A Guide To Purchasing The Right Trail Camera for You

Looking to buy a new trail camera? This guide should help you choose the right camera for you.

By: Alex Comstock

In this day and age, there are so many trail camera companies, it could be confusing differing bad from good, and what works for you. There are so many different types of trail cameras, and different trail cameras have different strengths and weaknesses. As you look to buy your next trail camera, keep these factors in mind for choosing the right camera for you.

How Many Trail Cameras Do You Want?

This is important for a number of reasons. There is a major difference in what kind of trail camera you should buy if you have a small five-acre parcel, and are only looking for one trail camera, compared to if you just bought 1,500 acres, and are trying to cover it with trail cameras. If you have that small five-acre parcel, a higher end, more quality trail camera could be more important to you, because you can’t afford to miss anything. On the other hand if you are trying to cover a large area, a less expensive camera with simple features might be the way to go. You don’t necessarily need a top of the line camera if you’re going to buy ten of them to try and get an idea of how many deer live on your property.

Are You Worried About Theft?

In this day and age, trail camera theft is becoming more and more prevalent. I wish I didn’t have to cover this, but it happens. If you’ve never had a trail camera stolen, odds are you will at some point, or you know someone who’s had a camera stolen. This should be thought about to some level. If you are going to place a camera on private land where no one else should be walking around, maybe you can feel better about buying one of those top of the line cameras. If you’re going to be placing a camera on public land, or somewhere near where a camera has been stolen before, maybe you buy a lesser quality camera. If you are thinking there is even the slightest chance that a camera could be stolen, Exodus offers a 5-year warranty where if your camera is stolen, you can buy a new one at 50% off.

Would a Wireless Trail Camera Benefit You?

Wireless trail cameras are being used by more and more hunters every year. If you are thinking about purchasing a wireless trail camera, be thinking of these few things. First off, you usually need a certain coverage and cellular service where you plan on using the trail camera. If you don’t have any service, the wireless cam would be useless to you. Also, you want to get as much value out of a wireless camera as possible. If you hunt out of state, and want to monitor an area far from home, or if you want to put a wireless cam in an area that you don’t want to invade throughout the year, you might find one valuable. Don’t just buy a wireless trail camera without at least thinking of these couple things. With how expensive they are, you definitely want to get as much value out of them as possible.

How Are You Going to Use Your Trail Camera?

There are different things you should be looking for based on how you will be deploying your trail camera. If you are going to have a camera set up in a pinch point or funnel, trigger speed, multi-photo modes, and detection range are important factors. On the other hand, if you plan on setting up a camera over a mineral site, and want to be able to identify specific deer, megapixels and flash type might be more important to you. Video mode with trail cameras are becoming more and more high quality now as well. If you want to watch deer behavior, look at what kind of video settings you can get with a trail camera. With Exodus, you can set them to take a photo, and then a video right after to get the best of both worlds.

Choosing The Right Camera

As you can see, buying the right trail camera for you isn’t as simple as walking into a store, and looking for the cheapest or most expensive camera. Take the time to think about where and how you will be using it, and do a little research on different trail cameras. You might be surprised at what you find, and what you end up purchasing. At the end of the day, what works best for you, might not be the best option for the next person, but that’s the beauty of it. By taking the time to pick out the right camera, you will only benefit in the long run.