Game Cams

If you have any of the missing info above or corrections, please e-mail us at and we will update the comparison table. Thanks!

Tips for Your CamTrakker

If you have any tips for game cameras you would like to share here please email us at Thanks!

Pic Background - Make sure to trim any high weeds or low hanging limbs that will reflect the flash at night near the front of the camera. In night pics, even a small weed will look like a huge tree because of the shadow it casts in the pic. The flash will also wash out anything the is directly in front of the camera like a leaf or twig. If possible, take a second and stand back behind where you are going to mount the camera and look through the camera's viewfinder at the same level you are mounting it to see what the camera sees. This scene is what you are going to get on all your pics, so if something needs to be moved or trimmed, do it when you first set up the camera.

Make sure of your pic background in the lower right corner of the pic, this is where the time/date stamp will appear. If you have an orange or light colored background (snow), it's really hard to read the orange colored time/date stamp on the pics. If the time/date stamp is important to you, this right hand corner of the pic needs to be fairly dark for the orange time/date stamp to be readable. You can use black electrical tape to cover the lower right corner of your camera lens to make sure the time/date stamp shows up. It may take some minor adjustment to find the right place to put the tape but it won't cover much of the camera view.

One trick I found is if you have a camcorder, you can use it to quickly video what your camera sees and then play it back to see how your pics will look. I set my camcorder on "no zoom" and it's pretty close to what my Canon Owl camera sees for pics.

If your location has a light background which makes it hard to see the time/date stamp you can buy one of those cheap battery operated outdoor 12 inch clocks and put it in the area to get the exact time of the pic. This also works if you have a camera that has no time/date stamp or your camera time/date quits working.

Get the Height Right - Mount your camera about 2 1/2 to 3 feet from the ground and level. This will allow the PIR detection beam to miss rabbits, squirrels and other small animals and still work on larger animals like deer, elk and bears. To catch turkeys you might have to go a little lower. Walk out into the area you have the unit aimed at and use your hand to see where the sensor beam stops above the ground. You can make small adjustments in beam height by using small twigs or sticks between the tree and the unit to adjust the level of the beam.

Most of the commercial game trail cameras have a 2 degree field of view for the PIR sensor. The diagram on the right shows what the PIR sensor beam looks like to help you in placing your camera unit.

Hiding the Goods - You don't want to advertise the fact you just left several hundred dollars worth of your paycheck hanging in the breeze, so a little camo and discretion where you mount it is advised. Even if you own a huge tract of land, trespassers and thieves are still a problem. Set the camera for daytime only if you think there is a possibility of someone seeing the flash. If you put the camera where people would normally stop on a trail, you increase the time they have to see the camera.

Try and set the camera back off the beaten trail in some brush, just clear a spot for the pic. You can put some leaves and brush from the nearby area around the camera, just remember that if you cut fresh branches for camo they will stand out like a sore thumb after the leaves die. The side of a hill, buried a bit in the dirt is an excellent spot since it won't allow the camera to stick out like when mounted on a tree. Big dead tree stumps work good. Use you imagination and experiment with different setups. When you get the camera set up, take time to walk the trail and see how obvious it is to a person walking by. Hide the camera and take a friend for a hike and dare them to find it, just make sure you make them take a blood oath on the location if they do find it.

Another trick that might help you keep your game camera is to put a little laminated note on the back of the unit to maybe convince the curious that your camera is a wildlife research project. You can put a local university's name or maybe a state agency in the first blank. Granted, the dirtbags are going to take your camera anyway but some others may just be wondering about the funny camera and this note might convince them to leave it alone. It can't hurt to try right? If you want to print out the little note below, highlight the text with your mouse and then select your printer to print the text.

Know The Laws - In some states you cannot leave unattended property in the woods of National Parks or state land. They government calls this "Abandoned Property" and they will confiscate the game camera if they find it. We have had several game camera forum members who found this out the hard way. On some land you can get a permit to use a game camera so be sure and check if on using your game camera on public land.

Avoid Falsing - PIR detectors require heat and motion to trigger. For some reason cedar and juniper trees that catch the sunlight and then are moved by a gust of wind seem to trigger game cameras. If you suspect this is why you are getting pics with no animals, look real close and make sure there isn't any birds or small animals triggering the camera. The next step would be to move the camera to a different angle so it will not trigger off the moving cedar branches. Try not to aim the camera east or west, you'll catch more of the sun and some of your pics will be wiped out by the bright sunlight. Try pointing the camera south, north, northwest or northeast. Also, if mounting your camera to a tree, make sure you mount the camera to a tree that is at least 8 inches in diameter so that the wind will not sway the tree trunk and set off the camera. One last note about PIR falsing, PIRs lose sensitivity as the ambient temperature nears human body temperature. In other words, if you have daytime temps of near human body temps of 98.6 degrees you may not get any pics because of the loss of PIR sensitivity.

Condensation - If you have your cam out in subfreezing weather, put a small bag of moisture absorbing desiccant in the unit to absorb all moisture in the air inside. This will prevent moisture in subfreezing temperatures from forming frost on the moving mechanisms of the camera inside, and preventing it from taking pictures. Make sure you housing is waterproof, you can use silicone RTV to seal up any holes.

Overexposed Night Pics - Sometimes the camera flash will reflect off the housing lens and get into the camera shutter, overexposing the pic. This makes the pics look milky or causes a white glare from the corner of the pic where the flash is located. It looks like this and this. To stop the problem, take some home window insulation strips that have the sticky tape on one side and seal off the flash to keep it from doing this. You can put the insulation on the lens of the housing where the flash goes out of, not on the camera itself. Muffler tape works too.

Dog Days of Summer - When the temperature rises in the summer to above 90 degrees the range of the infrared sensor on your game camera will drop dramatically from near 60 feet to about 15 feet. Also, as the air temperature nears the temperature of warm blooded animals the game camera sensor will have trouble detecting the difference to take a pic. As a result of these two problems many game camera owners get less pics in the hot summer than the cooler months. To help get more pics you can move your camera closer to the trail or area you film to get around the range difference. You can also move your camera to cooler shaded areas like creek bottoms to get away from the hot temps. As the temperature cools at night you should have normal range and better sensor sensitivity. Some users have installed thermostats to turn their cameras on in the cooler hours of the late evening and night. Please check our game camera forum here for the latest on thermostat upgrades to your game camera.

Keep it in Range - Try to keep the animal close to the camera, under 25 feet works good. If you get pics of animals way out past 30 feet, it is hard to pick out any detail like nubbin bucks or antlers, especially in the night pics. 800 zoom speed film is recommended by the makers of CamTrakker but may be too grainy. If your film is too grainy try 400 speed film. The camera flash has a distance up to 15 feet with ASA 800 speed film, so the camera should be close for night time photography. Higher speed ASA rated film (400 or 800) is recommended for night time photos. A lot of people recommend using Pro Kodak or Fuji film over the regular Kodak or Fuji film you find at the local Wal-Mart or drug store. Yotee uses Fuji Reala 100/400 film and has his pics only developed at a lab with a C41 film processor. Make sure you keep your film in the fridge to keep it from breaking down. Don't use 36 exposure film in cold weather, it's really hard on the camera to advance and rewind the longer film.

Bear Food - If you live in bear territory you need to put your game camera in a sturdy metal enclosure. The bears like the smell of film and will destroy you camera if you don't. Use rubber gloves and no-scent spray to help keep the bears away.

Hold that Pose - Put some vanilla or deer scent in the trail to get the deer to stop and investigate. If you want better pics of the racks on bucks, put the scent up on a limb to get the buck to show off his rack better.

Spic and Span - When you change the film and batteries, take along a camera lens cleaner spray bottle and satin cloth to clean the view window. No more funny spots on your pics that you'll have to edit out of your pics. Use a pencil eraser to shine up the battery contacts so they will keep flowing the juice.

Jump Starting a Dead Battery - Lithium batteries work the best in the cold and last the longest. Lithium batteries will last 3 times longer than alkaline and have an operating range of – 40? F to 140? F. I have more info on batteries on my battery webpage.

Touching up Your Pics - Have your pics developed with the grainy finish and not the glossy finish, the grainy finish works better when you scan them. Scan the pics in 72 d.p.i. (dots per inch), anything more is overkill for the Internet and makes your pic files huge. Go here for more tips on scanning. Try to keep the pic files under 100k in size, preferably under 50k, this makes it faster to email them and they will load faster if you put them on a webpage. If you don't get any image editing software with your scanner to resize, crop or compress your pics, you can get free software here to crunch your huge pic files. If you want to put your pics on a webpage or show them off in chat rooms or forums, you can get a free webpage and server space at to do this.

Be Prepared - When you go to check your camera, make sure to take a complete set of new batteries, a fresh roll of film and the operation manual. You'll save a bunch of time, disturb the area less and take more pics if you don't have to hike back out just to get some new batteries or film. Also, if the camera is acting funny and not taking pics you can do a quick check of your settings with the operation manual to make sure you didn't make a mistake in setting it up. If you have a lock on the camera, don't forget the key.

Get the Whole Story - Make sure you tell your film developer to develop all the pics on the roll of film. Sometimes the developer will think the pic is underexposed and will not develop the pic, costing you the shot of a nice buck. Check your negatives and make sure you're seeing all the animals you have on film. To see all the small details in your pics, buy a good magnifying glass or even better, buy a jeweler's loupe in about 5X or 10X power. Some jeweler's loupes come with an multiple power lenses that are real handy. Omni -Optical has these loupes.

Wal-Mart has one of the cheapest 1 hour photo labs, $6.30 for 24 pics. To save money, you only have to pay for the pics you keep, so when they hand you your pics, look them over and just pay for the ones you want to keep. You'll usually only have a few good pics on a roll of film and the savings you'll get on developing will add up real quick.

If you have a roll of film which is possibly a bunch of does or unintentional misfires, have the film processor only run the negatives instead of doing all the prints as well. They do them for me for less than half price and I look the negatives over and see if there's any keepers in the lot. Like today's roll had a red fox, 16 does and one buck the rest where of me. Then I print the ones I like and get another roll of film with the savings. I have 4 cameras out and believe me it will add up, you get the picture. Thanks to yoteee' for this tip.

Milky Pics and Ground Fog. - If you get your pics back and they are have milky white look to them, don't panic, ground fog or frost on the lens is probably the culprit. It looks like when you drive with your high beams on in your car in the fog, the flash just washes out the whole pic because of the fog. Fog is usually a problem in the evening or early morning hours but can be present anytime. Keeping a log of the weather will help you determine if the fog caused the problem by looking at the date on the pics. Here is an example of a pic that ground fog messed up. Ground Fog Pic. Frost will show up on the pic as big milky white sections like this. Yotee said he tried using a hand warmer inside his cam up in cold Alberta Canada but it didn't help much when the temp dropped to -30F.

Keep a Log - To make sure you get the most out of your batteries, keep a log of when you changed camera and main unit batteries. This will prevent your from missing out on a great pic because you couldn't remember when you last changed batteries and you didn't want to waste more batteries. If in doubt, put a test meter on the batteries to measure the voltage, toss any low reading batteries. You can leave the log in the camera unit on a piece of paper or use a pocket notebook.

Uninvited Guests - If you discover new tenants in your game camera like ants or mud dobber wasps, you can spray the inside with Permethrin to keep them from ruining your pics. You can get Permethrin at any garden or farm supply store.

Zip the Lip - Finally, don't tell anyone where your cams are, not even your mother, you'll regret it. Just remember the old saying, "Loose lips, sink ships".

Stolen Game Camera Alerts

If you would like to add your info about a stolen game camera or you have info to offer, please e-mail us at . You can add your game camera to your homeowner's insurance for about $4.00 per year with no deductable. Also, take a pic of your game camera along with serial numbers for your records.

1/4/02 - It happened!! Some s.o.b found and stole my camera right before Christmas. I had it on a creek crossing in the middle of my ground. It was cabled and locked to a tree and hidden with some additional twigs and brush. I found one set of Lacrosse boot tracks coming up and going back down the bank of the creek and then I found a set of 4-wheeler tracks coming in and out under my NW fence corner. My guess is that someone was running 'coon hounds and got their picture taken. I guess they got a bit nervous about being developed on my role of film, so they came back and solved their problem. I called the police and CamTrakker. They are both flagging the serial numbers on the unit and are waiting. Is there anybody around I can pound? Worst Christmas I can remember. The unit number is 12958 and the serial number in the bottom of the camera is 374566. Thanks guys. CamTrak South has put a flag on the numbers and will report to me if they have any inquiries about the unit. - Hag.

2/5/02 - I had a NCX-10 and loved it until somebody stole it. Serial number 05485994. Detector number 2005160. Purchased on 1-04-01. Great while it lasted. Mike S.

2/14/02 - Yep, add me to the list. Right in the middle of a 3000 acre lease with no reason for anyone to be in that area. My best guess is it was someone looking for sheds. Unless we've got a poacher so good that he's scouting in the offseason. DC 100. If anyone in Tidewater Virginia suddenly hears of one for sale or gets someone bragging about his new pics. - Shufigo.

1/7/02 - They got my deer cam dc-100 some time last week! Camera serial # 06420514 Unit serial # A09716. Stolen from Rush county, Kansas aproximately 10 miles south of larned. Called the cops and the company. Had a idea of who might of took it(from a witness) and i just talked to the cop who took the report. He CALLED one of the guys and asked if they knew anything about it. OF course they are not going to tell you the truth over the phone. Bad thing is i was going to try to get insurance this week. I will check my homeowners but i doubt they will pay it. -The hairless one.

11/7/01 - The first week of November, 2001 I put out my homemade video trail camera at a feeder and left it until the next Saturday. When I went back to get it, it was gone! This feeder is at least 1/2 mile from the nearest road that can be driven with a vehicle you don't want scratched and to have several flats. There are lots of mesquite trees you would have to drive over, along with cactus. There were no vehicle tracks to be found. Whoever got it walk in and out. I was using a Sony camcorder with the night-shot feature. The way I was using it, the night-shot infrared light was always on. I had Sony’s extra night-shot light on the camera and it really ran the batteries down, so I had added a 12Volt, 7.2AH battery and a 12-volt Sony adaptor that was designed to run the camera off a cigarette adaptor in your car. I could get a little over 3 hours of tape before the battery would get too weak to run the camera. I lost the camera, battery, and cigarette adaptor, extra night-shot light and of course the GI ammo can with the circuit board, motion detector and adjustable timers. The camera was a Sony Hi-8 model TRV-95. I have never seen another TRV-95. The circuit board had variable timers for both the prevent and the record times. It was mounted to the lid of the ammo can. The camera, battery, solenoid, etc. was mounted to a 1/4" steel plate that could be lifted out of the ammo can to gain easy access to the system. I am sure the theif will just remove the camera and throw the rest of it away, but keep an eye out for it anyway. Keith.

Game Trail Camera Pic Websites and other Links

Jon Bain's website .... Jon's photo album from his tiny game camera.
Blackwater's Home-Made Camtrkr Website .... Great pics on how to make the homebrew camera and of animals too.
Camo Man from Brookland Texas .... Steve has some whitetail pics here.
Cedar Creek Corp. .... Lots of excellent pics from Mississippi.
Cimarron River Hunt Club .... Pics from Oklahoma.
Crow Systems .... dedicated to offering the highest quality, most reliable and cost effective field research electronics available. Crow Systems is setting new standards in the biological research field.
D91's booboo Cam Website .... Dave has some great pics and info on his game camera here.
Dave and Jake's Camtrakker Webpage ....
Deercam.20.com .... Jason from Alabama has a bunch of Camtrakker pics here.
Deer Slayer's DeerCam Website .... A bunch of whitetail deer pics here.
Field Pix Game Camera Systems .... FieldPix is an alternative to expensive game camera systems on the market today. People nowadays are always looking for a cheaper alternative to do just about everything. The FieldPix camera systems were developed by a hunter who just happens to be a frugal engineer and just doesn't like to give his hard earned money away for something that he thought he could build himself. As a result, he developed a simple camera system using as many "off the shelf" items as possible, thus keeping the cost down to a minimum. JHO sponsor.
Fuerte Cases .... Waterproof cases for game cameras, optics, camera and other gear. JHO sponsor.
Hunting Footage.com .... Upload your videos for free. Forum to discuss video too.
Greg James from Georgia .... his website of pics of deer and hogs.
kevin_j_vg's Community Page ....
Lance's Camtrakker Photos ....
Leavellwood ....
Michigan Hunter .... Lots of pics here.
Mr. Whitetail .... Hunting log and pics from Wisconsin.
Mule's Pic Website .... A bunch of pics from many cam makers here.
NC Bowhunter's Webpage .... Great pics and info from North Carolina.
PixController.com .... PixControllers are electronic circuit boards for Electronic Shutter Control of Digital Cameras, 35 MM Cameras, and Video Camcorders. PixController camera control boards use an integrated PIR Motion Control circuit to shutter the camera device. These control boards will trigger the attached camera system to capture photos/video when motion is sensed. Applications for PixController boards include Wildlife Trail Cameras Systems, Home Security Systems, Remote Camera Monitoring, Nanny Cameras, and many more! JHO sponsor.
Tom O'hare's Camtrakker Website .... Tom has some great pics from Missouri here.
Randy from South Carolina .... and his game trail camera pics.
RutandStrut.com ....
Steve's Hunting Page .... Great pics from Tennessee.
Tracker's Camtrakker Pics .... Ron has a bunch of good deer pics here.
Trailcam.com .... Hunting.net's pics from several of their Camtrakkers and hundreds of pics sent in by other owners.
Vigil .... Monitoring & Scouting system. Made in Canada by Circuitronique Estrie Inc.
Visual Media Software .... Software to help manage your game cam pics. JHO sponsor.
Wildlife Paparazzi By Brian McMillen .... This page is dedicated to images of wild whitetail and mule deer from Alberta and Saskatchewan, filmed in their natural habitat.
Woods Watch 8mm Video Systems .... Passive, infrared and seismic RF remote sensors. Specifically designed for monitoring of archaeological sites, but versatile and affordable for a variety of outdoor surveillance applications. Rock and stump camo covers available.

I also have some Camtrakker pics from Missouri if you want to take a peek at:

Jesse's Camtrakker pics

If you have a webpage with your game camera pics and you would like your webpage listed here, please email us at