Hi Ivonne,

Have you considered using a GOPRO? They have some pretty natty features now  and they have a good range of mounting and waterproofing gadgets. If you don’t need traditional camera trap features these work well and you can dial up the image quality to suit your needs.

Dave 

Do you need the photos during the timelapse, or just all at once at the end?  If the latter, how many exposures will you need per timelapse recording?  Depending on your answers, that might limit you to only options that let you retrieve images during recording - perhaps requiring wifi or celular?

Not knowing your requirements there, just some general thoughts:

GoPros

I too would think a GoPro would be an option, iff wide angle suits your purposes (though, if resolution isn't a high priority, GoPros do have exposure-time cropping options).  Cheap, robust, with myriad accessories easily available.  They also have wifi support - though, last I checked, you can't browse & download images while the GoPro is in recording mode (not even between exposures).  Maybe newer models have removed that limitation?

There's also relatively novel options like the GoPro MAX with 360° video recording.

Trail cameras

I've used several different trail cameras that have timelapse options - they're pretty common.  I haven't used Reconyx ones, though.  In general I find trail cameras to be pretty useless photographically - fine, maybe, for just monitoring wildlife activity.

Mirrorless / DSLR

If you do go for a 'real' camera, go for one with (at least the option of) a pure electronic shutter.  Few DSLRs have this option.  Some - but not all - mirrorless do.  Mechanical shutters (a) can cause motion blur and (b) tend to break after a few hundred thousand exposures.  e.g. if you're doing one exposure per minute, you'd get less than a year from most consumer cameras.

The Sony a6100 (or later) cameras are good options for this - they're old and therefore can be found very cheap, but the image quality is still light-years ahead of trail cameras & GoPros.

A slightly more up-market option - probably only of any interest if night-time exposures are important - would be a Nikon Z5.  Alas they're current-model so you probably won't find big discounts, but you get:

• Excellent image quality (provided 24MP is sufficient resolution for you - are you aiming for 8K timelapse?).  There are higher-end options (Z6, Z7) as well as Sony a7r options if you need higher resolution or (marginally) better image quality.

• The ability to use practically any lense ever made on them (their Z mount supports adapters to practically any other mount system).  In case you have particular lens requirements, or existing lenses you want to use.

• Twin UHS-II SD card slots, so you can record to two cards simultaneously if data loss (from a faulty SD card) is a concern.

Keep in mind, though, that most mirrorless/DSLRs have limitations on how many exposures they'll allow on their built-in intervalometers (e.g. 9999 for Nikons).  But there's usually ways around that using $10 plug-in intervalometers, if need be (and fancier options if you want more control, such as "bulb ramping" for recording across day & night smoothly).

Hi Ben,

This is relatively straightforward. It just requires an IP network camera, a 12V PoE injector, 12V power source, high-capacity SD card and an ethernet cable to your laptop.

I designed and put this ruggedized system together in a Pelican case for outdoor use. It may interest you:

https://envirocam.com.au

Various lenses from 2.8mm (wide-angle) to 16mm (close-up) can be used for or even thermal for complete visibility in darkness. Up to four lenses can record simultaneously for multiple angles of view.

Whist used for illegal-dumping detection in bushland, it can be equally used for your scenario.

I'm happy to give you some pointers - just reach out.

Best regards,

Anthony

I would suggest, if time is of the essence, to use an off-the-shelf "security" camera.
I had some luck using Wyze cams, they are $35 apiece and connect via wifi. You power them via USB and it should be easy to set up either a large car battery with a usb charger or even a simple solar setup with a 5V output. The new version is weatherproof, although it would probably require further waterproofing for a rainforest setup. They are fairly small (I think something like a 5x5x5cm cube) and have visual motion detection, something that would be of benefit for your as it would also pick up reptiles as they move into the frame. They a microSD slot and you can view the data remotely, the app will send you notifications every time there is a movement detected. They are not in real-time but usually with less than a minute delay and for a couple of $$ a month you get unlimited cloud storage as well.
As mentioned earlier, of might be easier to run a camera on wire and power it with PoE, the connection would be much more stable but then you need to have a physical connection and a cable running through the forest which is another challenge.
Just my $0.02, keep in mind this is not as robust of a solution as, let say, envirocam, but it will allow you to set it up really quickly, given you have internet access.

Could you explain a bit more, do you want a measurement of length, or whole volume?

Like @wkcmark said, there are some simple solutions for measuring length fish, using stereo arrangements for example (2 cams looking at the same spot from slightly different angles). I also found this creative solution, using a single camera in a special acrylic case, that makes use of refraction indices. This, again, is for underwater systems.

If you could project two lasers at a known angle on the body of the animal like in exploration submarines, you could calculate the distance from the camera and measure the animal, although this would be a manual process.

The simplest version might be a laser rangefinder, a measurement of image size, and some straightforward geometry, whihc would allow reasonable calculations of linear measurements. 

I've been wondering about rangefinding/size-measuring technologies that could be incorporated into camera traps for a long time, and am following this thread and the work of @Freaklabs with great interest.

So far I see there's stereo photography, Lidar, structured light/illumination, laser rangefinding, being suggested. I'm curious if we could come up with a relatively exhaustive list of potential technologies, then possibly discuss the pros/cons of each when used in a camera trap? For example, laser rangefinding might give precise and accurate measurements but maybe because it is an active sensor it drains the battery quickly and the laser might affect animals?

If there's interest I can start a separate thread so as to not detract from this one.

Hi Patricia,

I think this is likely an issue with the PIR lens positioning. The PIR has detection zones that are designed to maximise image capture of things moving a certain distance away.

A quick fix would be to have the camera trap placed directly above the nests looking straight down. I have seen someone doing this on twitter for invasive species on islands but haven't been able to re-find the tweets. 

I would use a rat substitute for testing, like a tennis ball on a stick. Warm this up in the sun and then insert into the field of view and check if the camera has captured it. You could try this in different orientations and angles to see where the detection zones might be. 

Best wishes,

Sam

Hello

I understand how frustating that can be....I would try with the camera closer. 2.5m seem too far away for rat...specially that it must have some vegetation between. Also think that the suggestion of putting the camera above the nest facing down is also a great idea...

Best of luck...

I have only used Tenergy NiMH rechargeables, these put out 1.2 V. We've used it on Bushnell Trophycam, which have 2x4 battery sets, i.e. you only need 4 batteries for it to have enough voltage, the additional batteries don't increase the voltage, they only prolong working time. So 4x1.2=4.8 V instead of the expected 6 V from alkaline batteries. I would think that Cuddeback has a similar circuit setup, so an external 12 V battery might actually be too much, as some have already pointed out. With regular NiMH batteries what's most important is to get batteries with high mAh. The ones sold commercially usually have very low mAh, so they won't last very long. We have 2400 mAh, I think, and it works reasonably well, they can last for about a month in the field, IR flash works.

While the manufacturer might claim that the camera requires 8xAA at 1.5v each, most likely it will work just fine with NiMH batteries that have nominal voltage of 1.2V.
I have used eneloops with Reconnyx cameras for a long time, as well as with handheld GPSes and a myriad of electronic devices and not once run into trouble because of the lower voltage. Your camera should have a setting in the menu to select NiMH batteries, that will prevent it from shutting down too soon.
I suggest you do your own testing - run 2 cameras one next to another on a 1.5V alkaline battery and a 1.2V NiMH rechargeable one until it switches off and check the voltage on the "empty" cell.

Your issue will likely not be the voltage of the cell, but the current the battery can deliver, as it has to recharge a capacitor in the incadescent flash light. I see that the manufacturer declares up to 20s recharge time for night photos, which is a lot. That is a downside of a colour camera.

I don't know what the best source is for batteries in SA, but if possible, get rechargeable batteries from IKEA (Ladda NiMH batteries). They are rebranded eneloops pro for around 30% less and I am yet to find a better battery for a camera trap. Otherwise, like mentioned before, eneloop pro will be hard to beat for performance and reliability.

Hi seems great and easy to use! Just a question, can the software success to identify the species or "only" categorize animal/ vehicle/human? Can we "trained" the software to detect a specific species?

thank you 

Hi

I just tried and works great, I will include it in my workflow. 

Thanks for your work!

Juan

Important considerations raised by Peter!

In my case it was not important though, as I was using the trap camera in timelapse mode.

In the TrailCamPro link above (comparing FOV and Detection Angle), I see a few "panorama" camera models.  For example, the Moultrie 150i or Moultrie 180 (https://www.moultriefeeders.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=panoramic) - although they are all listed as discontinued.

It seems this might be a solution for Daniela's scenario.

I'm also interested because it could offer more forgiving setup (if the subject does not travel exactly where expected.)

Has anyone here worked with a panoramic camera? What did you find to be their pros/cons?

Hi all,

Just wanted to make you aware, if you weren't already, of this other Wildlabs thread: https://www.wildlabs.net/community/thread/1080. Petar Gyurov (@pepi ) made a nice GUI for the Megadetector camera trap detection platform that he talks about and provides links to (also on his Github).

-Carly