Sorry you had an incident. I don't know too much about them except that they work work quite well. The night pics are more like looking at a negative image.

Edited to add that it is battery operated and strapped to a tree.

Our local PD has a game camera that they placed in a birdhouse in a spot where cars were getting broken into. They were able to ID the miscreants.

We have one which we use more to ID cars that seem to find it fun to drive through our fields creating ruts that make it hard to mow, and to provide security for outbuildings. Some do well in low light, and you want one with more pixels to give good detail. I would read a lot of reviews on specific ones or go in person to a sporting good store to discuss the features of the ones they carry. I have also seen some with fairly poor quality pictures.

I’ll be following this thread for anybody that posts helpful info. My big question is how they are powered. We have lost some important packages out of our mailbox within the last 1.5 years, and this week a neighbor found a big pile of mail in the woods. Apparently somebody is stealing the mail, which is pretty easy to do since all the mailboxes are in a line together at the entrance to the nieghborhood...completely isolated and hidden by pine trees from the view of any person unless a car drives by, at which point the driver would just assume it’s somebody getting his mail. They went through the mail in the woods and dumped what they didn’t want. Somebody has a motion sensor light to put up, but since the mail is stolen in broad daylight I’d really like something else. If a game camera can run and stay charged for several hours without having a plug, wouldn’t that be good news! Maybe solar powered? I’d hate to have to put in new batteries every other day. Even with rechargables that would get expensive and tedious, especially since the boxes are a ways from the house.

Oh man, if that dude got caught = felony. Anyway, some are battery operated from what I could gather looking at a couple on Amazon.

Deanna, ours is battery operated. It's motion activated, so the batteries last longer than if they were on all the time. I would also talk with your local PD about the mail issue since it is a felony. The camera is visible, but putting up a bird house for a couple of weeks and then adding the camera the bird house once it isn't new any more might nab the person.

NHBabs, I feel quite silly for not thinking about the motion detector aspect and battery life. Very good and encouraging point! As for the felony, as soon as the neighbor found the mail he contacted the USPS and they are now aware of the problem. I assumed they contacted authorities, but I'm going to email the neighbor and check. The boys remembered that grandma gave them a game camera. They're going to pull it out this evening and we'll see if it is an option. I can't remember if it's a "kids" model (which means low specs) or a "real" one. They actually never put it up, and I forgot about it. We would have had a lot of fun with it before now!

Our mail boxes are completely surrounded by pines and other trees, so I feel there's a good chance of mounting on a tree with a good view that would not be noticeable to the thief.

Good grief. It just occurred to me that I hope he isn't a Houzz/GardenWeb reader! Notice how I assume he isn't a gardener? And I also assume he's a "he"? I probably need some gender sensitivity training. Tonight I'll say over and over before I go to sleep, "Girls and gardeners can be criminals too girls and gardeners can be criminals too girls and gardeners can be criminals too..."

jrb, those foxes are SO CUTE! Actually, mom looks kind of devious and crafty, but with that cute cub behind her she suddenly takes on a kinder look. I think I'm too Disney-fied

"Actually, mom looks kind of devious and crafty,"

Kind of like a Fox, ;-)

"Kind of like a Fox, ;-)"

Exactly!

Those foxes are adorable!

It just occurred to me that I hope he isn't a Houzz/GardenWeb reader! Notice how I assume he isn't a gardener?

I think that is a safe assumption. I am convinced that vegetable or perennial gardeners are a....'step above' the general riff raff ;).