Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Cold Cam

trowser44

trowser44

New Member
I set my camera out about 2 weeks ago and went to check the card and the camera had shut off. when i turned it back on the batteries were still at 60%. some people have told me its just the camera gettin too cold? whats going on wiht it and if it is the cold is there anything i can do with the camera.
 
What type of cam was it? I have had issues with my old Moutrie D40 doing this but could never pin point what was wrong for sure.
 
Nothing you can do about it. My moultrie I40 does it once it gets much below -10 or 15F. I'm not sure if it's just the cam or the batteries. Batteries can freeze up and still have life in them, just thaw it out and put back out, no quick fix.

This is actually a crappy time of yr for running cams personally. I don't see many days from Jan. 1 until Feb 28 that are warmer than 0 F so keeping cams going is a lost cuase, one can hope for a couple days of pics and that's about it. It's -17F right now, I'm sure my cams are toast, better grab one on the way home and take it home to thaw.
 
Last edited:
Here is some info a friend of mine got from the guys at trailcampro.com about cameras in winter. He was having problems with his cameras not working all the time. These were with the Scout Guard cameras, but I'm sure it follows with most cameras. Hope this helps a little.

As I had suspected, it was the cold. He (trailcampro) said that Alkaline batteries no longer function on days where the high/low goes below 30°F/20°F. He has had tests in the past where they leave a camera out all year, and in the spring you could plot the photos taken again temperatures and see that this rule holds true. Said that as the camera warms back up on warmer days, the batteries have enough juice to set things back in motion. So you could go months without photos in cold temps, and then start getting pictures showing up again.

One camera had brand new Energizer batteries, the other had a mix of Rayovac batteries (all good charge, but different shelf life dates). He said that given a different charge level between the cameras, he could see getting one camera warming up one day and taking a photo, and the other camera warming up enough on the next day to take a photo.

The blurry video on the big buck (which was never questioned really) is attributed to frost and/or condensation.

Solution – Lithium batteries. They are rated to -40°F and will never fail the camera – which is rated to -5°F (the weak link is the IR Lens Pivot). His second choice would be rechargeable nickel-methyl-hydride(SP???) batteries, which are good. Lithium is by far the optimal choice, though an expensive one at that.
 
My Moultrie D40 would turn off when the batteries got low. So as has been mentioned, if the batteries get cold, the camera sees a lower power output from them, thinks they are dead, then shuts down. You come to check the cam on a warmer day, the cam is off, you look at what the batteries are reading and it says a certain % and you think WTH? I happened to me a couple of times.

Now with some of the other models, I think they just miss photos when the batteries are low/cold, then when they warm back up, they start taking pics again.

I loaded the cams up on Lithiums last weekend so I hope they are chugging away.
 
No problem running homebrews in this cold. I have four out right now. Just changed out cards, and batteries last night. I check them once a week, and only one of them has had dead batteries in the last month. The batteries are rechargeable 2600 Duracells, but they are over a year old.
 
The cams in the homebrew seem to hold up in almost whatever mother nature chucks at them..............almost.

I run lithiums this time of yr and the -40 is not right, it was only as cold as -32F while a dead cam I picked up yesterday. I could drive right up to it so I did and after chucking the batteries on the dash in the hot air for awhile they came up roses at 50% in the cam which I never took into the heat. It powered back up with the refreshed batts. Lithiums are great, but -40...not likely. Not much works right at -40 or colder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom