RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

I'm using ordinary Energizer alkaline.

I just got my 256 MB CF card. I installed it and battery showed up as empty. I cycled power and it shows full battey power. A glitch. I've noticed that sometimes on powering up the device it behaves strangely, but it's always fixed by cycling power switch and all is well.

I'll let this run a few days and see how many more I can get from this one setup of batteries.

Perhaps the discrepency between those getting lots of pics and those getting "just" 100 on a set of batteries is the ratio of night to day pics. 75-80% of mine are daylight so far, so maybe the flash really drains the batteries. The guy posting all the pics appears to be all at night, so I wouldn't be surprised if I only got 100 nighttime pics. Also, temps here have been in the 70s-90s (F), so maybe temp is also a factor.

Also, being an electrical engineer, I don't see how the camera would know the difference between a 12V solar panel and a 12V external battery. An electron is an electron and it doesn't tell anybody where it came from. I've also toyed around with the idea of just ganging up 2 fat 6V batteries, or one 12V lead acid battery to the solar panel jack and it should run for months. Obviously you'll need rechargable AA for inside the unit. And you'll need to weatherproof the external battery pack. Probably by the time you do all that it may cost as much as the solar panel.

Overall, still very pleased with my $240 purchase.

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

I've just ordered this Leaf River Digital Trail Camera w/View Screen.....

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

I got a cuddeback digital, 250 plus pictures over 18 days of monitoring and the 4 D cell batteries still say 75% charged. I like it.

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

taylor814, thats what I`m saying, I dont understand why we cant hook a 12v batt to the
solar panel input. 12v is 12v! I think I`m gonna try it, that sucker would last a very
long time.
I had a different digital cam hooked to a 12v batt and it was in the woods almost all
winter and didnt even drain the batt at all.

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

Agreed, and how will anybody but you know that you hooked it up to a battery rather than solar panel, I don't see how that could affect the warranty unless you told them.

One cautionary note. 6 AA cells is 9V, 6 of the rechargable cells are only 7.2V. A 12V solar panel will quickly drop to around 9V while charging a 7.2V battery pack, since it's limited to around 500 mA of drive. However, a 12V external battery would not drop because it can drive several amps, possibly quickly draining the external battery. I doubt this will cause a problem, but it could. I don't know what kind of internal voltage regulation exists inside the camera, but it was designed for solar, so it would not have any special circuitry to conserve power from an external battery.

Who wants to be the guinny pig?

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

Taylor814 - how do you plan on downloading your pics? You might want to consider a second CF card. That way you can go out to the camera, swap the cards, and take the "full" card back home to check out the pics on your PC.

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

I have several ways. I have two 256 MB CF cards for my digital camera (Canon) so I can just swap them out in the field. I also have a laptop so I can download on the spot to my laptop and erase the card and put it back in.

I'm heading out tomorrow to set up the camera (first time in the field). 2 hours driving each way :(. Biggest issue is battery life, I only get about 6 days and 130 pics out of a set of regular alkalines at home (30% w/flash). I'll be using Duracell Ultra M3 batteries in the field so we'll see how much longer they last. I can't get back to the field for probably 10 days at best, maybe 17, so we'll see how long they last. I'm sure I'll end up with a solar panel or external battery eventually.

Here's a few urban deer from my back yard (I'm just playing with the camera to see how it works). This is 26 kb, the original is 380 kb. There are 3 deer in the pic, the two that are obvious, and the white spec in the background is the eye of another. They don't seem to notice the camera, the 2nd and 3rd shots seem to catch them just standing around, they're never looking at the camera.

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

So here's what I'm getting from batteries (DIGRC-X).

energizer regular alkaline
135 pictures (+3 avis), 25% using flash, internal memory, 6 days

duracell regular alkaline
160 pictures, 27% using flash, external 256 MB CF memory, 6 days

duracell alkaline ultra m3 ($$$)
188 pictures, 46% using flash, external 256 MB CF card, 7.5 days

I just installed solar panel, I can't keep going out there every week to replace the batteries and reset the clock. We'll see how well the solar panel works.

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

I just installed my solar panel last Tuesday (28)on my 1.3 stealth i will see how long the batteries will last.

But just the fact to use ni-mh it will help.

RE: 1.3 stealth cam digital pics
 

Does the solar panel have to be in direst sun or is day light enough to charge the batteries?