I will be the first to tell you that this is the first year that I have had the opportunity to test out and use a Trail Camera. We had a couple in Idaho when we did some bear baiting for the outfitting business and in the first week the bears had eaten the cameras as well as all of the baits and after spending what we did for those cameras, I have never been too excited to get some new ones for fear of them getting eaten or stolen.
This year we have a new farm leased and at over 700 acres, I have been testing out the new Bushnell Trophy Cam in various locations around the farm. The learning curve for where to place this little camera has been the hard part as the camera itself is easy to use and simple in design.
Bushnell really thought about how a trail camera with their name on it should act, small in design at around 3 by 5 inches, 8 double batteries runs this camera for a full year, 5 megapixel pictures are standard, and you can shoot small video clips as well. The unit I am testing has a built in view finder so you can check it in the field and you can strap this camera to just about anything while keeping a low profile. As well with built in night vision LEDs the camera can take pictures at night with a clear date and time stamp.
The camera is overall excellent and I really like its size. It has sat out on trees on the farm for the last 3 months and we have gotten some pretty good pictures with the camera which I will share at the end of this article. Features for this particular model are:
- 5 MP high-quality full color resolution
- Day/night autosensor
- External power compatible
- VGA video 16 FPS
- Adjustable PIR (Lo/Med/High)
- Trigger speed less than 1 second
- Trigger interval — 0 sec. to 60 min. programmable
- Multi-image mode — 1-3 images per trigger
- Video length — 1-60 seconds, programmable
- Time lapse mode
- Temperature range -5° F to 140° F
- 24 infrared night vision LEDs — 45 ft. range
- PIR sensor is motion activated out to 45 ft.
- 4 AA — 8AA batteries (not included)
- Runs up to 12 months on one set of batteries
- Adjustable web belt and 1/4-20 socket
- SD card slot
The camera has worked flawlessly the only gripe I have about this camera is the screen inside the camera is a bit weak and not one of my favorite items on the camera. It does help with set up of the camera but the size and quality of the screen leaves a lot to be desired especially when looking at pictures that were taken at night, otherwise I cannot find anything else I do not like about the camera. the picture quality has been excellent and I like the 3 shot burst mode with a very small delay of 3 seconds put in so I can get lots and lots of pictures. In a 3 week test I was not able to fill up my 2 gig SD card.
My learning curve on where to place this camera over the last 3 months has been steep and on the particular farm I am hunting our wood line is minimal. One of the best features about this camera is the small size that can be attached to a fence post with a minimal amount of disturbance to the area. That is a nice feature for areas like open fields and such where you know the bucks and does are feeding into in the evening and you have minimal location in which to place a normal sized camera.
I recommend this camera and while the price is a bit steep at a MSRP of $269.95 it can be had cheaper if you look around, what it will save you in batteries and functionality easily makes up for the price point on this camera.
Bushnell Trophy Cam
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