Plot Watcher Camera?

[Lawdwaz]

Anybody use a dedicated plot watcher camera?  How about a camera with a plot watcher mode?

 

Fill me in on your thoughts please.

 

Thanks.

[G-Man]

I place a cam on a plot in video mode.never saw a need for a wide angle.view of 4 acres. A sit in a tree or a walk around the field will show entry and exit points put a tree gulag cam there

[Lawdwaz]

I place a cam on a plot in video mode.never saw a need for a wide angle.view of 4 acres. A sit in a tree or a walk around the field will show entry and exit points put a tree gulag cam there

 

I know the entrance/exit points easy enough.............This is more to prove to my buddy what exactly is visiting this field in an area that is hidden from his stand view.  I'm trying to convince him to put up an elevated hut to greatly increase his viewing area.

 

Another thing.......I need to keep him excited on the prospects for next fall by getting plenty of pics of the monarchs.

[fisher2]

i run 8 primos DPS's all year and kind of consider myself well educated about the style of camera, whats your questions?

[Lawdwaz]

whats your questions?

 

I guess just the basics; how is the resolution with yours and how far can you discern quality of a buck?    

 

The camera you use is a dedicated "plot watcher" type, have you used others? 

 

Yours set up for dawn to dusk, that works well?  How big of a SD card do you need, how quick do they fill up?

 

Thanks..........

[phade]

Plot mode on regular game cameras eat batteries. The DPS can be had pretty cheap if you search around. They are a bit of a pain to use, but can be worth the effort at times.

 

 

[fisher2]

I guess just the basics; how is the resolution with yours and how far can you discern quality of a buck?    

 

The camera you use is a dedicated "plot watcher" type, have you used others? 

 

Yours set up for dawn to dusk, that works well?  How big of a SD card do you need, how quick do they fill up?

 

Thanks..........

resolution, i believe it says .3mp you're not going to be able to judge rack size past 20 yards or so 

 

dusk to dawn, i only care about the hours ill be there for so it works fine for me

 i have 8 gb which at every 5 seconds is good for 6 days, i also have some 16's i run at 5 sec delay that i leave our for 2 weeks +/- 2 days 

 heres a basic idea of pictures

[fisher2]

you can see movement and say its a deer at about 80 yards but you have to look close and you cant tell anything about the deer it's good for getting an overview,

[nyslowhand]

At least what I'm aware of, while in plot watcher mode a cam takes timed photos or vids, by-passing the motion sensor. Believe some trail cam models do use both together while in plot mode, timed & motion detection. Seems like you'd get a lot of blank vids/pics if in timed mode. Mine has this feature and I could never see any advantage of using plot watcher over strictly motion sensor. Even if you're trying to get photos outside the detection range, doesn't this food plot/field activity happen mostly at low/no light conditions when the bucks are in full headgear? Meaning, even if you randomly got a timed photo of a monster that was beyond the motion sensing range, the flash capabilities probably aren't much better than ~60'.

[fisher2]

they're really only good for wide open spaces and getting a fast judgement of where to put cameras for targeting specific animals , i use mine to isolate a tree based on the movement and amount of time the deer would be broadside i also use it for tracking wind direction

[phade]

At least what I'm aware of, while in plot watcher mode a cam takes timed photos or vids, by-passing the motion sensor. Believe some trail cam models do use both together while in plot mode, timed & motion detection. Seems like you'd get a lot of blank vids/pics if in timed mode. Mine has this feature and I could never see any advantage of using plot watcher over strictly motion sensor. Even if you're trying to get photos outside the detection range, doesn't this food plot/field activity happen mostly at low/no light conditions when the bucks are in full headgear? Meaning, even if you randomly got a timed photo of a monster that was beyond the motion sensing range, the flash capabilities probably aren't much better than ~60'.

 

Plot cams are really designed to monitor daytime use of open areas. Time lapse.

 

The pics are filed together eventually into a time lapse video. It helps to show what time/where deer enter fields, the number of deer in fields, etc. This is opposed to waiting for a sensor activated event.

[nyslowhand]

So..If the OP already knows the travel routes in/out of field and basically only wants to ID big bucks, is plot watcher the best option? Not saying they don't have their place for scouting.

 

Out of curosity, those that use DSS or plot watcher, do you get many daytime photos of bucks when they are carrying bone?

[phade]

So..If the OP already knows the travel routes in/out of field and basically only wants to ID big bucks, is plot watcher the best option? Not saying they don't have their place for scouting.

 

Out of curosity, those that use DSS or plot watcher, do you get many daytime photos of bucks when they are carrying bone?

 

I bet if you told hunters the entry and exit point into fields for mature bucks, hunters would still have a super low rate of punching the tag.

 

Plot cams cover a wide area not limited to sensors. Running a cam for 2-4 weeks on it and playing a video will help tell you whether that buck is using X entry on SW winds or N winds or days where the pressure is falling, or a billion other things. Or, it might tell them that buck enters field at X, but moves over to point Y in a specific corner, it'll clue you in as to where to hunt. Maybe it's not the entry, because the buck moves to point Y quickly and stays there for the rest of the afternoon, which is good for such and such wind direction. You might not be able to see the points, but you can tell a big buck from a doe on these cams at a fair distance, and that's what I think he is trying to get at.

Edited January 16, 2015 by phade

[G-Man]

Put a motion camera out of hunters view on motion at field entrance he/she can't see. I do this on a 6 ac cornfield. And I have a cam 59 yrds from one stand I hunt was while I hunt . Nothing like seeing a flash in trees and not seeing what made it as its on a trail you can't cover from your stand.get down after the hunt and check the cam to see a nice bear or buck....

[fisher2]

phade has the answer pretty well, it can tell you big bodies no problem counting points you're better off with motion cameras

[fisher2]

i leave them out and come to stand with laptop, and go through the day before to judge what/when im due for the day, i mostly hunt does that move in groups though i show up earlier than the cameras previously have shown that deer move

[NYBuckHunter27]

i believe time lapse is just as effective, saves battery life and you wont get as many useless videos/pics. and you are generally able to see what is in the plot depending on size of plot and positioning of camera, this is my experience with Bushnell cameras atleast.

[JJBat150]

Got one of the original plot watchers 5 or 6 years ago, and ran it for a few years watching fields & plots

 

Ran it in time lapse mode taking pictures every 10 or 30 seconds, sun up to sun down; runs through a lot of memory doing that.  Use 8 GB thumb drives and was swapping them out once a week.  Battery life was surprisingly good, but didn't run it in really cold weather.

 

Because of the time lapse and low resolution, you didn't get alot of details unless you set the camera up close to where the deer were traveling.

 

Website doesn't seem to have too much about the original plot watcher model I had

http://day6outdoors.com/index.php

 

Actually had more fun with the camera doing stuff like this:   

http://youtu.be/3XGLBuAGQ40

 

 

[Lawdwaz]

Thanks for all the replies, I'll probably grab one over the spring/summer season.