What exactly is a homebrew camera? I hear them mentioned quite often on various online forums. What are they made up of? Do guys sell them? Are there advantages versus commercial cameras? I am currently in the market for a new cam and wanted to explore all my options. Thanks
Homebrew cams are trail cameras that are made from regular point and shoot cameras, such as the Sony S600, W7, P41, and many others. There are people that sell them on a regular basis and if you decide to buy one, buy it only from an experienced camera builder. The advantages are the picture quality and the reliability. As you might guess, the different cams used have advantages and disadvantages. The real fun in hombrews is building them yourself. And the advantage to that is being able to fix them yourself if something goes wrong. I will tell youu it is a very addictive hobby and if you decide to do it, you will not be able to stop at just one. Here is a link to a recent post I made about constructing your own unit and some of the components you will need. I will also post some pics from mine so that you can see why those of who do this hobby are in love with them. http://forums.bowhunting.com/trail-cameras/48250-questions-about-homebrew-cameras.html These are from my Sony S600 These are from my Sony H70 Blessings.........Pastorjim
I used that kiddie pool last year when we had the drought. Everything came to it. Blessings.......Pastorjim Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Yup - PastorJim nailed it - this is addictive and the quality of photos is awesome form many of the cameras we use. Here a a couple pics of my builds. I really like the Panasonics paired with slave flashes(and a couple that do well without). Not a thing wrong with the sony cams either and I have a couple of those as well. Here is a Panny Fx35 build on a tree - my favorite build to date and I pair it with a remote slave pics from it 11 grouse kickin up dust here these were all cropped
here are a couple interiors of builds with internal slave flashes Panny Fx100 with baby slave Panasonic Fs5 with Vivitar2600 pics from Fs5 Fx100 pic from a Sony S40 recently From my most recent finished build - Panny Lz10 IR
That third from the bottom yote/wolf pic looks good enough to be a painting. Might have to start thinking about a panny. Blessings........Pastorjim
These guys nailed it. I got into it a few years ago after giving up on crap commercial cams and the ones that did work were ridiculously overpriced. Covert has, imho, since changed all of that, but I digress. I've only built using Sony cams as they seem to be the most prevalent for me, and the easiest to score for really low prices (don't like spending more than $30-$40 for the raw camera). The reliability, ease of fixing/troubleshooting, and picture quality are the main selling factors for me. Plus I enjoy being able to build something that helps me in the field. I've found that I enjoy just getting pictures even if they don't help me accomplish something specifically related to hunting. Plus the ability to 3D camo is a plus: Recent S40 build I did for a friend: Some pictures from the field (a combination of S40, S600, and P41):
