• This topic has 9 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 4 years ago by Kit.
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  • Camera traps / wildlife cameras: talk to me
  • Kit
    Free Member

    I’m in the market for a couple of camera traps to catch some **** who keeps fly tipping in our wood.

    Anyone got any recommendations or experience of using them before?

    I’m guessing they’ll be ineffectual at night reading a license plate since they work off IR (if my experience with IR on CCTV is anything to go by).

    Cheers

    bruk
    Full Member

    We bought one to check our what was living in the bloody great hole at the bottom of the garden. Looks like rabbits and next doors cat mainly.

    Be aware they usually have a red flashing led that would make them stand out.

    Will take it outside and see if it gets a reading on the car plates.

    Kit
    Free Member

    Is the red LED just to tell you it’s recording, or is it the IR illuminator? Former will be easy to sort, the latter not so…

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    CraigW
    Free Member

    Look for a model with “no glow IR”. This uses a different frequency IR, so shouldn’t be any visible light. Though it means it is a bit less bright than regular IR, so maybe not as much range.
    Would also need a decent resolution image to read number plates. Some of the images can be a bit noisy.
    Though sometimes you just get the whole number plate overexposed/completely white. Don’t know if any way to avoid this.

    Not the cheapest, but Browning cameras are good, pretty decent image quality. The “Dark Ops” models are no glow.
    Naturespy is useful for comparing models. https://shop.naturespy.org/

    bruk
    Full Member

    Ok just tested it outside. Sorry left laptop at work so only able to look at the images on the camera.

    I’d say my Apeman one does get a decent resolution where you could read the numberplates. Red led just flashes at the start but didn’t flash when it was taking the pictures.

    Jakester
    Free Member

    We bought this recently for the same reason (someone flytipping):

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07H7D83PZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    For £40 it’s been fantastic, the picture quality is way better than expected, even at night, and it comes with straps and a sort of ‘ball and socket’ mount that I’ve screwed to a wooden post. It doesn’t flash red when taking a photo.

    I was worried about battery life but it’s been operational since mid-April and is still going.

    Got some great pics of our cat, plus the local badger and foxes. Not sure about plates at night since we haven’t seen anyone around when it’s dark. The only caveat is it suffers a bit from condensation first thing in the morning, so you get a few blurry pictures.

    For just under £40 way better than I thought it would be.

    Kit
    Free Member

    It’s now £30, so looks a bargain. At that price it’s worth a punt, thanks jakester!

    alric
    Free Member

    I would warn about the red leds, I got one and you see the red leds lit up when ready to take a pic, so cant really be left somewhere thats likely to be seen.its like when you walk past you see the leds light up, so flytippers may see it and nick it
    I didnt realise theis before or Id have got one with no glow leds

    poly
    Free Member

    I’m guessing they’ll be ineffectual at night reading a license plate since they work off IR (if my experience with IR on CCTV is anything to go by).

    I’m not sure that is going to matter. Even if you get a definite number plate, my recent experience is that the authorities are very grateful but hold no expectation of catching the people that dump regularly – to quote the guy from SEPA, “if they are doing this sort of thing regularly, they are exactly the sort of people that also don’t have the correct details recorded at DVLA so tracing them is virtually impossible.”

    Kit
    Free Member

    So you’re saying I shouldn’t bother?

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