Battery options

[Robert Rowland]

I am tired of buying batteries and will either get the rechargeable external battery or the solar panel charger/battery.
Which one should I get?
Anyone have experience with a solar charger placed where there is lots of mast coverage? Not sure if it needs direct sunlight or just some light. My calculators just about have to be under a light to work.

[extroverted]

Maybe I can help you with this!!!
I have had 3 of my cams out in the woods for the past 3 years with very little or no problems, since I live so far away I like to leave them out for as little as 2 months at a time and as long as 4 months at a time. I did this by first buying the Stealth cam 12 volt external battery. This is a must have!!
DON'T charge this using the given charger unless you have a timer that will turn it off before you over charge it!! They recomend charging it for 15 hours, I RECOMEND THAT YOU USE YOUR 12 VOLT CAR CHARGER ON ETHER 2 AMPS OR 6 AMPS AND MAKE SURE THAT IT HAS A BUILT IN SHUT OFF WHEN FULLY CHARGED.
Make sure that you get yourself 2/ 1 gig SD cards and or a viewer.  
 
I bought a Really nice solar panel off of e-bay just the other day it was a 1 watt system not plastic like the rest of them for the feeders, it was glass and aluminum casing that came with a 5 year warranty. The really nice thing about this solar panel is that it can be pluged right into the STEALTH battery to keep a slow charge on it when it is in the woods!! The lead is already pertected with a thick coating materal and was 15' long. very nice!!! I just mounted it to a 10' pole and straped it to the tree. I always make sure that all the limbs and leaves are out of the way of the sun light.
I think the name of the aution was Stealth cam 12 volt battery solar panel.
Thats if you buy from ebay.
 
I had already bought the solar panels that were intended for feeders and had to modify the panels to adapt to the batteries, and what a pain it was... something about buying cheap and you get cheap!!
 
These worked fine only because I had torn them all appart to install a longer lead, added plastic brading for animal proof a water proof connector between the batery and the solar panel lead as well as lots of silicone for the weather conditions. 
 
Now if your worried about over charging, DON'T it will take much more power to over charge this battery. (like 6 watts)
 
Sure you can buy a 3 watt sytem and it will charge much faster, I would not take the chance of burning your much needed battery, plus I really don't like the higher cost of a 3 watt solar panel.
 
I attached some nice pictures I think you might like!!
 
Good luck with your hunt this year!!!
John
 
 
 

[fasteddie]

Great pics . Thanks for sharing !

[Legnip]

ORIGINAL: extroverted

.....I have had 3 of my cams out in the woods for the past 3 years with very little or no problems, since I live so far away I like to leave them out for as little as 2 months at a time and as long as 4 months at a time. I did this by first buying the Stealth cam 12 volt external battery. .....
John

 
Hey John,
 
What type of cameras do you have? I'm looking into getting one for the farm. We have a couple at camp, but the battery life in cold weather is always a problem. the 3 Watt might be the ticket if you are trying to get pictures when it is below 32 degrees.

[extroverted]

Legnip
sorry I did not get to you sooner like 2 years sooner, life changes so much in a matter of days!!!
Anyways to answer your question better late then never!!
I use wildveiw and stealth cams, but have since changed my set-up by adding 2 VERY important things such as 5 watt solar panels and PC625 16Ah battery which is good at the colder temps of -40c to 102c
the batteries cost a bit but worth every dollar. try $98.00 at sumittracing. this is a AGM lead battery that has a 4 year waranty.
the solar panel I got from a guy off of ebay I think his acount name is MKUTHK1
and let me tell you I am glad I talked to him!!
He sold me a 5 watt solar panel for I think $45.00 with shipping but don't qoute me on that, they came with a 20 ty year waranty, what I liked the most was that they were "plug and play and just walk away"
This guy has been installing blocking modules inside of the solar panels to keep the batteries from draining at night, now who would have known that the solar panels worked in reverse????
Well they do.

As to the cameras, I like the wildview because they can take some pretty nice pictures and vids at a low price and have a great power flash. Sure I have tried others but for the cost, I will stick to what I know!!!

[buckhunter21]

Has anyone ever tried the Fleet Farm brand batteries?  I can't remember off hand what they are called, but they are blue and silver.

[extroverted]

buckhunter
I checked them out for you, although they do offer an AGM type battery, they DONT offer any type of warranty info as well as best temperature rating.

The Odyssey PC625 battery can be bought at Summitracing for $89.00.
With this battery and a good solar panel at least 5 watts of power your battery will stay charged all year long.
The temp rating on the batt is -40c to 102c got to love those temps and comes with a 4 year warranty.

Great pictures to be had!!!

I am not trying to sell these units; I just use them myself and know what it takes to save money as well as time.

[SHKYBoonie]

Save yourselves alot of head aches and extra money for extra equipment! Buy Bushnell Trophy Cam for between $200 and $160, a set of 8 AA Lithium batteries and an SD card. These cams will run at least 12 months on 1 set of these batteries in any weather. I have had mine out for over 9 months now. I checked them for the first time sense hunting season last week, they haven't missed a beat through all the snow and below freezing temps and still are showing full batteries.
 
If you have read my other post about trail cams, you will see that I have tried them all. The Trophy cams are the best of the best by a loooong shot!

[extroverted]

AA Lithium batteries

This is what www.Trailcampro.com has to say:
If you live in an area with cold weather, I would strongly recommend the AA NiMh rechargeable batteries and the NiMh charger. NiMh is unaffected by cold weather unlike alkaline batteries. These batteries can also be charged 1000 times.

Now why waste time and money and get MiMh batteries when you can get one AGM rechargeable battery that is warranted to last 4 years regardless of the temperature. The cost $89.00 dollars or go with the Lithium and buy them each year at $21.00 x 4 = $84.00.
This unit or cam also comes with a 6volt external port from the manufacture. This is just in case you want to use a solar panel with your camera and external battery during the colder temps.
One more little detail, this camera uses a ton of power compared to the wildview. for this unit it's as follows:
Power Consumption .150mA (+450mA when IR-LED lighted)
And the wildview are only .003mA stand by with 150mA when using flash.
What does this all mean, well if you are in a area that sees a lot of animal activity then chances are that your batteries aren't going to last very long at all.
My setup I usually get 100 pictures a month in the winter and 300 a week in the summer, spring and fall months, I have yet to lose power in my units.

The option is yours and like I was saying I am here to help your process of getting the best results for your cameras.
All year around 24/7 365 and like me if you live 100 to 200 miles away from each property you don't want to have to go back a forth to each cam making sure that your batteries are not dead, this is a waste of my time and money.
These cameras also cost between 199.00 to 249.00 although I will agree if they can walk the walk and talk the talk then they maybe worth getting. but still not really in your price range.
The trigger speed is about 1.024s which changes depending on the burst mode setting.
From 7, 11, 15 seconds apart, there is a good possibility that you will get some butts after all especially if they are coming from the other direction.

[GTOHunter]

My Moultrie I-60 Camera uses the 6-D cell batteries so I bought extra Energizer rechargable batteries and just switch them out every few months when I check my camera's.I was thinking about getting the bigger solar rechargable panel that runs off its own power then if it is cloudy or rainy for several days the camera runs off the internal batteries.I have found the solar panel for sale at most Sporting Goods Stores for around $69.99 to $79.99 and the cheapest was at Wal-Mart on-line for round $49.99 if memory serves me correctly?I'm thinking about going that route so I can leave my camera out for longer periods of time without swapping out batteries...I have found that the copper-top DuraCell batteries last a lot longer in my trail camera,I have had a set of them in my camera during the coldest months from Jan,Feb and now til the end of March with still 70% power still left on them.