night imagery with today's trail-cameras

[BSK]

Just wanted to point out something about night imagery that can be a problem (sort of) with today's trail-cameras. In the past, trail-cameras were pretty simple electronically. At night, especially with black-flash and red-glow cameras, if the camera was triggered, the camera produced maximum flash power to take the night-time image. This gave maximum illumination, but also produced serious "washout" of any deer standing close to the camera. To alleviate the washout problem, as well as to save battery power, trail-camera makers started making more sophisticated systems closer to expensive pocket digital cameras in that they "meter" the flash. What this means is the trail-camera unit has a light sensor that measures how much of the flashes light is bouncing back to the unit. If it is a lot, that probably means the target animal is close to the camera and so the unit decreases the flash output to prevent washout. If little light bounces back, the target animal is far away and the flash goes to maximum power. However, the camera cannot distinguish what is causing the light to bounce back. If there is anything between the camera and the target animal that will reflect light, the light sensor just sees light bouncing back and decreases the flashes power.

What this means for the trail-camera user is, if there is anything in the frame of the image that bounces light - grass, weeds, branches, leaves, etc. - the camera powers back its flash and the deer in the background isn't well illuminated. I've heard numerous complaints from trail-camera users that their camera isn't producing the advertised flash distance. But if there are sticks, grass or leaves in the image close to the camera, THAT is what is reducing the flash. If you want to see how far your flash will go, place it over an open mowed area with nothing in the image close to the camera.

Just a PSA...

 

[Ski]

That is an incredible tip, and something I for sure need to give more consideration to.

 

[Falconi]

If only I were smart enough to remember to remove those branches. I don't know how many times I've said to myself, "Man, you gotta knock down those branches" only to completely forget when I get to the camera.

 

[Mr.Bro]

Thanks sir. You helped me last year with that exact problem.
Now my only concern is leaving those cameras "wide open" in plain view of anyone walking by.
Good luck to all this year!

 

[Ski]

Thanks sir. You helped me last year with that exact problem.
Now my only concern is leaving those cameras "wide open" in plain view of anyone walking by.
Good luck to all this year!

Buggers stole 5 of mine last week. Private land and nobody with permission, so I wasn't exactly hiding the cams from people.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

My FIL is notorious for this. He thinks I'm crazy every camera setup we come to because I doctor it up. But I'm tired of looking at weeds and branches on all his cams. Good info BSK