wildlife cameras

[smojo]

Thinking of Christmas (no don't groan) only because it's an opportunity for some more gear. So I thought about a wildlife camera. Budget would have to be no more than £100. Any recommendations. The LTL Acorn 5120A looks pretty good for the price. Any thoughts or suggestions please.

[oldclaypaws]

I bought the one you mentioned on Ebay. It was great initially but then it had a software fault and the menu settings went haywire, its virtually unusable after just a few months. I asked the vendor if there was a repair or warranty scheme and there was no response. It seems if an electronic item goes kaput and was bought on Ebay you have none of the usual consumer rights or protection, something to consider when buying. You might have to pay more from a retail outlet, but its a form of protection if you can contact them in the event of any issues. Looking at Amazon reviews, it seems I'm not alone, some do go wrong. They are great when they work though and we'd like another, so I'll follow this thread with interest.

I rang a retail outlet to ask if they could assist (no), but they said don't use rechargable batteries, they reckon they can cause problems. (thats what I was using). Personally, can't see what difference that would make.

[Dexter's Shed]

I got ours from maplin's, they sent us some money off vouchers, so buying two together only cost me around £140
the instructions are very easy to understand, I'd warn you off the type that send text alerts to your phone etc, a neigbouring plot holder bought one and apart from needing a sim card, the cost £££'s to run

here's a clip of the film you can get from them, this is all 20 second shots that I've edited together

http://youtu.be/JYrr_Pivfy4

seems paws don't have a lot of luck with stuff he buy's, strimmers,trail cams, rather than blame the product, has he ever thought he may be jinxed
using rechargeable batteries; if a unit runs on 6volts, ie 4- 1.5v AA batteries, then that's what it needs, using a rechargeable, each battery is only 1.2volts, thus your trying to run a unit on a total of 4.8volts, = user error

[Rod Taylor]

Had a Ltl Acorn 5210 for around 3 years now and still working well. Really impressed with the "invisible" IR flash as it truly is invisible so no give away flash when left unattended in the wood. Have always used with re-chargeable batteries with no problems and instructions do say can be used with these or standard cells.
However, standard cells are rated at 1.5v and re-chargeable only 1.2v, so as it uses 4 cells in series, the re-chargeable cells supply only 4.8v not 6v. If the 'electronics' are a bit iffy perhaps this is enough to tip it over the edge.

[oldclaypaws]

Well, you learn summit every day, I had no idea rechargeables pumped out a lower voltage. Apparently my camera doesn't mind, but it might be worth wacking in a pack of alkalines in the trail camera to see if it corrects the issue. If it sorted it, that would be 'triffic. Don't think I'm jinxed at all thanks Dexter, I've lots of older stuff which despite being scruffy seems to keep on going fine, like my 16 year old Audi A4, and me for that matter. Unfortunately like so many things, seems Little Acorns are from 'you know where' and the quality of the components might be variable, some OK, some lemons. Have you ever thought Dexter, with your taste in kit, you could just move to Beijing and you'd save a bundle on Ebay postage charges? If you flew out, you wouldn't even need to ask the plane to stop either, you've got the parachute now so you could save on airport landing charges too. "One small step for Dexter, one giant leap for Ebay feedback"

[Dexter's Shed]

as a kid, I alway's felt the odd one out, 6'2" at the age of 13, imagine how I'd feel in china

[SimonFisher]

Well, you learn summit every day, I had no idea rechargeables pumped out a lower voltage.

It's not quite as simple as that. Look at the a profile of voltage output for different types of cells and you'll see that alkaline ones typically start high but suffer continuous drop off whereas NiMH ones have a fairly flat output voltage level till almost at the end of their discharge period.

See http://www.powerstream.com/AA-tests.htm

[SimonFisher]

See this thread too - http://www.swog.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1125

[Bearwood]

Been using a friends 5210 with the MMS module on and off for a year. Great snaps, but had issues with taking video, whereby the MMS module created interference with the camera at night when using infrared. I'd buy the one youre looking at in an instant if I needed one myself.

[oldclaypaws]

This Acorn comes with a full one year guarantee, which is reassuring, plus an SD card at a decent price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ltl-Acorn-Wildlife-Camera-SD-Card/dp/B00JQ5JNBC/ref=sr_1_20?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1414095062&sr=1-20&keywords=trail+camera

Interesting snippet in the blurb;

Please also note, there are a number of copies of the Ltl Acorn cameras on the market using inferior components