New Browning camera

[BSK]

Just noticed on their website Browning is now listing a Spec Ops Elite HP5. Supposed to have a new and improved form of night illumination. I can't imagine anything better than the HP4, but something tells me I will have to try one!

Supposed to be available April 1.

 

[TheLBLman]

I'm hoping they make the prior HP4 version available at a deep discount :)

 

[BSK]

I'm hoping they make the prior HP4 version available at a deep discount :)

Crazy thing is, the new HP5 is listed at $10 cheaper than the HP4!

 

[TheLBLman]

Crazy thing is, the new HP5 is listed at $10 cheaper than the HP4!

Wow.
I guess many users are like me,
in that they are reluctant to buy the "latest" version
having been burned with new problematic issues with many new versions of anything,
especially computer updates and trail cams.

At present, going into the summer/fall, the only NON-cellular cams I plan to add will be the HP4.
If the HP5 gets favorable initial reviews, will consider.

But I'm mainly adding cell cams this year.

 

[megalomaniac]

I have a sneaky suspicion there won't be any hp4s on sale... have been sold out forever at retailers as well as browning website. I bet they haven't made any in months gearing up for hp5 model

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Good news!

 

[BSK]

I have a sneaky suspicion there won't be any hp4s on sale... have been sold out forever at retailers as well as browning website. I bet they haven't made any in months gearing up for hp5 model

Probably true.

 

[BSK]

Wow.
I guess many users are like me,
in that they are reluctant to buy the "latest" version
having been burned with new problematic issues with many new versions of anything,
especially computer updates and trail cams.

I hear that! Can't tell you how often that has happened with trail-cams.

 

[BSK]

But I'm mainly adding cell cams this year.

I don't see myself ever buying a cell cam. No use for one.

But that said, I used to say I would never use video mode, and here I am using ONLY video mode now, so you never know.

But I can't imagine trying to transmit by cell signal the 262 GB required for the 10,000 videos I collected last year.

 

[TheLBLman]

Currently, it does not seem practical for me to use video mode with my cell cams, even though most I'm using have that capability.

BSK, one thing I've found is that cell cams often operate satisfactorily even in areas where the cell service is so poor you have trouble making a phone call.

I do agree the way you are primarily using your trail cams for scientific research, you would have little to gain via the cell feature over a regular trail cam, especially with your now mainly using video mode.

But for me and much my usage, cell cams allow me to less disturb more remote areas (where I would typically not be on an atv and want to minimize human intrusion). And, cell cams are becoming the cat's meow for catching trespassers and poachers, including "making a case" for their convictions.

Typically now, I can place a cell cam, and then not "need" to visit it for up to 6 months before either the batteries die or the sd card becomes full. Even better, am getting real-time "feedback" as to the status of the cam working, battery status, and SD card status. This "feedback" eliminates the problem of not knowing a trail cam is NOT working for weeks on end before you get back to check it.

Also, when or if the cell feature isn't needed, it can simply be turned "off", preserving battery life. With regular trail cams, the biggest battery drainer is often nighttime flash; with cell cams, it's uploading the pics.

So just saying that many cell cams have the option of being used exactly as you might use a regular trail cam, but with the "option" of transmitting pics when & if you want.

 

[Mr.Bro]

I'll take any HP4s I can find. By far the best cameras I've ever owned. Cannt imagion HP5s brighter night videos than HP4s. Hope it doesn't kill battery life. I'll have the new model on hold for me very soon.

 

[BSK]

But for me and much my usage, cell cams allow me to less disturb more remote areas (where I would typically not be on an atv and want to minimize human intrusion). And, cell cams are becoming the cat's meow for catching trespassers and poachers, including "making a case" for their convictions.

Typically now, I can place a cell cam, and then not "need" to visit it for up to 6 months before either the batteries die or the sd card becomes full. Even better, am getting real-time "feedback" as to the status of the cam working, battery status, and SD card status. This "feedback" eliminates the problem of not knowing a trail cam is NOT working for weeks on end before you get back to check it.

In that unique situation - a remote guaranteed camera hot-spot like a traditional scrape - I can see placing a cell camera early in the season and then not needing to disturb the area until after the season is over.

 

[megalomaniac]

In that unique situation - a remote guaranteed camera hot-spot like a traditional scrape - I can see placing a cell camera early in the season and then not needing to disturb the area until after the season is over.

They are awesome for this... single trip to a scrape on the edge of a sanctuary to hang the camera, leave the area alone until the buck you want shows up, then hunt 75y downwind of the sanctuary. No need to ever go back in to check the camera and disturb deer in the sanctuary after the first trip.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

Cell cams have their place, no doubt.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

I run 4 cell cams and 13 regular cams. I am just now trying out video mode this past fall, it is addictive.

 

[BSK]

I am just now trying out video mode this past fall, it is addictive.

Yes it is!

 

[TheLBLman]

If you think video mode is addictive, wait until you try cell cams!

 

[BSK]

If you think video mode is addictive, wait until you try cell cams!

We've got some. Getting the pictures by text is more irritating than anything else. And the quality of the pictures is poor.

 

[TheLBLman]

We've got some. Getting the pictures by text is more irritating than anything else. And the quality of the pictures is poor.

That's due to either user error; or purposeful cell cam settings; or limitations of some cell cams.

If you're just looking at cell cam pics on your "smart" phone, it would typically be the phone imposing those poor quality images. You should be able to change some cell cam settings, and/or just look on a computer screen instead of phone, and get a big improvement in image quality.

With exception of the Tactacams (which are my least favorite), all my cell cams report in on their programmed schedules to both my large-screen computer as well as my phone. I can program notices be sent to either or both. I have "notices" coming into my phone, but do most "viewing" on a computer.

With my Ridgetec cams, I can quickly get exactly the same images on my computer (or phone) that are recorded on the sd cards.

Now, whereas I once watched TV (or dvd's, etc.) for entertainment, I spend time every morning & evening viewing & scrutinizing cell cam pics, which is both entertaining and purposeful to me. Doing this daily also "spreads" the time over a longer period rather than having to spend a great amount of time all at once viewing a retrieved sd card from a non-cell cam.

Most days, I simply remotely delete 90% of the cell cam images, leaving only about 10% on the sd card for later back-up saving. Any thing deemed worthy, is daily saved both on the cell cam's "server" as well as downloaded onto my laptop. The cam's sd card becomes mainly just another image "back-up" with my methodology.

Think about all the time it typically takes to carefully review the SD cards pulled from a dozen trail cams in a single day. With cell cams, because you can have already deleted 90% of the images over previous weeks or months, you should have relatively few images remaining on the SD card, and should already know what they are.

 

[BSK]

I think your arguments hold merit for people using trail-cameras primarily for hunting purposes. Because I keep, analyze and record in databases every single trail-cam image, and require the highest quality and the most images possible, cell cams are not for me.

 

[TheLBLman]

Different brands & models of cell cams, just like regular trail cams, will have different "features" and/or a lack thereof.

One feature I particular like with many cell cam models is being able to quickly change cam settings remotely as well as how often the cell cam "reports in" with new uploaded pics. The more often the cam "reports in" (uploads images), the quicker you drain your cam's batteries. "Live" or "real-time" or "instant" reporting is seldom needed.

Sometimes I use "real-time", but more often will do something just "close" to real-time, such as programming the cell cam to report in as often as every 5 minutes, BUT ONLY IF THERE HAVE BEEN NEW IMAGES SINCE THE LAST REPORTING IN.

When it's just not necessary to get more frequent "reporting in", programming a cell cam to report in once every 24 hrs or once every 12 hours can GREATLY extend battery life compared to "real-time" or more frequent image uploads.

 

[TheLBLman]

I think your arguments hold merit for people using trail-cameras primarily for hunting purposes. Because I keep, analyze and record in databases every single trail-cam image, and require the highest quality and the most images possible, cell cams are not for me.

Oh, I do understand the differences in collecting scientific datasets vs. mainly using the cams for security and entertainment. But I get a lot of pics of essentially nothing, like weeds blowing in the wind, or the back leg of a deer, or a squirrel, etc. ---- these would be pics I would think you don't retain, and those can be a significant percentage of what is seen on an sd card.

Speaking of weeds blowing in the wind, recently I had some green-briar grow a little taller, and it's right in bright sun between 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm. On sunny days, it started triggering a cell cam that was set to take multiple pics as often as every few seconds. After the 1st day of this happening, I remotely changed the cam's setting from 10 seconds to 1 minute as a counter-measure. Same thing happened the next day between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, just significantly fewer images.

Third day, programmed (remotely) that cam to take no pics between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, went back to an interval of every 10 seconds for the other 23 hours daily. Weeds blowing in the wind problem solved, remotely. Sure beats finding out a month later your cam hadn't worked in weeks because of weeds blowing in the wind filling the sd card and/or eating up your batteries.

Problematic events such as runaway triggering could sure mess up a data set? :)

I do understand most of why regular trail cams would work best for your purposes, but you might be surprised at how the cell cam technology has advanced over the past couple years.

 

[BSK]

I do understand most of why regular trail cams would work best for your purposes, but you might be surprised at how the cell cam technology has advanced over the past couple years.

For my needs, I need the highest resolution images possible, and the more of them the better. No problem going through and weeding out the non-target pics once I get the SD cards home. That's just part of the process. My clients check their cams (and swap cards) weekly to biweekly. I check my cams and swap cards weekly because I move cameras so frequently. Even though I have a few traditional scrape camera locations where cameras stay in place all season, I still have cameras I move constantly. This year, with 8 cameras, and 3 of them on traditional scrapes all season, I still used 38 different camera locations from September through early January.

The biggest change in my camera usage in the recent past has been the change to video instead of still pictures. In the past, I wasn't interested in video because trail-cam videos were so low resolution. But the upgrades over the last two years have been astounding. I even found out that despite being lower resolution than some of the still images these cams can take, when a buck is moving in a video clip, I can determine his antler characteristics much better than from a series of higher resolution still images. In addition, I'm picking up more deer on video than from still images. Some of those deer are far in the background and wouldn't be noticed in still images, and some are "follow-up" deer that are behind the deer that triggers the camera, but still make it into the frame within the timeframe of the video clip. Plus, from a professional and hunter's interest, I'm learning so much about deer behavior that could not be seen from still images.

The two biggest downsides to video are space on the SD cards (you better get some monsters - the highest the camera will accept) and the time it takes to review and record the data. When I'm conducting camera censuses for clients, I average being able to assess and record the data from around 1,000 still images per hour. That is not the case with video. I haven't come up with an average number of videos per hour yet, but currently I'm not asking my clients to use video mode except for cameras over scrapes Oct-Dec. Video is probably in the neighborhood of 200-250 per hour.

 

[Antler Daddy]

LBL and BSK.....why don't you guys work together on this cell cam video debate?

BSK, just let LBL install a quality cell camera somewhere on your place setup the way you want it with a backup battery and let's see if you like it and it meets your needs. Share the videos in almost real time with the board too.

 

[BSK]

LBL and BSK.....why don't you guys work together on this cell cam video debate?

BSK, just let LBL install a quality cell camera somewhere on your place setup the way you want it with a backup battery and let's see if you like it and it meets your needs. Share the videos in almost real time with the board too.

We've got a new Spartan cell cam on the property (and a bunch of crap Spypoints). So far, the images from the Spartan are OK, but night illumination isn't great. More of a short-distance cell-cam than one used for big open areas. But we've not tried transmitting video. Way too data intensive, and eventually expensive cell-plan-wise. Plus, lots of areas on my place with no cell-signal (down in valleys).

 

[TheLBLman]

LBL and BSK.....why don't you guys work together on this cell cam video debate?

We kinda are, remotely :)
right here on TNdeer.

We're actually on the same page for the most part.
Cell cams work better for me and my purposes; but they wouldn't work at all if I didn't have fair cell service where they're located. BSK's area cell service is more marginal than mine.

I'm also running regular trail cams, too. This allows for the best of both worlds.
With the new Browning trail cams, BSK has convinced me video can be better in many my applications.

But running high-resolution video on cell cams is relatively costly, and negates much of my reasons for going cellular, which is mainly to not NEED to physically go to the cam site to replace batteries and ascertain the cam is working properly.

Needing to visit the cam site less often is my main reason for using cell cams.

BSK wants to mainly use high-quality video for his purposes. Also, he has placed his cams mostly at locations he can more or less just "ride by", and service his cams without even getting off his atv. Mine are spread over a much larger area, and it is simply not feasible to visit each one weekly or bi-weekly.