There are a lot of things to consider when you’re buying a trail camera. It all depends on what your needs are when it comes to such an investment. Are you a regular hunter or are you just dabbling in the field? You have to know exactly what you will be using the trail camera for. Is it only for watching feeders or are you going to be taking the camera on a game trail?
Some of the basic things you will be looking for in a trail camera are picture quality, detection circuit and battery life. There are lots of other factors as well that will help you narrow down the selection once you have several options. You need to be aware of the basic terminology as well. Trigger speed is the time taken by a camera to capture a subject when it activates the camera. If you buy a camera with a slow trigger speed, you will be missing animals that will be walking or running by the camera. And since you will mostly be hunting by night, you will need a good standard night vision camera.
Recovery time of a camera is the amount of time taken by it to store the picture it took and then prepare itself for the next activation. You will need a faster recovery time when you’re on a game trail. You will be missing a lot of photos otherwise, if your camera takes a long time to recover. The detection zone of the camera that is at the front is able to sense activity. If you’re on an open field, you will need to cover a large area and therefore need a wider detection zone. The most expensive cameras will have very fast trigger and recovery times with larger detection zones. But if you’re only capturing feeders, you will be able to go for a less expensive camera that will be sufficient for the job.
This is why figuring out what you’re doing is so important. You can even ask your friends who are into this type of thing about what they use as an outdoor motion sensor camera or what they consider as the best trail camera for them to get an idea. The picture quality should be considered as well. Again, you need to know what kind of picture you want to capture. Do you simply want to know what sort of an animal walked in front of your camera or do you want a detailed picture that you want to blow up and frame? You will have to look at some sample photos to see what works best for you.