Worth A Thousand Words

Motion-sensing trail cameras have become one of the hottest product categories in the hunting world in just the past two years. Used primarily by whitetail deer hunters, they are also widely applied by bear and turkey hunters, wildlife biologists, and folks who just want to keep track of what wanders through their backyard in the middle of the night.

The current Cabela's catalog has a half-dozen pages of different makes and models listed, and my Google search for "trail cameras" on the internet turned up 6,180,000 hits, with 1,373 individual product listings available for on-line purchase.

With literally scores of different products and accessory packages available, with prices that run from less than $100 to several thousand, and with optical/photographic capabilities that run from rudimentary to broadcast-grade, trail cameras present a bewildering array of choices, and a sometimes daunting challenge in use. So here, based on several years of close field observation of these products in use in the whitetail heaven of Pike County, Illinois, in the hands of sportsmen and wildlife professionals alike, are some brief recommendations on what to think about when choosing a trail cam (or two, or three) that will do what you need without breaking your budget. You'll also find some simple tips for making them work for you like you expect--instead of always just showing the south half of a northbound deer.

What Should You Buy?

There are two basic types of trail cameras: film cameras and digital cameras. Film cameras are less expensive up front, but they're still a waste of money. You have to buy film, and more film, and more film, and film is not cheap. You have to change film regularly because the most you'll get on a roll are thirty-six exposures. You have to pay to process the film. You have to take the film to the processor (which means paying for gas). You have to wait to see the results.

Digital cameras may cost more initially, but their digital memory chips can be used over and over again, they can be large enough to hold several hundred images, and they will allow you to view the images on the spot or be immediately displayed on your computer screen. You only need print the useful ones. Cameras that use Compact Flash cards are the most versatile, and last forever. With a couple of 256MB Compact Flash cards per camera to swap out (total cost about $70; capacity about 400 images each), I've never run out of space. Think how quickly you'd eat up that same $70 buying and processing film.

So, with a digital camera, how much resolution do you need? The big buzzword in that regard is "megapixels" (which doesn't exactly translate into resolution, but never mind). Digital cameras are categorized by their megapixel capability, and generally speaking, more megapixels are better and cost more. With more megapixels you can print out or view a larger image at a better resolution. But with a trail cam you don't need a lot. For seeing what kind of deer are there, showing your buddies, or sending the image in an email, 1.3/1.5MP is plenty.