Barn Owl cell cams

jackpine

5 year old buck +
Anyone have experience with these? Or, looking at their website how do they compare to what you have used?

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Not even an opinion on them?,, lol

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They look pretty good to me...data fees aren't too bad either. Just wish there were more sample pics. And videos. I see they have a Youtube page but looks like just instruction etc videos.
 
There are components available that just about anyone can start a game cam company these days. We see them pop up and down all the time. There are a few proven companies at the high end of the market and a host of mid to low end cam companies. There are basically 3 evaluations to do. One is the design of the camera and the components being used. This includes things like coating boards and designing a case the excludes moisture as well as the guts. Second is the production. Most companies sell cams made in Chinese factories using inexpensive components and have very poor quality control. The third is the company itself and how stable it is. What is the warranty (if that matters in your application) since most cams fail in a year or two. at the mid-range and below. Is the company going to be around to support the warranty a few years down the road.

So, unless folks have hands-on experience with these specific cameras or have done a deep engineering dive, most of what you hear will not be well based opinions. Things like "average cell bill" have no meaning. Most cell cams decimate the crap out of pics before sending them on the network to save cost. Very few transmit full resolution pictures. That may not matter at all depending on your application. The most important thing is not to start with a camera company, but to start with your application and figuring out what characteristics are important to your application. You can then apply those to the cams in the market and get down to those that will fit your app on paper. The analysis from the previous paragraph applies next.

Thanks,

Jack
 
The cell bill/data plans & going by what size pics and SMS fees are pretty straightforward. https://www.barnowl.tech/cellular-data-pricing The $8 connection fee per camera per month is bizarre though. I was turned off when I thought it was just an intial "connection" charge. But per month....there are way too many other options out there.
 
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The cell bill/data plans & going by what size pics is pretty straightforward. https://www.barnowl.tech/cellular-data-pricing The $8 connection fee per camera is bizarre though. Maybe other companies do that as well but none that I use do.

Sure., on a data basis they are all simple. The problem is that when you get to high resolution pictures, changes in the number of pics can have a big impact. That is why most decimate the crap out of transmitted pics. I'm using a local private network, not the cell network, so my data is free and I get full resolution pics, but I've been amazed at the variability of the number of legitimate pics, and this doesn't even address when something grows up in front of a cam and waves constantly in the breeze. I presume most cell cam based systems give you the control to limit pics to a max so you don't end up with a 10K bill. That may be fine for "what's out there?" hunting type applications, but not for apps where data loss matters.

So, as I said, starting with the requirements for you application and finding a list of cameras that fit you application is the way to go. Then a deep dive into the design, production, and company are in order.
 
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