There are four flash key types of wildlife cameras, your choice of which depends on what you plan to use them for. The flash types relate to the wavelength of light (white, red, non-visible wave length) that the wildlife camera uses to illuminate your intended target, particularly at night, and in dim lighting. Detection smarts and camera case design are also important aspects of a camera purchase decision.

Flash type

The four categories are white flash, red flash, low glow (dim red flash), and no glow. A no glow camera emits light at a wavelength that is not visible for humans and most target animals, for image recording illumination – particularly at night.

Low glow flash type cameras

If you are seeking to detect the presence/absence, or monitor the behaviours of nocturnal animals, other than shy feral predators (cats & foxes), I have found the no glow, or (very) low glow cameras to be the best. Native mammals such as Brushtail Possums, Sugar Gliders and wallabies don’t seem to be disturbed by a dim red flash (low glow), however they will avoid or be startled by a white flash, or a bright red flash camera. There is a very limited range of true no glow cameras on the market, and there are numerous models of many brands that are advertised as no glow, but are in reality low glow cameras. So buyer beware! TrailCamPro gives true ratings of a camera’s flash type, there is more about this below.

An older Reconyx that only takes still images. It is low glow, and suitable for nest boxes and arborial mammals, but foxes will avoid it.

No glow flash type cameras

If you are seeking to photograph foxes and feral cats that tend to be very camera shy, I have found that only true no glow (emit absolutely no visible red light) cameras are effective. For even dim red flash cameras, foxes will clearly be surprised by the camera in images for the first couple of nights, and then apparently there will be no foxes in that location from that time onwards. Actually, they will be avoiding the camera, by taking a slightly different route. Hardly effective for monitoring a feral predator population, or for detecting presence or absence!

I have no experience with recording nocturnal wildlife other than Sugar Gliders, Ringtail Possums, Brushtail Possums, kangaroos, wallabies, feral & pet cats, and foxes. You may find that other native animals away from human activities are similarly very shy, and a true no glow camera may be your best option for repeat detection and monitoring of activities.

This fox is very much disturbed by the falsely advertised ‘no glow’ bright red flash of this wildlife camera. No more foxes were detected after this night. The SpyPoint Force-11D advertised as a no glow camera, which this is clearly not! I wouldn’t even rate it as a low glow, rather a bright red glow camera.
This fox that has not even noticed the wildlife camera, because of the (true) no glow flash. I think this is from an 2-3 year old Browning Dark Ops HD Pro camera, the current and last year similar models are low glow, not no glow as advertised. The image is blurry because LoxyFox is moving very quickly.

White flash or red flash type cameras

For monitoring daytime animals only, a white flash or a red flash camera will be perfect. These types of cameras are usually a little cheaper than the equivalent no glow and low glow models, and their picture & video quality is usually a little better. However if you might want to use your cameras for a range of tasks (as I do), then selecting very low glow, and no glow models will ensure that they will be suitable for most tasks.

Screen shot of video of Wood Duck ducklings as they jumped from their nest box above, from one of my Browning Dark Ops HD Pro cameras.

Best flash type for nest box monitoring

I would recommend using only very low glow and no glow cameras for monitoring nest boxes. On windy nights, the camera will likely be taking some pictures or video recordings, and so will be emitting red or white light from the camera. This may disturb nesting birds (strobe lights outside their nest at night!?!), causing them to abandon their clutch of eggs or hatched chicks. The flash of wildlife cameras isn’t very bright compared to a normal camera flash, but clearly animals are disturbed by it, so the risk is not worth it in my view. Nocturnal animals will also be disturbed by a brightly flashing red or white glow wildlife camera, and may choose not to use a nest box because they dislike the flash of a nearby wildlife camera.

Screen shot of a video from my Browning Spec Ops Advantage camera.

I have disturbed ducks trying to sleep on our dam duck islands, such that they abandoned their safe haven late one windy night, because I had mounted a red glow camera on a tree nearby to monitor the use of the duck islands. The glowing red camera on the dam bank clearly unsettled them. That family chose never to sleep on our duck islands again for the season. I have absolutely learnt my lesson and will never do that again!

I have found that many brands of cameras falsely advertise cameras as ‘no glow’, when in reality they are emit a dim red flash at night. Similarly I have found that cameras advertised as ‘low glow’ can actually be quite bright for subjects that are at a little distance, and very much do frighten off shy nocturnal animals.

If you see the white dots in the centre of this image, those are the eyes of a family of ducks with teenage ducklings attempting to sleep on our dam duck islands, to keep the safe from foxes. Unfortunately I had installed a brighter red glow camera, and on this windy night the waving branches nearby kept triggering it. The ducks really didn’t like the flashing light, so left the safety of the islands and never returned. Complete fail on my behalf.

My go-to source for less biased write ups of wildlife cameras and of their actual flash type, is TrailCamPro (www.trailcampro.com). You can find reviews of current models, and also search in the archives for past model reviews if you are seeking information on an on-sale last year model. Their overall ratings for each individual camera are overly optimistic for the lower-performing cameras (trigger happy – poor detection algorythms, poor daytime or nighttime video, terrible casing design etc), however the within-group ranking of individual camera reviews for the season (a mark out of 100) provides a good indication of which models are better than others.

I am not such a fan of using TrailCamPro’s detection shootout results as a resource for camera selection, because this only ranks the cameras according to one aspect of a camera’s functionality (detection and image recording speed, and recovery time), and only for human-sized animals – which small to medium sized Australian native animals are not. However the individual camera reviews and ratings out of 100 (85, 91 etc), plus the commentary about quality of day & night video, and realistic classification of the flash type (true no glow, low glow etc) I find, is very useful for assessing which of the available models best suit my needs.

A video of a free ranging cat taking a chick from a Scrubwren nest hidden in my poultry parasite control chemicals, at our back door. I was devastated. This camera is a Browning Dark Ops HD Pro model.

Detection smarts

A second very important aspect of wildlife cameras, are the detection smarts. I have two cameras by a relatively new entrant brand SpyPoint, which trigger at every slightly twitching short blade of grass. This means that I get a full SD card and flattened batteries even after a couple of relatively calm days, which is really not great. My mid-level favourite brand cameras don’t have this issue, they will only be trigger happy on crazy windy days when mounted high in a tree watching a nest box with leafy branches flapping around.

I have another different brand camera that only triggers for larger animals, and only when they are near the centre of the frame. This camera misses recording faster moving larger animals completely (except for the tip of a tail at the frame edge), doesn’t record the full path of slower moving larger animals, and doesn’t trigger at all, or triggers unreliably for animals smaller than a fox. This also is a fail for my purposes, of monitoring bird activity around nest boxes for a good half of the year.

I find that the established, popular brands have great detection smarts, a combination of good algorithms and hardware. A camera that I can install at a location, and have confidence that if it doesn’t record images of foxes, or of nest box activity, then there was none occurring. This is what I am seeking in a wildlife camera.

Screen shot of Crimson Rosellas checking out the nest box options, a Bushnell Aggressor no glow (very low glow) camera. Decent detection smarts are needed to trigger for these smaller animals, at this distance.

Camera case design

Camera case design is a third important consideration when selecting which camera to purchase. The established, popular brands have this in hand, however some of the less popular brands and also newer entrants have some really dumb design features. Such as installing the viewing screen on the inside of the door that swings open, so you can’t use it to install the camera, without recording images when closed, and viewing them to assess the installation angle, then repeating this process many times, making camera installation more time consuming than necessary. The good brands have the viewing screen for easy installation on the mounted side of the camera, so you see during installation exactly what the camera will see once the camera is all closed up.

This is a selection of my Bushnell and Browning cameras that have viewing screens, that is the screen shows you what the camera sees in colour. The camera and viewing screen are part of the main camera body that gets mounted, and you can easily use this to quickly set up the camera at the optimum angle.
Viewing screen fail. When the door opens, so does the camera. So you cannot use the viewing screen (you see what the camera sees in colour) to install the camera looking at the location you want it to record, without recording an image with the door closed and viewing the recorded image, and repeating this multiple times to get it right.

Another dumb camera design of a newer brand that I purchased, is one that requires the entire camera to be demounted to access and replace the batteries, with an entirely removable battery door. This means that I need sufficient hands to hold the camera, the removable battery door, and the batteries being removed or replaced, while high up a ladder or dangling from rope for my nest box monitoring cameras. Like you have three hands in such situations! And then you will need to re-adjust the camera when installing it back on the tree. The better designed cameras stay mounted when replacing batteries, such that you replace the batteries in the open camera (one-two hands required), or just need to hold the removable battery drawer and add the batteries (two hands required). Mounting a camera takes a bit of effort, once mine are set up, I really don’t want to be having to re-mount them every time the batteries are changed.

Some examples of camera designs relating to battery changing. From the left, this is a common Browning and (new models) Bushnell design for battery installation. The camera stays mounted, and you just need to replace the batteries in the removable drawer – two hands needed. The middle design is of an older model Browning, Reconyx also use a similar design – the camera does not come apart for battery removal so there is nothing to drop when high up a tree (other than batteries). These cams have no viewing screen (BW text only) for easy set up, so it matters not which door the screen is on. For the right side design example, one must remove the entire camera from it’s mount, and then unscrew the door at the back to replace the batteries. Three hands, big pockets, or teeth are needed when replacing batteries in this SpyPoint design up a tree, and you need to re-set up the camera in the right position again as the back mount invarably shifts during this process. Like, what where they thinking!?! I really don’t like this design.

My regularly used kit of wildlife cameras contains mostly Browning and Bushnell cameras of a few different models and vintages. I am not sufficiently wealthy to afford a set of (top of the line) Reconyx brand cameras, which are the NRM industry choice – reliability, battery life, image quality. I find that the Browning and Bushnell cameras record reliably good quality imagery (stills and video) for the price range, are robust, well designed cases, and have dependably good detection smarts for my uses. I haven’t purchased a Bushnell or Browning lemon, but have of a few other brands, that now gather dust in my otherwise empty wildlife camera cupboard. Given my bad experiences of venturing beyond Browning and Bushnell brand cameras, I tend to stick with these two now. It is an expensive experiment otherwise.

I mostly use my wildlife cameras to record video, and use them for both daytime and night time animal monitoring. This means that I care about the video quality of both daytime and night time recordings, and prefer no glow, or very low glow flash to bright red or white flash. My few red flash, and white flash cameras rarely get used.

Price and quality

Cheap most certainly is nasty in terms of camera quality, imagery and capabilities. My favourite cameras of my collection are in the USD $120-250 range, the lower end is because I’ve purchased previous year models at discounted prices. I have no need for fancy features such as wifi or mobile network access. These also add substantially to the price of a camera with no additional image quality or detection smarts benefits. I have one high-tech camera (wireless & mobile network capable), and in hindsight would rather have purchased 3 x non-wireless (image stored on SD card only) cameras for the same amount of money. I’ve not used the wifi & mobile network functions really given the volume of images captured, but it sounded great at the time.

Trialling some strategies to prevent Sugar Gliders from accessing nest boxes. They are extremely agile! This is a screen shot from my Bushnell Core DS No Glow (actually low glow) camera.
Three cameras side by side: rowning Spec Ops Advantage 2019 model (true no glow camera). The image has great colour and clarity. Screen grab of a video.
Three cameras side by side: Browning Dark Ops HD Pro X 2019 model (low glow camera). Note how dull the colours are compared to the above Browning Spec Ops Advantage image. Screen grab of a video.

What do I use?

My current model favourites are the Browning Spec Ops no-glow series, that are Advantage (2019), Edge (2020) and Elite (2021). For excellent quality video, detection smarts, great night time footage, and all-round dependable little mid-priced cameras.

I have a couple of drawers of older model cameras, that just are no-where near as good as the models purchased in the past three years. The technology and specs have improved so much in this time!

I also have quite a number of dust-gatherer makes + models, that had some of the above described flaws that I’ll only use if completely desperate / never. Very expensive paper weights this are!

Three cameras side by side: Bushnell Core DS No Glow 2019 model (low glow camera). It’s a bit close for this camera’s optimum focusing distance, but the colours are vibrant, and has great clarity. Screen grab of a video. See the glider image above for an example of the quality of video at night.

How to set up your camera

The basics are, first set the date and time. Secondly, choose if you want still images (photo, trail, camera), or record video (video). Thirdly, set the image size, or the video quality. For still images, set the capture number – the number of photos to take in rapid succession to record the movement/path/behaviour of an animal. I would suggest 3-10. For video, set the video length – however for many cameras there is a limit of 15-20 seconds for night time video regardless of if you set the video length to 30 or 60 seconds. Fourthly, set the interval (amount of delay between each video recording, or each series of still images taken). I always set this to the absolute minimum (1 seconds, 0.6 seconds, 5 seconds for my oldest camera), but it depends on what you are seeking to record. Finally, I set the sensor level (if this option exists), to “auto” for bigger targets like foxes and cats, or to “high” for Sugar Glider and Rosella sized targets and smaller. The rest I leave as default. You can also add a camera name, that will appear on the bottom of each image to know which camera it came from.

Make sure you check your settings after you have set them.

If they didn’t stay set, you may not have pressed “E” = enter, when changing each setting from default, which is camera speak for “save”. You will forget to do this from time to time, I still do. Some cameras will lose all settings and reset to defaults when the batteries are removed, or if they have had no batteries for a few days. So just check your settings (especially date and time) everytime you set up the camera in a new spot, or after flat batteries have been swapped out.

How many wildlife cameras to purchase?

If you are a complete newbie, I would recommend just purchasing one, or two completely different brand/models, and learn to use them first. Rather than thinking that you need five, and purchasing five of the same model all at once. You may find that the features you thought you needed, differ to reality, or that your wildlife camera needs quickly evolve once you realise how cool they are, or that there are better models out there for the project at hand once you’ve had a chance to play with a camera. I started with two cameras of different models, then added more, two or so at a time.

There are so many brands and models out there, it is extremely confusing and difficult to pick the one that will best suit all of your needs. It has been a big learning process for me, of the functions and limitations of the various models available, of which are the best brands for my price range, of wildlife behaviour – such as even very dim flash aversion by our (previously) visiting foxes, and who would have known that I’d be wanting to video little Wood Duck ducklings leaping from their nest boxs, several times each year?! Or that I’d be wanting to closely monitor all Wood Duck and Rosella nest boxes to identify nesting bird killlers, and egg raiders? You can always add to your collection, and the mid-priced models are getting better every year.

Where to purchase?

I purchased most of my cameras from B&H Photo Video, and TrailCamPro in the USA. There are also a growing number of local (Australian) spots to purchase cameras. Pro’s Choice, Traps.com.au for example. There is limited choice of makes and models available in Australia, I do my research using overseas links for availability and pricing, and then see if local shops stock what I’m after. And the new models don’t tend to land here for 6-12 months after released in the USA or UK. A reason for purchasing overseas – unless the local shops lift their game in this regard.

I don’t purchase technology from Ebay or Amazon, but prefer established reputable subject matter expert businesses. They provide great tech support if needed, and will happily refund or replace faulty items.

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