Not to seem arguementative but the smell is the same 6feet in front of the camera as 6feet behind,I' m in central Maine and the deer I photo don' t seem alarmed by the flash and out of about 650 pics I have 5 deer being spooked by flash and none are big bucks.Have strings of up to 5 pics of bigger bucks taken as they stayed in front of cam for several minutes.I think they can see the PIR beam but thats just my opinion from camming for 7 years and seeing the bucks take evasive paths past the cams behind and not in front.Use carbon sheets in cams and they seal when closed,after a week I notice smell is not a big issue with coyotes,bears,deer,and other animals, sooner when it rains or snows.we will not know what a deer sees with there eyes and can only assume on UV and IF spectrums.I never thought about it much till I started seeing how a buck will walk right to where the beam is and without tripping the cam will back up and go right behind the cam often within several feet and continue down thru woods.I' m the only cammer in the area and don' t think its the flash as I get pics of the same bucks over and over from velvet thru the hunting season and they don' t seem alarmed by the flash that much,and I' m talking up to 150-160 class deer.I do however believe you will get much lower quality pics with the IR flash and it will be hard to distinguish antler quality if deer aren' t very close to your cam.I' ve heard much made about deer being scared by the flash and not getting bigger bucks on film and have not found that to be the case at all.We run 4 cameras each year for six months and get pics of the smallest to the largest bucks in the area as verified by spotlighting(legal here)and they don' t spook any more than moving to another trail 20-30yds away that you can move the cam to and get their pic again.If flashes spook them what does lightning do to them? On the other hand,the flash and lightning are momentary while the beam if visible to deer remains there the whole time they are walking up to it thru the woods and the entire time the cam is in the woods and functioning correctly.Something to think about when they seem to know the front of the cam fron the back.[
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