New Browning camera

[TheLBLman]

Different brands & models of cell cams, just like regular trail cams, will have different "features" and/or a lack thereof.

One feature I particular like with many cell cam models is being able to quickly change cam settings remotely as well as how often the cell cam "reports in" with new uploaded pics. The more often the cam "reports in" (uploads images), the quicker you drain your cam's batteries. "Live" or "real-time" or "instant" reporting is seldom needed.

Sometimes I use "real-time", but more often will do something just "close" to real-time, such as programming the cell cam to report in as often as every 5 minutes, BUT ONLY IF THERE HAVE BEEN NEW IMAGES SINCE THE LAST REPORTING IN.

When it's just not necessary to get more frequent "reporting in", programming a cell cam to report in once every 24 hrs or once every 12 hours can GREATLY extend battery life compared to "real-time" or more frequent image uploads.

 

[TheLBLman]

I think your arguments hold merit for people using trail-cameras primarily for hunting purposes. Because I keep, analyze and record in databases every single trail-cam image, and require the highest quality and the most images possible, cell cams are not for me.

Oh, I do understand the differences in collecting scientific datasets vs. mainly using the cams for security and entertainment. But I get a lot of pics of essentially nothing, like weeds blowing in the wind, or the back leg of a deer, or a squirrel, etc. ---- these would be pics I would think you don't retain, and those can be a significant percentage of what is seen on an sd card.

Speaking of weeds blowing in the wind, recently I had some green-briar grow a little taller, and it's right in bright sun between 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm. On sunny days, it started triggering a cell cam that was set to take multiple pics as often as every few seconds. After the 1st day of this happening, I remotely changed the cam's setting from 10 seconds to 1 minute as a counter-measure. Same thing happened the next day between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, just significantly fewer images.

Third day, programmed (remotely) that cam to take no pics between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, went back to an interval of every 10 seconds for the other 23 hours daily. Weeds blowing in the wind problem solved, remotely. Sure beats finding out a month later your cam hadn't worked in weeks because of weeds blowing in the wind filling the sd card and/or eating up your batteries.

Problematic events such as runaway triggering could sure mess up a data set?

I do understand most of why regular trail cams would work best for your purposes, but you might be surprised at how the cell cam technology has advanced over the past couple years.

 

[BSK]

I do understand most of why regular trail cams would work best for your purposes, but you might be surprised at how the cell cam technology has advanced over the past couple years.

For my needs, I need the highest resolution images possible, and the more of them the better. No problem going through and weeding out the non-target pics once I get the SD cards home. That's just part of the process. My clients check their cams (and swap cards) weekly to biweekly. I check my cams and swap cards weekly because I move cameras so frequently. Even though I have a few traditional scrape camera locations where cameras stay in place all season, I still have cameras I move constantly. This year, with 8 cameras, and 3 of them on traditional scrapes all season, I still used 38 different camera locations from September through early January.

The biggest change in my camera usage in the recent past has been the change to video instead of still pictures. In the past, I wasn't interested in video because trail-cam videos were so low resolution. But the upgrades over the last two years have been astounding. I even found out that despite being lower resolution than some of the still images these cams can take, when a buck is moving in a video clip, I can determine his antler characteristics much better than from a series of higher resolution still images. In addition, I'm picking up more deer on video than from still images. Some of those deer are far in the background and wouldn't be noticed in still images, and some are "follow-up" deer that are behind the deer that triggers the camera, but still make it into the frame within the timeframe of the video clip. Plus, from a professional and hunter's interest, I'm learning so much about deer behavior that could not be seen from still images.

The two biggest downsides to video are space on the SD cards (you better get some monsters - the highest the camera will accept) and the time it takes to review and record the data. When I'm conducting camera censuses for clients, I average being able to assess and record the data from around 1,000 still images per hour. That is not the case with video. I haven't come up with an average number of videos per hour yet, but currently I'm not asking my clients to use video mode except for cameras over scrapes Oct-Dec. Video is probably in the neighborhood of 200-250 per hour.

 

[Antler Daddy]

LBL and BSK.....why don't you guys work together on this cell cam video debate?

BSK, just let LBL install a quality cell camera somewhere on your place setup the way you want it with a backup battery and let's see if you like it and it meets your needs. Share the videos in almost real time with the board too.

 

[BSK]

LBL and BSK.....why don't you guys work together on this cell cam video debate?

BSK, just let LBL install a quality cell camera somewhere on your place setup the way you want it with a backup battery and let's see if you like it and it meets your needs. Share the videos in almost real time with the board too.

We've got a new Spartan cell cam on the property (and a bunch of crap Spypoints). So far, the images from the Spartan are OK, but night illumination isn't great. More of a short-distance cell-cam than one used for big open areas. But we've not tried transmitting video. Way too data intensive, and eventually expensive cell-plan-wise. Plus, lots of areas on my place with no cell-signal (down in valleys).

 

[TheLBLman]

LBL and BSK.....why don't you guys work together on this cell cam video debate?

We kinda are, remotely
right here on TNdeer.

We're actually on the same page for the most part.
Cell cams work better for me and my purposes; but they wouldn't work at all if I didn't have fair cell service where they're located. BSK's area cell service is more marginal than mine.

I'm also running regular trail cams, too. This allows for the best of both worlds.
With the new Browning trail cams, BSK has convinced me video can be better in many my applications.

But running high-resolution video on cell cams is relatively costly, and negates much of my reasons for going cellular, which is mainly to not NEED to physically go to the cam site to replace batteries and ascertain the cam is working properly.

Needing to visit the cam site less often is my main reason for using cell cams.

BSK wants to mainly use high-quality video for his purposes. Also, he has placed his cams mostly at locations he can more or less just "ride by", and service his cams without even getting off his atv. Mine are spread over a much larger area, and it is simply not feasible to visit each one weekly or bi-weekly.