Kolpin Camera Review Page

Please keep in mind that even though we make recommendations for game scouting cameras, they are based on the results obtained from the particular cameras we tested with.  Our main focus is to perform the testing, thus we urge you to make your own decision on a camera purchase.

WILDLIFE EYE

by KOLPIN

http://www.kolpin.com/

 

 

Does Size
Really Matter?


 

Smaller,  Better,
Cheaper,  More
functional alternative.
Plans and materials can be purchased from www.pixcontroller.com

(purchased at American Sportsman)

In place of a digital camera this system uses Sony or Canon camcorders with a LANC input. It can be purchased with or without the camcorder. The company has a list of those camcorders which are compatible with their unit. We decided to purchase the whole unit with the supplied Sony DCR-HC21 camcorder. It came with a 12 volt main battery and a small battery for the camcorder. The instructions which are written and on a DVD. At $300.00 without the camcorder and $900.00 for the complete unit one would think that there would not be much more expense to using this item. This proved to be very wrong.  The instructions suggests that two larger capacity camcorder batteries be purchased ( $158.00 Sony brand $89.00 aftermarket ) . We chose the aftermarket $190.00 for two.  Then we needed another 12 volt main battery $ 25.00. Then the mini tapes suggested (85 minutes) $24.00 for a two pack. Padlock was $15.00 to go with the supplied cable for security to this chunk of gold. All of this is necessary if you want to leave the unit in the field and make weekly or bi weekly trips to your property to switch out the tapes and batteries. Now here comes the next problem. This system uses the mini DV tapes and the only way to play these back to your TV is to either have another compatible camcorder or Mini DV VCR. A small camcorder is around $300.00 and the DV VCR is $800.00. Next if you wish to fire wire the video to your computer VIA a camcorder the time date information is not transferred. This renders the video data useless for later use to determine movement times and such. Several attempts to get answers from Kolpin about the time date issue resulted in a big zero. They have a pleasant female answering the phone who has been supplied with a book of answers. It just does not cover most of my questions so she promised she would either E mail me of call me with the answers.

Three weeks has passed and no response.

We managed to put together all the required after purchase items and have the unit in the field. Our in house testing proved the unit does work and probably very well. We have yet to see our first weeks field test data. We will continue to test this item and report its function. The way we feel at this time, is that this even though this unit appears to work very well I would probably not recommend it. I could take $900.00 worth of lesser cameras and accomplish about the same task.

A Book and DVD were supplied. I requested and received VIA E mail an advanced copy of the manual. I was totally confused until my camera came in and I had a chance to view the DVD. The disk slowly proceeds through the written manual explaining its content in relation to the camera. This is a very good method of explaining the instructions dealing with complex equipment. This company needs to post the instructions that explains the method of getting the time date through fire wire to the computer. This would enable the system to have value as a field scouting tool.

August 30, 2005 update: 

The more we try to use this camera system the more we are disappointed. The “clock/timer feature” was one of the reasons we were attracted to this device. It appears that when this feature is selected and time chosen is during a period of darkness, the IR emitters do not function so you get a lot of black footage. I have attempted to get answers from the factory folks but the people answering the phone turn you over to the voicemail of someone who is suppose to have the answer. They are still holding true to nature in that they do not call back. If you attempt to use this camera as shipped and are fortunate enough to find the 120 tape needed, this is what you will find out on your first trip to see the results:  If the battery is still strong enough you can view your results on a two and a half inch screen for an hour plus under the tree you have the camera mounted to. This amount of time viewing on the LCD screen will finish off the battery before the tape is finished. Provided that you brought a spare battery with you, the tape can be completely viewed. Now this extra drain on the spare battery makes it impossible to get the next seven days of use out of the camera. With the time date issue and this daylight only on timer problem this camera is of little value as any kind of scouting tool.

August 31, 2005 update: 

Late this afternoon I received a call from Kolpin Outdoors engineer John. We spoke for about 50 minutes, during this time I requested answers to some of the concerns we have addressed in the review of the Wildlife Eye. John stated that the company welcomes constructive input so they can improve the product and when the next generation of this product is produced it will be much better. He has promised to E mail me all the answers to my questions. When ever that happens we will post them on the web site. Maybe some of our concerns can be corrected.

September 13, 2005 update:

John Toutant of Kolpin was unable to provide the answers to our questions so he has turned us over to Jerry Rucinski the individual who designed the Wildlife Eye. Jerry has informed us that the IR emitter cluster should in fact illuminate during the timer phase. The company is still trying to find out from the Sony Corporation how to get the time date to transfer to the hard drive via fire-wire. Jerry suggested that those individuals who wish a record of the Wildlife Eyes tapes, they should do so by bringing the camcorder back home and hooking it to a VHS VCR and transferring it analog to a VHS tape. This method will probably not set to well with those individuals that have a hundred mile round trip to the hunting property. Should a person wish to record strait to VHS tapes in the field they should visit www.northamericanst.com/index.htm and look at the Trophycam. The Trophycam has a smaller initial price and with its available solar panel has really great battery life.  We feel that VHS is a dying science and DVD is now the standard. When our video data is transferred to the computer VIA fire-wire it goes through moderate compression which minimizes the amount of data stored on the hard drive. It is then edited and all pertinent information is saved again reducing the size. Data now can be burned to a DVD or E mailed in small clips. Using one 4.7 gig disk a whole years video with a menu can be stored. All this work would be in vain if the time date information was omitted. A possible way around this would to be to make notes and when you go into your movie maker software (like Microsoft movie maker) to do the editing and menu; include the time date of those clips. 

We have pulled the Wildlife Eye from the field and are in the process of doing more shop tests. Even if we get the illumination during timer function to work we are probably not going to return this unit to the field due to its lack of necessary features. We have dedicated more hours to trying to get this device to work than any other camera tested to date. If someone is just interested in having a video utilizing high frames per second and does not mind the physical size, limited features, programming hassle, and a large cash outlay to go along with it. The Wildlife Eye might work for them. There are trail cameras that have a much lower frame per second rate in movie mode but they do take short 3 to 90 second movie clips. These also have a timer feature similar to the wildlife eye that will do daytime movie clips and still pictures at night. The trail cameras with these features are 1/4th the cost.  The new generation of IR flash cameras also takes nighttime movies.

After an intense manipulation we finally got the IR on timer to work 

Over a month has past and we are still waiting for answers from Kolpin. Enough said about this camera for now. We hope that the next generation they spoke about will be better.

 

Movie Sample 1

Note:  We had to perform some video editing miracles to get this on the web site.  Here is a condensed list:

  1. Connect the Sony camcorder to the computer via Fire Wire cable.  (or use analog capture card such as ATI All In Wonder)
     

  2. Use video editing capture software (Windows Movie Maker under XP will do - there are others) to capture the tape to a digital video file on the computer's hard drive.  We had to use a second camcorder because we did not want to pull the camera in from the field.
     

  3. Use a Video Processing software application to cut the segment from the whole movie (create a clip).  I like Sony Movie Studio (available at CompUSA).
     

  4. Using Video Processing software to apply a Brightness Filter to illuminate the deer, otherwise it is too dark to see.
     

  5. Optional: Render the clip using windows media format (.wmf) to make it compatible with the web site (or for sending via email). Save the rendered clip to the hard drive on the computer.

 
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