wildlife cameras

[boxerman]

Alright mate?

Yeah, thanks - recovering slowly. Haven't forgotten the invite and soon be good enough to make a visit. Be in touch fairly soon to arrange something.

Not posting much 'cos till I get a wood I don't have much to add but I'm still here and reading the posts in preparation for when I finally get there...

When I have some video of the badgers I'll post a link here so you can see the quality (be a few weeks I suspect).

[oldclaypaws]

Expected to get squirrels or badgers last night, instead we had a surprise guest. "Hmmmm, Ryvita and peanut butter, cheers, my favourite !" He came back several times, from 8.30 pm all the way to 4.30am. Just thinking what to give him tonight, chocolate digestives?

http://youtu.be/1hHGb9nSyag

[smojo]

Ah cool. I like foxes.

[oldclaypaws]

We've found another firm favourite to compliment the Ryvita and peanut butter. He must be one of the only foxes with a regular intake of pilchard and trout flavour cat biscuits .

[boxerman]

Well, my Acorn arrived on Sat and the first thing I did was check out the reported signs of a fake - all of this appeared to say it's genuine BUT I still have a few niggling doubts about that and have suspicions that the fakers may have changed all of those advertised pointers - what I don't have tho is any positives to allow me to throw it back as such. It could be genuine.......

Firstly, what I ordered was a 2013 model (ok, it's a year out of date but that shouldn't be an issue) and what's arrived appears to be the very early box (the one that the fakes use) with an Acorn on it. Secondly, it's a 5210A which, according to the instruction book should have capability to set to take a still and then video but no such option is in the menu. Thirdly, the box states the 0.8 second trigger time but the instructions say 1 second.. And fourth on the list is video - I can only describe it as.... well, not good shall we say - maybe I've just been spoilt by my GoPro which has superb HD video.. ok, I know it's never going to match the GoPro but it's not a patch on the video that Dexter posted back in this thread. Additionally, I'm not impressed with the motion sensors - tried it in my garden for a couple of days aimed at the bird feeders and it won't trigger on anything smaller than a Magpie.

Whatever I've got, I don't have grounds to throw it back so I guess it was my gamble and I'll live with it.

Set it up at my Mum's Badgers Sett this afternoon so will give it a couple of day there the go and change the card and see what I've got - figured I'd try Claypaws tempters of Ryvita and Peanut Butter so threw some of the around.

And lastly, what do folks use for video editing??

[SimonFisher]

Whatever I've got, I don't have grounds to throw it back so I guess it was my gamble and I'll live with it.

Who did you buy it from? You don't need any grounds to cancel your order and return it under the Consumer Contract Regulations (http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-contracts-regulations).

[Dexter's Shed]

And lastly, what do folks use for video editing??

I use windows movie maker, it's free, quite basic but very easy for me to use not being great with computers, I've only just learned about other stuff it does a year down the line

here's one of mine from the weekend when we camped over, not the greatest, but watch out for the frog, never saw it in the dark, but the camera did


(maplins swan camera)

http://youtu.be/MlEZgjV6cEk

[boxerman]

Thanks both..

It's an E-bay purchase and, at the moment I could return it but suspect it may be more hassle than it's worth.

The quality of the frog vid is far better than I'm getting from this.

Thanks for the info re Windows Movie Maker, Dexter - very helpful as the only editing software I have is GoPro specific.

I'm going to persevere for a few days as it's already set up at the badger sett. Couldn't resist nipping over this afternoon to change the SD card and see what I got last night - got quite excited when I saw 43 videos recorded but was disappointed at what I got - as expected there were 2 or 3 of me while setting up, a squirrel stealing all my peanut covered ryvita (appeared to be eating the peanut butter and then burying the remains...), a couple of the local tabby (brave little thing - saw him sticking his head down the main sett entrance!), and the gardener.... I think the rest were triggered by heat from the sun. There were only 4 night triggers, two were lit and two weren't + the vid, despite being set at 60 seconds was producing between 5 and 2 second vids _ this appears to be a classic sign of low battery voltage.

I'm going to nip over again tomorrow and re-site the camera, try some Nimh batteries, and alter a couple of settings

Genuine or not I'm not sure but either way I'm very disappointed with the video quality and I can see a 6210 on the horizon as that at least has HD video - if I do go that route tho, it'll be from a reputable dealer to avoid the doubt....

[oldclaypaws]

This is a typical clip of my 5210A camera shooting woodmice. From a range of about 4 or 5 feet the wee mice activate it every time with the sensor set to 'normal', and in one night I had 70 one minute clips of them until the SD card was full. Again with the fox, I had some 50 clips in a night, and Mr Fox in every one of them. The quality isnt HD, but its good enough to keep us happy. Its sharper on the PC, you lose a bit of resolution loading it to Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7RWyrQx-XA&list=UU7RUv18S4bB5K1WUmXzxmdA

Unfortunately it sounds as if yours isn't working quite right boxerman, which must be frustrating. Are you quite sure you've read the instructions and you're programming it correctly? Every time you change a menu option you need to press 'OK' to save it, and you're supposed to switch from 'off' to 'test' and back to ''off', not directly from 'test' to 'on'. Alkalines might be better than Nimh batteries to give the full 6V voltage. Not sure how much joy you'll get sending it back to China, I know foresight is a wonderful power and don't wish to rub salt in the wounds, but you did say it was taking a bit of a punt buying from a foreign Ebay supplier. Had you bought from the importers Pakatak in the UK, they'd have been able to resolve any issues to your satisfaction, at a price of £109 versus £76 for the extra peace of mind, which isnt a huge premium for a genuine 'no quibble 14 day money back' warranty if not happy, plus guarantee against faults for (I think?) 2 years. I have a minor glitch with the menu choices on mine, but its fine in operation once set up. I also bought from an ebay seller who didnt respond when it had a fault. Fortunately Ron (as mentioned before) was able to give advice and help sort it, but in hindsight I too would have been better buying from Pakatak, its always reassuring to have someone on the end of a phone who tries hard to have happy customers. -Buying any electrical item from Ebay carries a risk if it fails.

You could try ringing Ron and asking for advice- he seems very keen to share his knowledge and help. He may be able to suggest a solution as he did for me. Reloading more up to date software might sort it. Good luck, hope you can resolve the performance issues.

[Wendelspanswick]

eBay have recently changed their terms and conditions to favour the consumer more. If you receive goods not as described or faulty it is the sellers responsibility to arrange collection of the goods at their expense.
If they do not arrange collection you get to keep the goods and eBay will refund you the purchase price.
The new T&C's came into force in September.
We have already benifited after a seller auctioned off two different printed circuit boards for a telephone system, we bid on and won board 'A' but we were sent board 'B'. We informed the seller but received no response, raised it with eBay and received a full refund within 10 days and got to keep card 'B'.