MOULTRIE M-888, also known as trail cameras, have become a very important tool for hunters trying to keep track of what animals frequent their hunting grounds and to see where they tend to visit the most. Scouting and sitting in tree stands or blinds waiting to see if an animal happens to walk by is time consuming. Game cameras do all the work for you and the most you will have to do is view the images the camera collected and simply move the camera to another location if the current one didn’t yield you any results. There are various game cameras available, each one with features that may or may not be of importance to you. It’s important to know what features are worth a little more money and which ones you don’t need to pay extra for.
Flash
An easy starting point to start narrowing down MOULTRIE M-888 is to decide which type of flash you’ll need for the night images. The two main choices are infrared flash and incandescent flash, both of which have definite advantages and disadvantages. Infrared is the best option for those hunters who want to take images at night as discreetly as possible, without having to worry about spooking animals with a bright white flash or having a person potentially see the flash and steal your camera. When the infrared flash goes off, there is no visible flash that can be seen outside the very tiny red dot on the camera when the image is taken. The downside to infrared is the images are strictly in black and white and at times are grainy depending on the camera’s resolution and other specifications. Although black and white photos may not be as exciting to look at as a color photos, the images still clearly show the type and size of game it captured. If you prefer color images or need to know the true color of the animal’s coat, incandescent flash is a great option. Incandescent cameras will provide you with excellent color images taken at night. The flash on an incandescent camera will be much like the flash from a digital camera. Although this is what provides the crisp nighttime images, it could scare off the game and it also uses up more battery life. It also takes longer to recover (around a full second longer) for the next shot than infrared cameras do.
Detection Zone
The detection width and distance specification on a MOULTRIE M-888 will tell you how wide of an area left to right is covered, as well as how far out from the camera the animal can be and still trigger the camera. It would be a shame if a trophy buck was only 15 feet outside your camera’s detection zone so it never hurts to pay a little more for a better width and distance. Lower end cameras may only go out to around 50 feet while higher end cameras will reach 85 feet out or more, while also having a higher degree field of view.
Resolution
Resolution is the measurement of the amount of pixels an image will contain. Just like with any other camera, higher resolution is going to provide you with crisper, clearer images but you will be paying more for the camera most likely. Lower-end game cameras will have a resolution of around 3-4 megapixels (MP). Mid-range game cameras will have around 5-7MP. The higher-end game cameras will have 8-10MP. Although the lower-end game cameras may not provide the clearest of images, it will still allow you to see what animals the shots captured. It is, however, easy to fall in love with an 8-10MP camera once you’ve seen examples of the images it takes.
Trigger Speed and Recovery
Trigger speed, also known as trigger time, is the reaction time between when the camera picks up the heat and motion required to trigger a shot and when the actual image is captured. A faster reaction time may mean the difference between capturing the shot and just missing the animal. Having a quicker recovery time between shots is also important so you don’t miss any action, especially if there’s more than one animal crossing the path of your camera’s field of view. A one-second trigger speed and recovery time is fairly mid-range. The higher-end game cameras will have trigger speeds of a fraction of a second with a similarly speedy recovery time for the next shot.
Batteries
Game cameras run on batteries and most run on either AA, C, or D batteries although some run on 6-volt or 12-volt batteries. Although you’re likely to pay more for a game camera that has a long battery life, you must keep in mind that it’s also costly and time-consuming to have to continuously check and replace batteries on lower-end cameras with shorter battery lives. Lower-end cameras may cost less initially, but they could easily end up being more costly in the long run. Battery life varies depending on the model. Infrared flash cameras will use less battery life compared to incandescent flash cameras, for example. Temperature also affects the battery life so if you’re in a cold environment you might find that you have to replace your batteries more often. Some nicer game cameras feature a battery level indicator which is helpful when checking your camera. That allows you to estimate how long your batteries will last.
