New camera

Thursday I deployed my new Gardepro trail camera, which I have designated as camera #14. After a few test shots, I bumped up the image resolution from 4mp to 8mp before setting it next to the bluebird box. Even though the sensor probably is only 4mp, I have this theory that they do the interpolation before applying the heavy-handed sharpening that trailcam makers love so much, so it might not look quite so garish when I resize the image back down to my standard size of 1800 pixels across (4x6 print size). I also turned off the info strip because it is rather large AND I expect to be cropping out the corners, which show quite a bit of wide angle distortion. File information indicates the lens is 18mm equivalent, which is very wide in comparison to all my other cameras. Since the camera claims to be close focusing, I set it 24 inches from the center of the bluebird box. I may try moving it even closer, 18-20 inches.

I collected the memory card Friday and found that the camera had fired off 22,477 images in 27 hours, which was really about 17 hours because there were no images overnight. That reminds me of the late lamented Moultrie #3 that perished in a forest fire in 2017. It was famous for pumping out 80,000 images of waving grass in a matter of days. I turned the sensitivity on the Gardepro down from High to Low, which helped a lot but didn't eliminate the false triggers entirely. It doesn't make sense to me, but the manual actually says not to set sensitivity to High except in warm weather, which we have not had this week. (High today, 37.) There were bluebirds (and swallows) today, but I haven't seen any images of them in flight coming in, so at some point after it warms up, I may have to risk cranking sensitivity up to Medium.

The design of the camera is fairly standard, except the screen is on the door of the camera, unlike the Brownings which have it on the body. Thus the Gardepro screen can not be used to frame the scene, which is theoretically possible with the Brownings. In practice, the Browning screens are hard to see in harsh light, and your melon gets in the way as you try to get close enough to see what is in the frame.

So far I would say it is a step up from my crippled old Melted Browning #6, but we'll see how quickly it burns through batteries if it keeps firing off false triggers.