Been getting asked quite a bit about which ‘TrailCams’ I’m using for my wildlife monitoring, so here’s the short version: I’m not using TrailCams. I’m actually using EUFY Home Security cameras!

(I did actually buy one of those ‘proper’ trail cams, but it was shit and tricky to use so I never used it.)

I’m not sure how these will hold up long term, and in really hot weather, (35+ degrees), I’ll quite often get an ‘overheating’ warning. I have no idea what happens when they overheat – do they just stop working? Do they explode? Have not yet found out but will be sure to update this if I do. For now, they’re going pretty well.

These are connected to the internet via wifi and I can either watch live or access the recorded files from anywhere any time. (There are no ongoing fees or monthly subscriptions unless you want to back everything up to their cloud.)

I use a few different models for a few different reasons.

  1. I started with the basic C210. These are more affordable 2k with no solar panel, so you charge the battery, and depending on how much motion they detect/how often they record, they can last for weeks or even months. (The way I used them, probably just a week or two before I have to charge them again. If they’re easy to get to, recharging them is pretty straight forward.)
  2. I then added some S220 cameras which are basically the same camera, but with an inbuilt solar panel. If they don’t go off too often, and they’re in a sunny spot, these ones will keep themselves charged ‘indefinitely’.
  3. Then because I wanted to ‘zoom in’ to my footage a bit and have the best possible quality, I then went up to their S330 4k cameras for a bit more resolution.

Some notes:

  • These cameras have ‘fixed focus’ so if they’re too close to what you want to film, they won’t deliver in focus images of your subject. And if you move the camera further away, it’s in focus but smaller. So you’ll have to make a judgement call there.
  • Mine are all connected to their S380 homebase. Depending on how many cameras you want, places like Harvey Norman and JB quite often do deals on 2 or 4 packs with the Homebase included. I won’t give you the full rundown of the advantages of a homebase, but if you want to record/store a decent amount of footage, you’ll need to buy an extra external hard drive and pop it in the homebase. (I have a 1TB hard drive in mine. When it’s full it just records over the oldest footage.)
  • In-built solar panel is good, but if you want to mount it somewhere in the shade or that doesn’t get much sun, it’s useless. So some of my cameras have external solar panels attached. This allowed me to have the camera in one place, then run a cord to the solar panel which can be in full sun. I just bought cheapy ones off eBay and so far, so good. Just make sure you order them with the correct attachment to go straight into your camera. (Plugging an external panel into the cameras with the plug underneath makes sense and I think/hope would stay weatherproof, but the 4k cameras have the plug on the back and I’m not sure I’d be game to plug into that in case rain gets in to it.)
  • There are quite a few settings you can adjust via the app… things like how sensitive you want the motion detection to be etc so you might want to experiment a bit with what works for you so you don’t run your battery flat recording leaves blowing in the wind. Make sure the quality is set to what you want too! I had some 2k cameras and wasn’t that impressed with the quality then realised they were set to just regular HD because I am a moron!
  • I’ve bought silicon covers for a few of them where I want them to be a bit more discreet than the white finish.
  • The more expensive camera also have slightly more features… that may be completely useless depending on how you use them. The 4k ones, for example have an alarm so if someone tries to nick it, an alarm goes off.
  • Even though the 4 x 4k camera + homebase sells for almost AUD$2,000, it’s not unusual to find them for about $1,000 on sale. For four cameras and the homebase it can actually work out cheaper than buying the 2 x 2k camera pack!
  • You can get just a camera and use it with a homebase – you don’t get all the functionality and this is not how I use them si can’t give you any info setting one up this way. Sorry.
  • You monitor/view everything on your phone or device, and can download the clips you want to keep.
  • They have quite a few other camera models, and new ones coming out all the time, but they’re the ones I ended up with.

Hopefully this has been of some use. I’ll probably update this as I think of things that are more relevant, but if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll do my best to get back to you with an answer ASAP.

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