Product Review: Bird Cam

One of the fun parts of this writing world is getting to evaluate really neat, fun stuff. One of my biggest new toys is the Bird-Cam from Wingscapes. This is an outdoor digital camera controlled by a mess of easily learned choices.

The pics below were taken on the “easy start up” mode. Right out of the box – put in the batteries, turn on the switch and shoot away. There were no adjustments made to the pics, no adjustments to the camera although I did crop them to remove the time/date stamp the system puts on the pictures.

Here’s the deal with this camera and why I’m pretty excited about having it. It’s a simple, well-thought out system that takes both still images as well as video. So I’ve taken a few decent shots this fall around the feeder but next spring when the oriole and hummingbirds go at it over the nectar, I’ll be able to shoot video.

And I don’t have to sit and wait to trip the switch myself. It’s all run automatically by a motion sensor. A bird flies into view, the sensor reacts and the camera goes into operation automatically depending on how you set it up. Pretty cool stuff.

Not only a motion detector is part of the package but a timer can also be set to take pictures. This means that time lapse photography is in the works for this spring. I’ll have some videos of time lapse seeds growing, flowers emerging etc. This is serious toy time for gardeners and bird lovers.

The camera itself is the weak spot from a photographers point of view. It’s a point and shoot type of camera and while there is a distance dial to adjust it from distances between 18-inches to over 8-feet, it is still a one-focus type of operation. If you’re used to zoom lenses and want something with more control, then this unit isn’t going to do the job for you. But I’m learning how to overcome this limitation and think there’s some serious potential here for messing about with photography.

This is the best garden toy I have if you don’t count the new tractor. If you like photography and if you like birds and/or gardening, I can recommend this unit highly. Here are a few shots I took this past week with it. You had better believe I’ll have more.

From the “Is it Working Question?”

The answer to this question is rather obvious I think. When the little count-down timer reaches 0, it really does work

Last View for the Season Before Heading South

I caught these guys filling up just before they disappeared for the season. One of the things that’s instantly obvious in this product is that you really want to spend the money to get the memory card and the more memory you install the better. To get this picture, the system took about 100 other pictures. All others were deleted. There are a lot of shots of tail feathers and it’s really amazing how birds don’t like to look in the camera. Sort of like when somebody says “Watch the birdy” – they’re all looking somewhere else.

Best Pic so Far

This shot of a Blue Jay took another 100 shots give or take a few to get this particular one. By this time though, I’m starting to figure out that there’s an optimum distance for taking this kind of picture (about 18-24 inches with a lot of cropping to bring it into shape. Closer pictures – where the Jay is right next to the camera are well out of focus. Pictures that are over 48-inches away are way too small to see.

I got the Jay picture by tossing a handful of seed below the feeder and then setting the camera on the ground to do it’s thing. I’ll crop this one even tighter but I wanted to show you what the raw image looks like.

Important Tip

This unit comes with a laser pointer – to actually aim the camera where you want it. Save yourself a lot of time and effort and read the manual on how to set this up. Use the laser aiming device and lock the camera onto your tripod once it’s set up. Once I figured out how to really do this (it’s simple if you actually read the manual) the pictures became a lot more useable very quickly with far fewer tail-feather-shots.

Bottom Line

This is a welcome addition to my camera gear and I’m planning on taking it South with me this year to work on some sunset pics on a timer (you’ll see those when they happen) and some other garden/bird projects. Next year, there are some other projects I really want to take on with the time-lapse and video programmes.

And I fully intend to actually read the manual and explore the other settings. Honest, I do.

Tripod setup and background framing are critical in setting up for good shots although heavy cropping will save a lot of that.

Memory cards are important. You’re going to burn through an amazing number of pictures to get the single useable shot. Throw away 100 and keep 1 is what I’m finding. But it’s no work to get that one and the machine does it pretty much for you. You need that memory card though.

Light levels are a bit of a crap-shoot and like all point and shoot cameras, you’ll likely find yourself really wanting to learn photoshop to bring these pictures to the right “look”. As I said, none of these pics were adjusted in any way other than cropping to eliminate the date/time stamp. What you see is what I got.

Batteries. It takes 4 honking great ones but it seems to be quite easy on them. I’ve run about 400 pictures through the unit now and the battery meter is still registering over 95% available.

If you like birds, if you want to experiment with time lapse photography in a way that’s a no-brainer, this is your camera. If you want to really do something different for the next garden photography show, this is your equipment of choice. I’ve just barely scratched the surface of this equipment and I’m already enthralled.

As I said, this Bird Cam by Wingscapes is the best garden equipment of 2008. I’m a big fan.