I'm no camera expert but this is my 5th season. I usually wait until after the rut or until my tag is filled before I set my cameras out. Usually from the end of Nov until the end of march. I like to see what bucks have survived the season and to see when they start shedding. For the first 4 seasons I was not allowed to bait my cameras but this year I was allowed to do so. The first 4 seasons the most pics I got was with 4 cameras and got 700 pics. This year I'm up to 4200 pics with 3 cameras. Things I have learned. 1. If baiting cameras is legal where you hunt, it could make a huge difference on what kind of camera you need. 2. Deer in general are camera shy but mature bucks are very much so. 3. Deer can easily detect infrared. From these two things I've learned what kind of cameras would work for me. Now that I can legally bait my cameras, A decent flash camera with an adjustable time delay between pics, works best for me. I have the delay set for 5 minutes between pics. Otherwise I get too many pics. If you rapidly click from one pic to the next, it looks like an old time movie. It seems that all deer, mature bucks included, will willingly get their picture taken with flash and all in order to get some easy food. Therefore, trigger speed is not an issue for me. On the other hand, when you cannot bait the cameras, the fastest trigger speed, multi shot pics and video are the most important features. Example: With my cuddy no flash, 1 min delay, I suspected that I was missing out on some deer when they filed up the trail single file during the late season. I set it to video record in between pics. I caught 6 deer coming up the trail and the last one was a large buck. I would have caught him with the straight camera with 1 minute delay. When trail watching, these features are a must. My question......... Does the cuddyback capture seem to be the camera I'm looking for?
Could be Greg! The Capture doesn't have a video mode which I'm sure you know but like you said you can use bait so that will help some. Honestly I'd rather have too many pics then miss out on other deer but that's just me. No doubt Greg that these deer do spook from the red IR's on these camera's. That's 100% the reason I went with the RC60 Reconyx- no lights of any kind.
I'm not so sure that the deer are spooking from the red IR flash on the cameras. In most cases I believe the deer are looking at the camera itself. It's big, out of place, and generally stinks of human. Why wouldn't they be looking at it??? The majority of my daytime photos they're looking right into the camera as well, and there certainly isn't any flash going off them. Explain that. Additionally, they are already looking at the camera when the IR flash goes off. You can't tell me the deer are so quick that they can turn and look directly into the lens in the fraction of a second it takes for the photo to be captured. IMO you guys are too over sensitive to the IR "glow". My bet is if you took an IR camera with the "glow" and hid it extremely well, and made sure it was as scent free as possible you'd have a lot less deer looking into it than a covert "no glow" cam out in the open that you've handled with your bare hands.
You are right about deer being able to pick out a camera on a tree. They are experts at it. I've brushed in some cameras and had deer still spot them in the day light with no flash to alert them. I've also had a camera (IR) set for video where a doe came down the trail with a large buck following. When he saw the IR beam, he stopped dead in his tracks and head bobbed at the cam for a few seconds before backing out and circling around the cam. He definitely picked off the IR beam. Explain that. My point was that the IR is not as "stealth" as I thought it would be. Deer can easily detect it. Not a problem for me now that I can use bait with the cameras. As long as they're willing to get "flashed" in order to eat, I might as well go for better quality pics like that of a flash camera. Anyone have a Cuddyback Capture?
Greg - there's a bunch of us that are using the Cudde Capture including myself, Caleb, and Pastor Jim. You should be able to see some great examples of photos from that cam, which for it's price I think is very good. We're all using the standard flash cameras, not the IR version. In my case, I wasn't happy with the IR performance of the Capture over other cams in the same price range. Flash range was very short, and photos were very grainy. I don't have that problem with my standard flash units, which work great. As for the IR, if you're truly concerned about the red glow I'd check out some of the new covert cams. Reconyx has a new HC600 coming out this fall (retail should be around $550) that is a no-glow camera. Also, there's a new trailcam company called Uway that has a no-glow camera coming out as well. That one should be considerably less money, I'm thinking around $300-ish. More info on the Uway cameras here - http://www.bowhunting.com/gallery/56/media/751/uway-nt50-nt50b-trail-cameras.aspx As for the IR cams not being stealthy, I think you are right. A deer's eyes are hundreds of times more sensitive to light than ours, so what appears as a dull red glow to us is undoubtedly much more to a whitetail. However, there's no question that it's much less powerful than a standard flash, and I still think that that majority of deer are looking into the camera b/c they see and/or smell it, not b/c of the flash.
Have any of you guys actually seen the IR light from some other POV. Its actually really bright! I found this out one day, and immediatly thought of what deer see when the cameras with the big clusters of IR lights. See below. This is just one light, in a regularly lit room. (taken from my cell phone... lol) Imagine what they see when 50 lights go off in the dark! Its gotta be like they are on stage or something... Not very "Stealthy" in my opinion...
Greg, I own 8 of these cams, and for the money, they're tough to beat. They have great trigger speed and picture quality is 2nd to none. I do think though that reconyx has i bit faster trigger and a wider detection zone from what pics i've seen posted here and "over there". Shultzy had a good write up on the boards here about his reconyx vs. his cuddeback. Given the time of year you want to set your cam out and how much pressure your particular deer heard has and the application for which you intend to use your cam for all play a big part in which cam you should consider. That statement right there narrows down the field considerably. Detection zone and distance away from where ever you intend the picture to be taken is the key IMO. In my experience i've had just as many deer spook from white flash vs IR. For me and the amount of land i hunt along with the # of stands i hunt its just not financially practical to spend 500 bucks a cam. Cams that are put out for any length of time and if left alone will get pics of whatever is there. Some of my best spots that i hunt i don't even set any up because i know whats there and i WILL NOT take any chances with the bucks that roam those areas. Im not in any way shape or form knocking reconyx cams because they do make a great cam and i do intend to buy 1 in the near future, because, like i said each cam does have its place and video can be handy! In the past i've done all my posting on the other site. If you have some time, check out some of the water cam pics i posted last spring, they show fast trigger speed and good picture quality.
Thanks for the reply, leadoperator. Couldn't agree more. I feel almost the same. I usually don't put out my cameras until after I'm tagged out. Then I put them out until they shed. This year was the exception because I bought my own land and had to see what was roaming it!! It certainly didn't help my hunting. This year I am going to use them to try and pin point the location of a specific buck. I believe that he lives/beds on or close to my land. I figure I've narrowed it down to a couple hundred yards. I will use cameras set to day time only mode, no bait. This is him.....
Alot of good information in this thread. I got the Capture for 3 reasons. #1 it was cheap. #2 the picture quality is top notch for a production camera. #3 the trigger speed makes it so you will miss nothing. Greg, the capture has a 30 second delay in between pictures and no video mode. If your worried about missing something, i would go with the Moultrie i40, which has a burst mode, but this is an IR cam with a slower trigger speed.
Caleb, I'm not worried about missing anything because I have 4 cameras with the video function. I'm looking for something to use over bait while I use the other cameras for more stealth operations. It sounds like the Capture is what I'm looking for. Thanks.
I can show you some pics since I have 4200 to choose from!! Maybe when I get home from work I'll post a few.
