gil1
Well-Known Member
"Roadkill" Gil Cam Test
I put one of Fireman Jim's white flash homebrews on the same tree with my HCO Scoutguard cellular black flash cam just to see the difference. These posted are good representations of all the photos in one night's set, about 35 pics. of a coyote in my back yard in Nashville. The two images shown are taken within one minute of each other, possibly within a few seconds of each other.
Both cameras were set to fire every 5 seconds. I got five coyote pics. with the HCO and 29 with the homebrew. I have no idea why this occured, but that's why I did the test in the first place, to see why the HCO won't trigger as advertised. Another obvious difference is the field of view. The HCO just has a much narrower view. I don't consider this a concern - it's just something you need to know when figuring out where to place your bait or lure. My first sets were cutting off a lot of the yote because the camera zooms in so much.
The most obvious difference is the quality of the photos. The homebrew shots are decent quality images - not SLR quality - just what they are, good quality point and shoot shots where the flash does its job and the Autofocus is fairly dependable. The HCO shots are blurry, grainy and overexposed (every single one). Yes, this is hugely a function of flash technology and not as much the camera model. A night photo or any photo taken with a black flash just isn't going to be a quality photo.
The results don't mean much and wouldn't surprise anyone. I don't and won't use black flash cameras because the image quality is bad - really, really bad. I'm just one of those that considers image quality important, and part of that has to do with the fact that I need quality images for my work. I just have this black flash cam because HCO was nice enough to give it to me for testing. The obvious benefit to black flash is that some critters (depending on species and individuals within the species) avoid white and red flash. In this case, the yote in my back yard is accustomed to my set-up. It's obvious that he is curious and maybe even leery of the flash, but he doesn't avoid the camera until he has eaten all the bait (cull venison).
So it's just up to us consumers as to what matters in our game cam work. Everything is a tradeoff, and there is no right or wrong answer. I just thought the photo results were interesting.
I put one of Fireman Jim's white flash homebrews on the same tree with my HCO Scoutguard cellular black flash cam just to see the difference. These posted are good representations of all the photos in one night's set, about 35 pics. of a coyote in my back yard in Nashville. The two images shown are taken within one minute of each other, possibly within a few seconds of each other.
Both cameras were set to fire every 5 seconds. I got five coyote pics. with the HCO and 29 with the homebrew. I have no idea why this occured, but that's why I did the test in the first place, to see why the HCO won't trigger as advertised. Another obvious difference is the field of view. The HCO just has a much narrower view. I don't consider this a concern - it's just something you need to know when figuring out where to place your bait or lure. My first sets were cutting off a lot of the yote because the camera zooms in so much.
The most obvious difference is the quality of the photos. The homebrew shots are decent quality images - not SLR quality - just what they are, good quality point and shoot shots where the flash does its job and the Autofocus is fairly dependable. The HCO shots are blurry, grainy and overexposed (every single one). Yes, this is hugely a function of flash technology and not as much the camera model. A night photo or any photo taken with a black flash just isn't going to be a quality photo.
The results don't mean much and wouldn't surprise anyone. I don't and won't use black flash cameras because the image quality is bad - really, really bad. I'm just one of those that considers image quality important, and part of that has to do with the fact that I need quality images for my work. I just have this black flash cam because HCO was nice enough to give it to me for testing. The obvious benefit to black flash is that some critters (depending on species and individuals within the species) avoid white and red flash. In this case, the yote in my back yard is accustomed to my set-up. It's obvious that he is curious and maybe even leery of the flash, but he doesn't avoid the camera until he has eaten all the bait (cull venison).
So it's just up to us consumers as to what matters in our game cam work. Everything is a tradeoff, and there is no right or wrong answer. I just thought the photo results were interesting.
