Anyone use IR Trail Cameras??

[Steve Axford]

I'm thinking of getting an IR trail camera for shooting wildlife at night. This is because most Oz wildlife is nocturnal and the best way to photograph it is with a remote camera. I'll be taking HD video with it which seems to put the cost at a little less than $200, which isn't bad. Anyone used one?

[macmich]

Steve, I purchased one to do a bit of surveilance work, and it worked well for everything apart from what I bought it for
I had it hidden behind glass and I sat of the place and rubbed my hands in glee because I had the notes taken and I thought I had the footage, until I checked the card at home the infrared did not work through glass
But good on birds at a birdbath that I tried it on
Macca

[Steve Axford]

I don't think I need to hide the camera from a platypus, so no glass needed, Macca.

[macmich]

You would at heals vile sanctuary

[Steve Axford]

That's the problem with having your own creek, you have to provide your own glass.
I decided to just get a camera that seems to be right for the job. The reviews don't really focus on the video quality very much, so I have to rely on some user reviews and generally reading as much as I can on the internet. The Browning Spec Ops XR seems to fit the bill and at $200 incl postage, it's not a bad price either. It seems these things are relatively new so that may explain why there is so little interest in them here, so far. All the American hunters seem to love them, so bad news for big male deer I would say.

[arthurking83]

My only concern with the use of these type of IR cameras on nocturnal creatures is the potential for the camera's lighting to damage the eyes of the subject.

In fact the last thing you want to be doing yourself, is looking into either an IR or UV light source .. although I suspect that the power of the IR wouldn't do all that much damage to human eyes in small doses.
On a grander scale, think of the possibility of damage that the sun can do human eyes when looking directly at it!

Remember that these nocturnal creatures will surely have much more sensitivity than human eyes will .. and why they can see in the dark in the first place.
I have no idea on where you would find out any relevant info on the subject .. and I can't see any technical info on the power level or IR wavelengths involved in that Browning IR camera's lighting setup either.


On a wild tangent! ... if you had a spare $3(and-a-bit)K you may want to look into a Sony A7s and very fast aperture lens plus an external recorder to send the video feed too.
ISO200K, and 4K video .. downsampling the video(if required) should give you pretty good video in the dark and in the more appealing visible spectrum!(if you were to make this a more long term mission that is).

[Steve Axford]

As far as I am aware, Arthur, IR is very unlikely to do any damage to animals eyes. We cannot see low frequency IR and it does no damage to our eyes. Most mammals have worse colour vision than we do and even birds only see better at the blue/UV end of the spectrum. UV can certainly do damage, but this is IR. I would certainly do nothing that I saw as a risk to wildlife.
I think I'll stick to the $200 camera as it does 720p video and it has all the triggering and waterproof casing required. If I want better daytime video I may think about a Gopro Hero 3 which does 4k video for $500, though what use is 4k unless you want to do cinema? Maybe for cropping??? I also note that Gopro has a remote controller for $200 that allows remote access to the video screen from 200m. That is quite impressive. These are the cameras that are used at major sporting events where large screen display is required.