Home Made Trail camera / Scouting camera
Reviews and Updates by Monarch Images
Update on Pixcontroller Inc. Dec 27 2007
If you’ve been browsing the Monarch Images (MI) site you will know that MI uses Pixcontroller Inc for the camera control boards in our MI scouting cameras. I was informed not too long ago by Pixcontroller Inc, that they will no longer be providing control boards and other scouting camera building supplies starting early in 2008.
Bigfoot Control Board – Sept/Oct 2007
The most noteworthy features I’d like to mention are the “on-board” AAA battery holder and the walk test at start up. I’m really impressed with how the walk test works with this board. All you do is turn the power on, and as long as you’re in front of the camera, it will stay in the walk test mode. This will give you as much time as you need to position the camera on the tree, and test out the sensor. Once 30 seconds has gone by without the board sensing movement, it automatically arms itself and is ready for full operation. I plan to offer MI scouting camera – Bigfoot series to the MI product line in the near future.
I finally was able to finish this project and get it out on some deer trails this November. On its first outing the L11 did not too bad picture quality wise, and the trigger speed was surprisingly very good with the high performance wide angle lens.
The downside is that for some reason the batteries died after only 5 days, and taking 121 pictures. The unit was set out on Nov 23 and was checked Dec 7. On Nov 26th the temp dropped to a low of -27.4, and the batteries died shortly after, which was surprising because I’ve used the same batteries in other MI Scouting cameras in the same conditions and they’ve lasted much longer.
I re-set the unit on Dec 7 and re-checked it again on Dec 22. I was even more disappointed on this outing discovering that the camera stopped working the same day (Dec 7) it was re-set, taking only 48 pictures with the same brand of batteries.
I’m still trying to narrow down if this is due to the batteries, the weather, or the unit itself, so I re-set the L11/Sniper on Dec 22 with a different brand of batteries. The next time I check the unit I’ll swap out the camera with a newly modified L11 to see if it’s something to do with the camera itself.
– Oct 2007
This is one the newest cameras to hit the trail camera scene and I’m currently in the process of finishing off building one at the moment. I can say that the modification to the camera was fairly simple, and the L11 itself is easy to operate, and has a real nice big LCD screen. It’s a small camera, and I’ve got it set-up in a vertical 1020 case using a new High performance wide angle fresnal lens (motion sensor lens). I hope to have this unit up and running in the next couple weeks, and will post an update soon.
Sony W35/Pix Universal - December 27, 2007
Once again… there’s not too much to report on the Sony W35 camera. I was able to get it out on one more occasion this fall, but still encountered the same result of very dark night pictures. I pulled the unit off the trails, to use as a normal “point and shoot” camera for taking website pictures etc. I have a Bigfoot board here that’s programmed for a W35, and I’m planning on re-building this W35 into a different case with a different combination of lens extension and flash gasket to try to yet again remedy the dark night shots. The cases and components should be here shortly and hope to have the unit back out sometime early in 2008
– Sept/Oct 2007
Unfortunately I
haven’t tested the W35 unit out as much as I had hoped this
fall. I took it out with me to Alberta during an archery
hunt, and was able to use it for the week.
My general feeling so far is only so-so. It takes amazing
daytime photos, but the night photos didn’t turn out that
spectacular. This is mostly due to the required lens
extension on the outside of the case, and the fact that the
flash is so close to shutter. The flash seems to bounce off
the lens extension, and the night shots seem very dark.
I’ve made some more modifications to the lens extension, so
hopefully that has solved the issue. Otherwise, the W35
functions very well. It’s very well made, easy to operate,
fast to fire and has a nice big LCD screen for viewing
pictures in the field. It’s out on some deer trails at the
moment, and I hope to have another update soon!
I used my S600/Pix LE unit(s) all fall and was very impressed with it at every outing. The battery power of the S600 was much better than I initially anticipated, and I had the unit run all fall for as long as 21 days, and it was always still running upon checking it.
My two best outings yet for the S600 were:
• Nov 25 to Dec 15 – 21 days, 155 pictures – Low Temp -29.8 C
• Dec 7 to Dec 22 – 16 days, 332 pictures – Low Temp -29.8 C
Picture quality is outstanding and flash is super strong! It’s a bit slow to fire (2.5-3.5 sec) but by angling the unit down trails I didn’t have too much trouble missing animals. I liked the S600 so much I’m now offering it as a MI Scouting camera, so check out the product/order pages for more information on the new MI S600 Fisher!
I realize that the S600 isn’t all that new to the trail camera scene. I’ve been a bit reluctant to try one out due to what I’ve heard about how long their batteries will last, and how slow they are to fire at night.
I set one out a couple weeks ago on a deer trail intersection, and achieved some great results! The camera ran from Oct 13-27 (14 days) taking a total of 91 pictures 35 of which were flash/night shots. I aimed the camera down the trails to compensate for the slower firing speed, and didn’t seem to get a whole lot of missed or partial subjects. Picture quality, day and night was awesome! Oh…and not to mention the camera was still running when I picked it up and the batteries still had some remaining power. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cam could go for another week or so taking just as many pictures. I plan on doing some formal battery testing on this camera this winter to find out for sure what it can do.
Stay tuned for more updates.
HP E337/Bigfoot – Updates coming soon
Nikon L14/Sniper – Updates coming soon
Check out the Monarch Images 2009 Whitetail Photo Challenge as well as other amazing photos taken with MI scouting cameras. (opens in new window on a Flickr® page)