The more I learn about trail cameras, the more I begin to realize that widely accepted theories are nothing more than myths. Some of these myths are used by manufacturers to exploit impulse reactions, leading to more sales. Others myths are simply just well circulated rumors, that were able to take root in our culture, similar to needing to wait 30 minutes after eating to go swimming.
Regardless of however these myths started or have circulated, it is time for them to be debunked. In the process, having this knowledge will equip you to have a more conscience understanding of trail cameras; saving you money they next time you are in the market for a new trail camera.
Myth#1 The More Megapixels the Better Quality of Photo
This is 100% unequivocally false. The most important aspect of a quality trail camera is the size of the image sensor. Most trail cameras on today’s market have an image sensor between 3-5 megapixels. The size of the image sensor is the actual amount of megapixels that your trail camera will produce on a photograph.
The over inflated megapixels that you will see advertised by a manufacturer is simply a marketing ploy, that allows them to increase the price, which unfortunately works extremely well. In order for a company to have a 5 MP image sensor and promote a 20 MP camera, they install a software within the camera that performs interpolation.
Interpolation is merely just splitting megapixels and claiming each portion of a pixel is one pixel. For example, If you were to take a pizza and cut that pizza into 4 equal parts, you still only have one pizza, but as a marketing ploy you can now claim each individual slice is its own pizza.
Having too many split megapixels will cause the colors on your pictures to become blurry when you zoom in. For this reason, I recommend only using 2.5X the amount of megapixels your image sensor can produce. When purchasing a new trail camera, skip the advertisements on the front of the box, and look specifically for the image sensor size. That will give you a better gauge of quality of megapixels that camera will produce. If you are interested in learning more about interpolation, we go in much more detail in our article Why megapixels don’t really matter.
Myth #2 You can save money by using Alkaline Batteries
It is true that Alkaline batteries are the most readily available batteries on the market. It is also true that brand name Alkaline batteries can be found as low as $.58 price per battery, compared to $1.35 for Lithium batteries. If the math stopped at the register this myth would have merit, but as you begin to use your trail camera, you will find a completely different equation.
Alkaline
All alkaline batteries hold a charge of 1.5volts. Using 8 batteries will convert to the 12volts that a standard trail camera runs on. The standard energy components, that produces the energy source of the battery consists of a chemical reaction between zinc and manganese dioxide.
As an Alkaline battery is used in the field, this chemical reaction creates a water based dead material, that begins to form resistance , minimizing the current that is set to your camera. As the internal resistance increases the amount of current the trail camera is able to pull is reduced, creating a shorter life span for the battery, and prevent you trail camera from being able to draw enough power to run on optimal levels.
The water based chemical reaction between the zinc and manganese dioxide is also a concern in sub freezing weather. We all know as air temperatures cool to below freezing (32 F and 0 C), water begins to freeze. That freezing level will create an expansion of the water molecules which can result in these Alkaline batteries to burst, creating a host of problems with the internal components of your trail camera.
Lithium
Lithium batteries are composed of lithium metal as the negative pole during discharge. Lithium is the lightest of all metals, and during discharge of the battery, it has no affect on the resistance, due to its electrolyte components. This means that a lithium battery will hold its full potential charge of 1.7v throughout the life of the battery, giving your camera all of the power it will need to operate at full capacity.
While an Alkaline battery will build up resistance, and begin to drain the battery at a more rapid pace, Lithium batteries will will stay consistent for a longer period of time. Since the discharge in a Lithium is a lithium metal, rather than a water based discharge, there is no concern with freezing as well.
While the upfront costs of buying Lithium batteries are more expensive, over the course of the battery’s life, the price will be roughly even, and in the end you will have a better quality battery running your trail camera.
We went into a more in depth look at batteries, including external sources and nickel metal hydroxide batteries in our post Average Life of a Trial Camera Battery. It is chock full of useful information, and worth checking out.
Myth #3 You need to buy the largest SD card your camera can hold
Almost all cameras on today’s market will hold up to a 32GB SD card while some cameras go as far as having the capability of using all the way up to 512GB. Isn’t it better to have a card that will hold as many photos as possible? Not necessarily.
We have a post about the best SD card for your camera, that will walk you through all of the nuances of storage capacity, but in simple terms a standard SD card with an 8MP trail camera will hold roughly 350 photos per GB of storage capacity.
This means that a 64GB SD card will hold around 22,400 photos. Lets be honest, that is more photos than I have ever pulled on a trail camera, even one that soaked for over 6 months.
To take it a step further, the average life of lithium batteries, throughout multiple studies on a variety of camera manufacturers, is around 30,000 photos. So even if you ran your batteries dead, you would never fill up a 512GB SD card (179,000 photos). Economically it doesn’t make any sense.
Does it make a difference if you run your cameras in video mode, you might ask. The truth is it doesnt. While your SD card will fill at a faster rate, using more storage. The most common video recordings in trail cameras are 1080p, which has a bit rate of 8Mbps. At this standard recording speed, an SD card can hold roughly 15 minutes worth of video per gigabyte.
On an average setting of 15 second videos, your SD card will hold 60 videos per gigabyte which equals to around 1,900 15 second videos on a 32GB SD card. Your batteries which will take much more discharge in order to perform the task of recording videos, will on an average only have a life span of nearly 2,000 videos of 15 second length.
The only exception the this myth is when the battery life does not come into play. In situations when there are external battery sources used such as battery packs or solar panel, purchasing a larger SD card, especially when the camera is expected to be left for extended lengths of time, makes sense.
Myth #4 4k Video is the Best Trail Camera Video on the Market
Who doesn’t love the idea of 4k high definition video? As a guy, who refuses to watch a football game on anything but high definition television, I am a sucker for an exceptional quality video experience, and nothing is more enticing than the idea of 4k video. But lets be honest, if a camera claims to be 4k, but only records at a speed of 15 frames per second (FPS), is it really 4k?
Frames per second refers to the number of individual frames that comprise each second of video you record. The more frames that are squeezed into every second of recording, the smoother, and more enjoyable the video is to watch. In the case of the current trail cameras that are shooting video in 4k, their videos are recording at 15fps. While the pixels may be in 4k, the amount of frames per second that are being seen is very low, giving the nice clear image of 4k a more choppy feel.
On a side note, most people who use game cameras will check their cards on a computer or even an SD card reader. There are no card readers, and very few computers on the market that have 4k compatibility, making the purchase of a 4k camera even more puzzling.
A better quality video from a trail camera, that will be at a more affordable price will be a camera that records in 1080p HD at 30fps. When it comes to video quality, don’t assume the more pixels the better quality, they must be in conjunction to having a high frame per second rate.
Myth #5 Wireless Cameras Will Send You Pictures Wherever You Are
All cellular trail cameras are wireless, but not all wireless trail cameras are cellular. It is important to realize that the word wireless has been used interchangeably between cellular cameras and wifi/ bluetooth cameras. It is again another marketing gimmick to entice you to spend more money than you really need to.
Cellular game cameras are ran through a cellular service that uses satelites to transmit photos to your phone through an app, or directly to your email. These cameras do indeed send you pictures wherever you are, and are a viable option for those who either do not want to, or can not access their camera to retrieve photos.
Bluetooth and Wifi cameras will send you photos directly to your phone through an app, but you must be within range. The range difference can vary from camera to camera, but averages about 200 ft. Which means you will have to get within 200 feet of your camera to access you photos through your phone. In most cases, these types of wireless cameras make little sense. The purpose of a wireless camera is to avoid putting pressure on an area, and if you need to get within 70 yards of your camera, you are in fact putting pressure on an area.
Myth #6 The faster the trigger speed the more pictures you will get of animals on the move.
This one is slightly complicated. If a deer is running by your game camera, does a faster trigger speed help in getting an image of the entire deer, rather than just the tail end? Yes, it helps, but only when it is associated with the quality features of field of view and detection distance.
Without getting too in depth with geometry and creating a math lesson, the basic principle of having a faster trigger speed is great, but if the angle of the field of view is much less than a trail camera with a slower trigger speed and a wider field of view, the determining factor will be the distance the animal is from the camera.
The length the animal is able to travel through the detection zone is as important as the speed of the cameras trigger.
For those who are interested in the math on how to equate how long that distance is, the equation is :
But for most of us who really are not interested in the math, when looking for a new trail camera, don’t be specifically fooled by the fast trigger speed. It is a helpful tool, but pay attention to the field of view, the wider the better. And when you are setting you camera in the woods, attempt to maximize the distance from where the animal pass.
The farther the detection range on your camera the farther you are able to place it from the animal. That distance, in conjunction with the field of view will allow the animal to spend more time within the detection zone of your camera, giving your camera more time to photograph it.
As long as the trigger speed of the camera is one second or less, I use that speed as the final determination in choosing a fast reaction of a camera.
Myth #7 With a fast trigger speed you will get less blurry pictures of moving animals
Again, don’t be fooled by a fast trigger speed. It is a great feature to have, but it is not worth breaking the bank over. When an animal such as a flying bird, or a running deer passes through the detection zone of your trail camera, having a fast trigger speed does help in assuring you get a photo, but it does not mean the photo will be less blurry.
Often time buyers get fast trigger speeds confused with fast shutter speeds. The difference is with a trigger speed you are measuring the amount of time it takes for the camera to take a picture once it detects an animal. A shutter speed on the other hand, is how fast the shutter on a camera actually takes to open when snapping the photo.
In general the faster the shutter speed, the less light that will enter into the camera, creating less of a chance for the light of a moving object to blur. Typically trail cameras will not give you their shutter speed within the specifications, but it is important to know when buying a game camera, the trigger speed will not solve your problem of blurry photos of moving animals.
Myth #8 Deer Can See Infrared Light
If you ask 100 trail camera users their opinion of Infrared (IR) light on their cameras, at least half will tell you that they feel it spooks deer. I personally fall into this category. There is no substitute for real first hand experience, and the confidence you have in your equipment. If that is your belief, don’t let me change you mind. However, there has been no scientific evidence. that deer are able to see Infrared.
Color is how we perceive light on various wavelengths. Taking the colors of the rainbow, the color spectrum that we are able to see: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet (ROY G BIV), colors on the left side of the spectrum have longer wavelengths and colors on the right have shorter wavelengths. Deer, however are not able to see the entire color spectrum that we are able to see, but are able to pick up colors with short wavelengths, such as blue, indigo and violet.
Aside from our known color spectrum there are two other colors on the spectrum that we are not able to see, Infrared and Ultra Violet. The color Infrared has extremely long wavelengths that the human eye is unable to see, while ultra violet has shorter wavelengths that we are unable to see. Deer on the other hand who specialize in being able to see short wavelengths, are able to see ultra violet.
This is interesting to the trail camera owner, because all of the opinions of IR cameras spooking deer, which is widely believed, but scientifically deer are unable to see the wavelength that IR emits. A more plausible explanation is that deer are just simply weary of the camera itself, and when caught on camera looking directly into the lens, it is possible that they don’t necessarily see the light, but observe the camera, or even hear the camera.
Myth #9 All cellular trail camera services are the same
As if finding the perfect cellular trail camera for yourself is not hard enough, you also have to deal with monthly payments on that cellular service. Common sense would tell you that cellular service from one provider would be the same regardless of which trail camera you are using. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
The truth is each trail camera manufacturer has its own contracts with cellular providers that are worked out behind the scenes. For instance you can receive unlimited photos from Verizon cellular service through Spy Point cameras, for only $15 per month, set up on an annual basis. For that same price through Moultrie, you will only be able to download approximately 1,250 photos.
You will undoubtedly pay more for the Spy Point camera, and you might not even need 1,250 photos a month. These are all factors you will need to consider for you your own situation. Just be aware that a cheaper priced camera in the end may not be saving you money.
