How Do Trail Cameras Work at Night?

Trail cameras are among the latest remote and motion-triggered devices for both home security and animal hunting/watching. Trail cameras can function effectively even at low light and night time which improves its importance; capturing moments our eyes would normally not see at night. So how do trail cameras work at night?

There is a Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor acting as a wake-up call to the trail camera when a movement is spotted. During this fast process, the change in the level of brightness of the surrounding environment is detected and the flashlight is triggered causing a photo or a video to be taken.

Trail cameras have become a very popular means of security in high theft-prone places, scaring off those who are lucky enough to spot it or are aware of its presence. In the research aspect, wildlife gurus have taken it upon themselves to study up nocturnal animals that would normally run off by human presence or sound, making it harder to study them. In the rest part of the article, we would be looking at the in-depth features of trail cameras, their functionality at night, effectiveness at night, and the best Trail Cameras one can find (with reviews) let’s begin!

Contents

How do trail cameras work at night?
- An in-depth look at the PIR Sensor
- Illumination
Trail Cameras Picture/Video Quality At Night
- Power Supply
Best Night Vision Trial Cameras

How do trail cameras work at night?

Cameras as we all know, are our way of capturing moments we would love to always have, for research purposes or the security of our space. The need for remote, discreet, and concealable devices for these needs led to the evolution of trail cameras. They are by far, the best means of capturing moments at low lights and night times, making them the most wanted devices in areas of night explorations. So what exactly makes them so special? Trail cameras are equipped with one of the best motion sensors, the Passive Infra-red (PIR). Trail cameras are designed in such a way they are just

electronically asleep, waiting to detect any movement or heat temperature change caused by a moving body.

An in-depth look at the PIR Sensor

The Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor houses the infra-red radiation contained in a metallic case set up on the circuit board, they are somewhat ordinary but when the Fresnel lens is added it becomes more sophisticated. The Fresnel lens helps in making the infra-red sensor range larger and giving a broader view of the surrounding environment. Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor works in such a way that when a person or animal moves in front of the range of the camera the heat of the body of the said object is in most case higher than the surrounding environment causing fast responses from the sensors to the remaining part of the system to take the picture or record the activity.

It also works when a much colder body temperature moves in front of a much hotter background temperature causing a capture of the activity to be recorded. Perhaps a big-bodied animal stands in front of the camera and is motionless, it might not be detected unless there is a faster-moving body in the background. So basically the Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor works in detecting changes in infrared radiation (movement and temperature), and they work most suitable at right angle movements.

Immediately the Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor wakes up, the entire system the trail camera captures any and everything in its detection range, this is as a result of its fast trigger speed. Most users’ concerns are often about how fast a trail camera can capture moving objects, especially fast-moving objects.

Trigger speed is determined by how fast it takes for the Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor to detect and for the camera to take a picture or record a video, this time duration is solely dependent on the type of trail camera, the model, and date of production. The speed at which a trail camera can capture nocturnal animals at night ranges from a millisecond to a second and that is one of the most attractive things when purchasing a trail camera.

The trigger speed affects the whole point of the Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor working efficiently. Trail cameras trigger speed play the role of visual standby police to prying invaders at night capturing their movements or heat signature even before they become aware, and because of the color of most trail cameras, it blends in perfectly well at night.

Illumination

In the night or low light time, a normal digital camera would not be able to see anything in the dark but with a flashlight factory-installed on your trail camera, you are sure to get a bright glimpse even at dark times. An older trail camera would come with a regular flashlight (white light) that would go off immediately the Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor detects a change in the background temperature. Most times, the flash of white light by the trail camera would scare off whatever or whoever is meant to be captured more extensively.

As a result of this, over the years, there have been improvements in trail cameras, bringing secrecy and discreetness to its capturing and recording moments. Infra-red lights! This works as LED arrays giving off Infra-red at a wavelength of about 850 nm to 950 nm. The infra-red light doesn’t shine bright as the white flashlight would but it illuminates the picture or recording of the environment enough to get a detailed view of what was captured by the Passive Infra-red sensor. Animals or persons do not notice the capture as there is no flash of light whatsoever. The illumination of the picture all takes place inside of the trail camera making it of greater value at night than the white flash trail camera. However, there still lies a flaw to it.

There are two types of infra-red lights that can be used by a trail camera, a “low glow” infra-red and a “no glow” infrared light, because of the faint glow of red light on the body of a low glow infra-red trail camera, the red glow of light becomes visible to the human and animal eyes. This brought about the innovation of the no glow infrared lights on a trail camera, the red glow of light is not visible to the human eyes unless it is being stared directly at, this makes recording and photo capture at night more discreet and your trail camera to be less theft-prone.

Trail Cameras Picture/Video Quality At Night

The picture quality of the trail camera varies with the number of megapixels it has. A trail camera picture or video recording quality at night would look more like a black and white than the normal colored picture in daylight, this is because of the infra-red light that is being put to use. The white flash used at night would give you a more colorful picture quality but it is sure to scare off what you want to photograph or video. When the Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensor detects motion and a temperature change and wakes the system up for a fast trigger speed shot, the picture is quickly illuminated by the infra-red rays before being saved. The different megapixels of trail cameras would definitely vary in picture size (the greater the megapixel, the higher the picture or video size).

After every picture captured or video recorded of an object, there is always a time-lapse for its recovery time and that is just as important as its trigger speed especially when trying to capture fast-moving animals or persons at night. This timeframe is mainly for saving previously take shots and reset of the camera in preparing for other shots. This however varies between trail cameras because of dissimilar models and types.

Night captures or recordings by the trail camera are done more effectively when the recovering time of the trail camera is fast. You wouldn’t want a slow recovery time should a herd of animals or random passer-by get into the range of your camera and it fails to capture the actual movement you want it to because of slow recovery time. The best position for your trail cameras especially at night time would be at high altitude to get a wider view of the surrounding environment. This is because the Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensors would have less obstruction in its range of use.

Power Supply

Night Vision Camera: Yes, via night flash and infra-red light

Audio Recording: Yes

Power Supply: Solar, 8x AA battery

This smart device from Spypoint makes a name for itself as it is a self-sufficient device, able to charge up when low with its solar panel. The Spypoint Solar Dark additionally, comes with a battery option. It is a great buy, although it might have a few hiccups in the product over time, aside from that it’s worth the buy.

Check out this product on Amazon

What We Recommended

How do trail cameras work at night?

An in-depth look at the PIR Sensor

Illumination

Trail Cameras Picture/Video Quality At Night

Power Supply

Best Night Vision Trial Cameras

Bushnell Core DS No Glow

Bushnell Trophy Camera Low Glow

Bushnell Trophy Camera Essential E3

Stealth Cam DS4K

Spypoint Solar Dark

Recent Posts