Trail cams are excellent at capturing photos of local wildlife.
Trail cameras are an excellent resource to use when determining which game trail to hunt. Setting up your trail camera ahead of time, you get to view the various wildlife that uses that particular game trail. This can save time and money by not spending time on trails that have little to no activity. Trail cameras can also be used at home for security purposes. Taking a photo of things that move can photograph a burglar, the stray dog who is destroying your property or your children coming home after curfew.
Incandescent Flash
This type of flash is similar to regular digital camera flashes.
Incandescent flash is very similar to the regular flash on a digital camera, making a bright white flash. While this is better for taking higher-quality color pictures with good resolution, it does have its downside. Even though the incandescent flash is supposed to produce color photos, in various flash tests the images appear to be very washed out with little color. The flash also requires more energy than the infrared flash, thus depleting the battery life faster. Another draw on the battery life is that most cameras with incandescent flash use the flash every time they take a picture. It doesn't matter if it is day or night. While the flash doesn't register in daytime photos because the of sun overpowering it, it still flashes, draining excessive life out of the batteries. The bright white flash also spooks some animals, causing them not to enter into the camera area.
Infrared Flash
The small red light on infrared settings does not spook animals.
Even though the quality of photos produced using an infrared flash is lower than with an incandescent flash, the low red light typically does not deter animals from entering the camera area, providing a more accurate image sampling of the animals in the area. The low red light doesn't require a surge in power like an incandescent white flash, reducing the battery draw and extending the life of the batteries. The trigger time for infrared flash is quicker, resulting in accurate, if sometimes blurry, images. On the majority of cameras, the trigger time for an incandescent flash is close to a full second longer than an infrared flash. This is enough time for an animal to leave the camera area, resulting in empty frames. For trail cameras that take color images, when the infrared flash is in use for nighttime images, the images are in black and white.
Incandescent vs. Infrared Cost
Price should not be the deciding factor in purchasing a camera.
Typically the cost of a camera with an infrared flash is $30 to $50 more than the same camera with an incandescent flash, and those that offer both types of flash can run considerably more. Cost alone should not be the deciding factor when determining the camera flash type. For those who are interested in the use of a trail camera for taking quality images, an incandescent flash takes the highest-quality photographs. For hunters, who are mainly interested in knowing the variety and number of animals in a specific area, infrared is definitely the way to go for not spooking the animals.
Incandescent vs. Infrared Flash Range
This varies widely between all cameras, even those with the same type of flash. The Remington Ghost Trail Cam infrared flash boasts 18 LED lights with a range of up to t20 feet. When you're using the incandescent bright white flash, the flash range is increased to up to 30 feet from the camera.
Tags: infrared flash, incandescent flash, white flash, bright white, bright white flash
