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Red VS black IR

Fishbonker

Fishbonker

Life Member
What is the difference? There is a post in the sticky trail cam poll that one company has a model with red IR and one with black IR. Does one IR color take better pics than the other? Perhaps black making more contrast? Or is it a marketing ploy?

I think my Bushnell has a red IR because I can see it glowing red when it takes a picture. I have wondered for quite some time why critters look at the camera and I think it is the red glow. I have it set on 3 shot bursts and the IR flash stays on the whole time so I see it.

Red vs Black; real or marketing?

Thanks.
 
Fishbonker said:
What is the difference? There is a post in the sticky trail cam poll that one company has a model with red IR and one with black IR. Does one IR color take better pics than the other? Perhaps black making more contrast? Or is it a marketing ploy?

I think my Bushnell has a red IR because I can see it glowing red when it takes a picture. I have wondered for quite some time why critters look at the camera and I think it is the red glow. I have it set on 3 shot bursts and the IR flash stays on the whole time so I see it.

Red vs Black; real or marketing?

Thanks.
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I am curious too. Mine are red and I know I can see them and from the pics we get, so can the game. I would like to get a cam where the animal has nothing to alert too.
 
We have scoutguards with the red IR flash and I would suspect that the deer look at the camera 60-70% of the time. Although, there is a filter that flips back and forth within the camera, over the lens and I'm fairly certain that the deer are hearing the little filter moving and clicking which is why they are looking at the camera so much. It would be interesting to see if the black IR flash makes a difference.
 
shadowpeople said:
We have scoutguards with the red IR flash and I would suspect that the deer look at the camera 60-70% of the time. Although, there is a filter that flips back and forth within the camera, over the lens and I'm fairly certain that the deer are hearing the little filter moving and clicking which is why they are looking at the camera so much. It would be interesting to see if the black IR flash makes a difference.
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I would also agree that the majority of the time and with the majority of the cameras that the deer are hearing something instead of seeing something. I know on most of my cameras I can hear it when it takes a picture and if I can hear it I know the deer can as well.
 
bigbuckhunter88 said:
I would also agree that the majority of the time and with the majority of the cameras that the deer are hearing something instead of seeing something. I know on most of my cameras I can hear it when it takes a picture and if I can hear it I know the deer can as well.
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I can't hear anything from the Bushnell, but I can't hear anyway. Just ask my wife. As you know, I'm pretty close to the cam when it takes pics.

The red glow is quite noticable tough.
 
Fishbonker said:
I can't hear anything from the Bushnell, but I can't hear anyway. Just ask my wife. As you know, I'm pretty close to the cam when it takes pics.

The red glow is quite noticable tough.
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The bushnell is the only exception I have been around in this case. My brother has one and like you said I can't hear it either. I hope jjohnson chimes in on this because I remember him showing some pictures of his bushnells where one camera was set up and you could see the flash of another camera across a hayfield and the IR flash seemed like it lit up the entire field in the pic, but yet the deer didn't seem to mind at all.

Bonk, do you get alot of pics of the coons and other animals paying alot of attention to the cam? All the coons, possums, and badgers that we have got don't seem to notice at all.
 
letemgrow said:
Black IR is invisible, you cannot see anything unlike the red IR glow.
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Not necessarly you can still see it. It is just not as bright but to go with that the pix are not as bright either. Is what I have been reading.

Mobile Cooter using IW
 
The red glow leds are 850nm in wavelength. A human can see them and so can a deer. The blackflash is a led in the 940nm wavelength. I use both in my custom video builds. The 940's can be seen as a faint purple glow from 4 feet and closer. Out past 4 feet they are black. TOTALLY!!! I use the same leds that Reconyx uses. What they do is they take a peice of tinted material and put over the 940's and that makes it where they are not seen at all. My blackflash video units are as bright if not brighter than any of the commercial red glow stuff.
 
bigbuckhunter88 said:
Bonk, do you get alot of pics of the coons and other animals paying alot of attention to the cam? All the coons, possums, and badgers that we have got don't seem to notice at all.
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Seems like deer pay more attention to the cam than other critters. That could be because they are closer to eye level than the ground crawlers. Of all the critters I have on cam this fall prolly 90% never look at the camera. The only critters that look at the camera are lingering in the immediate are not just cruisin through.
 
Wow, blackflash must not have really been discussed over here before huh? Lots of talk about them over on the QDM forum, at least the past couple years or more. Deer obviously react to the red blob IR flash and deer will start avoiding them, at least somewhat, and especially mature bucks. The guys who have lots of experience with them say there's a huge difference between the black and red IR and often they get one pic of a buck with the red flash, and never again, yet with the black flash they get multiple returns. Using bait or salt licks if it's legal will make the flash less of a problem, as they will often put up with the flash at a baited site, while at a trail, scrape, etc, they often will start to avoid the red flash, at least most older bucks will. BSK and yoder over on the QDM forum, as well as FIREMANJIM (who just joined us here recently) really know their stuff, they have tons of experience with trail cams. Just do a search for "black flash" or "black IR" and I'm sure you'll come up with lots to read on them if you want to know more:

Here's a link to the trail camera forum on QDM if you are interested
http://www.qdma.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=30
 
So why do they cost so much more? Do the 950 LEDs cost more? Does it take a special camera or fillter? Or is it that they are new?

Can any Ir camera be converted to black flash?

Mobile Cooter using IW
 
The price of the leds is the same from my supplier. But not all cameras see IR light the same. Some do better than others.
 
So LEDS cost the same. They are already using cameras that are for ir.

The way I see it is that they have the price on black flash ir cams jacked up because it is something new not because they cost more to make.

Am I off base here?

So could a guy get some 950nm LEDs take the 850nm out of his existing camera and replace them with the 950s?

What are you using to tent them?

Sent from Cooter's iPad using IW
 
Cooter thats what I was getting from what Fire man jim said. I dont seem to have many problems with red ir so I would rather buy 2 red ir cams than 1 black ir cam
 
I run my cams on video and see how most deer react. Most stare right at the camera and get nervous. Most mature bucks don't make too many appearances. I tend to move my cameras around so they don't get patterned. Still think that placing the cameras high out of the line of sight would solve this.

I can't believe that it as easy as changing the LED bank other wise you would think guys would able to make kits and sell them to convert ir cameras.
I think black flash is nice but not worth the markup for it. So unless I can cheaply convert the cheaper cams or the price of them comes down I'm not buying.

I'm sure it will have to wait till the next new thing comes out before the price of them drop. ;)

Sent from Cooter's iPad using IW
 
FIREMANJIM said:
My blackflash video units are as bright if not brighter than any of the commercial red glow stuff.
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Could post some examples? I went to your web sight and looked at your gallery. All the Ir pics seemed to be at dawn or dusk. Or are they that bright?

I've been looking and I can't find any as bright as normal Ir.

Mobile Cooter using IW
 
Cooter said:
I run my cams on video and see how most deer react. Most stare right at the camera and get nervous. Most mature bucks don't make too many appearances.
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This is our experience as well and I really don't want to run off any bucks so I am intrigued by the black flash as well.
 
It would be very hard to replace the existing leds with the 940nm leds guys. You would have to desolder and remove the existing led then replace and resolder the new one. Very difficult to keep polarity correct and finding the leds to match the commercial ones required voltage and current is a shot in the dark at best guys. Here are a few videos with my blackflash IR video units. The first one has some dew on the lens but you can see the difference. Thanks...
http://youtu.be/50jI3WIMMF0
http://youtu.be/50jI3WIMMF0
 
Couldn't you just start with a new board instead of removing the 850s?

I didn't realize there was that much difference in voltage and amps in those LEDs. Could you check to see V and A in camera when they are on then match that on the new board?

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