Camera Placement And Choices

[Guest LittleFeat]

All this talk about camera placement reminds me of the

in Oceans 12. I can only imagine what it look like with an agile/8'/700lb squatch trying to avoid the camera sensors... but I would sure like to see it!

[Guest]

How difficult would it be to swap out the LED's with 980nm non-visible light ones? Are the CCD's / CMOS's sensitive only to certain frequencies?

[bipedalist]

Good questions. I believe the LEDs you mention are VERY costly which is a part of the problem. I think reconyx solves the problems with filtering material such as that mentioned by ajc but used in a plastic window envelope of some kind which gives the face of the LED housing a blackened instead of clear appearance.

[Guest tracker]

Good in theory, but I don't usually take a ladder camping with me. h

I always rig my cams to a tree, but at 5'2" I should probably think about it. I'm a pretty good climber, but I probably don't get enough height from just a camp chair...

I guess I just think about step ladders, and how they are just a few feet and very very bulky, and why bother with it anyway, cause it's not much to help. I can stand on the chair and get more than that! I never really thought about bringing a real ladder.

I DO always aim one of the cams at the "forest entry" and ever since the "pee" incident I aim the other one right at my tent. Probably not the triangulation that you are talking about, but it helps me sleep better at night....

And ya, some of the places I camp there is definitely more than one forest entry, but I just kinda pick the one that seems likeliest (easiest to go look at the tent, or with cover for peekies on the fire) and hope for the best.

Hey no ladder need just a short rope with some knotts if you cant reach the first set of branches. Put an old birdnest around it and viola! A hidden trailcam at a birds eye view looking in at you campsite for bold ones. The other placement looking out gets tricky? I would aim mine at the area with the most cover for the shy types.

Geez If I knew there's a good chance they might visit my cabin at night. I would be in a car, treeblind somewhere outside ready for the show. Sure it would be scary but then if you get a few 7-8' huge creatures on film the debates over and your name is etched in stone forever. No autographs please my hand is tired.

Edited April 3, 2011 by tracker

[Guest ajciani]

How difficult would it be to swap out the LED's with 980nm non-visible light ones? Are the CCD's / CMOS's sensitive only to certain frequencies?

Not particularly difficult, at least, from the standpoint of just removing the 850 nm ones and soldering in new 950 nm ones. They use about the same forward bias voltage. The problem is that the 950 nm ones usually draw a lower maximum current than the 850 nm ones. An 850 nm LED in a camera might be 200 mW, while a 950 nm LED might be 65 mW. A camera might need a good 5W worth of LEDs to take a picture, which would normally be something like 25 LEDs. If you replaced those with 950 nm LEDs, you would need 75 instead, just to get the same light output. Even worse, the camera CCDs are less sensitive to the 950 nm light than the 850 nm light, so you might need another 30% more LEDs, so 100 instead of 25.

The best way to go is to use lighting filters to block out the visible light, as I described above. These could just be cut and taped over the LEDs (and the camera lens too, if IR only).

If a power source is handy, you could use a normal incandescent light bulb and lighting filters to make an IR lamp, which you could use as an external illumination source. I think a Q-Beam type light might make an awesome IR thrower, but that is for someone else to try out. It would probably take 3 layers of the Congo Blue and 1 layer of the Primary Red gel filters to remove the visible light. You could also just make a filtered porch light and turn it on. I think good old incandescent colored X-mas lights throw out the IR too, while not making a lot of visible light, and being somewhat unobtrusive.

[Guest]

Good questions. I believe the LEDs you mention are VERY costly which is a part of the problem. I think reconyx solves the problems with filtering material such as that mentioned by ajc but used in a plastic window envelope of some kind which gives the face of the LED housing a blackened instead of clear appearance.

I just checked on Taobao (which is the Chinese equivalent of E-bay), and I can get 860 nm IR LED's for about USD $1.00 (Osram), or Honeywell's (880 nm) for about USD $1.95 each.

Edited April 4, 2011 by Chris

[bipedalist]

Well thanks for the info. Chris needing 75 to 100 at one dollar sounds reasonable, a little steeper for the Honeywell's but certainly within the budget for many.

I did some experimenting with two reconyx rapidfires placed not quite directly across from one another (maybe eight feet) on a game trail. My test had some unexpected company in that the usual smaller fair was supplanted (yah I got a big guy but not THE Big Guy) by what I think was the bruin I tracked two winters ago in snow....I suspect this is the guy that moves the hundred pound rocks.......

I noticed that using a thermal imager I could pick nothing up hot about the cameras or flash with the exception of the white sensor which I think has the pir behind it, that infers the electric circuitry is some warm before it fires. I got alot of flash bounce off of a plastic yard thermometer housing and possibly some bounce off of the bruin and maybe even off the clear plastic cam housings of the other camera when they weren't both firing at once.

Here's a slide show of the first bruin I got decent pictures of tonight. I missed running into this guy by four minutes in doing a few experiments after having left a few heels of bread with some chicken parts.

I walked out on the back porch and watched the guy waddle off after most of the action had taken place and wasn't expecting the hefty guy to be there(so yah, I saw the dude that set off the game cam and I could tell it was a bear not a BF, lol).

The early birds got the worm on this one and the raccoons and fox seemed to be the laggards. I watched the fox with thermal sitting on the side of a mtn. hanging out while the bear was in the zone.....very smart fox I might add.

[Guest ajciani]

Some interesting photos. The first ones did show some strong reflection, which was tricking the camera into under exposing the bear.

I am a little disappointed though. The RC-60 is supposed to be on the higher end of game cams, with brighter than standard LEDs (the RC-60HO being even brighter), but I could still see some motion blur in those images, just from the bear moving his head around.

[bipedalist]

This was the RM45 and RC55 rapidfire not the RC 60/HO or hyperfires to which you refer.

You can see the red glow from these two cameras but they don't show up on thermal (maybe they would on NV, I haven't tried that one yet).

Yes, some of the artifact was puzzling, I think one flash was caught very early on.

These cams had the clear LED enclosure plates not the RC60 or hyperfire darkened ones, that's why you can clearly see the LEDs in several of the pics when the bears rear was not in the way. I should have set them to five or ten rapid shots instead of three, but then I'd have a blinded bruin walking around LOL and that one looked on the cantankerous side without the blind part of it

[Guest]

Looks like the bear is doing some investigation of the cam. LOL. I still wonder about the CMOS/CCD sensitivity. Are there any specs anywhere as to IR sensitivity on those? Also wondering ... if the parts were available ... could we not build a GEN III or IV Game cam which depended on ambient light as opposed to IR? Reason I'm asking is I know one of the manufacturers of Chinese NV equipment. They also make Chinese military devices (and believe me, these are not toys. This is some serious sh*t they are developing).

[bipedalist]

Yah, but you got to stay within the export/import specifications (ITAR) when you start talking nv/thermal too.

I've not seen specifications sheets on the reconyx but they have a website with the manuals and basic specs that don't go into component specs really.

[Guest Cervelo]

Bi,

Great pics thanks for sharing!

[southernyahoo]

You can see the red glow from these two cameras but they don't show up on thermal (maybe they would on NV, I haven't tried that one yet).

Yes Nightvision would see the IR glow as if the sun were bursting from within the camera. I've done that one.

I agree with AJ on the motion blurrs. The night time shutter speed seems very slow on most IR game cams and normal walking speed of a person can blurr the image typically in the area of the legs.

Nice photo's Biped.

[Guest VaBigfoot]

Not particularly difficult, at least, from the standpoint of just removing the 850 nm ones and soldering in new 950 nm ones. They use about the same forward bias voltage. The problem is that the 950 nm ones usually draw a lower maximum current than the 850 nm ones. An 850 nm LED in a camera might be 200 mW, while a 950 nm LED might be 65 mW. A camera might need a good 5W worth of LEDs to take a picture, which would normally be something like 25 LEDs. If you replaced those with 950 nm LEDs, you would need 75 instead, just to get the same light output. Even worse, the camera CCDs are less sensitive to the 950 nm light than the 850 nm light, so you might need another 30% more LEDs, so 100 instead of 25.

The best way to go is to use lighting filters to block out the visible light, as I described above. These could just be cut and taped over the LEDs (and the camera lens too, if IR only).

If a power source is handy, you could use a normal incandescent light bulb and lighting filters to make an IR lamp, which you could use as an external illumination source. I think a Q-Beam type light might make an awesome IR thrower, but that is for someone else to try out. It would probably take 3 layers of the Congo Blue and 1 layer of the Primary Red gel filters to remove the visible light. You could also just make a filtered porch light and turn it on. I think good old incandescent colored X-mas lights throw out the IR too, while not making a lot of visible light, and being somewhat unobtrusive.

Gentleman,

Please use caution when using multiple IR LED's or Q-Beam type illumination, they can cause considerable eye damage and possible loss of vision when viewed directly! It's human nature to look at the IR illuminators when you finally build a custom unit to see if there is a presence of "red glow".

I've gone through testing with the 850 to 980nm LED's in the last couple years and you'll be chasing your tail with this one. I've experimented with replacing the "stock" infrared illuminators with 870nm, 930nm, 950nm and 980nm LED's, most CMOS and CCD cameras loose sensitivity in the upper ranges of IR, especially in the 870nm to 950nm. Once you add more LED's to increase illumination, you will encounter power management issues and if you’re not careful, you can cause a fire that could possibly burn down a forest and you could be held responsible. The US Fish and Wildlife does take that matter very seriously because of the potential side effects when placing a game camera in the woods.

The EyeGotcha unit went through several tests with the US F&W because of the possibility of rodents chewing through the buried cable that supplies triggered power to the camera/microphone cable. The circuitry in the EyeGotcha included a fused power outlet in case of a short, an armored cable was used to prevent animals from chewing through the cable and possibly cause a fire. I would recommend that researchers use only the daytime setting on the game cameras, it's my thought that the IR illumination only helps broadcast the cameras location. Also, cover your cameras with natural materials found in close proximity to where you deploy the camera. Trees and other vegetation utilize UV light for energy and when viewed using an ultraviolet camera, most tree trunks look dark gray or black because they absorb the UV rays. Most manmade objects including plastics reflect the suns UV rays and it looks white to the camera. Since a number of animals can see into the UV portion of the spectrum, they can clearly see the white UV reflection of game camera.

I'm not saying the Bigfoot creatures can see into the UV portion, but a number of birds, bees and some animals can, so keeping the cameras concealed using local camouflage like leaves, bark and other natural concealment will increase your chances of getting the Bigfoot creatures on film...my opinion anyway.

Just a note on some previous posts, most if not all game cameras DO NOT produce infrared beams! The passive infrared sensors used on game cams are PASSIVE, meaning they just measure differences in infrared radiation that hit the sensor. The only infrared that the camera projects is from the infrared illuminators after the PIR detects heat and movement, so when the camera is in stand-by mode, the camera does not produce any IR beams whatsoever.

William Dranginis

Manassas, VA.

[Guest]

According to another site, this location was at Bullet Maker's place. (Bullet Maker's own words) After the amount of hoaxing claims that Bullet Maker has done, anything coming from that place is now suspect. IMHO.