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Trail Stalker Digital Trail CameraI have given the Trail Stalker an A- for picture quality, you can read our complete picture quality explanation and look at sample pictures here.After using the camera for about four months I started getting fuzzy pictures from the Nikon camera. There seems to be a moisture problem so I have sent the camera back to Whitetail Supply and they have looked into the problem. I got a report back that the camera was bad, but they have not done anything to rectify this situation to date. I was told that the owner was having some personal problems and that I needed to wait and get back to him at a later date. So far the customer service in this situation has been lacking. The trigger speed is in the middle of the pack leaning toward the slow side. The makers of this camera do not claim this camera has the fastest trigger speed, it uses what it calls a stealth mode that, when activated, allows deer to come in and be there for a few seconds before the first pictures are taken. I’ll have to admit that I haven’t figured out the complete functions of the stealth mode and time delays. The Nikon camera uses two AA batteries. Two Energizer Lithium batteries and two Sanyo NiMh rechargeable batteries were included with the camera. The lithium batteries went dead after one picture so I'm assuming they were not fresh. I won't be able to tell what lighium batteries will do unless I purchase some myself. In September the Trail Stalker took 606 pictures using rechargeable batteries and the batteries were still not dead. This is great life using rechargeable AA batteries, maybe the Nikon uses less power than the Sony cameras. The control board operates using two coin cell batteries that are supposed to work for one to two years. We’ll hopefully have to wait a while before we change these batteries. Set-up was easy using the dip switch controls. The Nikon camera was easy to operate and seemed to have less options to page through as compared to the Sony cameras. There is also an on/off switch on the outside of the case. The Trail Stalker has a pipe through design for a Python locking cable, which is included with the unit. The camera also has another tree attachment system that is designed for attaching a quiver to a tree. I wasn’t sure I would like this tree attachment system but so far it has been easy to use. This system has one part that screws into the tree and the camera case has an attachment that slides into the part that is on the tree. The Nikon L14 has 23 MB of internal memory and accepts SD memory cards. The camera has a nice 2.4 inch viewing screen. This is very nice for looking at pictures in the field. USB cables are also provided to download pictures to your computer. The L14 imprints the date and time on each picture. The is a nice option for a trail camera and is not available in all digital cameras. The Trail Stalker has four time delays: 5,10,15 and 20 seconds. These delays can be set to take a picture upon activation or the unit can be put in stealth mode that does not take a picture as soon as an animal enters the detection zone. I’m still not used to these settings so I’ll have to experiment with them. I put the Trail Stalker at a feeder set on the 20 second delay in stealth mode and it took 108 pictures. I had another camera on the same feeder set at a 90 second delay that took 186 pictures. This tells me that the Trail Stalker set on the above settings is somewhat like a 2 minute delay. When I put it on a 20 second delay and turned stealth mode off it took 207 pictures as compared to 164 on the other camera on a 90 second delay. This sounds more like a traditional 20 second delay. It appears that you can then switch the delay from 5 seconds to something in the range of 2 minutes using the stealth mode. A double picture mode is available as well as a rapid fire mode that will take up to seven pictures upon activation. Videos can also be taken with the Trail Stalker. The picture below is from our first set of pictures. I have given the Trail Stallker a D as an overall grade. This trail camera worked very well for us the first couple of months until the camera went bad. I sent the camera back in January 2009 and was told that the problem was the Nikon camera but they have not done anything about the problem and they still have my camera. I'll let you know what happens if anything ever does.
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