ya, you have to watch the you tube video at the bottom to appreciate what it can do... I think one will be on order in the morning

I know Reconyx is way more exspensive but doesn't it do time lapsed also?

Yes.

Not sure about the time lapse feature with Reconyx. Not saying they don't have them. We use Reconyx on the Illinois farms. They have "rapid fire" but never notice "time lapse" with them. The "plotwatcher" is a true time lapse camera... no sensor needs to be triggered. It just constantly takes pistures every 5 seconds or 10 (depending on set up). When played in fast forward it looks like a movie being played. No night pictures but I've never killed a deer at night and hear it is illegal . But seriously I could care less what has travel by at night... I want to know what is there during the day. I've got more pictures of bucks at night that were never seen or photoed ever again. Far as I'm concerned it was just a "passing thru buck". This plotwatcher system is by far more superior to regular trail cams when it comes to scouting particular areas. JMO. Final note Reconyx $600 - Plotwatcher $200.

Not sure about the time lapse feature with Reconyx. Not saying they don't have them. We use Reconyx on the Illinois farms. They have "rapid fire" but never notice "time lapse" with them. The "plotwatcher" is a true time lapse camera... no sensor needs to be triggered. It just constantly takes pistures every 5 seconds or 10 (depending on set up). When played in fast forward it looks like a movie being played. No night pictures but I've never killed a deer at night and hear it is illegal . But seriously I could care less what has travel by at night... I want to know what is there during the day. I've got more pictures of bucks at night that were never seen or photoed ever again. Far as I'm concerned it was just a "passing thru buck". This plotwatcher system is by far more superior to regular trail cams when it comes to scouting particular areas. JMO. Final note Reconyx $600 - Plotwatcher $200.

Sounds like someone is a Plotwatcher salesman!

Yes, Reconyx has time lapse. Reconyx Hyperfire HC500 $449.

The image quality on the time-lapse cameras aren't very good.

I have 2 new ones still in the box, they don't tell you on the box that it need windows XP or newer, I got Mac's.

Wrong there my friend. The pictures are in HD (high definition).

They are absolutely very clear. Exception being fast movement (deer running away). Maybe the Reconyx has poor image in time lapse but not these plot watcher cameras...

Take a look at one... (look at its images it produces) you might just be impressed.

Can you POST some plot watcher pics??? I would like to see there quality...

You do realize there's no such thing as "High Definition" digital images don't you? Image quality is all about imager quality, lens glass quality and Megapixels. The Plotwatcher records in 1280x1024 video (double what most video resolution is), but that is still only 1.3 MP images. That's smaller images than any trail-cam on the market. The lower the megapixels the less you can expand the image on a computer screen and maintain clarity.



Reconyx cams certainly don't take the best pictures in the world.




I have taken a look at one. I'm not impressed with the images at all.

In addition, the Plotwatcher's batteries will only last about a week, and don't buy into the sales claim of being able to review the video in minutes. It actually can take a long time to review the entire video of a weeks worth of images. We're talking about 50,000+ images in a week.

As a scouting tool--watching a large open area to see how deer are entering/exiting and at what time during daylight--these units have great promise. As a tool for evaluating what bucks are using a property and their size, it is a bust.

Sounds like your club's putting too much pressure on the deer.

We still see and kill some of our bigger deer in fields

These pictures are extremely clear. And to tell me (an owner) of a plotwatcher that it takes a long time to watch a weeks worth of survellience... well buddy you just don't know what your talking about on this one. It has different speeds that you can search with including a "deer search" feature that will zip to first picture with deer in it. Normally BSK I would give you all the respect in the world but you are so far off on this one its almost funny. Do you sell Recoyx or what?? By the way I can watch 7 days in less than 10 minutes.

In almost 20 years of food plotting, I've NEVER seen a mature buck in a field during daylight hours. I've got a few trail-cam pics of mature bucks in the plots during daylight, but those too are very rare.

Sounds like your club's putting too much pressure on the deer.

We still see and kill some of our bigger deer in fields

Not sure what your definition of mature buck is but I have seen many mature deer in fields. One of guys I hunt with has 8 mature (130" +) heads on the wall that all come out of the same field in last 10 years. Each farm to its own though when it comes to deer pattern.

Tomahwak,

I've talked to quite a few people who have these cameras. I've seen the images, the video, and the video's "deer search" capabilities.

As a scouting tool--to see how deer are entering/exiting a large area IN DAYLIGHT--this camera has real promise.

But as a "trail-camera" for evaluating buck age, size and identity, it's virtually worthless. An image of a buck at 200 feet from the camera in only 1.3 megapixels isn't going to show you much at all, other than big antlers versus small antlers.

Yes I agree completely that distance pictures will be hard to determine such aspects of a buck. The point is you can see the deer from a long ways away. Getting vital bio info on the deer may not be possible when they are 100 yds away but your standard trail camera would never show you those deer at that distance because it only has 50 ft range to trigger. Now put these deer at 30 yds or closer with the plotwatcher cam and the details are very clear. Certainly clear enough to get info your looking for, not to mention the number of pics you would have of that particular deer at many angles depending on how the subject is moving around in the field of view. I normally erase the flash drive after viewing (only does and few turkey at house) because I'm still in test phase of camera. However when I get back to Knoxville and check it, I will post some pictures off it. And just so I'm clear...I'm all about the scouting potential (trails not the fields), not the clarity of pictures... thats just a bonus. Different strokes, different folks

Again, I've seen the pictures. They don't even come close to what I need.

Here's what I need (and this is from a new commercial trail-camera). Both of these bucks were about 30 feet from the camera:

Again, I've seen the pictures. They don't even come close to what I need.

Here's what I need (and this is from a new commercial trail-camera). Both of these bucks were about 30 feet from the camera:

We hardly ever see mature bucks in food plots. We counted all of them up from the last 10 years and it amounted to 4 mature bucks seen in fields on our property. Like BSK mentioned, we arent anywhere near farm country....strictly ridge and hollow hardwoods country. Point being, if you want to kill a mature buck in a food plot where we are, you have about a 1/5 of a percent chance at doing so. We only hunt food plots to take does. Where we are, you have to get off the fields a ways to kill mature bucks. Yes, we have gotten several pictures of them in daylight in fields, but not enough to make anyone want to sit over a field hoping for a mature buck

We only hunt food plots to take does. Where we are, you have to get off the fields a ways to kill mature bucks. Yes, we have gotten several pictures of them in daylight in fields, but not enough to make anyone want to sit over a field hoping for a mature buck

Hey BSK, I wish you had a little better quality camera. I would like to zoom in and see what is causing that hump on that little buck's back

30 feet = 10 yards. They look like they are 10 feet away... but you may have them zoomed for easier view.

I will say this, if these same deer were only 30 feet (10 yds) from my camera, I would have no problem getting the details I need. Now if it was for professional publishing, well it may not get the stamp of approval. By the way how old is your friends computer? It may at fault here for the picture quality...

Those are "actual pixel" crops from the original images. The original images are too large to post on this forum, but here they are downsized to fit most computer screens:








It's physically impossible for the PlotWatcher to produce images of this quality. At 1.3 MP, you only have a limited number of pixels to work with.

I've seen several examples of Plotwatcher images, all from professional deer managers. And for what professional deer managers use cameras for--keeping a running inventory of individual bucks--the Plotwatcher won't cut it.

But as a scouting tool, or as a tool to figure out where to put an actual trail-camera, the product has real promise.