Trial of the Trail Cameras:

Moultrie D-55IR vs Nikko Stirling NSG5000

New Trail Cameras are coming onto the market all the time and more and more people are using them for security around the farm or just adding a new dimension to their hunting. The Editor takes a look at two well priced 5 mega pixel units...

Introduction

The brand Moultrie is well known in the hunting industry throughout the USA and has been making deer feeders for over 30 years. They have moved on to “Total Game Management” in more recent times with several digital trail cameras and accessories in their range. They are technology focused and won a “Best of the Best” award at the Field & Stream trade show this year. The D-55IR is their mid-priced camera in a family of different models. Nikko Stirling is another well known brand having been manufacturing optics for hunters for over 50 years. They are a specialised optics manufacturing business and as well as scopes and binoculars also produce rangefinders, spotting scopes and some night vision gear. Recently they have entered the trail camera market and the model NSG5000 is their most compact camera. Both cameras use passive infrared (IR) sensors to detect heat or motion like a security motion detector works.
They are jam-packed full of features that we have come to expect in this electronic age.Let’s take a closer look at what they have to offer...

Features:

Moultrie comes in a large, camouflage housing and runs off 6 x “C” size batteries. It shows the battery life left as a percentage on an LCD screen, smart thinking. It was quite simple to change the factory default settings, otherwise you will end up with single photo bursts, and set the time, date and add what name is to appear on the photos. Nikko Stirling - This is a smaller unit in a black housing and runs off either 4 or 8 x “AA” sized batteries, so there are two options here. It has low battery level indicator light that flashes when you turn it on if the batteries need replacing and is password protected so it is no good to anyone but yourself. Both are 5 megapixels and have colour pictures during the day and both have infrared for black and white pictures at night. Both have a video option (at 640 x 480 pixels) and print onto easily removable SD cards that you can view on your camera, computer or TV screen (leads are included). Neither have a viewable screen for pictures so you need to pull the SD card out or plug the unit itself into your screen. They both have that characteristic red glow when the night LED’s are activated. It’s claimed that game animals cannot see this but humans can. Both trigger speeds are very fast at 1 second or just over which is important for moving animals. Testing These two cameras have very similar features. I thought that a good field test would soon separate them apart so I started at home with them both set together and let the chickens out. With a bit of chicken feed I soon had the “game” walking in front of the cameras, then took a look at the photos on my computer. I was fairly impressed with the quality of both of them, with the Nikko Stirling maybe being just a bit brighter. Both cameras took photos in the 1-1.2 MB range which is going to give a good quality, detailed image. In the Field I set both cameras up in the Te Puke hills where the odd Fallow deer lives. I set them a week in the bush (for very few frames) and then a week on the grass where there was a bit more sign of deer starting to move out for some fresh spring fodder. I set them close together but I should have set them on the same tree again. However I wanted to double my chances of getting some deer pictures as I had limited time and these deer are heavily hunted. In the end I was not disappointed with a good selection of photos. The Moultrie picks up not three but four good frames as a Fallow hind walks into view. The camera has rested for 1 minute (as that’s what I set it on) and then takes a second set of three more frames (only the first one had a deer on it). You can shorten the Moultrie delay-between-frame time down to just 15 or 30 seconds with a simple software download onto your SD card off the Moultrie website. With the Nikko Stirling you can set the delay between frames right down to 1 second. In some situations this would be an advantage, such as trying to get a shot of the last moose in Fiordland. You are far better to have extra photos that are wasted than miss out on that one important picture. With both cameras you can crop distant shots with reasonable success. Here is a heavily cropped picture of a young Fallow with the Nikko Stirling. However, with the Moultrie set into the sun like this and with long grass in front that moves with the wind I had ten or more extra activations for every deer picture that I had. As it was only here a week it was no problem to delete the unwanted shots off the SD card on the computer at home. The Nikko has an advantage with a simple sensitivity dial that you can adjust. Once I turned this down a notch or two, I had almost no false activations. It captured deer, possums and four sets of hunters too! Both cameras do something that I had not seen before when using the Spypoint and the Trailguard branded trail cameras. When the light gets low, such as about 5pm in the bush, the cameras still try and take colour shots to right on dark. The trouble with that is that the slightest movement is blurred (due to very slow shutter speeds) and the pictures are almost mono-tone. The others will switch onto the infrared flash much earlier and give you a black and white photo. Here is a shot to show you what I mean...

Conclusion

If you have never tried a trail camera, either one of these would be an excellent first unit. Both the Nikko Stirling and the Moultrie produced good quality pictures and are packed with features. What I didn’t like on the Nikko Stirling was the password function. I thought this would be a good addition but every time you turn the camera on you have to scroll down each of four numbers, not to mention forgetting the numbers! The password may stop someone else using your camera but it won’t stop them flogging it. You also had to be careful not to push the set-up button as it automatically enters the “area test mode” and will not take pictures until you press it again. I liked the sensitivity adjustment with the Nikko and the option of four or eight “AA” batteries. They claim the camera will take 30 shots a day for a whole year on a set of 8 batteries! What I didn’t like on the Moultrie was the six “C” size batteries to run it but this should give good running time also. Although the battery indicator percentage was great that’s a fair weight of batteries to carry in and a reasonable cost of batteries to replace. However, Moultrie does have a solar panel as an added accessory that plugs in and powers rechargeable batteries for extended life. I liked the camouflage on the Moultrie although it was a very big unit to carry. The Moultrie had a good test light so you could aim the camera easily in low light or walk out and view the light from the front. Overall, if I had to choose just one, the Nikko Stirling would be my first choice mainly as the unit was much smaller and the battery type (“AA”) matches my other electronic toys. Still, both nice units.

Nikko Stirling: See your local hunting retail store to purchase or for trade enquiries e-mail sales@camsport.co.nz.
For more information see www.nikkostirling.com.

Moultrie: Available from Hunting and Fishing and other outdoor retail stores.
Total Game Management Enquiries see www.moultrie.co.nz.