camera trap

[Cees van Kempen]

I know there are special camera traps, to film wildlife with cameras you hide in the bush. And I know there is software to detect movement and then trigger the computer to film with a webcam. But what I would like is a device that can start my EX3 when it detects movement. Like you can trigger a dslr for instance when an animal crosses an infrared light signal. Does anyone have an idea?

[David Elkins]

You will need one of these controllers:
The Time Machine Camera Controller / Intervalometer

Triggered by the motion sensor on this page (about halfway down):
Time Machine Accessories

Connect the Time Machine controller to your camera via the LANC and you are in business.

[Cees van Kempen]

Thanks David. This looks like exectly the thing I was looking for.

[Alastair Traill]

Hi Cees,

How do you plan to trigger your EX3? Do you plan to have your EX3 on standby?

I looked at the Time Machine offerings, they seem to cover still photography very well but it is very desirable to have a lead in for video work.

I have tried just leaving the camera running at times when I know something is likely to happen. It worked well at night using infrared with animals such as sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) that were used to visiting a source of food or running along a particular branch.

An improvement would have been some sort of counter that let me know if something had passed by in my absence. The counter could be triggered by breaking an IR beam and if nothing was recorded during the first run a second recording session could then be initiated without looking at the tape or the contents of the card etc.

[Cees van Kempen]

Dear Alister,

I was indeed planning to leave my EX3 (or in near future maybe FS100) on standby and that a movement detector would start the camera recording. Or that it will record for a certain time after a IR beam is broken. Don't know if it works this way. Will send a request for more infornation to the Time Machine people shortly (very busy this week) and will let you know their answer.

[Bryce Comer]

Hmm, interesting thread! I have recently been using a trail camera to try to find out where particular animals come & go & when, in an area i like to film in. I have been very excited with all the footage i have got from the two cameras i have set up. While the footage is 1080p it is so highly compressed that there is a lot of artifacting in the footage & probably wouldn't be useable. The time machine option put out there by David, however, may just allow me to get some great footage with my good camera, all while i'm not even around!

Thanks all,

Bryce

[Annie Haycock]

I've seen a demonstration of this one at the British Birdwatching Fair - Traxwatch Camera Trap & Remote Imaging System Home Page - and it looked impressive. I intend to investigate it further when I have time.

[Alastair Traill]

I mentioned in my post above that I have had some success in wildlife filming by just letting my camera run until the recording stopped. This worked well when a lot was happening - in one case I had several species of small nocturnal animals visiting a well-established feeding site. Most of the excitement was over in the first half hour and I could set up again on the next night using a different angle, maybe tighter or maybe further away. Whatever.

However in nothing happens you may end up with a lot of boring results to examine which is why I mentioned the need for a device to let you know something had passed by. Ideally this device would record the time of passing so that you could find it quickly on your recording, it would also be nice if it told you what had passed. The obvious device is a still camera and as an earlier post indicated there are plenty of gadgets for triggering still cameras.

I intend to stick to my “let it run” technique and also set up a still camera focused on the same spot as my EX3 or TM900. I already have an IR beam set-up made from a Jaycar kit and coupled to my Nikon. When my media are full I can check the Nikon - if it has recorded nothing it is unlikely that the camcorder will have either so I can format the card ready to start again or go home. If it has recorded something I will know when and also know what, making it easy to check my video record. I might also get a useful still.

As I see it this would solve several problems not the least of which are triggering the camcorder, false triggerings, guessing how long to let it run and worrying about which direction the subject may come from.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Thanks for starting this thread, never had thought that we could use the bigger cameras this way.

Out in India i may never do that but yes its interesting, the place i am shooting gets rains in buckets and i may have to drink out of my camera in case i leave it in open.

Second thing was , is this technique used when we are shooting mammals , since birds this becomes a very hit and miss situation where we may tend to miss a lot. Even spending 12 hours in field i manage footage totaling to 1 minute in a day somedays. In such cases this technique is not useful.

But i know of few places that get the Indian Wolves at a waterhole where this would make a very interesting perspective, especially at ground level. Second advantage with wolf country in India is that they prefer open grasslands and it hardly rains there which my base fear of rains is ruled out.

i am going to watch this topic more to understand this better. Surely one thing i can use with mammals

[Don Litten]

If you're a do-it-yourselfer, there are several companies that make sensor boards to convert conventional cameras into trail cameras.

Most work fine but almost all of them are part time one man operations and some of them flakes. Bigfoot is one to stay away from.

This company is both very helpful and IMO makes the best boards:
Snapshot Sniper Digital Game Trail Deer Hunting Camera System

I figured a way to use them with waterproof cameras like the GoPro too...Just a plug in interface. A little tinkering goes a long way with this and for fifty bucks worth of controller, it's hard to beat.