The largest advantage is that the camera can be removed and used for every day use when it’s not in the field. The other advantage is that with this Sony camera the memory sticks can be found at a very fair price on eBay. As far as security no camera or tree stand or anything is totally secure but with a home brews most are made to make a thief work very hard if he wants to steal your property. The final thing is flash range and mega pix the cheap cameras you see at the local mart store the picture quality is not that good and have a flash range of 15 feet while a Sony home brew is at least double that. Trigger speed with most home brews is around 2.5 to 3 seconds depending on battery charge. While at Gander Mountain this evening I saw a cuddy back 2mp for $299.99 and an extra memory card foe the unit was over $35.