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Summer Heat |
August 07, 2007
 Summer
Heat vs Trail cameras
Seems like every year when this time of the year comes
around and all the new stuff is hitting the market I see
across multiple forums about this brand new cam that just
will not see me at ten feet. Well this year is no exception.
Maybe by having a short lesson in PIR function will lessen
the aggravation. All of the cameras produced today have the
same type of sensor that looks at movement and heat. When
the ambient temperatures reach the target
animals body temperature or close
to it by a couple of degrees things in the sensing
department cease to function the way we wish. This morning
when I was in the process of doing flash range tests I
needed my motion sensing outdoor lighting to come on in
order to complete these tests without dragging out some type
of flashlight. The night time temperatures were near 80
degrees which only left a small degree of swing between my
body temperature (covered with clothes) and the ambient
temperature. Well I had to approach each one and wave my
hands in front of it to make it function. The camera that I
was testing (WV-2 IR) would only seem me at 15 to 20 feet.
This is not a fair test for this device due to the fact that
its primary use will be in the fall when temperatures are
more in line. Moving to the interior of my shop and blowing
it out with some high powered air conditioning, I was able
to determine that this little cam functioned very well with
a 6 to 7 degree drop in temperature. The new cam out of the
box and a run to the back yard in the summer afternoon heat
to test it on the family dog is probably not a very good
judge of just how the cam was designed to work. I will say
that when you find a camera that does function well under
those conditions, you have a very
good one. As we approach the real scouting season the
temperatures will wane and camera function will improve.
Just remember that every one of these animals that we are
trying to capture with these cameras is wearing a fur coat.
Bill
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