Hi spikeyb
I agree re. the rechargeable batteries. I have used them for years and they seem to work fine. But I tend to recharge them every day, as there’s quite a lot of ‘traffic’, what with the hogs, cats, mice, birds and bats. I agree is best to get the mAh as high as possible. I use Duracell 2500 and Energiser 2300 mAh. Both seem to work just as well. (Lower amounts of mAh don’t seem to last the night on full functionality. i.e. the cheaper ones are as low as 300 mAh and not much good for cameras). But you do have to bear in mind that they gradually become less efficient with time. Even rechargeable batteries have a lifespan. But I found that they work better than ordinary alkaline batteries. I have also tried Lithium batteries which worked quite well for a while – much longer than the alkaline ones, but expensive.
But also, rechargeable batteries only have 1.2v as opposed to 1.5v in ordinary ones. So you really need to use all 8 batteries, if the camera allows.
You might find it’s a battery problem which is causing your camera not to pick up everything, so it might be worth trying either lithium batteries or good quality rechargeable ones before you decide whether to invest in another camera. I found when there were battery problems, as well as not picking up everything, they did things like flashing and only taking short clips (both, when on video). But some things can be missed because of the delay between photos/videos. It may be something you can change the setting of – it might be worth checking. But it’s a bit of a standing joke about hogs and invisibility cloaks – how they manage to get past cameras without being seen!
Having said that, there must be some times when cameras have an actual fault and maybe you have one of them.
