WhitetailCam P41

The WhitetailCam P41 is a homebrew digital game camera that we made ourselves. We probably should have used the money to buy another major manufactured game camera to test but we just couldn’t resist giving a homebrew cam a try. Hopefully I’m not biased here reviewing our own work.

I’m trying to figure out what the purpose of this review should be. Since you can’t purchase this camera I guess that a review could be considered useless, but you could build one yourself so let’s go ahead and take a look at the WhitetailCam P41.

The WhitatailCam P41 uses a Sony P41 digital camera. Our testing of the EagleEye showed us that this is an excellent camera so we knew what we were getting there. So far our testing has shown the picture quality to be excellent, just as we had expected. You can take a look at the WhitetailCam picture quality here.

The camera operates on two AA batteries and the electronics use one 9 volt battery. I use rechargeable AA’s and the 9 volt should last several months.

Operation of the WhitetailCam P41 is relatively simple. Settings are changed with dip switch controls and the on/off switch is on the 9 volt battery case. A dip switch setting sticker is on the inside cover of the unit.

A 16 MB memory stick was supplied with the camera but stores only about 25 pictures on the 1M setting so I’ve purchased a 512 MB memory stick to use. Fortunately the prices on digital camera memory cards have fallen over the past two years. The 512 MB card has the capability of storing 700 pictures but we have found that the batteries have usually given up once 400-500 pictures have been taken.

The picture quality setting can be changed to a higher resolution for even better quality when blowing pictures up. I’ll likely do this when using the camera at food plots.

The power up time is among the best out of the cameras we have tested although it is not that fastest. The Sony P41 camera is known for a relatively quick power up time.

This WhitetailCam P41 is housed in a black “waterproof” case. The camera could be removed to use as a personal digital camera but it has three wires sticking out of it so I might get some funny looks. It could make for interesting conversation.

Only four time delay settings are available – 10 sec, 2, 5 and 10 minutes. This is a little slim but will do. There is also a double picture mode and video clip capability.

A USB cable comes with the camera to download the pictures to your computer and the camera has an LCD screen to view the pictures right in the woods.

I use a python locking cable to attach it to a tree. I’ve grown to really like these cables.

I've had some problems with the waterproof capabilities of this cam. I have tried just about everything I can think of to waterproof the unit but have been unsuccessful so far. I recently had to put the fresnel lense back in and wonder if this may have been the source of the water inflow. It hasn't rained since I replaced the lense so I'll find out after the next rainfall.

I gave the WhitetailCam a B for an overall grade. It has been one of our workhorse cameras but the water leak issue has been a thorn in its side. The other reason I gave the WhitetailCam a B is that I've also built a second trail camera and it has performed miserably. For some reason it is burning up 9 volt batteries for some unknown reason. I also attempted a third trail camera using a Sony S600 but gave up after wrestling with the soldering for several days. These experiences show me that making your own homebrew digital trail camera is possible but can have its own difficulties.

WhitetailCam deer picture



This is one of the pictures from our first set of outdoor pictures.


WhitetailCam P41 game camera



This is our WhitetailCam in the new black camouflage.


Return from the WhitetailCam P41 Review to the Digital Trail Camera Reviews.

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