Reconyx Trail Cameras
When I was shopping for my first trail camera, I happened upon this company - http://www.trailcampro.com/. They did a superb job on their website of comparing the multi faceted differences with all the major trail cameras. One camera stood out from the rest, Reconyx. But the cost also stood out, at about $550 or 2x the amount of the other highly rated camera.
Reconyx is made in the USA, and I love to support companies making products in our country. But I also want to make sure that I’m paying for high quality if I’m going to fork over a lot more money. So I called Trail Cam Pro to talk to a live person and ask some questions. They said it is by far the highest quality camera and worth the money. I haven’t been disappointed since.
Some of the features that I liked were it’s incredible fast trigger speed. It takes three pictures instantly upon being triggered by heat or an image, even on the far perimeter of the lens. And then I can set it to continue taking those bursts of pictures for as long as there is movement in front of the camera.
There are companies such as Cuddeback that are designed to have a narrower detection range, highlighting their centered photos. But I’ve had countless images of animals that never crossed the center of the camera, and I wouldn’t have learned that they were there. I’ve even had the Reconyx triggered by a deer sniffing the camera and later just getting an image of the edge of its nose. Had I used a camera with narrow detection, I may have never known that the scent of the camera was enough to keep a deer from walking along the trail. In that particular instance a bear brushed up along and left her scent on the camera.
The Reconyx has captured antlers, ears, noses, tails... all kinds of glimpses of animals that came close to, but not quite directly in front of the lens. Personally I find that information valuable and would rather have a partial image than none at all.
I try to face the camera to the north and not too far east or west to avoid excess glare from the sun. Know the range of your flash to secure good nighttime images. I tend to leave the camera in one spot for months at a time. I’ve yet to have the batteries run out (using Lithium batteries) and use large (32 or 64 gig) SD card. That includes a winter/spring with over 20,000 images on it. I was using a “Code Blue Bear Magnet” lure to try and entice bears from their den. No bears, but I discovered that deer find it irresistible. It was the last time I used an attractant on a trail camera site. I’d rather hundreds of pictures of lots of animals than thousands of pics of the same animal.
I have Reconyx cameras well over a decade old way back in the UP woods still working as fine as when I bought them. I also use their new models - the Hyperfire and Ultrafire. I use the Ultrafire specifically for videos.
You’ll be rewarded with sights of animals that you had no idea lived in your woods.