[Tweeters] A really good Trail Cam for birds at our fountain?

[Vanderhoof, Jennifer]

Jim, Regarding trail cameras, if I understand correctly, the best resolution you can get is about 5 megapixels, no matter what the makers advertise. They are simply not going to produce high-quality images. It's not what they were created for. They were made for information gathering. When folks want high-quality photos, they get into DSLR (or mirrorless) camera trapping. That said, some cameras are definitely better than others, and in a variety of ways. Some take better photos than video, and vice versa. Some have images that look better but have a slower trigger, and vice versa. Some are easier to mount than others, some are easier to lock with a cable than others. Some are white light (not many!), some are IR low-glow, and some are IR "no-glow." There are many differences, so it's good if you know exactly how you want to use it.

I have my favorite brands. I like Meidase a lot. They tend to be very reliable (not missing triggers). The angle of view of most of their models is 70 degrees, though the P90 Pro gets you 120 degrees.
I also like the GardePro E5S for image quality, but it doesn't trigger as fast as some of the others. That one is 70 degree angle of view.
GardePro makes a model called T5CF that is for very close focus, like within 12 inches or so. But it's blurry beyond a foot or so, so probably not what you want.
I also use Vikeri, which is another 120-degree wide angle. I have had that one take in rain more than once though, not sure why. But it seems to happen with that model more than others I've used. I still like it.
I tend to think the wider the angle, the more likely your subject is likely to be in focus.
If you have the means, you may try a couple.

Jen Vanderhoof

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20240301/a3aae292/attachment.html>