pigiron

Infrared flash that is......

I recently bought an infra-red camera(Primos silent image). It seems to be working just fine. I've had some good night shots of some small bucks and many does....but nothing worth posting yet. I've only been using it for a week now, so I hope to aquire some decent pics in the next few weeks.

I must say there is comfort level knowing that the infrared flash can't be detected by deer.............or can it???

I've read numerous times about infrared flash, and how it won't scare or spook the animals...but I'm not totally convinced yet. Alot of pictures were of the deer looking right at the infrared flash in the camera. One or two times would be normal, or just by chance...but it's more often than not.

Anyone know for shure about this?

I guess my real question is: Are deer blind to infrared light? (they don't seem to spook, but they appear to be aware of it.)

I'm sure this has been discussed many times on this forum, so I'm sorry for boring anyone...I don't frequent this forum that often.

.....Pigiron

pigiron

84 views.............thanks for the help folks.

Gabe

Set it up in your yard and walk past it at night if you can see it the deer can. My cam makes a red glow for a few seconds.
good luck, Gabe

farm hunter

I don't know -

Personally I think they do see it. I don't have an IR Camera so I cannot speak from experience.

Either way - I think its less "spooky" than a regular flash for sure. I get alot of Day Pictures of the deer looking right at the camera. I DO think that they are aware of the camera itself as much as anything - and "keep their eye on it" in general.

BuckRogers

I wouldnt say it would bother them as all the deer Ive taken pictures with a regular flash cam and they dont seem to care. Even the big bucks

pigiron

Thanks for the replies guys.

I've always heard, because deer only see black and white that infrared light is not visible to them....but who knows.

All that I know is every time that camera flashes red at night the deer are looking right at it.

The whole reason I switched to the latest and greatest was toavoid spooking a large buck with awhite flash. This was happening quite often last year. Bucks and does were running with their tails up in the pic as the flash was going off.(big woods Jersey deer )

So anyway, I guess I'll just wait and see.......Thanks again,...Pig

parker34

we have an IR cam also and we have a ton of pics with the deer looking at the camera multiple times in a given set of pics. Some of them even look like they are posing for a photo shoot.
It doesn't seem to spook them though.

patchholder

Same thing here with deer looking right at it and even there eyes are flashed you think they must see something for there eyes to be flashed!

Snoogsdad

I'm afraid I don't understand your reasoning for concluding that white flash spooks deer. Now I know deer are quick, but they surely aren't so quick that if they start to leave when the flash goes off then you will see them running away. They can't be that quick.

Try it yourself, we did. I had my son move his arm as fast as he could as soon as he saw the flash and the picture always caught him with his arm in the starting positon, and he even knew what was going on and was trying to beat the flash. It would be impossible for a deer to have moved much if any at all between the flash and the picture being taken.

I also e-mailed three major digital trail camera manufacturers last winter and asked them if they had done any studies or knew of any studies that showed that white flash spooked deer. Only one replied and they stated that they weren't talking about deer when they said that the flash spooked game and that their field people had reported that the white flash did not spook deer.

I've also talked to a wildlife biologist that knew of two studies where white flash cameras were used and it did not spook them. These studies were not about flash spook, but they used flash cameras to help gather data. They stated that the white flash would sometimes spook a deer but it would come back when there was no harm encountered.

I've noticed the same reaction sometimes while I was hunting near one of our cameras.

I also know that the noise some cameras make turning on and opening the shutter, if it has one, will get their attention. We get many pictures with deer looking right at the camera with this style of camera.

Sometimes I wonder more about the odor we leave and the disturbence we make when we set the cameras up. We already know that these two things affect deer movement and activity.

rk_az

I don't have an IR camera, but in my experience, the flash doesn't spook anything. Animals are used to flashes of light (from lightning) in their environment.