Trail cameras, outdoor wildlife cameras, game cameras or camera traps: whatever you call them, placing one of these nifty gadgets in your garden or anywhere you’re curious about wildlife (and have permission) can really open your eyes to the variety of animals and birds living nearby.
These digital cameras are usually battery-powered, and work using motion detection. You can set them up to shoot a short video (at up to 4K resolution) or a series of still images, and they can work at night as well as in daylight thanks to IR lamps that will produce a greyscale image. This means you can leave them in position for days before coming back and looking at the files stored on the memory card - usually an SD or MicroSD model.
The sensors inside these cameras are usually extremely small, the sort of thing you’d find in a smartphone, to keep them compact and unobtrusive. This, along with their habit of stamping your images with date and time data, means they’re best used to see what’s active in your area before you camp out with one of the best mirrorless cameras to capture better photos, but they’re also a fascinating way to gain knowledge of what’s living alongside you.
Getting the camera in the right position is the key to obtaining footage of wildlife. It’s a good idea to have it facing somewhere you suspect animals and birds pass by or congregate, such as the only gap in a dense hedge, near water, a popular nesting tree or a feeding site. Then you can discover whether you’re sharing your space with common species such as blackbirds, robins and foxes, or something more secretive such as a badger or some birds of prey. Another common use is to place one on an allotment, to find out what’s coming in at night and eating your vegetables.
And while trail cameras can use a lot of batteries, rechargeable models with solar panels are available that can be left for longer (assuming it’s sunny) without having to be resupplied. This can help shy species get used to the camera’s presence without noisy humans scaring them off, as well as saving you money on AAs.
Whatever it is you want to capture, these trail cameras should help you discover more about your local wildlife.
Best trail cameras at a glance:
- Best for AI and wireless access: Zeiss Secacam 7 - £229, Amazon
- Best for video: Bushnell Core DS-4K 32MP No Glow - £299, Wex Photo Video
- Best for camouflage: NatureSpy Ursus - £105, Pitstop
- Best for solar power: Voopeak Wildlife Camera - £120, Amazon
- Best for budget wireless connectivity: Crenova Trail Camera - £95, Amazon
- Best for birdwatching: Technaxx Bird Feeder Camera Station - £130, Amazon
- Best for the back garden: NatureSpy WiFi WildCam 2 - £120, NatureSpy
- Best for high-res stills: SpyPoint FORCE-PRO - £219, Wex Photo Video
Zeiss Secacam 7
Best for: AI and wireless access
AI is everywhere right now, and it’s even being built into trail cams. This model from German optical titan Zeiss uses it to add image recognition information to the footage it captures, picking out 60 different animal and bird species as well as the ability to recognise cars and people.
There's more tech built into this model than the average trail camera, with 4G connectivity to remotely monitor and view photos, GPS to find it if it blends in a bit too well with the trees (or gets stolen), a detection range of 25m and a 5MP image sensor. Those last two are low compared to others, and the unit itself is expensive, but the Secacam 7’s other innovations mean it deserves a place at the top of this list.
Buy now £229.00, Amazon
Bushnell Core DS-4K 32MP No Glow
Best for: video
This trail camera is pricey, but offers 32MP stills and 4K video at 30fps with sound from specialised day and night photo sensors. It’s fast to respond and can capture up to six images with each activation, with an IR flash that can illuminate subjects up to 110ft away. It can also embed date, time, temperature, moon phase and even GPS data into your files, and only uses six AA batteries.
Buy now £299.00, Wex Photo Video
NatureSpy Ursus
Best for: camouflage
Many trail cameras come with a shell that’s patterned to look like tree bark, all the better to hide when strapped to a trunk, but the Ursus is especially tree-like. It’s compact as well, so will hide away nicely in the undergrowth ready to capture images of deer or game birds. The camera has an 80ft activation range, can shoot up to nine 30MP photos when triggered, and captures video at 1080p 30fps, which while lower than some other cameras, is perfect for watching on a phone or laptop.
Buy now £105.00, NatureSpy
Voopeak Wildlife Camera
Best for: solar power
There are a lot of wildlife cameras from unknown brands knocking around on internet selling sites, but we liked the look of this one as it combines a high-res sensor with both solar power and WI-Fi connectivity. This means you can use a phone app to view the images or footage you’ve collected without having to open up the camera and extract the memory card, while the solar panel tops up the battery as long as it’s sunny. The camera shoots 46MP stills and 4K video at 30fps, and you can even use AA batteries if you need to.
Buy now £120.00, Amazon
Crenova Trail Camera
Best for: budget wireless connectivity
Being able to access the files on your trail camera’s memory card without needing to physically access the camera is incredibly useful, as it means you can position the unit up high, or somewhere in full view of skittish wildlife, and cut down on the number of times you need to open it up.
This camera is on the cheaper side, yet offers 32MP stills and 4K video, with an activation range of 65ft. It can take up to eight AA batteries, and there's the option to use a wired power supply if you’re installing it near a socket.
Buy now £95.00, AMazon
Technaxx Bird Feeder Camera Station
Best for: birdwatching
Essentially a small trail camera in a housing that includes rain protection and a dish to place bird food in, this model allows you to get close-up images of birds as they come in to feed. Its lens is optimised for the short focus distances involved, and while the stills it produces are comparatively low-res at 8MP, that’s still enough to view a clear, sharp image on a TV, phone or laptop screen. Its video capabilities are more interesting, as it’s capable of shooting slow-motion 1080p footage, and can last for months on a set of four AA batteries.
Buy now £130.00, Amazon
NatureSpy WiFi WildCam 2
Best for: the back garden
This small camera is Wi-Fi enabled, so you can connect to it with your phone or laptop and view the footage it has collected. It can also send you a notification when it spots movement, making it useful as a security camera as well as detecting wildlife. It has a 60ft detection range and an internal rechargeable battery, but is limited by its 4MP sensor, which makes it suitable for capturing 1080p video at 25fps, but not higher resolutions.
Buy now £120.00, NatureSpy
SpyPoint FORCE-PRO
Best for: high-res stills
Offering 30MP still images, 4K video and an extremely fast reaction time, this camera can give you a high-res view of whatever triggers it. It can detect movement from as far away as 110ft, can include the time, date and temperature information with every image, and is capable of firing off a burst of six stills at a time. The only drawbacks are the price, the low 10fps framerate of its 4K video, and that it uses eight AA batteries, meaning you’ll have to buy or recharge plenty of spares.
Buy now £219.00, Wex Photo Video
Verdict
Watching the wildlife in your local area can be a problem for two reasons. Firstly, many wild creatures are wary of humans and like to scatter and hide at even the smallest suggestion that people are coming. Secondly, a lot of interesting creatures like to come out at night. A trail camera capable of shooting images and video in the dark can solve both these problems, as it’s less likely to scare sensitive creatures and the IR lights it uses are invisible, so causes even less disturbance.
Cameras like the Zeiss Secacam 7 enable you to view high-res images and even video footage of the wild creatures you’re sharing your garden, allotment or local patch of woodland with, and they can open up a whole world of nature watching.
