Your going to hear from both sides. Here's my stance on it they can't see the black flash. They might notice it on a tree they might hear the shutter or the ir filter drop. But they can't see the flash . So that's one worry that's not there anymore.

Before you buy look at the covert mp8

 

I've got over 8,000 pics from using twenty some odd cameras over the last ten years. I have NEVER had an animal get chased off from using no glow vs low glow. I recently had one of each out facing in two different directions and had a bobcat walk between them and stand there for almost thirty seconds and then casually walk off. I'm convinced he heard the cameras but the light, or lack of, had no effect on him. My concern putting either out is which one a person might see at night and if it's above eye level neither one will be seen.

 

In my opinion, the flash, even low glow flash is visible to deer and can spook them. If given an option, I'd go for the no glow.

With that said, I think camera noise is a bigger factor, and one that most people don't take into account. Even the best reviews don't tell you if the camera makes noise, and I think this is their major flaw. If the camera makes even the slightest noise, deer will detect it and spook. You may have to buy the camera and test it yourself before you can really find out. The filter that flips back and forth over the lens to take day and night pictures is the culprit. I've tested several by having my wife walk back and forth while I turned the lights on and off. It would shock you how much noise some filters make as the camera transitions from day to night and back again.

Best advice I can give is buy the no glow, test it for noise by sitting next to it while someone walks in front of it in darkness and light, then mount it as high as you can above the deers line of sight.

 

In my opinion, the flash, even low glow flash is visible to deer and can spook them. If given an option, I'd go for the no glow..

I am pleased to be able to set that straight.

No.

I run 2 cameras every night 365 days a year and have untold numbers of pictures of deer looking at the flash and going back to eating.

I have shone bright lights on them and they ignore it. My neighbor puts out corn every night and feeding deer often trip his infra-red burglar light and they completely ignore it.

And............digital cameras are silent...........no mechanical 35mm shutters.

Opinions should be based upon experience and not guesses.

 

I have had both...the stealth can eat up a lot of card space...the Bushnells i would stay away from right now...i have 5 of the no glow and low glow....huge battery problems especially with all video like i do. Bushnell knows of the problem... i probably would go with the browning dark ops...super great on batteries and card consumption..the pics and vids are not up to par with bushnell.. but what good are thebushnells if it only last 3 weeks on lithiums...

 

I only go with Black Flash now. Why risk game or a person seeing the glow. Check out the Browing Dark Opps we've had great luck with them. You may also want to check out the Cabelas line of cameras. They claim guaranteed for life do that might be the next black flash camera that I buy. Good Luck....

 

Like rt2 i have the covert mp8 black no flash, it took 4555 pic's in 4 days. I had it set too high on senitivity. I really like mine

 

I have both no glow and low glow, deers eyes shine with both, so I believe they can see both. Low glows range is much further. I don't see either one spooking deer very much, they walk right up and put their noses to the camera sometimes. I do cut down on time between pics at night to one minute, day time to 5 seconds on feeders.

 

I don't know how true this is, but it was explained to me that the flash mimics lightning and its better than that red light glowing when infrared is being used. Deer live with lightning their entire lives. I have seen more pics of deer being spooked with that set up versus a flash.

 

I think a lot depends on how pressured the deer are in your area, around here the deer are very pressured and stay jumpy all the time..I only buy black flash cams now because I also like to use them as security cams.....

Stay away from Moultrie cams, once your warranty is up that's to bad, you can't even pay to have your cam fixed, they no longer have a service dept....I just found that out last week, I have a Moultrie M990i that was 3 months passed the warranty date and was told the best they could do was offer me a new cam at 50% off, screw them!!!!!

Mike

 

I just bought the Bushnell E2 about 3 wks ago. So far the camera is doing great. Takes tremendous day and night videos. Pictures are good as well.

Im not sure which model of Bushnell the man has that said, "lithiums" only lasted 3 wks, but mine has lithiums in it and still shows full. The E2 is new this year. He may be talking about the Aggressor model.

Ive found that it depends on how I place the camera as to whether the IR spooks them. If I place it higher looking down it doesnt seem to bother the older bucks, but if its low and they can look level at it, Ive had um to start backing up to leave.

Overall, if one wants to pony up the extra dollars Black flash cost that would eliminate the chances of spooking. Just remember, black flash will cause the pics to be a little grainy..

 

I have several cams, no glow, low glow and white flash.. None of the cams seem to bother the deer, I get most of my pics with the white flash which is a Covert Illuminator.. I do have a Stealth G42NG and the PIR sensor is no where as good as the Coverts or Spypoints that I have.. I just picked up a Bushnell Aggressor low glow which is a step up from the Essential E2, I will be getting out in the next week or 2..

 

Some of the old cameras we made because the ones you bought was huge. Had a shutter so been running cameras awhile.

You can get a covert mp8 black flash for $99.i don't get the argument. You have to turn you iPhone to camera to see if it's flashing. And you can see the red flash naked eye. Deer don't have iPhones they can't see it.

 

Joe, who has the covert mp8 for $99 ??? Cheapest I've found is $115 at eagle archery....

Thanks, Mike

 

I run 3 Coverts, all black flash, 2 mp6 and a mp8, tons of pics at night and hardly ever get them looking at the camera, I don't know if a flash bothers them or not,,,, I figure why not eliminate the flash... one less chance to bother them...

 

Filter clunk is more critical than no or low glo, IMO... :wink:

 

I have both red and black flash cams. I also have a red flash set up 2 ft away from a black flash and they are both getting the same pics of deer at night. I have no problem with red flash cams unless you're worried about theft. If that's the case, get a black flash


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I use both red and black too - deer seem to pay less attention to the black......

Check out this site - doesn't answer your question but a good roll-up on 2016 trail cams and may aid in a decision on a brand.

http://www.trailcampro.com/collections/game-camera-reviews

 

really really like the bushnell trophy cams with the black LED's. easy on battery life, and reliable... and when they aren't, I've had good service from Bushnell. I have three now but am only running two due to lack of places to hunt. :-( Although I think I might be putting up the third one again since the farmer moved the cows out of the one pasture, and we can hunt there now again.

Definitely invest in a camlockbox for each cam, and a good short hasp titanium lock set too (I just buy 8 matching locks with a set of common keys and use them for all my cam boxes and tree stands). I bolt my cam boxes to large trees from inside the box then lock the box inside, I don't mess with cables which can be cut so easily. Don't buy a cheap lock box either, they can be jimmied open sometimes without unlocking the lock.

(Of course you can't bolt anything to a tree on public land. This is only done on private land if the landowner doesn't mind.)

 

After reading the reviews I think I'll order a dozen of the Reconyx Hyperfire SC950, as soon as I win the Powerball drawing.:mg:
At $650 a pop you have to hire someone to keep an eye on them.

 

I use ... Nightvision, thermal scopes and IR illumination for seeing animals at night. Illuminators basically come either 850nm or 940nm. The 850's are brighter and cheaper, but the animals are more likely to see it; particularly well educated animals. 850's light up the world when you're looking through NVD's. These are the emitters used in "red" cameras. 940nm is less common, less visible, and closer to what's used in "black" cameras. Humans see up to about 740nm.

I have seen countless trail camera photos of deer looking at red cameras. One more thing, you rarely see big bucks on red game cameras around here. My choice would be black cameras IF you have a place where they won't get stolen and IF you're seriously after a smart animal or wary animals.

 

I'm down to one red flash a Reconyx as my scout guards have become unreliable or just stopped working. I've been replacing them with covert mp8's black flash.
Like I said earlier I've been running cameras for years pretty much since they came out. I've seen deer ignore both white then red then low glow red. And I've seen them turn inside out because of the flash. But I've never had one react to a black flash. Here's what happens IMO. First trigger/flash what was that and they look. Then they get flashed in the face on a two shot burst spooked. Then a good kick in the butt as the 3rd flash gets um.

I've wished over and over I would have keep the pics I got. With the Reconyx 10' up in a tree point down set on hyper fire. When a 8 point was coming to corn after season late January. When I interduce a red flash scout guard at eye level strapped to a tree.

The Reconyx caught the flash of the scout guard lucky timing. Then the squat and dust cloud and pic of the buck digging to get out of there. A week latter I got him a mile away on another camera. He never came back to that corn pile.

theres been countless other times I've see like events on both deer and yotes.

And I'm sure there countless guys saying I've never had a deer react.

 

Double gobble here lol.

Kinda off topic but I won't tolerate tracks in the snow and a blank SD card. First time that happens and it took a pic of me other words batteries aren't dead. That cameras history.

You think I test broadheads you should have been around when I was testing trail/ game cameras lol.

 

I was ... laying prone in a high jungle killing hogs out on a Pacific island a couple years ago. One night watching a bait site which a Moultrie 880 camera told of activity. Hogs were unpredictable and nearly unbaitable. They just didn't follow the normal patterns we see here in the states. Didn't travel in huge groups. Anyway, big hog comes in and I'm watching him with a PVS-14. Every now and then the world lights up in front of me. I initially thought it was somebody in the jungle with a major lumen search light. After looking around a couple times I remembered the IR camera and 850nm emitters ... LOL Dah! In this case the hogs were totally oblivious, but with spooky animals, could be like setting off an air raid warning. <smile> Same thing can be said of white, green and/or red flashlights in the 400nm to 700nm wave lengths. (light we can see) The spookier the animals the more they react to white light. Followed by green lights. And finally they are slowest to react to red light. BUT ... they still can and will react depending on their negative experiences with that light.

 

Stealth cameras are imported from China. The G42NG is a well built camera. The problem
is with the software that operates the camera. Videos from these cameras can not be viewed
in a card reader, but on a computer. I did not try a lap top as I do not have one. Contacting
the importer, all faults were blamed on other products. I spent many hours testing and sent
them reviews. Six of this series were returned to the Canadian store where I purchased them.
The Stealth importer, if the camera proved faulty would only allow half the purchase price toward
another camera. Thankfully I did not import those from the U.S.A. like I usually do as I would have
lost the cost of shipping, import fees, 1/2 the camera cost plus currency exchange. If I was fortunate
enough to get a good video, it was excellent. Some videos, the top half worked and not the bottom.
As an example: I had a nice 4x4 buck come in. The top half of him was perfect but the bottom half
looked like he was walking in green water. In the green part you could still see his legs and body.
Other videos would be scrambled, like you see when video failure shows on TV.
As I recall, these cameras have 42 LED and they are total black flash to the human eye. A black flash
camera to function properly has to have many LED's as they are covered with a black lens screen.
The reason I purchased these cameras was my Browning Strike Force BTC5 and BTC 5HD when
set to video were missing way too many animals and did not trigger until the animals were very close.
None of these cameras would power up properly with Lithium Ultimate batteries which are excellent
in colder weather and being a higher voltage 1.79 to 1.83 volt, gives more working room. These cameras
start to fail at 1.38 volt. Using the standard 1.55 to 1.60 volt batteries, you have very little working room
yet these batteries still have lots of power left for clocks, radios or flashlights. The Browning cameras are
imported, very high quality, but here again they have software problems.

 

I read to many stories on here and else where about cameras getting stolen. I would guess a lot of it happens at night, late evening( the flash possibly giving away the camera). I figure its better not to be seen then have a "flash" giving away my camera. And I figure it can only help my hunting as the animals have nothing to see either. The picture quality may not be quite as good as a flash, but I use reconyx HC600's and the pictures are very good, IMO.

 

I agree with you on the quality of the Reconyx. If I import from the U.S.A. a HC600 costs $549.99 plus shipping, import fees and
currency exchange on all this at 36 cents on the dollar. Buying the same camera in Canada from the same company as the U.S.A.
my cost is $799.99 plus 13% sales tax plus shipping equals approximately $925.00 When running 12 to 14 cameras, this is not affordable.

 

Reconyx... get one stolen and they'd have to put you on suicide watch... LOL

"Fast Eddie" Edward Rickenbacker was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on this day. Bet you didn't know that. <smile>