New cams on the way

Just pulled the trigger on a a pair of Browning Spec Ops Elite HP4 cameras. They're the highest rated camera on Trailcampro. What swayed me was the reviews that suggest excellent night pictures/videos and long flash range for a true black-flash. The estimated 3 year lifespan for a single set of batteries didn't hurt either.

Once I receive them, get them deployed, and get some pictures and videos, I'll post a review.

wow, up to 3 year battery life. Looking forward to the pics.

Please let us know! That looks very promising from a reliable company (thus far). I really like this feature:

• Battery Meter Compatible with Alkaline, Rechargeable and
  Lithium Batteries

My SO elites been in the field 3 week. Next weekend ill pull it and check how the videos came out. Let em soak 4 weeks this year. Trailcampro is awsome!

I bought 4 Browning Dark Ops Pro XD cameras last year, and although the Trailcampro's battery usage calculations suggest 11.2 months of life from a set of batteries, I ran those cameras on video mode for 5 months last year, where they collected thousands of 20 second videos, yet they are all reading 96% battery life left.

The Dark Ops Pro XDs take 6 batteries, the new Spec Ops Elite HP4 take 8.

Mr.Bro said:

My SO elites been in the field 3 week. Next weekend ill pull it and check how the videos came out. Let em soak 4 weeks this year. Trailcampro is awsome!

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I'll be very curious to see what you think of them.

BSK said:

....... and although the Trailcampro's battery usage calculations suggest 11.2 months of life from a set of batteries, I ran those cameras on video mode for 5 months last year, where they collected thousands of 20 second videos, yet they are all reading 96% battery life left.

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What kind of batteries?

Andy S. said:

What kind of batteries?

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Lithium AAs

I like that the python cable bracket on the back is metal, instead of plastic. Finally the design engineer may have gotten it right. I will have to hold one and inspect it to know for certain.

BSK said:

Once I receive them, get them deployed, and get some pictures and videos, I'll post a review.

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Looking forward to it.

Besides battery life, one of the selling points of the Spec Ops Elite HP4 is the trigger and recovery speeds. The trigger speed (time from the instant the camera detects movement until the first picture is taken) of this camera has been measured at 0.01 seconds. That's insanely fast, and makes it the fastest triggering camera on the market.

^^^ Impressive on paper for sure, but anything .25 second or so is equivalent to the blink of an eye. Faster than we can realize when looking at pics. With recovery time of 0.6, one can expect to get 2 pics per second, assuming SD card can write them that fast.

Andy S. said:

^^^ Impressive on paper for sure, but anything .25 second or so is equivalent to the blink of an eye. Faster than we can realize when looking at pics. With recovery time of 0.6, one can expect to get 2 pics per second, assuming SD card can write them that fast.

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That's why I only use SD cards with write speeds of 90+ ms. A bit more expensive but worth it, especially when recording long, high-resolution videos with high frame rates (like 60 fps).

For 4K video, over 100 ms is recommended.

The 2in screen on the SO Elite is impressive. Never cared for the screens before but now these old eyes can actually see it

BSK said:

That's why I only use SD cards with write speeds of 90+ ms. A bit more expensive but worth it, especially when recording long, high-resolution videos with high frame rates (like 60 fps).

For 4K video, over 100 ms is recommended.

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ok need help with this. Whats this with a 90 plus ms and 100plus sd card. Ive always used class 10 cards. Class 10 ok?

Mr.Bro said:

ok need help with this. Whats this with a 90 plus ms and 100plus sd card. Ive always used class 10 cards. Class 10 ok?

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Not all Class 10 cards are the same. Look at the card and in one of the upper corners it should give the transfer rate speed. I've got Class 10 cards that are only 48 MB/second, and others that are 110 MB/sec. For full HD video at 60 fps, 90 MB/sec and faster cards are recommended. For 4K video, over 100 MB/sec recommended.

For SD cards, I currently use "U1" Class 10 32 GB cards rated "up to" 90 MB/s read speed and "U1" Class 10 64 GB cards rated "up to" 120 MB/s read speed, as well as 10 MB/s sustained write speed, which is more than enough for all trail camera photos, and will suffice for 720p and 1080p HD video.

The newer more advanced "U3" cards are generally recommended for ultra high definition photos in high speed burst mode (think DSLR), as well as 4k and 8k video (again DSLR). U1 is guaranteed to write sustained 10 MB/s, whereas the newer U3 (aka V30) cards are guaranteed to write sustained 30 MB/s, making the U3 preferred for ultra high definition video use. U3/V30 cards are part of the new craze, as well as V60 and V90, but they are definitely more costly at $30 to $200 per SD card. I do not plan to update my U1 Class 10 cards, but will likely consider U3 for any new SD cards going forward.

Andy S. said:

as well as V60 and V90, but they are definitely more costly at $30 to $200 per SD card. I do not plan to update my U1 Class 10 cards, but will likely consider U3 for any new SD cards going forward.

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Same here, Andy. "Consider" being the key word

With 90 ms cards last year, I had no dropped frames from 1920x1080 video at 60 fps. With cards rated at 40 ms, I could clearly see dropped frames.

Wow. I may have to change. I spend so much on batteries it would be worth it

Just bought a 5-pack of SanDisk 64 GB cards, 90 ms transfer rate, from Amazon for $60. So faster cards are a little more, but not a huge amount more. Now if you go for the really top-end like Andy S was talking about, yeah, they get crazy expensive.