discussion / Camera Traps  / 3 September 2019

African leopard research - best camera trap?

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to purchase new camera traps to undertake a leopard survey acorss private farmland in Namibia. I have not purchased cameras for a long time and there are a lot of new models out there. Due to concerns over theft I normally go for a black flash camera but I am now considering white flash to help with the photo quality and spot ID. I am familiar with the established brands but looking on Amazon there are a lot of brands I don't recognise but the price is very appealing as I'm looking to purchase a substanital amount. 

As such my questions are:

have people bought from non-establsihed brands?

How successful / reliable were the cameras?

How was the photo quality espcailly when looking to ID spot patterns?

From any brand for leopard research what camera would people recommend?

I really look forward to your feedback.

thanks

Louisa




Hi Louisa

I have exactly the same questions! 

Over the last few years there has been a proliferation of cheap camera traps flooding the market (Apeman, Distianert, Crenova...the list is long). I wouldn't normally recommend budget cameras like these (<$100) for research (quality control issues...), but keen to hear from others if they've worked OK for you. 

When I posted a similar question on Twitter, I had a few responses, which might be of interest (one vote for Apeman for arboreal trapping, various votes for Bushnell, which are a bit more expensive).

I think these are all infrared though, not white flash. 

If you do take the plunge on some of these cameras, we'd all be interested to hear how you get on!

Thanks

Ollie