Trail camera recs please

[etpm]

We have trails throughout our 10 acres of wooded land in the PNW. It takes about 45 minutes to walk these trails because there are a lot and the vegetation makes it seem as if you are deeper in the woods than you really are. We have some crummy neighbors at one end of our land. My wife is all the time thinking people are trudging through our woods at night. Before we had the trails this would have been hard to do because of the undergrowth. Now though, because of the trails, there may indeed be some people using our trails at night. I consider this a possibility only because of certain neighbors.
So I am considering buying some trail cameras. Two or three. Mainly to see if we are actually having people walking the trails. I don't know just how good the cameras need to be. I would like to be able to identify from the pictures who, if anyone, is walking on our land. But the pictures would all be taken at night and so would be illuminated with IR. So only black and white pictures. It would also be great to get pictures of the wildlife using the trails. That would be a good bonus.
I guess I can settle for just knowing if we have trespassers at night and then upgrade the cameras to ones good enough to maybe identify the trespassers. But maybe the price difference is small enough that I should just get the better ones and not consider cheaper ones.
Anyway, if anybody has the time I would appreciate some trail camera recommendations .
Thanks,
Eric

 

[ponytug]

I have a discontinued ($80+/-) CamPark 1080 video during the daytime, 4k-ish photos in the daytime, much lower resolution at night. Most of the night photos are blurred due to long exposure, so you would know if someone was there, but probably not going to be able to identify a person for sure. My camera has obvious aberration from the lens in the daytime.

My neighbor has several Spypoint that gives you 100 photos a month free. The night photos are excellent.

Letting a section of your trail get muddy might be another way... black thread high enough to miss critters...

All the best,

Peter

 

[BoylermanCT]

I have 2 Brownings and 4 Primos cameras. Get great pics both day and night. Make sure you get a no-glow IR camera. Mine are regular IR, and you see the camera light up red when it takes a night picture. The bears, moose, deer, coyotes, bobcats, fox, raccoons, otters and porcupines I get don't care, but people walking through the woods at night could take the cameras.

 

[nbking]

I have browning's, they are great cameras. Take really great pics and videos.

 

[Thomas]

I tried different types cams over years found Browing to fit my needs,even night pictures I give all 5 Browning game cams strong up,someday I like to wireless tho.

 

[kenmbz]

Browning - just one with a chip.

 

[Root Cause]

there was another post like this a few weeks back and there were some good options.

Mine is Tactacam. You need ATT&T or Verizon (please verify) cost is $5/month. no wifi, no electricity required.

If there is motion, you 'a' picture in a minute or so on your phone. The sim card on camera has a lot more pictures but it depends on how sensitive you set it. Mine is set to take 2 pictures/day just to verify that it is working. Batteries last months for me. I like that it gives me the temp as I am not yet full time there.

 

[BeezFun]

I've had a series of Brownings, this is the latest: Browning Strike Force HD ProX BTC-5HDPX. I use a lightweight extension ladder and mount mine high enough in the tree that even if someone notices it, they probably don't have any way to get up there. I also don't use those crazy straps they include with the camera, even blind man could spot those. I made a small mount that uses the threaded camera mounting hole and screws a small hook eye into the tree. If you're not worried about capturing facial detail you can point the camera straight down at the trail from an overhanging branch. It also reduces the chance they'll see the IR flash at night. One thing you have to do is trim any branches from right in front of the camera because the IR will be reflected back at the lens and wash out anything you want to see. If you mount the camera down low that red light can be pretty obvious and then they'll take the camera. The only problem with having them up high is you have to go up to retrieve the sd card. So it's nice to have a wifi option but that adds a lot of cost, so if it does get stolen you're out more money. You'll have to balance cost with ease of use.

 

[ap0915]

One thing I’ll say is to avoid SPYPOINT. Had one that worked for a few months before it stopped uploading. Got it replaced under warranty, the replacement worked for exactly one day before it also stopped uploading for no apparent reason. This is also after I followed all the prescribed troubleshooting steps.

Wish I had saved my money for a more expensive one. Cheap disposable garbage.

 

[etpm]

Thanks everybody for your recommendations. The Browning cameras look good. I will only be using a chip. So wifi is no consideration. And the images from the Browning cameras look pretty good.
Eric