XTU Solar Trail Camera Review & Part 1 of Setting the DSLR Camera Trap on a River.

George S Blonsky

Dear Friends,  In this video I review the XTU Solar Trail Camera and set up the DSLR Camera Trap on a river in the hope of catching animals coming down to have a drink in the evening... this is Part 1 of the camera trap and given the nature of the location it looks like it will take a good few weeks of setting and re-setting the camera to capture some wildlife, so please subscribe if you would like to follow along.  Many thanks George  Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 02:56 XTU Solar Trail Camera Overview 08:54 Locating the XTU in the field 11:22 Searching for a location on the river for the DSLR Camera Trap 12:34 DSLR Camera Trap Set-up No.1 14:32 Reviewing the footage on the XTU Solar Trail Camera 19:13 Back to the river to the DSLR 21:45 Re-setting the DSLR Camera Trap   Please note as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.  Featured in this video (affiliated link)  : the XTU Solar Trail Camera : https://amzn.to/3Xg7umg  Complete list of affiliated links to my favourite gear &amp; clothing plus other resources I am happy to recommend: https://georgesblonsky.com/resources/  or... visit my Amazon storefront at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/georgesblonsky-geopictorial?ref_=cm_sw_

Transcript

00:00So hello my friends I hope you're all well. About five days ago I decided seeing

00:07as I was having such difficulty with the heat and the strong light during the

00:13day to be able to film or photograph any wildlife on the lake or even in the

00:20surrounds I would try and find a spot for the DSLR camera trap and my thinking

00:27was that I would try and find a place for it find a nice location for it along

00:33one of the small rivers that feeds the lake thinking that that's probably where

00:38a lot of animals are coming down to have a drink at night because a lot of the

00:45mountain streams and springs have dried up now we had a dry winter a fairly dry

00:53spring as well not a lot of rainfall there was not much snow over the winter

00:58and so the mountain springs and streams have dried up so logically there are the

01:06animals are coming down to the to one of those rivers to have a drink at night I

01:12spent half a day wading through the stream trying to find a location with

01:20absolutely no luck I did a lot of talking to camera took a lot of footage of me

01:26walking backwards forwards as we do and unfortunately that card in this camera

01:34was corrupted or something happened to it and I lost all of that footage but it

01:40was a failed attempt anyway and I went back the next day to try and find a

01:50location further upstream but I didn't do so much recording of the whole event right

01:58I just did basically a little bit and then the set up the camera set up I also

02:05was given a little trail camera a solar-powered trail camera to review which I

02:12set up here at a different location to try and see if I could get some footage of

02:18jackals and this is an area where there are a lot of jackals so basically that's

02:25the introduction to where the next bit of video that you're going to see picks up

02:30at which is day two of me trying to find a spot for the for the trail cam for the

02:36jackals and also for the DSLR and I start off by giving a little introduction to the

02:45trail cam and a little few more details about it so that's where we're at and I

02:51shall let day two roll right now okay so this is the little trail camera that I've

03:01been asked to review it is the XTU SV-TCQSW solar trail camera it is Wi-Fi

03:11enabled which means that by scanning the QR code in the manual somewhere in here

03:19yeah you can download the app to your phone and control all the camera

03:26settings and review footage and photos by the app on your phone it is a 2.7K video

03:3632 megapixel camera as usual weather sealed it's actually really tiny you can see

03:43the scale of it in my hands little solar panel on the top which charges the internal battery

03:51if I just open it up you'll see there's slots for four double A's it only takes

04:00the regular double A's not the rechargeables so don't expect to be able to

04:05put rechargeables in here and have them be recharged by the solar the solar only

04:10recharges the internal battery little screen on the back which as usual is

04:16that is quite small and difficult to view your footage and photos which is why

04:22having the app is so useful to view everything on that three buttons on the

04:28left three buttons on the right for navigating through the menu but like I

04:33said if you download the app you can do everything through there so you don't

04:36have to fiddle around with this even though it's it is quite intuitive to use on

04:41here as well on the bottom there is the SD card it does come with an SD card in

04:48the box there is the USB port for charging the internal battery the on-off

04:56switch and the DC port also for recharging if I power it up now and we'll

05:08connect the app so we can have a look at it whilst I'm doing this I'll do a screen

05:17record of the phone as well so that it's easier to see what what I'm doing on the

05:22screen so the app is called trail cam and we just tap it to open and there is the

05:29camera the first camera which I can just click on at the bottom of the first

05:36screen you'll see it says the four items down here is camera gallery status and

05:41settings so if we go first to the camera to connect it tap to connect camera so now

05:50it's waking up the camera and connecting via the little one the Wi-Fi signal join

06:06takes a few seconds for it to actually connect okay now it's connected so if I

06:11lift that up you can see live view of my garden which is why I'm sat doing this

06:17video if we then go to settings in here we have all the information that we can we need and

06:31we can

06:32change on the trail cam so there's information date time memory card it gives you the status of

06:38that working mode it has either motion detection timed capture time-lapse

06:47photography if we go back you can choose between photo and video or both work time

06:55you can set the parameters of when you want the camera to be operational you can

07:02set the detection sensitivity through here I have it set on medium as usual you can

07:12also set the detection interval audio and display is basically if you want the

07:20watermark and the Wi-Fi led to be operational you can set different

07:26languages you have security so you can set a password and then you can reset all the

07:31settings the factory default settings on there memory card if we click on it gives

07:40you the capacity how much is left and if you want to do loop recording and then you

07:45can format it date and time you can set the format of the date and time and device

07:57information it gives you all the details of the device temperature battery level etc in the gallery

08:06which there shouldn't be anything on there at the moment you can actually view and download all the

08:12photos and images direct to your phone which means that you don't have to switch cards out you can

08:18just visit the camera you don't even have to open it up connect to the camera download your photos and

08:23videos reformat it and then just offload them from your phone to your laptop which is super convenient

08:34and that's about it really super useful little camera in terms of the being able to use it with a

08:42phone we'll visit the location that I've put this up at with the jackals and review the footage of

08:51there of those jackals I've come over to the area that I was told there were lots of jackals and

09:02I just

09:02spotted one in the field behind me here right in the corner there and he's just run off so I'm

09:08gonna

09:08see if there's a track there that I can he ran off into the undergrowth and if there's a track

09:17trail maybe it's a

09:20good spot to put the camera I could just hear him it's crashing through the undergrowth there

09:37unfortunately I can't find a decent spot to place the camera there's no mounting points anywhere let me try back

09:45down here again

09:46okay I think I found a spot it's gonna be as good as any at this point there's a

09:54clearly delineated track that goes off across the entrance to the gully and goes off into this woodland here behind

10:02me

10:03so I'm assuming somewhere in there is where they're denning and they use this to come out into the fields

10:10to hunt

10:12and to scavenge okay so I'm gonna set up on this tree overlooking the path this way

10:33okay so that's all set up on the tree overlooking the track here I think it's actually quite a decent

10:40spot

10:40because there's still enough light to get through to hit the little solar panel to keep it charged up

10:49and I'll be back in a few days just to check on it and see what if anything it has

10:55recorded I'm absolutely

10:57dripping it is so hot it's 38 degrees again today

11:04I don't know if you can make out the track that goes along here

11:07up into the woods that's the track I'm overlooking anyway

11:13so now on to the river to see if I can spot uh find a location spot for the DSLR

11:21okay so I'm back in the river as you can see it's absolutely beautiful down here

11:28um about a kilometer up from where I was yesterday I found an access point along the embankment here

11:36and uh just gonna wander along here and see if I can find any tracks leading down to the water

11:49okay I'm facing various options which I'm finding difficult to choose between

11:55so there's a fallen tree behind me across the uh stream

12:01uh it doesn't go all the way across on this side

12:04but off the end of it on that side there is a track

12:08which means that potentially there is some animal using it as a crossing point

12:14also on the embankment that I'm stood on now there are what I believe to be deer tracks

12:21which means there are deer coming down from the mountain and there's a track here

12:26behind me on the embankment which leads up through and beyond into the brush there

12:33what I decided in the end was because there is on the embankment a ramp here that animals have come

12:44down and there's a few prints in there and then they've crossed this little bit of water and I

12:49don't know if you can make it out but there's some prints here deer prints coming across onto this little

12:57bit of land this little beach so I have framed up the dslr looking downstream like this

13:09in between the trees so the dslr is here uh with that view that composition

13:17I have a flash mounted on the tripod here as a head-on there's a flash in the crook of

13:23the tree just there

13:24as a side light the sensor is on this limb here and will hopefully trigger when the animal comes across

13:38comes down the embankment and across onto the spit of land here

13:44I have the one of the trail cams is on that limb over there overlooking this log

13:51to see if anything is using it to cross and I have the other trail cam behind me over here

13:59overlooking

14:00the dslr so that'll be this view here to see what animals it's quite a wide view to see if

14:11any animals

14:13are using it so that's that's the setup and I'll be back in a few days time I just have

14:22to turn

14:23everything on make sure it's triggering and I'll be back in a few days time hopefully we'll have

14:28something on the camera so I shall see you all then okay so as I explained the little trail camera

14:36that I

14:37was asked to review is a wi-fi enabled solar powered uh camera um and I'm just walking up to

14:47it now

14:49to see if there's any footage of it and what I'll do is I'll check it on uh via the

14:56app on my phone

14:58and I'll do a screen record of my phone so that you can have a look and see how that

15:03app

15:04works so bear with me a moment and I'll get the phone out and uh do that okay so I'm

15:10at the camera

15:11here um I'll start the screen record okay that's recording the app is called trail cam go which I'll

15:22click on and then I click on this camera which is the XTU at the bottom of the screen you'll

15:31see it

15:31says on the bottom left camera so connect to the camera so wi-fi connecting okay so that's the live

15:44view from the camera and if we go bottom left it says gallery um just there and we have oh

15:52we do

15:52have a whole bunch of images here so we can click on any one let's click on this one here

15:57nighttime view

16:01oh and there's a jackal coming through let's try a different one

16:12that loads up you can see the jackal moving through the um tree line in the back there let's try

16:19another

16:26there he is coming through again

16:32so it looks like the um the jackal's not bothered by the camera

16:42so i'm guessing it is a low glow or no glow uh camera i wasn't sure because i couldn't find

16:49that

16:49anywhere in the um in the manual so this is a a track which is basically just a crossing point

17:01but at least we're able to record a few uh a little bit of footage let's try one of the

17:07daytime ones

17:11fantastic so yeah i think it's a fantastic little camera um the um it'll be interesting to see it on

17:21the big screen but it looks like the quality is really nice as well it's a 2.7k video uh

17:27footage

17:32so um i'm hoping that the quality is really nice and i think it judging from what i'm looking at

17:37on

17:37the phone it looks really good okay sorry for this uh interjection into the video uh it'll be very brief

17:45uh i just want to mention two things uh firstly i'm rather excited about the fact that um i didn't

17:51see

17:51it on the day when i went to collect the camera but it picked up three wolves which is amazing

17:56uh and it gives me um some idea about what i might do in the future for um setting up

18:05more cameras

18:06there even the dslr and even maybe staking it out myself in the hide with the big camera

18:15and the second thing is i just wanted to confirm that the picture quality on the laptop of the videos

18:20looks great both daytime and nighttime lots of detail nice color uh it um yeah it looks really great

18:27okay back to the video uh so i can i think i'm quite happy to recommend this little camera it's

18:35uh 70

18:36pounds uh on amazon in the uk um so whatever that is in dollars and euros um so i'll put

18:45links to it

18:46in the description below um it will be an affiliated link so i will make a couple of pennies off

18:52that

18:53um but it won't change the price for you uh if you're interested in acquiring a solar powered uh camera

19:01at a very reasonable price so thoroughly recommend it okay i'm on to the um to the stream to recover

19:11the

19:11dslr like ammo trap now

20:00uh coming up to the location of the camera everything looks to be intact

20:14hopefully so let's see if anything's on it

20:32okay so nothing on the camera unfortunately

20:37okay change of mind um the one trail camera that was behind overlooking the dslr had nothing on it

20:47the other trail cam which i had put looking down this log uh recorded some activity and i think it

20:55got

20:56a jackal and a fox that came down to to have a drink right next to the log and they

21:02used the log to

21:03to cross uh to cross uh the stream so despite the storm tomorrow i'm actually very tempted to put the

21:13camera relocate the camera just here next to this uh fallen tree

21:20uh now thing is whether to put it on the tree to catch the animal coming across it

21:26or to put it down by the water where the jackal was having a drink okay dilemmas

21:36okay let me gather up all the kit bring it over there and then i'll see what the compositions the

21:42various compositions are like and make a decision then reconfigured the setup and what i've done is

21:49i've set the camera up here on the uh right next to the uh to the tree the fallen tree

22:00and it looks both up the log you can see because i put it on wide angle and it can

22:06see this little

22:07bit of beach here uh where the jackal came down to have a drink and so the um the head

22:17-on flash is

22:17on the tripod leg the trigger is on the log uh right next to the camera lens um with a

22:27fairly wide um

22:30angle of capture angle of trigger um because i don't know where the animal will come from

22:39i have set up uh this uh branch leaning down here with an upright which i've tied together to be

22:50a

22:50little bit stronger and to resist anything pushing against it whether it's wind or an animal with the

22:58second flash as a side light and backlight on top i've put one of the trail cams overviewing both the

23:07log here and the beach where the um jack was having a drink and then opposite on the tree just

23:17here is

23:18another trail cam looking back over the whole scene here so that's the setup um

23:31we shall see if we get lucky again with the fox and the jackal or anything else that might come

23:36along

23:38so once again i'll leave it a few days uh and come back and see if there's anything on it

23:46fingers

23:46cross this time we might get a shot okay i shall catch up with you in a few days

23:53you

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