Barbara Francik
- @BarbaraFrancik
- | she/her
Hi all!
I'm looking for recommendations for camera traps (or any sturdy outdoor cameras) which are able to record continuously or in time-lapse mode without having to be triggered by movement, for minimum 72hrs. I am going to be trying to capture seabird colony activity in Svalbard under 24hr daylight conditions, to track daily patterns in colony attendance. The main issue I am having is that most camera traps I am finding do not have a time-lapse mode that can be set for sufficiently long (a lot are limited to sunrise-sunset and I'm not sure what they'd do under constant light, or can only be set to time-lapse for a limited amount of time). We'd need them to run for a minimum of 72hrs.
We'd essentially just be counting the number of birds visible in each photo or video, so video quality doesn't have to be amazing.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
Barbara
10 July 2026 11:35pm
Most trail cameras (rugged, small, weather resistant) have a “timelapse” mode, however, not all will do a full 24-hour timelapse of photos.
The factory firmware for the Browning trail cameras we use only allows timelapse during the day (after sunrise, before sunset).
I hacked the firmware on Browning Advantage, Edge, Elite HP4, and Elite HP5 ReconForce and SpecOps cameras so that they have an “All Day/Night” timelapse mode (including the flash at night). The PIR sensor is active even during timelapse, so the camera will also trigger on motion. If you don’t want this, you can put a piece of tape over the PIR sensor.
See: https://winterberrywildlife.ouroneacrefarm.com/2024/07/14/timelapse-feature-enhancements-for-browning-trail-cameras/
The firmware is available on my github site:
https://github.com/robertzak133/unified-btc-reverse
Note that my firmware does not work with later models HP5 (serial numbers starting 128 or greater), or with the new HP5-Ultra cameras. The latter has a new security feature which prevents this type of firmware hacking. So if you go down this path, you would need to find a source of earlier model cameras.
Alternatively, I am told that GardePro cameras offer an all-day/night timelapse mode right out of the box, but I have not tried this. In general, we find the image quality of the GP cameras to be lower than that of the Browning ReconForce/SpecOps models, but that may not be an issue for your project. In any case, you should check with vendor to make sure. See:
https://winterberrywildlife.ouroneacrefarm.com/2026/05/23/gardepro-a60-trail-camera-teardown-and-review/
You’ll have to experiment to find a timelapse frequency that will allow the batteries to cover your desired 72-hour target. For internal batteries, Li-Metal primary AA cells (e.g. Energizer Ultimate Lithium) are your best bet vs. other battery chemistries by something like a factor of two. On Browning cameras, operated through the night, you would probably need a frequency of 1 photo every 10 seconds, or perhaps every 30 seconds, to get through a continuous 72 hours on a set of 8 EUL AA cells. It will depend largely on duration of the night, due to the relatively higher energy required to operate the flashes. If you use an external battery, my firmware will take a photo every 1 second, max (factory firmware once after 5 seconds, max).
-bob
Robert (Bob) Zak