Tell me about your wildlife camera

[parietal]

I'm looking for recommendations, so if you have a garden wildlife camera, what kind and is it any good?

How do you get the picture off it? Wifi or an SD card or something else?

How long do the batteries last?

Do you manage to capture interesting wildlife or just branches moving in the wind and pigeons?

Is the user interface easy? This would be for my parents who are NOT good with tech, so it needs to be simple.

What else do I need to know before buying one of these?

Hi op I do have a couple but can't remember the brand off the top of my head unfortunately. I can answer some of your other questions though.

We bought it off Amazon for round fifty pounds. It is a black and white version and it takes a photo just as he sensor is triggered and then it videos for ten seconds. You can adjust the length of time it records for but we chose this for better battery life and storage

Ours captures to an SD card which we then play on the computer. My parents have one and they bought an adapter for their iPad as they don't have a computer. This was v simple to use for them.

The sensitivity can be adjusted. If we move it we try to work out which branches will cause a problem. I have a blackbird that sets the camera off several times a day though!

Our battery life is good - this can be dependent on setting of how much video you record and the sensitivity. Of its being set off all the time it'll oviously drain battery more quickly.

We have seen foxes,badgers, a hedgehog (and that flipping blackbird). Also our cat on patrol! We live rurally.

The good thing about ours is once it is set up you just need to go and remove the card and not worry about buttons and things - just switch it off before you remove it and remember to switch it on once the new card is in (we have forgotten this a few times!) We bought two so we could just swap them over.

The main thing is it may take a bit of moving around to find the best place to capture wildlife. We had spotted tracks and this piqued our curiosity. We have moved it sometimes and seen nothing of interest. It is lovely to see that certain animals visit at particular times and have their own habits!

Sorry I can't remember the brand, we bought it from Amazon bu it's not showing on my account, must have been my husband. I'll see I I can find out for you though.

Ours mostly picks up our cat, the odd bird, but we have also seen a hedgehog a few times.
It was off Amazon, and a few years ago.
I expect they have improved a bit.

Thank you @Sunnysidegold that is very helpful

Boosting for any more suggestions especially what brand to get ...

I have had several different brands, all midrange in price (£50ish). My first and favouite was Apeman but it doesn't seem to be made anymore. Tougard is okay, can't remember the other. Mine only seem to last 2-3 years but they are on 24/7. Batteries last approx a week unless the pigeons set them off during the day. I use a laptop to view the images via a cable.

I have seen lots of hedgehogs, foxes (and their cubs!) squirrels, rare birds (for us) that I wouldn't have known visited. Also picked up on two cats behaviours that are very different to the other 8 who visit. Turned out one was abandoned (now with CP) the other is being watched carefully before posters etc being made.

All cameras (five so far) have come from amazon but I think the rspb website sells one but its a lot more expensive. Try also ark wildlife or other main websites that sells wildlife food.

If you want to waste hours looking at what happens in your garden at night..then I can highly recommend it!