5 Best Hunting Trail Cameras

Let’s face it, as much as we’d love to, we simply can’t spend every waking minute of our lives in the woods hunting. There are plenty of instances where we’re lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and we take that trophy animal or get an awesome story to share back at camp. But what about those times we aren’t in the woods at all, let alone the right place? For those scenarios, we need a little electronic help—a trail camera.

To increase your presence in your hunting area, you can deploy a handy trail camera to scribe away the goings-on you miss while you’re off at the kids’ soccer games, working, or picking up that gallon of milk you forgot to get on your shopping trip.

You want a quality camera that you aren’t scared to leave out in the elements for days, weeks, or months on end. That being said, you aren’t looking to sell off the family vehicle just to spy on Bambi—so you’ll be doing some research to decide what is available, and what best suits your budget. Here, we’ve done the hard part already—lucky you!

In this article, we’ll talk about the trail camera (also referred to as a game camera) market. After reading this, you’ll be able to decide exactly which camera will be custom-tailored to your needs, budget, and hunting area.

The 5 Best Hunting Trail Cameras On The Market

What is a Trail Camera?

A trail camera, also known as a game camera, is used to take photographs of animals and scenes after being deployed in the woods. Trail cameras are used to capture close-up photos and videos of wildlife remotely and avoiding the risk of scaring wildlife or getting a personal injury while in the field. On top of that, a game camera allows you to be in the woods without actually being in the woods. Setting up a camera over an area that your buddy tells you is “full of deer”, may end up proving your buddy wrong—and leading to you finding a new place to hunt—or a new buddy.

Many cameras now are equipped with infrared lights, which cast a beam of light that is invisible to humans and animals, but provides light that the camera itself can process—which means you are able to collect photos of passers-by even in the dark of night.​

Trail Camera Features

When shopping for a trail camera, you’ll want to keep in mind the features that are available. This will allow you to compare any model to your own wish list of features until you narrow your options down to the cameras that suit you and your needs best.

Storage

Today’s game cameras will offer a variety of storage options, and there are instances where the exact type of storage can make a significant difference. Game cameras typically store their photos and videos on SD cards, the SD means Secure Digital, which is a standard form of digital storage. Not all SD cards are created equal; in fact, there are a handful of different formats available in the SD card market—and of course—not all cameras accept all types of SD cards. It’s like the guys who invent electronics get together every year and think of ways to screw with the minds of people who aren’t on the bleeding edge of technology. Anyways, here’s a basic rundown of the types of SD cards you’ll be faced with:

• SD – Secure Digital: this is your standard (used in older models) SD card. SD has a maximum capacity of 2 gigabytes (2GB).
• MiniSD and microSD refers to a smaller format that uses the same standard for storage and speeds—typically these are used in mobile phones and cameras. miniSD and microSD cards can be placed into an adapter for use in a standard sized SD card slot.

• SDHC – Secure Digital High Capacity: the same size as a standard SD card, although SDHC supports card capacity up to 32 gigabytes (32GB)

• SDXC – Secure Digital eXtended Capacity is just like the big brother to the previously mentioned SD formats, and adds larger capacity. The SDXC can hold a maximum of 2 terabytes (2TB) which is 2000GB.

Most modern cameras will support the use of SDHC, and even SDXC cards—but it is important to know exactly which type of card your camera supports, or you will be extremely disappointed when you go to collect your photos. I had just this situation happen to me.

I set out with two hunting buddies to create a triangular zone of camera coverage—each of us deploying a camera of our own. We created our small perimeter of photo coverage where we intended to put our tree stands in the coming weeks. Before splitting up and going home, we tested the cameras—they all worked. Good for us—or so I thought.

A day later, one of the groups (no need to mention names) decided he would go check the cameras so he could share the pictures with rest of us. He didn’t bother checking to see which card belonged to which camera when he re-deployed them into the woods, and we wound up having one camera go blind because it was unable to write to the SDHC card put inside it. Lesson learned, get the right card for your camera—or get new buddies.​

Night Vision

You can’t see at night, but thanks toeons evolution, most animals can. No, they don’t see a brilliant glowing green like the military’s night-vision goggles allows our soldiers to see—but the animal eye reflects light to allow the critters to see exponentially better than we humans do. Your game camera may have infrared flash it can use to take photos at night—which is a feature you’ll most likely be interested in if you’re trying to track that trophy buck.

Video

With the advent of larger format memory cards, many cameras are now equipped to film HD (720p) video. This may be a feature you’re interested in, especially if you have been seeing some false positives on your camera, meaning the camera is snapping photos when it detects motion—but you don’t see an animal.

A brief video of the scene may show what set the camera off. It’s also nice to see the animals you plan to hunt moving in their natural habitat—a few out-of-context photos can be helpful, sure, but a video of them in their natural element is nearly priceless.

What are the Advantages of Trail Cameras?

• Know your target: Trail cameras give you an advantage in seeing game before hunting it. Trail cameras give you a chance to understand the natural habitats of the animals without disturbing them.

• Get to know the animals’ habits: Setting up your trail camera helps to gather information on animal habits. You’ll easily learn which animals pass through your spot, and the frequency at which they pass as well.

• Get to know the area: Reviewing your photos and videos captured by a trail camera will let you know if that exact spot is a hotbed for animal activity, or if you’d better hunt a new area.

• Keep it mobile: As the season’s change, so do animal habits. You can easily strap your trail camera to a tree for a pre-rut reconnaissance, then move it for the rut, and even to the post-rut location to keep up with the whitetails in your area.

Things to consider when choosing the best trail cameras

• Cost: The best trail camera doesn’t necessarily need to be the most expensive. It entirely depends on your needs, and what it can accomplish for you. A less expensive trail camera that is loaded up with reliable features may be all you need.

• Durability: You should consider the camera’s lifetime. A reliable trail camera is one that last for many seasons without wear and tear. Things like memory cards and batteries are a slight operating expense—but you don’t want to replace your camera every season.

• Camera Trigger Speed: Snapping a photo of an animal who is grazing over food isn’t much of a challenge for a camera. For example, if you are planning to hang it over a food source, the camera’s trigger speed will not factor when making a purchase. If you’re trying to snap a few photos, or even a video, of that monster buck who has been sighted all over your area—a camera with a quick trigger speed may be needed to catch a glimpse of the behemoth as he passes by.

• Recovery time: Simply put, this is the amount of time the camera needs in order to be ready for subsequent shots. Cameras that have a quick recovery time could be the difference between seeing the hindquarter of a deer—or seeing a handful of stunning images.

• Battery Life Impacts Time: As we mentioned above, you can’t be in the woods 24/7, but your camera can. It’s of no use to you if the batteries are dead. When buying a trail camera, find one that has a battery life coinciding with how often you plan to be in the woods to check the memory and refresh the batteries

• Night Range: This is the distance your camera’s flash is capable of capturing when snapping photos at night. Always keep in mind that environmental conditions such as clouds and rain may affect the camera’s accuracy.

• Memory: The camera you choose should accept an SD memory card to store the photos that you intend to take. If you are planning to take a plethora of pictures, you should choose a memory card with high capacity such as an SDHC card. Remember not all cards are created equal—be sure your camera supports the type of card you buy. You may even want to have two cards on hand, they aren’t very expensive, and having one in the camera as well as a spare to put into the camera when you take one out may prove to be worth spending some extra cash

• Camera Design: Cameras come in so many shapes and sizes that you may end up with too many options to even consider—try this: decide where you want the camera to be placed and take a photo of the exact tree you wish to put the camera on. Compare the tree and background of the photo to the camouflage patterns available and make your choice that way

• Cellular Compatibility: A trail camera that is cellular compatible (typically 3G) enables you to transmit the images through a cellular network. These cameras have the greatest flexibility since they can be used anywhere. You won’t be out in the woods swapping memory cards very often—since the photos can be accessed remotely

• Date and Time Stamp: If you want to document the events of your hunting, you should consider trail cameras that document both the date and time that the shot was taken. Note: some cameras reset the date and time when the batteries die—if accurate logging is desired for your photos, be certain to keep a close eye on this feature.

• Video Recording: Some of the latest trail cameras for hunting come with advanced video capture functions. These cameras record videos of different lengths from few seconds to minutes.

5 Best Hunting Trail Cameras for Your Budget

If you are planning to acquire a brand new trail camera from Amazon, the best advice is to narrow your search by deciding which features you want most. We have scoured the web for you, and put together a list of the five best options for getting extra eyes in the woods without using up your entire budget—you still need to buy some ammo for the season after all.