Acorn Cellular Trail Camera Testing

Fig 1:  Acorn 5210MG and 6210MG
Cellular Trail |Cameras

I often get asked about how I test trail cameras and in particular the cellular versions so here is a brief overview of my test bench setup.

Figure 2 shows the complete assembly of test card, timer, meters and screen monitor.

The test card enables  a basic evaluation of the camera's lens performance and focusing.

The laptop screen shows a timer and clock, the former of which is used to test the camera's trigger time and also time longer events such as image/video sequences, network transmissions and time lapse functions et.c

The timer is triggered by a manual slider and paddle ( figure 3 ) which also triggers the camera at exactly the same time. The resulting photograph taken by the camera captures the timer and shows how long in tenths of a second, it took the camera to wake up and fire its shutter. This is the camera's trigger

Bushnell and Ltl Acorn comparative trigger speed tests

Fig 1:  Cameras
under test.

The new BushnellHD Trophy Camera model 119477 has been waiting for several weeks, for me to start more comparative tests alongside the Acorn 6210.

Because of the recent trigger speed improvements to both these cameras, I've been eager to see how they would compare, fully expecting the Bushnell with its 0.6sec reaction time to outperform the 6210 with its reaction time of 0.8 of a second. As it turned out I was in for a big surprise.

I also decided to test last years Bushnell 119467 and the Acorn 5210 at the same time to give a clear indication of how things had improved. The chart below clearly and graphically shows how these cameras compare. They were all tested at exactly the same time under perfect conditions (full, even overcast) for this test, there being no chance of flashes of sunlight causing anomalous triggers.

Camera settings were identical, as shown on the table below, and all were loaded with a 4GB SanDisk SDHC card.

The tests were conducted by my walking across the field of view, at 90 degrees to

Trigger Speed Tests - Bushnell/Acorn Review - Part 6

Test Cameras

Trail Camera users have varying attribute preferences when selecting the right camera for the work they are carrying out; but the one thing that every one agrees on is the need for a fast trigger speed.

The trigger speed is the time it takes for a given camera to wake up and take a shot after something has triggered its IR sensor.

Animals can be moving fast when they pass a camera and blank images and tips of tails are a common result when the camera is set at 90 degrees to the trail. For this test the cameras shown left were set vertically to ensure each one was looking at exactly the same trigger and all were tested at the same time. The extra 6210 was present for a different test. Who says men can't multi-task?

The Bushnell has a single sensor window while the Ltl Acorn cameras have additional twin side sensors (unique among trail cameras, I believe) which are intended to speed up it's response time. This is actually a single sensor detecting through both side windows at the same time.


The combined field of view (FOV) of the Acorns two side sensors and the main sensor is a 100 to 120° angle of detection. When a heat source first crosses the PIR area of the side sensor, the camera is activated and ready to shoot after 1 second. If the heat source continues into the PIR area of the main sensor, the camera takes pictures immediately, therefore catching the whole body of an animal (in theory). This split-second process could be as short as 0.2 second.

The tests were conducted by me walking across the front of the cameras at 90 degrees to them and at a distance of 5 metres. All the cameras were set on their high sensitivity setting and programmed to take a single image on each trigger event.

I conducted many tests and these four results are consistently representative. With a faster trigger the figure is walking into the picture and the slower the trigger, the further the figure has progressed across the image.
In test #3 the 6210 was so fast that I almost didn't appear whereas the 5210 caught me about midway, and the Bushnell only just caught me.

I don't know why the 5210 had slower trigger times in tests 3 and 4. I intend to repeat this test when I have the new 6210 upgrade with the faster 0.8 second trigger time.

Click on this image to view full size or to save to your computer. You are free to use this image on a web page or
other media; but please clearly acknowledge its source and author.