What Is The Range Of A Trail Camera?

detection range vs. flash range: what’s the difference?

one of the most common questions in wildlife photography is — how far away will a trail camera actually take pictures? the answer isn’t as simple as a single number. it depends on the camera’s design, the lighting, and even the weather that day.

• in most cases, which the manufacturers say that a camera has “100-foot range” they mean the detection range—the maximum distance the sensor can detect motion and activate a shot.
• but it doesn't necessarily mean that your image would be clear at 100 feet.
• the same goes for the term flash range, which is the distance at which the camera's infrared light or led flash can brightly light the subject even in complete darkness.
• position your trail camera—it gets triggered at the right moment and can provide usable pictures.

detection range

the attached spreadsheet shows the max distance each camerawas able to detect motion and capture an image. cameras that detect motion at greater distances generally score better.

• in this test several cameras only captured images out to 50' while other cameras detected motion out past 100'.
• conventional thinking would suggest a camera that detects twice as far would capture twice as many photos, right?
• it's so much more.
• most trail cameras have a detection angle of roughly 42 degrees.
• this means as a camera detects at longer distances, it also detects over a wider area.

50' range @ 42 degrees

915 sq ft

100' range @ 42 degrees

3663 sq ft

as a camera's detection range increases, its ability to capture activity increases exponentially. cameras with longer detection ranges cover more area and offer better value.

trigger speed, recovery time and detection range

for years the trailcampro trail camera shootout has been designed to test the combination of a camera's trigger speed, recovery time and detection range.

• in this test, each camera is awarded a point for each full picture (greater than 60% of the body) of the test subject captured on each pass.
• when completing the trail camera shootout comparison, we also record empty and partial pictures to compute an efficiency rating for each camera.
• overall score:the total number of pictures the camera took with the person completely inside the field of view.
• efficiency rating:the efficiency rating is simply the percentage of pictures a camera captured with a valid image (60% or greater of the subject).
• while this has no bearing on a camera's ranking, the efficiency rating quantifies how many empty photos you might have to click through if you purchase a particular model.

we prefer models that only take photos of animals. false triggers waste memory space, eat batteries and cost the user extra time clicking through empty frames.

photo opportunities out to 120'

it doesn't matter whether a trail camera is storing images on an sd card or transmitting them over a cellular network, trigger speed and detection range are not affected by either method.

• recovery time is another story.
• measuring recovery time on a cellular trail camera doesn't just includethe amount of time required for a trail camera to detect motion, capture a photo, re-arm itself and trigger a second time.
• it also includes the amount of time required to send the image over a cellular network.
• photo opportunities exist from both the left and the right at 10' increments all the way out to 120'.
• 8 points possible at 24 passes offers a max score of 192 (24x8).

what we test on every game camera

trigger speed

the amount of time elapsed from when a camera first detects motion until it captures a photo of what caused that motion.

why we test trigger speed

a camera’s effectiveness is determined by several trail camera test criteria, however, if you had to pick just one as the most important, it would definitely be “trigger speed”.

• plain and simple, if your scouting camera doesn’t have a quick trigger, you’re going to get numerous photos with just half an animal and many blank photos with no animal at all.
• trigger speeds vary from several seconds to a lightning fast 1/20th of a second.
• the best performing game cameras have speeds of 0.5 seconds or less.

examples of listed ranges

• fast trigger speed (~0.3–0.4s) for quick wildlife capturedetection range up to 100 ft (approximate)
• ir flash distance: up to 100 ft (approximate)
• the strike force pro dcl also features a fast 0.15-second trigger speed and a 100 ft. motion detection range.
• the dark ops pro dcl also features a fast 0.15-second trigger speed and a 100 ft. motion detection range.
• the camera has a detection range of up to 65 feet.
• the motion sensor can detect up to 60 feet.