Caribou Gear Tarp

Incandescent trail cams

Dave N

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
8,299
Location
Illinois
Buddy of mine in Idaho has lots of color phase bears and wants a trail camera with real flash for taking color pics at night. I don't use trail cams and don't know much about them. Can't find many when I looked, but there are a few. Anyone use them? He seems more concerned about noise from the camera than the actual flash itself. Any help I could pass on to him would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
None of the bears that I have caught on camera turned tail and ran. Usually they turn the other way and come in for a closeup.
I have gotten a lot of photos where deer, elk, and bear seem to react to the white flash. Most of the time the animal settles down and just ignores the camera. Some animals, especially bears, get curious and come to check it out. I have 3 white flash cameras with broken mounting brackets (1 from an elk and 2 from bear) where the plastic couldn't stand up to antlers or claws.
I wouldn't worry about bear getting spooked by the white flash, but I would make sure they can't rip it off the tree.


In regard to Schmalts' post,
I had problems with an IR camera spooking elk. At first I got nothing but butt shots and after a few nights the herd just left. I tested the camera to figure out if I could see or hear anything. It turns out that there is a motor that moves a filter over the lens for nighttime pictures. I have used several other IR cameras that don't make any sound (that I can hear) and I have never seen any animals react to them.

When I had this same camera up for bear, they didn't run away. They came and chewed through the strap and hauled it off. I found it 50 yards down a trail.
 
Thanks for the info, I'll pass it on. Have you ever used one of those "bear boxes"? My thought is the camera may survive but you would still have to find it if a bear ripped it off of the tree.
 
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