I am trying to observe flying insects near my honeybee hive and want to find a trail camera that will give me clear media, i.e. pictures, videos, etc… Any recommendations? Trying to spend less than $300.
A trail camera may not be the best option for your use. A small cheap action camera with motion detection will likely be better. Either way, depending on the model you choose, you can jury-rig a cheap camera magnification filter to the from of the camera lens for closer shots.
Another option would be a camera that has a time-lapse option, so you can set it to automatically take photos at set intervals, so nothing needs to actually trigger it. Olympus Toughs will do time-lapse, tho more than $300, as does the Akaso Brave 7 action camera, and others.
If your goal is to get videos/pix of insects other than your bees, they are unlikely to be caught by a trail cam. Even when the camera is set to have no delay when triggered, the insects will have already sped by when it starts recording, or the insects will be too small to trigger it.
But the trail cam will be triggered by blowing grass or other vegetation, and depending on the location of your hive, you will have lots of footage to wade through, in hopes of catching something.
Also the quality of the videos is not really good enough for insects. (I have a mid-price trail cam).
I used to keep hives, and set up the trail cam a few times (on one of the posts for the electric fence) hoping to catch a bear or raccoon or skunk trying to get at the hives. (Got a bear once, but not near the hive)
It’s fun to have one, though, just to see what kind of critters are sneaking around your house when you’re not looking. I’ve “caught” skunks, raccoons, possums, woodchucks, mice, foxes, coyotes, turkeys, deer, and the aforementioned bear; still hoping for a moose…
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