Pine marten in the Norwegian forest

[filipbl]

First post here, and this summer I decided to try camera trapping for the first time to hopefully get some pictures of the pine marten. I had seen it on my trailcamera, and it was mostly active at night. So I needed to have a setup that could fire when I wasn't around, and with flashes.

After looking on Youtube I got a lot of information about how to build myself a setup, and I started with a Camtraptions PIR, two SB28s and a Nikon D3100. It did result in images of the pine marten, and though everything sort of worked out, I was always a bit unsure of the settings on the Camtraptions unit. I have indeed made the obvious mistakes, by setting the sensitivity too high, or too low. But I have learned a lot from it.

I decided to try the Cognisys Scout, as it made me be much more precise, and I have to admit it was easier to set it up and be comfortable with the settings. So far I have had it running for a couple of nights, and it already has yielded results. Also, I have moved from the D3100 to a D810, which has better low light performance and higher resolution. Happy with that!

My complete setup:

Peli case #1:
Nikon D810 with a 28mm 1.8
Camtraptions trigger and transmitter running on 2 x D cell batteries

Peli case #2, #3 and #4:
Nikon SB28 modded to run on 4 x D cell batteries
Camtraptions receiver running on 2 x D cell batteries

Sensors:
Camtraptions PIR v 3
Cognisys Scout monitor

Until now I have used alkaline D-cell batteries, but I am switching to Eneloop pro to reduce the cost of batteries in the long term. I plan to have 3 eneloops inside a D cell converter, powering all my flashes and receivers/transmitters, and sensors.

I never thought I would spend this amount of time (and money) on the camera trap setup, but it has been great fun when it all works out!

Here are some of my latest captures:
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