This camera is very removable and can be used by the family for those family needs when the occasion arises. The S-600 is a VGA up to 6.0 MP camera. For trail use we would probably recommend that you tone it down to some where around 2 to 3 MPs This camera features the Super HAD CCD (hole accumulated diode) imaging sensor. Most commercial cameras use the less expensive CMOS systems which sometimes leans a little towards fuzzy pictures. This Sony adapted sensor allows more light to each pixel and results in a very good picture. Sony cameras can stand on there reputation for quality. Reading their instruction manual might call for a few night classes at the local photo store. This camera can take up to a 2 gig memory stick which even at 6 MP would probably not be full before the batteries ran out. Sony advertises this camera to take about 430+ 6 MP pictures on a set of very good NMIH AA batteries. The only down side to this camera is that the flash is rated (for photography) by Sony to be 30 feet. In a trail camera setting I believe this will probably be well out past 40 feet which tests should show. We do not have to push the quality of the Sony cameras, they can easily stand on their own reputation. Now we have to connect this little camera to its associated PIX designed boards.

These folks actually buy all the cameras that they design and program boards to match. Many months of research and development goes into this making sure that the control and sensing boards match and perform as required. This particular “Universal Controller” board has had a very good history even in its early versions and now this latest version which has the “Trail mode feature” incorporated, which is an industry first and has been watched and tried to be copy by the competition. Leaf River cameras have a similar feature which is not as sophisticated but works very well up to three pictures then it must go into its minimum delay period before it can take another three series picture. This feature developed by PIX will continue to open another window and continue to take pictures as long as there is motion present. When setup in this mode the camera will take the first picture and remain powered up and take subsequent pictures in 3 seconds triggering in 1/10 second intervals with in 30 seconds. If motion is still present (buck following the doe) then another 30 second window will be opened up and as long as motion is present the camera will continue to take pictures and keep on adding the next 30 second window until motion is no longer there. Now how do we test this feature? Well we could just do a lot of walk tests, or develop a trail where the deer normally head toward the feeder in single file. We are in about the 4^th week trying to capture a series of pictures using a similar feature for our Leaf River reviews, and so far we have not been able to have a set of pictures to show this feature. Testing this feature in a natural setting requires that the deer cooperate and so far they have alluded all attempts. So do not expect results from our tests with this feature. We will do the walk tests to prove that it works but will not show time line pictures of this test.

Sony’s proven camera matched with PixControllers proven electronics should produce a solid a trail camera that will sense out to that 75-80 foot range when the cool weather is here. The camera also has a 2 inch LCD for field viewing of pictures for you folks that wish to do this. I am more in tune with the card swap and setting down with a nice laptop to view my pictures. We will do a brief field test to get some 6.0 MP pictures but the majority of our tests will be with the more logical lower settings. (see the 9-24-06 note to camera users) on the front page of this site. The easy to follow diagram for the dip switch settings to do the programming are easy and pretty well strait forward. The flash range tests, sensing range test, and field picture tests are next. Field tests will be at 30 sec delay, 24 hr, still, with red and green LED off. When we do the trail mode tests we will select the up position for switches one two and three. The price is in the $450 range (white flash)which puts it in the same cost as the ill fated Cudde no flash. This camera can be had in either white or IR flash ($525 IR flash).

We put this camera out for test pictures prior to doing the sensing, flash range and trigger time. The proof is in this cameras performance. It has exceptional picture quality at 6.0 MP and will sense as advertised. We had the camera aimed a little low but the flash was reaching way out and being able to identify animals at 30 to 40 feet was easy. Now the biggest disappointment to this fine setup. Date/time is not in the pictures, this is a super piss off to me but if you load them to your hard drive and have the supplied software installed you can view the pictures with the time date stamp. Just using windows XP viewer will only display the picture. Folks using the 2 inch view screen on the camera in the field can only get an idea of what the animal is but it is very hard to read the date time small print.

The bottom line so far, before I do the trigger time and flash range tests is this is a very competitive priced camera that works extremely well so far. If we get fairly good trigger times and flash range (already proven with sample pics) I could probably overlook the short comings of not readily having time date stamp on the pictures without having the hassle of loading to my hard drive. Many people who have the need to have a camera for personal use can just pull it out and use it for those special shots. This can kinda smooth things over with the wife when we are trying to justify the cost of buying a trail/scouting camera.

The camera came with Sony AA batteries which we installed and used to do the initial field picture quality testing. They lasted for 179 at 6MP and 30 at 2mp pictures in 7 days. We installed new copper top AAs and continued the test at 2 MP. This camera makes a very audible sound with the lens moving in and out to shutter the picture. We were watching 8 deer at the feeder on video which is the same area which this camera is watching and there was a noticeable amount of attention being paid to the cameras by the deer. We cannot say if this was definitely the reason but it was mid day and no flashes were going off or other distractions. We strongly suspect that this little noise was the reason. This is similar to the old film wind noise from early film trail cameras, which has been proven to cause animals to spook. This feature may be able to be turned off, but I was unable to find out how through my research. If it cannot be turned off maybe a little foam around the camera would help to muffle the sound. The short run of 2 MP pictures so far proved that this camera really shines when it comes to picture quality. The lower MP rating pictures were very sharp and clear with excellent color. We could not zoom in to do a tick count on the animal but I could see the little nubs on the bucks horns very well.

The trail feature is the next thing we are going to test and believe it or not we were able to get one set of pictures on out Leaf River Quick Shot tests so maybe we will be successful in getting a set of Trail Mode pictures to show how well this feature works.

Some additional attention was paid to the cycling of the lens and the noise that it caused.. Anthony brought me this camera to do the trigger time tests but I could not get the camera to work. We had tried new duracells and only got 2 days of battery life and about 20 pictures. I put fully charged and tested 2500 NiMH batteries in the cam and I could not get the camera to work with the board but I would work outside the box on its own. With new batteries the lens would extend and in a couple minuets it would close back up and cease to work. I managed to get the camera to flash one time but after that I could not make it work.

A short consultation with the boss at PIX determined that it was only by luck that we were able to get this far into the review and have things work as well as they have. Here comes the next negative (small) about this set up. Operating instructions seem to be not as good as they should be. We found that after you have installed the proper batteries and selected all the mode settings with the dip switches, you must first turn the camera on with the little button on top that has a green ring illuminated. You then must turn the camera over and see if the view screen is on. If it is on then you must turn it off and then turn the camera back off. Once the camera is off you go ahead and place it in its proper position in the case, close the door without latching it and view from the front of the camera to make sure that the lens is centered in the lens window, if not open the case and make proper adjustment. Close the case again without latching and double check lens alignment. Open the case back up and turn the switch on the 9v battery case on, close the case and latch it and then wait until the lens cycles out and then back in and at that time the camera is armed and ready to start taking pictures. Trigger time proved to be 4 seconds with flash and (to be determined) without flash. Delay time was tested at 10 seconds and proved to be fairly accurate. Trail Mode with flash would only take a picture about every 10 seconds. The way it looks right now is this outfit needs to be operated with very good NiMH batteries. The copper tops would only last a day and a half to two days. The Sony Site does recommend that NiMH batteries be used to realize the full potential of their cameras. Starting this evening we will begin a battery life test using fully charged and tested 2500 NiMH AAs and report the results. Our sample field pictures already proved that the flash is very good out past 40 feet and so we decided that we would just use one of our field pictures to show flash results.