Browning Trail Cameras Recon Force

Context on me: this is the first "trail camera" I've purchased. Previously I've worked with DSLRs, GoPros, and iPhones for photography purposes (including timelapses, particularly with GoPros). What I was looking for was basically a motion-activated GoPro - i.e. something that records decent 4K video in response to movement in the frame - for identifying and monitoring the various wildlife that visits my property.Given that, this trail camera is really not up to the task. I'm not yet decided, but I fear I'll be returning it. While it has successfully helped me figure out what wildlife is roaming my property, that's about all it's done - the images & video it captures are not good enough quality to share.The major flaws are:1) Image & video quality is bad. Specifically:1.A) The 4K video's image quality is really bad. Think iPhone 4 levels of video quality in terms of effective resolution, artifacting, etc. Much worse than any GoPro ever made, or any 4K-capable smartphone I've ever seen. The 4K's barely any better than the 1080p60 video (from the same trail camera). While sometimes (and only sometimes) it does reveal slightly more detail, it has nasty compression artifacts that ruin the image in some situations, and it's very soft overall as the trail camera is clearly not applying any post-processing in 4K mode (most notably lacking is sharpening & noise reduction - even in direct midday sun the 4K video has a lot of image noise, and is soft). Probably a big contributor to the low quality is that while it uses H.264 inside an MP4 container for 1080p60 video - which is reasonable, if a little outdated given the wide availability of H.265 now - for 4K videos it uses Motion JPEG inside an AVI container (hello 90's!). Motion JPEG arguably has its uses in very specific scenarios, but IMHO this isn't one of them, and unequivocally one of its major trade-offs is that it's simply not an efficient video codec. The result is that despite the 4K videos being 3x the bitrate (~file size for a given length of recording), the image quality is a wash between the two. For reference, the bitrates work out to around 3.2 MB/s (25 Mb/s) for 1080p60 & 9.5 MB/s (76 Mb/s) for 4K. Linear PCM 16-bit audio tracks included.1.B) The still image quality is passable, but only 8 MP. Yes, it's advertised as 32 MP, but that's a farce - the camera appears to actually be 8 MP, and the 16 MP & 32 MP modes it offers just do digital upscaling - they don't add any more detail, and in some of my test cases they actually degraded the image quality noticeably. So to be very clear, the camera is 8 MP only, in truth & in practice. Again, think back to first generation iPhones, or earlier, in terms of image quality. Dynamic range is very poor - you cannot mix sunlight & shade in one photo; you'll either get absolute black for the shaded portions, or absolute white for the sunlit portions. There's no HDR options to try to compensate (no exposure control at all, in fact - you get auto everything and that's final).1.C) Infra-red (night) image quality is very poor. The effective resolution is closer to 2 MP - everything is extremely soft, and anything even approaching fine detail is utterly gone. Red-eye in animals is extremely pronounced (though not unexpected). I haven't really tested the effective range of the IR illumination, but even at just a metre or two away there's a lot of1.D) The camera appears to be fixed at roughly infinity focus. Anything closer than a few metres is out of focus (though whether that's visible depends on the aforementioned factors - e.g. at night everything's super soft regardless, so it matters a lot less).2) The motion detection is bad. Specifically:2.A) There's basically no sensitivity adjustment or zoning or anything else on the motion detection (just changing the nominal range from 80 ft to 60 ft, which in my testing so far yields no apparent difference). Which means I've ended up with SD cards completely full of nothing but trees swaying gently in the breeze. This trail camera is very clearly not intended to be used anywhere there's wind, or foliage, or basically anything which moves at all that isn't your target. Now I understand why most of the example photos & videos you see for these trail cameras are in barren woods with nothing but bare dirt & naked tree trunks visible - any foliage and you're in trouble.2.B) In video mode at least, the reaction time to an animal walking into the frame is quite poor - it's definitely slower than the 0.4 seconds the manual claims for 'FAST' mode. Looking at the footage I have so far, it appears to be about 3 seconds. 7.5x slower than claimed. And that's for a big animal walking across the frame - seemingly the best case scenario for trail camera motion detection. It's hard to prove, but I have a suspicion that even for animals as large as a bobcat, if they walk directly towards the camera, it doesn't trigger at all (based on successfully & seemingly reliably capturing video of said bobcat when the camera is placed 90° to its nightly path, rather than in line with it where thus far it mysteriously hasn't captured any video).2.C) More just a comment than a direct criticism: I'm not convinced that the motion detection actually works reliably for smaller animals, despite its proclivity for tree branches. The smallest it's managed to trigger from thus far, for me, are rabbits jumping or flocks of quail flying close by the camera. Which in some sense isn't too bad - all these trail cameras seem obsessed with deer for some reason, so I am glad they detect anything smaller - but I worry that if it has trouble with a rabbit three metres away, how's it going to pick up bobcats or foxes ten metres away, or indeed even deer thirty metres away?3) The wind noise on the microphone is quite severe, washing out the animals' sounds in scenarios where a human would hear them clearly. When there's no wind, if you're so lucky, the microphone actually does a half-decent job of picking up quiet and/or distant sounds - I could hear a skunk digging through our compost at about 5 metres from the camera, for example.Some other things which aren't major or at least unexpected flaws & limitations, but worth noting / clarifying:• Though you can purportedly run a timelapse while still recording still images (I haven't tested that), there doesn't appear to be any way to run a timelapse while still recording *video*. Just FYI. It's not too surprising - that's a much more complicated capture scenario for the image sensor & processor than interspersed timelapse & still photos, but still, it's a shame as I'd love to mix timelapses with video clips.• It's too early for me to tell conclusively, but the battery life does seem to be less than I'd (arbitrarily) expected - I seem to be using nearly 20% per 24 hour period, meaning a full-to-dead battery life of about five days. That's actually fine for me given it's just in my yard, but if you were actually intending to leave this out in remote areas for significant periods of time, you'll perhaps need to make use of the 12V input with a secondary, big battery.• I haven't been able to get it to utilise its purported 'Smart IR Video' mode, where it's supposed to keep recording while there's motion (and only while there's motion). In every single case of video it's recorded for me thus far, it's just done the fixed time interval, even when the animal was still right in the middle of the frame and still moving at the end of the video. I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt thus far and assuming I'm doing something wrong… hopefully I'll figure out how to get it working eventually. It would be very handy especially when recording 4K video, as otherwise you get less than an hour of video on a 32 GiB SD card, and it sucks when only the first five or ten seconds of every video actually contain an animal (you can set it to record video clips as short as five seconds, but then what if the animal is still there after five seconds?).• The field of view is much narrower than I expected - 55° according to the manual, which is presumably diagonal field of view. It's nowhere near wide-angle, e.g. like a GoPro (149° diagonally). To my eyes it looks not much wider than 50mm (in traditional 35mm terms). In some sense that's good, since you don't need to get as close to the animals, but I found it a bit challenging to find a good viewpoint in some scenarios, one where the animal would remain in the frame long enough to both trigger video capture and get more than a split-second of video of it leaving the frame).• It won't do timelapses at night. Presumably doing so would kill the battery too quickly, because of the need for the IR LEDs to be on so frequently. A minor shame (especially if you're intending to wire it up to a big external battery or power source anyway, and don't need to worry about battery life).• The manual & official product documentation state that it records 4K video at 15 FPS. This is thankfully false - it records at 24 FPS.• It doesn't technically record 4K video - it actually records UHD, which is slightly smaller - specifically 3,840 x 2,160 (4K is 4,096 x 2,160). Though the confusion is rampant in the industry - e.g. almost all so-called 4K TVs & computer monitors aren't really, they're UHD.

First the bad:- The 4k ability is poor at best, explained below (but you dont need it)- Motion detecting is extremely poor in my tests if the subject is moving towards the camera, at no angle.The Good:- I did a side by side comparison with two cameras (same model) The 4k setting produces an AVI file at 15FPS and it looked terrible!! Grainy as all get out with no color commitment. However, the Ultra HD setting (in a more preferred MP4 format) on the camera next to it looked phenomenal! Ultra HD is a beautiful 60 FPS. Yes it is a larger file size, but you shouldn't be out there with a 2GB card anyway! So if you buy this camera, the Ultra HD setting will not disappoint. (I will update with game video ASAP, but Amazon destroys video quality like it hates it).- Lots of customizable settings.- Small and solid like Brownings areI have been through multiple Browning cameras after loving my 5HDX, and this is the best video quality I have found yet. I bought 4 of these and plan to keep them after I did my testing. Media samples to come.

Image and video quality is excellent ! IR lighting at night seems to not illuminate as wide a field of view as the camera lens is shooting.

Took terrible quality night photos (daytime photos are great though). But I bought for night video. But I discovered that on video, the camera took several hundred photos of nothing. This indicates a problem with the infared function and camera is then taking photos of movement (like wind in trees) and the heat sensitive mode is not operating correctly. Cheaper cameras have this problem. I have 4 Reconyx and do not have this problem. I wanted to see if this camera would do the job upon recommendation from others but it is either defective or just poorly designed. Thank you

This cam has superb video quality. It outshines the cheaper browning cameras I have by quite a bit. In retrospect I wish all 9 Browning cameras I have were this model.

The video quality is great on this camera. Shooting at 1080p 60fps you get crystal clear shots, but the only problem is, it died on me. Will not be buying another one.

Awesome trail camera. I highly recommend it!

Works great!

Robust & well made product. The packaging is especially strong & protective. Menu /control system well thought through & simple to use. Camera function is a base 4MP image, the higher MP images being interpolated. Images at the base 4MP are natural & fit for purpose. Video is excellent, both high & ultra. Ultra uses about 300MB of data per 20 sec burst. Use a large capacity SD card. Battery life is very good. Reaction / trigger time is very quick, the burst mode in Camera function excels with fast moving creatures. B&W Night Vision mode is good & flash adequate in camera mode. Video & night also good, depends on distance & movement speed of subject for clarity. The tripod mount allows use with a Gorilla tripod & ball-head mount, making the system light & portable for my specific needs. Unit is supplied with a webbing strap for tree / pole fixing. To-date totally weatherproof. It's not stated but this model is the Browning 2017 Recon Force Extreme Full HD. Model BTC-7FHD-PX

I have bought many trail camera in the past year to give it a go but this one is definitely the best of all.Little more expensive but so worth it if you want quality! The cam on video or photo do not used much batteries at all comparing to others and the most important. Fabulous video and photo quality also at night and really easy to set up. This is the one for me for sure.Great for deer recon or what ever use to want to do! Enjoy a super product and it look good. Good value for money!

My first ever trail camera. It is so easy to use and works a treat ! Have had it for less than a week and already caught a badger at our back door ! Delivery was first class and instructions easy to understand if you read slowly and carefully. Would certainly buy another and from same company.Don't hesitate, go for it !

Brilliant camera my brother bought a different brand but always asks to borrow mine as it so out performs his one fully recommend.

Browning propose d'excellentes caméras, mais elles ne comportent pas de retour vidéo sur écran afin de faciliter le positionnement.Cette camera apporte une réponse à ce problème.Le modèle que j'ai reçu est bien une BTC-7HD-PX, avec exactement le camouflage de la photo (les caméras précédentes avaient un camouflage différent, très vert).L'écran est de qualité satisfaisante, le gain en ergonomie est réel.On retrouve toutes les fonctionnalités qui font le succès de Browning (rapidité de déclenchement, mode Timelapse plus, qualité d'image et vidéo), avec quelques nouvelles options pour améliorer la prise de vue de nuit.Des modifications semblent avoir été apportées à l'architecture interne de la caméra, et le résultat est sensiblement différent par rapport à ma BTC-7FHD, pas toujours dans le bon sens:- d'abord le son est médiocre, il passe à 8kHz PCM mono au lieu de 48kHz AAC stéréo ce qui est rédhibitoire pour les vidéos d'oiseaux: pourquoi avoir sacrifié le son excellent de la BTC-7FHD ??- le piqué d'image est meilleur (visiblement le capteur est différent, plus sensible), mais le contraste est un peu trop poussé ce qui surexpose les tons clairs.- la fréquence des vidéos passe à 60ips au lieu de 30ips, et le taux de compression a été augmenté (AVC à bitrate constant=19Mbps pour du 60ips contre AVC@24Mbps variable pour du 30ips pour l'ancien modèle) sans que la qualité n'en souffre.- la zone de netteté est à présent à plus de 4m (ce qui se trouve plus près est flou).- les prises de vue de nuit sont de meilleures qualités, plus nettes, mieux contrastées.- le capteur est toujours un FullHD (1920x1080), mais la taille minimale en mode photo est de 4Mpix (image extrapolée et non image brut de capteur)Donc globalement il y a du mieux côté image, même si j'aurais préféré pouvoir avoir la main sur certains réglages.Par contre, je suis déçu par ce retour en arrière sur le son (par rapport à la version précédente BTC-7FHD-P si je me base sur les vidéos qu'on trouve sur le net) et sur la distance minimale de focus.A noter que ces progrès se paient: la caméra passe de 150€ à 230€...Mais il y a à présent de nouveaux modèles plus abordables dans la gamme.Je n'ai pas fait de tests plus approfondis car j'ai retourné la caméra: la qualité sonore est essentielle pour mon utilisation.