does anyone remember

[nightshade]

Iseem to recall a camera that had a trip shot facility i.e. anything that entered the selected viewing field tripped the shutter(or the digital equivalent)
i have been trying to photograph bats in flight with no success

[StuartDH]

There are many video cameras that do this sort of thing, but I can't recall a camera that had the same facility built-in.

You can buy a seperate infra-rad trigger that you could fit to your camera, but as far as I know they're not cheap

http://www.bobrigby.com/html/shutterbeam.html

[Blackdog]

Nightshade, have a look at this website Welcome to Stealth Cam I think they might have what you are looking for

[davewalker]

The new Zigview has this facility,but is a digital add on and quite expensive( £200.00 plus. Worth a look if only for interest Intro 2020 are the importers.

davew

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by StuartDH

There are many video cameras that do this sort of thing, but I can't recall a camera that had the same facility built-in.

You can buy a seperate infra-rad trigger that you could fit to your camera, but as far as I know they're not cheap

http://www.bobrigby.com/html/shutterbeam.html

you can also use a PIR detector off a security system to trip a flash gun - while you have the camera shutter open on Bulb setting - there needs to be little in the way of background light for this to work tho.

[jennyb]

Originally Posted by Blackdog

Nightshade, have a look at this website Welcome to Stealth Cam I think they might have what you are looking for

I have a stealthcam but the quality of the pictures is not good. I bought it to try to get pictures of the badgers that I know are in my garden, but I have only got some snaps of some very startled deer and one vague outline of a badger.

It is difficult to position so that when the motion detector is tripped, the camera gets a good shot. I have lots of shots when the detector has been tripped but there is nothing in the picture (animals moving too fast, I guess).

I have not thought about trying to get pictures of bats - must give that a try.

If anyone has any advice about using one of these, I would very much appreciate it.

Jenny

[Kev Lewis]

I'm fairly certain a domestic PIR sensor would not be sensitive enough to trigger on a small object like a bat unless it was very close to the sensor. An IR or laser trigger beam would work IF you could get the bat to fly through the beam. Ideally you would have two beams set up that cross each other and both need to be triggered to trip the flash/camera. This way you can prefocus on the crossing point with a fairly tight frame on the image rather than use a wideangle lens that covers the full length of one beam.

The shutterbeam system can be configured in this way but the electronics are pretty simple and could be made much cheaper than the commerical product.

This site has alternatives and this site has a simple flash trigger circuit

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Kev Lewis

I'm fairly certain a domestic PIR sensor would not be sensitive enough to trigger on a small object like a bat unless it was very close to the sensor. An IR or laser trigger beam would work IF you could get the bat to fly through the beam. Ideally you would have two beams set up that cross each other and both need to be triggered to trip the flash/camera. This way you can prefocus on the crossing point with a fairly tight frame on the image rather than use a wideangle lens that covers the full length of one beam.

The shutterbeam system can be configured in this way but the electronics are pretty simple and could be made much cheaper than the commerical product.

This site has alternatives and this site has a simple flash trigger circuit

i have used a domestic pir before but it only works on the big slow bats such as noctule - the pips and daubies are too fast for the sensor to pick up unless they fly directly at it.

a freind of mine has used the circuitry from a bat detector and a directional mike - based on the principle that as the bat gets closer the call on the detector gets louder - but rather than putting the feed to a speaker , benjy fed it on to a trigger voltage circuit so when the call reached a certain "volume" it caused the flash to trip - it took quite a bit of trial and error faffage to calibrate the "trip volume" so that the bat was in range when the flash fired and more to get the mike to act truly directionally and he did get some decent pics eventually - It took about 1000 shots to get 5 or so useful images but he got there in the end.