Slow Recovery Speed on Cellular Cameras

[Finn16]

I'm finally ready to buy some cellular trail cams - $5 gas is expediting my decision. In researching cellular cameras, I noticed the Recovery Speeds are in the 28-40 second range while non-cellular cameras are under a second. So I'm thinking you'd get a picture of the lead animal in a herd and then nothing of the rest that follow. My question is, are those Recovery Speeds that slow because they are calculated when the camera is sending a text of the photo as soon as the pic was taken and that process takes some time? If so, if I were to program the camera to send pix once or twice a day would the Recovery Speed of a cellular be on par with old school conventional trail cams?

 

[wind gypsy]

I'm finally ready to buy some cellular trail cams - $5 gas is expediting my decision. In researching cellular cameras, I noticed the Recovery Speeds are in the 28-40 second range while non-cellular cameras are under a second. So I'm thinking you'd get a picture of the lead animal in a herd and then nothing of the rest that follow. My question is, are those Recovery Speeds that slow because they are calculated when the camera is sending a text of the photo as soon as the pic was taken and that process takes some time? If so, if I were to program the camera to send pix once or twice a day would the Recovery Speed of a cellular be on par with old school conventional trail cams?

Answer: it depends.

This is a can of worms that you'd need to dig into on a case by case basis with each camera. By not doing instantaneous upload you typically reduce recovery speed but it's still slower than non-cell cams in many cases. For example my tactacam SK takes about 15-20 seconds to recover when set to 2x daily uploads.

You can combat the slow recovery time with some cell cams by setting it to take multiple photo bursts with desired delayed time between photos (usually a couple seconds). Tactacam reveals unfortunately don't transmit photo bursts. (2 strikes).

I should test the recovery of my other cams but the spypoints are on bursts and most ridgetec are on video mode so its not so much of a concern.

 

[WoodBow]

I run moultrie mobile cameras and i have not looked into their specs but i don't believe I have noticed long recovery time. I tend to set mine to 3 shots bursts but it will def take more than 3 pics if a string of animals come by.

 

[akrdkill]

i have Barnowl...depends on camera specs & features