If you aren't using trail cameras, you're missing a really neat world. Not only that, using the cameras will give you a new way to interpret and hunt the world you do see. Here's a guide to how to chose a model.

People who run or work in outdoor stores or professional gun and archery shops often find themselves their busiest at work during the same times they'd like to be in the woods. Dave Andrews, Andrews Archery, Frackville, Pennsylvania, is no exception.It's just a few days a year (coinciding with peak rut activity) when customers might find a "Gone Hunting" sign on his door, but none of us begrudge him for it. That's why we shared his anger when during a scouting trip he found a couple sets of trespassers' boot prints near his stand.Andrews moved his trail cam from a deer trail to a nearby spot along the property line. Soon his efforts were rewarded via a set of clear pictures of four trespassers, clearly seen walking across a posted property line. He posted the pictures at the archery shop and emailed them to his mass list of customers.Soon the people were identified. Maybe it wasn't as satisfying as bagging the monster buck he'd get later in the season, but bagging trespassers is one of the many trail camera uses that customers have found. That's becoming a popular application for those who hunt on leased land, often far from their homes.The big words in imagery today are "high definition." When you're comparing trail cameras, you may be thinking of megapixels. Megapixels are the number of pixels in an image, basically, the more pixels, the clearer the image will be. Also, when you enlarge an image taken with higher megapixels, it will be sharper than one with low megapixels.Many cameras have a video feature which can be adjusted for time periods ranging from 5 to 300 seconds. Most customers set the length of time for the video clips at around 30 seconds. Adjusting the length of the clips helps manage the amount of available memory on the SD card. Some cameras have a mode which allows multiple pictures to be taken in a short time.For nighttime pictures, cameras will use a flash or illuminate the subject with infrared, shown by the letters IR. Many believe that the use of IR rather than flash is less likely to disturb or spook deer.Using a trail camera allows you to "hunt" year-round and be in the field year-round, keeping tabs on the activity of deer and other game. And they're easy to set up; basically, if you can set an alarm clock, you can set up a trail camera.Some basic tips: Starting from about twenty feet to the side of the camera (about two steps per second, the speed of a walking deer), walk in front of the camera from about ten feet away. Continue to walk until you are at least 20 feet beyond the camera, and wait about 30 seconds for the camera to process the image. Look at the resulting image to assess camera performance.Also, take care to manage your scent control. You may find a great deer trail but get nothing on your camera - because there's too much human scent on the camera.Try not to touch or disturb surrounding vegetation and trees, and also as a last step spray a scent-killer spray on the area and camera.INFRARED VSSTROBE FLASHStrobe Flash AdvantagesLong range flash performance, high quality color images during both day and night, completely freezes animal movement so there is never any nighttime motion blurStrobe FlashDisadvantagesDoes the flash spook game? The flash can be noticed by other hunters, cannot record night time videosAdvantages of IR camerasLess likely to alarm an animal (as no visible light is generated), less likely to be noticed by other huntersDisadvantages ofIR camerasNighttime images are black and white and have less detail and clarity. Infrared Flash quality/range tradeoff: If the Infrared flash is designed for maximum range the images may be overly white, or the animal may have motion blur. If the Infrared flash is designed for best image quality, range will be sacrificed.