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2011 Bushnell Trophy Cam Black Flash Review
Quick Facts
• Price: $199.95
• Trigger Time: 1.3 s / 2.4 s
• Recovery Time: 4.7 s on 3MP
• Detection Range: 52 ft.
• Detection Width: Wide
• Flash Range: 40 ft.
• Battery Life: 2-4 months
• Battery Type: 12 AA
• Memory Card: SD Card up to 32 Gig
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Pictures in Action
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Pro's
- No glow infrared
- Audio w/ video
- True time lapse technology
- Good detection circuit
- Great battery life
Con's
Best Thing About This Camera...
The covert infrared flash and the great detection circuit are a tie.
Trailcampro Analysis
This is Bushnell's first covert or "black flash" camera trap and for overall value, they have done quite well. The Black Flash version of the Trophy Cam is slightly larger than the basic Trophy Cam. The Black Flash measures in at 6.5" x 5" x 3" (the basic is 5.5" x 4" x 2.5") but is still plenty small enough to carry several at a time.
Black flash simply refers to how the infrared LED's light up at night. Normal infrared cameras will glow red when they take a picture at night, a black flash camera, theoretically, will not produce any light. The Trophy Cam Black Flash is almost completely covert, if you are close enough and looking directly at the LED's, you will just barely see a glow. We believe this is faint enough to consider this completely covert.
The camera is very easy to program and just as easy to change settings at any time.
The detection circuit is beyond solid. The trigger speed is 1.3 seconds, it will recover in under 5 seconds, and the detection zone is wide (actually wider than the field of view). You will see that we have the detection range at 52 feet, however, detection range will greatly vary based off of the temperature. The colder it is outside, the further the cameras will detect. In fact, when we did the 2011 Trail Camera Shootout, this camera detected out a whopping 100 feet. This can be considered abnormal but not out of the question. Normally, you should expect the camera to detect anywhere from 52 - 80 ft consistently.
Please Note: We recently found the Black Flash XLT - w/ Viewer - (11-9467c) detection circuit varies from the basic Black Flash model. The trigger speed for the Viewer is 2.438 s and the recovery is 6.2 seconds. With that being said, the recovery time is still very good, however, the trigger speed is much longer. Make sure you consider this when deciding which camera model you want to purchase.
One of the chief complaints of previous Trophy Cam models was the lack
of time lapse capabilities. That is no longer the case. The 2011
Trophy Cam can be programmed to take a picture in as little as one
second intervals or as long as one hour intervals.
For the trail camera video lovers, you will now have audio with the video. This is a tremendous upgrade as audio can sometimes be more interesting than the video itself!
The picture quality during the day is pretty good. The night pictures
are darker than they should be. With that being said, it seems
there is less blur in the pictures at night which indicates the shutter
speed is quicker (which would also make the night photos darker). We
consider the night pictures to be slightly below average overall.
Battery life has long been one of the strongest points
of recent Bushnell cameras. Depending on how many pictures the camera
takes you can expect anywhere from 2-4 months on a set of Nimh rechargeable batteries. These batteries are also rated for over 1,000 charges. The Black Flash Trophy cam operates on 12 batteries (as opposed to 8 for the basic model).
Overall, this is the best covert or "black flash" infrared camera on the market other than the Reconyx HC600. For under $300, you are getting a camera with excellent battery life, a great detection circuit and a camera that is covert. This is the best Black Flash camera under $300.
In order to protect your Trophy Cam, you will want both the Security
Case and the Python Lock. The Trophy Cam is not setup to be locked with
just a Python Lock alone, it must have the security case as well.
There are two types of security cases. The basic security case and the Heavy Duty Security Case. The heavy duty case is 10 gauge steel and quite sturdy.
The Python Lock is a 5/16 cable that is 6' long. This
is definitely long enough to wrap around any tree outside of a Redwood!
If you live in an area with cold weather, I would strongly recommend the AA NiMh rechargeable batteries and the NiMh charger. NiMh is unaffected by cold weather unlike alkaline batteries. These batteries can also be charged 1,000 times.
How Can Tenergy Batteries Save You Big Bucks?
 2011 Bushnell Trophy Cam Black Flash w/ 2.4" viewer
Price: $199.95
- Free Domestic Shipping (lower 48)
- Free 4 gig SD card
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