Bluetooth Trail Camera

[Dave Fritz]

We're thinking of getting a trail camera that we can monitor on our phone. Does anyone have experience and/or recommendations? It's a completely new world for us and would appreciate some feedback from experienced users. Thanks.

[ChrisA Edwards]

If you are wanting real time video/pictures, your camera needs to be within range of your device( smart phone) or within range of WiFi.

Most of my cameras are on my home Wifi and are plugged into AC power, but there are plenty that also work of rechargeable batteries.

Once you get out of range of power, bluetooth or WiFi, you'll need a camera that just records to a SD card, powers off a battery and then you'll need to plug the camera in or remove the SD card to see the video captured. There are lost of cameras that work like this and have motion detection to start/stop the recording.

[Tom M King]

https://www.cuddeback.com/cuddelink

or if you really want the best:

https://www.reconyx.com/product/security_series

[Jim Becker]

Chris makes a very good point...BT's range is about 30 feet max. It's designed for short range connection of devices for convenience, typically stuff like speakers/headsets/vehicle head units, etc.

[Tom M King]

The trail cameras have their own cell service, but they don't cost much. The cuddlebacks use one low cost cell service that covers a bunch of cameras that communicate with each other. I've never heard of a Blue Tooth trail camera. There are plenty of security BT cameras.

[roger wiegand]

I just spent too long researching wildlife cameras, as that's what my wife wanted for her present this year. I was hoping to find a WIFI enabled camera that could be monitored from the house, but still have a lot of features of the better trail cameras for night photography and such. The location I'd like to use has a decent WiFi signal, and even AC power available. We have no cell signal to speak of where I live (Boston suburbs, go figure), so cellular is no help.

There are many cameras that will use bluetooth to download the captured pictures, but you need to be within range for that to work. I figured that if I was standing out in the meadow knee deep in snow already it would actually be faster and easier to swap the SD card and deal with it inside than to fiddle with a bluetooth download.

I ended up buying a Bushnell model that dumps the pictures to a card that I have to go down and retrieve. I just installed it day before yesterday and haven't checked it yet, so I have no idea how well it might work.

We have a bobcat in the neighborhood, I'm really hoping to see it.

[John K Jordan]

…. I figured that if I was standing out in the meadow knee deep in snow already it would actually be faster and easier to swap the SD card and deal with it inside than to fiddle with a bluetooth download. …

My thoughts exactly, although without the snow. I’m not at all interested in standing next to the cameras waiting for pictures or videos to download to my phone. I simply pop out the SD card and put in an blank one, view the photos back at the shop on the computer.

JKJ

[George Yetka]

We had a coyote last summer and I wanted to start tracking it so I bought a trail cam that was SD card only and set it up after 4 days or so I went to check it and everything was corrupted. I MF'd the camera and sent it back. Funny thing is last xmas I got myself a hero camera and recorded xmas morning with it and same thing happened to me. Bad SD cards I think in both cases

[Jerome Stanek]

I have a couple of different cameras and now I am using an old cell phone with an app called alfred works better then the other cameras. Alfred cam records 15 seconds of video each time it is triggered and there is no fee sends it to my cell phone with a notification. The only problem I have is it will pick up the neighbers car coming in at 2 in the morning.

[Derek Meyer]

We needed a camera to monitor a warehouse yard that is across the highway from one of our stores, but we have no network over there. We ended up getting a trail camera that has a SIM slot and got a T-Mobile account for it. It's $20/month, but it records on motion sense and can be viewed from a smartphone from anywhere, anytime, and the footage can be uploaded and saved to the cloud. It works perfectly for what we want. The camera also came with a solar panel, so it can run without a power source as well, assuming it can get sunlight.

[John K Jordan]

We had a coyote last summer and I wanted to start tracking it so I bought a trail cam that was SD card only and set it up after 4 days or so I went to check it and everything was corrupted. I MF'd the camera and sent it back. Funny thing is last xmas I got myself a hero camera and recorded xmas morning with it and same thing happened to me. Bad SD cards I think in both cases

Maybe you have a dynamic and electrifying personality that zaps the cards!.

One thing I always do for devices that use SD cards - format the card on that device if it provides a way, otherwise format in the computer. (I do a full format, not the quick option.) Also, I like to do a short test before storing a lot on the card, for example a new card in the drone or action camera. I always do a short test every time I reformat my studio quality digital video storage too, just before shooting video. I don’t know if it’s the procedure or luck but I haven’t lost anything yet. (And always buy the best quality cards too!)

[Ronald Blue]

More information about what he wants to monitor would be helpful. Wildlife in the woods, then yes a trail cam with cell service. Monitor what's happening in his back yard then a wifi camera. WYZE is an inexpensive and very decent one. We are just spit balling here with the info at hand.

[Dave Fritz]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I showed how little I know about technology. We have had several trail cameras out in our woods up to and through the deer season. All of them have a card that we collect and view on our PC. My neighbor has trail cameras that he monitors on his phone. We thought it would be interesting to have something like that in our woods so we could avoid having to trudge through the snow. Probably solar powered so we wouldn't have to change the batteries.

[Tom M King]

Going to need one with cell service, it sounds like to me. They work really nicely. Ours are mostly for trespassers, but they do catch a lot of wildlife.

[roger wiegand]

The cellular models will probably do exactly what you want, assuming you have cell service in the location where the camera is going.


Thanks for the replies. I guess I showed how little I know about technology. We have had several trail cameras out in our woods up to and through the deer season. All of them have a card that we collect and view on our PC. My neighbor has trail cameras that he monitors on his phone. We thought it would be interesting to have something like that in our woods so we could avoid having to trudge through the snow. Probably solar powered so we wouldn't have to change the batteries.