External Battery Packs - Neccessary or Not?

[pickardjw]

Looking to build a small army of trail cameras to keep eyes on some remote spots for deer and elk. I'm looking at a few cellular cams and traditional.

For the cell cams, say you were going to leave them out for 5-6 months in an area that takes 6 hours to hike into. Would you throw an external battery pack on it to make sure you don't run out of juice? Looking at the steathcam fusion and would go with the cheapest plan (600 photos/month) on Verizon. I know I get reception in these spots.

Less worried about the traditional cams. My moultrie cams have been out for 8+ months and still read 70% battery life. They also didn't take a crazy amount of pics, maybe a few hundred.

[Griiz]

I've had batteries last 6 plus months, but some cameras drain batteries faster. I'd be more worried about SD card space depending on where the camera is set.

[hunter399]

Depends on the area really.
And how many pics you average a month,and are most of those pics ,night\day.
Alot of night pics drain battery faster.
A ton of pic ,with a 50/50 ratio of night and day then SD card space may be an issue.

[millerwheeler]

I have always gone the route of every camera has a 32gb SD card and I buy whatever batteries are on sale and use inexpensive cameras due to theft  but have cam batteries last 6 plus months all the time just remember you want to switch batteries at some point cause of swelling same goes for storing of the cams don’t leave the batteries in I had a few go to crap that way