Why
do you want to start? – For many, it may be to remember the experience or to share with
friends. Others may choose it for sales as a business.
What does it take? – It takes
a lot of time, time & more time. With gas prices up, extra money is
always good to have if you have a far drive to your hunting grounds each trip out. It also takes a lot
of hard work, as it’s not easy. Sometimes many days, weeks or even months are spent before
getting that first hunt where everything worked out perfectly. With the availability of easy to use and affordable editing
programs for your pc, everyone seems to be doing it these days, so you’ll have plenty of competition!
Camera selection – Manual focus is an option that is a must. With many little branches, leaves and
such constantly in the way, a camera with only automatic focus will pick up on these things, instead of an approaching animal.
Button placement can make or break a hunt scene with an unfamiliar camera. Searching for the manual
focus button during the moment of truth is definitely undesired.
A camera with greater low light capabilities is preferred during the peak
movement times of your intended target.
Camera
size and weight are important things to consider. Pick up a camera you’re interested in and feel how
it balances in your hand. Most larger cameras balance better than small ones and are easier to hold steady, but smaller ones
are easier to transport with a load of hunting gear.
Turn off those game-alerting beeps as soon as you get your camera home.
An extended-life battery is always good to own with the cold temperatures
that drain them quickly. A “low battery” alert, when that monster bucks approaches could mean missed footage.
1 CCD vs. 3 CCD
– CCD stands for “charged coupling device”. In layman’s terms, it’s the circuitry used to “see”
and process the image, while transferring it to tape. A 1 CCD camera has one chip to record the image as red, green and blue
pixels. A 3CCD camera has a dedicated “chip” for each color. There’s one for red, one for green and one
for blue. 3CCD cameras allow greater clarity and richer color saturation, making an overall better image, but at a higher
cost.
“Digital zoom” – Ignore this feature completely. You may notice that
a camera boasts a 700X digital zoom and instantly think you’ll be able to count the points on that buck at 800 yards,
when in reality it just takes each individual pixel and enlarges them, resulting in a blocky, distorted image (fig 1).
The “Optical zoom” power is the number you should pay attention to. An optical zoom uses
actual glass in enlarging the image and no loss of quality is experienced (fig 2). The larger the number, the further your
lens will pick up those antlers.
