it detects movement, it instantly triggers taking a picture or video of the subject.
The Pro X Plus is Spypoint’s range topping camera and gives a 12 Megapixel image quality along with a high quality SD video facility. The Pro X Plus has a market leading response time and will work in Instant Trigger mode when powered by an external power supply. A built-in viewing screen allows you to view captured footage, and the easy to use control panel makes it a breeze to set up.
With consistent results, sound recording and variable infrared, the Spypoint Pro X Plus is, in our opinion, the finest trail camera on the market and is why it is widely used by wildlife experts, researchers, and professionals across the globe.
New Innovations in Trail Camera Technology for Remote Viewing
Wildlife cameras and trail cameras have one constraint which until now has been impossible to resolve.
As these cameras record footage on to an SD card, you have to return to the camera to extract the footage for viewing at home. This is normally done by removing and replacing the SD card, and then downloading the footage at home onto your PC or laptop.
With this type of recording facility there are some draw backs
When situating the camera in a remote viewing area such as a tree nest, or across a ravine, it is difficult to get to the camera to review the footage and swap over memory cards.
If your camera is stolen, you not only lose and expensive camera, but you lose weeks of data.
If a camera is in an area where there are elusive species, you would not want to return to the site often and disturb the area, with human smells, footprints, and noise potentially scaring off species. This was an issue faced by the Lost Land of the Tiger researchers.
If the camera is in a remote area, you may have to travel long distances to review footage.
Spypoint has the answer!
2011, sees the introduction of a range of new innovative with the Tiny W and Live offering remote viewing solutions.
Spypoint Tiny W Wireless Trail Camera
The new TINY W is a wireless trail camera that allows you to stream pictures and video to a bin receiver which can be securely hidden or stored where you can access the footage more easily.
Ideal as a wireless camera for wildlife research where disturbance of nesting sites has to be kept to a minimum. Simply position the camera using the slide attach mount in the required location, and you can access recorded footage without returning to the camera.
Footage is sent up to 50ft away to the wireless receiver which stores the footage on its internal memory allowing you to access and download at any time.
The Spypoint TINY wireless camera system sends images and video wirelessly to the storage bin and using 38 IR LED’s it will take still images or video in complete darkness using infrared which is invisible to wildlife. Should your camera be stolen your footage is safe and you will have captured images of the person stealing your camera.
The 8 Megapixel camera delivers sharp quality colour images during the day, and in black and white at night. Easy to use controls are accessed via the rear touchpad screen. With an instant trigger facility, the Spypoint Tiny will trigger the moment it detects movement.
Great for raptor nest sites where you can place the camera (twinned with a solar battery pack) in the treetop canopy and check the footage daily at the Blackbox bin at the base of the tree.
The Tiny W has a new sensor system where three detection sensors give 7 detection zones, allowing the camera to cover a much wider angle of detection, and ensure than when wildlife wander into the cameras vision zone, the camera is awake and ready to take a picture of video instantly.
Combined with an Instant Trigger mode, this ensures the Tiny will capture more of the action than any other wildlife camera.
Spypoint LIVE Wildlife Camera
The Spypoint LIVE is an infrared camera which records footage to the Spypoint Live website allowing you to view captured video or images from your home or office without going back to the camera site.
Simply set up the Spypoint LIVE camera on the trail and it will record colour by day and black and white at night, in either still or video format.
Ideal for monitoring game movements, or for wildlife research, the Spypoint LIVE works like no other trail camera by transmitting wirelessly data to the internet.
Normally to retrieve footage from your camera you are required to visit the camera site and remove the SD card to extract captured footage, with Spypoint LIVE you simply log into the Spypoint Live website and check your footage!
You can also control the camera remotely from your location, turning it on or off, or selecting program modes.