Bushnell 8MP Trophy Cam Standard Edition

Three months ago we purchased the Bushnell 8MP Trophy Cam Standard Edition.  We thought it would be good to be able to “watch” the entrance to our land as we are not there every day. It is not a security camera, but it would document someone coming or going if we experienced any issues. We also thought it would be nice to see if it really was deer that was eating our apple trees we planted. But also, well I just really had been wanting one for a while now.

We decided on the Bushnell brand because our oldest got one for Christmas a couple of years ago and really liked his. I looked around at the various wildlife cameras online and the price was comparable to other brands. So, I purchased a newer model of the version he had from amazon. I won’t bother to list out all of the specs here. You can check out all of the specific details on amazon.

When it arrived, we played with it and tested it out at the house in the back yard for about a week with the chickens and the dog. It really is extremely easy to setup and use. It has multiple options to modify the picture size, video length, picture and video interval, motion sensitivity, etc. Once we were satisfied we knew how to use it and that it worked properly, we set it up at out at the land.

This camera takes black and white photos/videos at night and color photos/videos during the day. In the menu you have to choose if you want to shoot video or photos.  We have played with both. The motion sensor works really well. We found that on windy days, we had tons of pictures because the camera had been placed low enough to capture the motion of the tall grass blowing back and forth. Be sure to be cognizant of your placement so you do not have hundreds of empty photos where the grass or limbs are moving.

Here are few examples of the photos that it has captured. We have very few during the day. Apparently, all the action is at night time.

Night Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam

Night Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam Night Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam

Night Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam

Day Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam

Night Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam

Day Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam

Night Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam Night Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam Nighttime Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam

Night Photo from Bushnell 8 MP Trophy Cam

Video can be set in a few different lengths and intervals. Ours is set to record video for 10 seconds. The video also includes sound, but in most of our videos the only sound is the rustling of grass and trees.

We have been very pleased with the camera and have numerous pictures and videos of deer around our apple trees. If you are in the market for a wilderness camera this one will not disappoint. Bushnell also has a few other models with less mega pixels if you are wanting to not spend as much.

Along with the camera we also purchased:

Photo Credit – Amazon
Photo Credit – Amazon
Photo Credit – Amazon
Photo Credit – Amazon
Since we were using the camera on our land where we are not there every day, we thought it best to go ahead and invest in the security box and locking cable to secure it to trees. These things are extremely durable and it would take a lot of effort to steal them camera when secured with them. The camera does come with an adjustable nylon strap to secure to trees. If you are not concerned about theft then this should suffice.
We went ahead and bought 2 memory cards so that it would just be quick and easy to switch out the card when we were there and we could easily take the card home and review the photos and videos at our leisure. This of course is just an option for convenience and would not be required.
Lastly, we invested in the ultimate lithium energizer AA batteries. These are a bit expensive, but they have a 15 year shelf life and as far as I know are the longest lasting batteries when used. The camera requires 8 AA batteries. From my research with the ultimate lithium energizer batteries we may go a year without replacing them. Of course we have not had ours a year yet. However, in 3 months they are still going strong. I dare say most other batteries would have already been exhausted. To us it was worth the extra to pay, but that is also optional.