Trail Cam Batteries

Demonical

Demonical

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
22   0   0
Location
Whitecourt, Alberta
Went for a walk today to swap memory cards and batteries, on one of my trail cams.*

I put the batteries in that camera in Sep/Oct 2013, so they were in the camera for one full winter and now most of a second; ~16 months.

Just threw them on the voltage meter to check them... these things start out at about 1.7v. After 16 months they ranged 1.605-1.610v.

I'm kinda thinking that's decent service life. Hell, I could put those batteries in pretty much any device that uses AA batteries, and probably get another 6 months out of them!


The only bad thing about the deal, is that since I last checked the camera, in Nov 2014, there's only been 1 whitetail by that camera, and I tracked him the day after he was there.
Not another deer, moose, elk since. Goddamn wolves are eating everything with hair on it, in that country.










* It's a Bushnell Trophy 8mp camera; Energizer Ultimate Lithium-Ion batteries... they're the ones that claim to be 8x or 9x service life...
 
That seems to be a pretty low detection rate... was the camera functioning properly? I have a couple of Bushnell trophy cams and they don't seem to like the cold weather - irrespective of the battery condition. FTF when below -25 or so
 
I have several cameras and some are much better than others for battery life. One I have uses C cell batteries and it doesn't last very long at all, maybe 6 months. The spypoint that I have uses 6 AA's and it lasts over a year on a set of batteries and it will take close to 1200 pictures in that time. The spypoint is my favorite unit of the bunch with its only drawback being the red night time LED's if it is used for security. That is using bulk alkaline batteries
 
I could get a month out of the batteries easy enough in the warm weather. Once it cooled off to -10-30 I was lucky to get a week. The one camera wold usually have between 2 and 3000 pictures a week. Lots of Ravens, magpies, porcupines, a tresspasser, neighbour family on quads, coyotes, a family of raccoons, single bears and sows with cubs and even some deer.
 
Southlander said:
I have several cameras and some are much better than others for battery life. One I have uses C cell batteries and it doesn't last very long at all, maybe 6 months. The spypoint that I have uses 6 AA's and it lasts over a year on a set of batteries and it will take close to 1200 pictures in that time. The spypoint is my favorite unit of the bunch with its only drawback being the red night time LED's if it is used for security. That is using bulk alkaline batteries
Click to expand...

Have a Spypoint as well and is great on batterys..
 
Dogleg said:
I could get a month out of the batteries easy enough in the warm weather. Once it cooled off to -10-30 I was lucky to get a week. The one camera wold usually have between 2 and 3000 pictures a week. Lots of Ravens, magpies, porcupines, a tresspasser, neighbour family on quads, coyotes, a family of raccoons, single bears and sows with cubs and even some deer.
Click to expand...

You could adjust the sensitivity to eliminate the false triggers on most units..
 
What brand of batteries are they? 1.7 v sounds quite high, most alkaline AA are 1.5 ish and rechargeables are usually less.

All my cameras run AA with the exception of an old Moultrie I-40 that won't die (d cells) but it lasts forever. I too have had a camera or two that took c-cells and had poor life from them so they got returned.
 
Sounds like they are holding up well. My Bushnell cams don't use much power on standby, when the pics start is when the batteries go down. Other brands of cams use more power on standby and will eat the batteries without taking pics. I switched over to rechargeable aa's after seeing how fast an active cam uses batteries in the cold
 
I get excellent life out of energizer ultimate lithiums too (same cameras as you) - they are worth the price, IMO, especially when you consider the worry-free reliability that your cam is working, cold weather performance, and not having to lug a spare set with you all the time and make noise/scent/waste time swapping them out during the season. I don't get as long as you do, but I get A LOT more detections than that , and generally leave them on 'hybrid', so they're shooting video (which takes a lot of juice, especially at night). Still, I get a whole season out of a set of the Lithium Ultimates. I tried the middle of the road ones - the Energizer Lithium "Advanced". They were no-where nearly as good as the Ultimates, so although cheaper, IMO you might as well just use regular Alkalines as the Advanced (but I have nothing quantitative to back that up)
Dave
 
Cranky Pants said:
What brand of batteries are they? 1.7 v sounds quite high, most alkaline AA are 1.5 ish and rechargeables are usually less.

All my cameras run AA with the exception of an old Moultrie I-40 that won't die (d cells) but it lasts forever. I too have had a camera or two that took c-cells and had poor life from them so they got returned.
Click to expand...

Dude, are you going by what's printed on the package? All AA batteries claim to be 1.5v... I always put new batteries on the voltage meter, and test 'em first... and I carry a voltage meter in my trail cam backpack.

The batteries I use are Energizer Ultimate Lithium-Ion batteries. The ones that claim to be 8x or 9x service life (and evidently are...). They always test out new, at 1.7v+.
 
Demonical said:
Dude, are you going by what's printed on the package? All AA batteries claim to be 1.5v... I always put new batteries on the voltage meter, and test 'em first... and I carry a voltage meter in my trail cam backpack.

The batteries I use are Energizer Ultimate Lithium-Ion batteries. The ones that claim to be 8x or 9x service life (and evidently are...). They always test out new, at 1.7v+.
Click to expand...

According to CSU those are the best you can buy..
 
I was having some issues with my Bushnell trailcam taking double and triple photos and then nothing for a week or so, I called bushnell support they recommended using a good name brand SD card not the Giant Tiger brand and it made a huge difference. I honestly thought all SD cards were the same but they apparently are not, it fixed all my issues.

JJ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom