The Victure HC200 Trail Camera

The most recent addition to my camera armoury is the Victure HC200 Trail Camera, at a special offer price of just £39 this seemed well worth trying.

Victure HC200 Trail Cam

What you get is a robust unit with waterproof IP66 camouflage effect finish. It can shoot stills as 12mp jpeg and shoots video at 1080HD (in AVI format). It has a PIR type movement sensor that triggers recording and can record at night using it's own inbuilt infrared lighting.

Side opening clips with lock option

Inside the display and control panel

Battery compartment, takes up to 8 AA cells

The instructions are not particularly clear but the camera operation is reasonably straightforward. First up is battery installation, it swallows 8 regular AA cells. It also needs a memory card and takes standard (UHS-I) SD cards up to 32Gb capacity, which can easily be formatted from the setup menu.

There are various configuration options; shoot stills and/or video, shoot one still at max res or shoot a short burst at lower res, set the length of the video clip, set the reset time etc. It takes a little practice (and luck) to get the camera well positioned, there is a test mode to help check the sensor field of detection but the camera has to be open if you want to see the camera view on the display, this can be awkward.

Stills shot of pine marten with plates of food

Stills shot of pine marten walking past

Stills shot triggered by a mouse

Stills shot in daylight, pine marten returns for last bite

For downloading the results the camera can be connected via a USB lead but seems to be very slow (like an old USB 1 type connection), taking the memory card out and using a card reader has given me much quicker downloads. Having a single still shot when movement is detected has only resulted in a few good shots however the video footage has proved better, capturing lots of activity. Here's some edited highlights:

Conclusions

This camera seems like very good value for money (even allowing for the cost of a memory card and a set of batteries). Battery life seems good, I'm still on my first set of batteries and the camera has been left out for about 8 nights so far. It's relatively easy to setup and start using it. It's sensitive enough to catch small movements, say from a mouse. The IR option allows it to record at night without lights which would likely disturb the animals being recorded. The camera can also be used for security, it has the option to be mounted and can have an external power supply connected. Image quality is limited however this is not trying to capture award winning wildlife photos like you might with a DSLR, instead this is all about discovering what is out there.

Pros

• Very good value for money.
• Easy to use.
• Waterproof, robust.
• Captures lots of images you would likely otherwise miss.

Cons

• Slow USB connection for downloads.
• Image quality is limited.

More info at: https://www.govicture.com/hc200

Update: 2022 New trail cam - read the Browning Recon Force Edge review.