Hi Bushsnuffler
I think you’ll find you will use up a lot of battery power if you are taking video at night, whatever camera you use. It’s better if you use more than 4 batteries, if you can, but I’m not at all surprised they only lasted that long.
I also have 2 Bushnells (probably the cheaper models of Bushnell, some of which can be quite expensive), one is fine but the newer one doesn’t seem to always pick everything up. I have a feeling it’s a bit of a case of luck, with many of the cameras, whether you get a really good one or not. But the picture quality on the Bushnells is good and you can set them to record night only, if you wish.
I was also told to use Lithium batteries, but they didn’t make the misbehaving camera work any better than high mAh (at least 2300) rechargeable ones do. (cheaper rechargeable batteries often have as little as 300 mAh which are unlikely to work for long) I normally use rechargeable ones now, despite the fact that it is not recommended and they seem to work fine in the older Bushnell and a Konig (not quite such a good picture but cheaper) and as good as the lithium ones in the newer one. But if you use rechargeable batteries, you will need to use the maximum that you can fit into the camera. Rechargeable batteries are only 1.2 v whereas normal ones are 1.5v. It seems most cameras need at least 6v so, where as 4 ordinary batteries make up 6v you need more of the rechargable ones. I don’t know whether some of the cheaper cameras only take 4 batteries, but if they do, rechargeable ones are unlikely to work. All my cameras take 8 AA batteries and I always use all 8.
I recharge my batteries daily for the camera with most traffic, but the other two I can sometimes get away with 2 or 3 days – depends on how much activity there is.
There are various other topics about cameras, etc. on the forum. If I come across any, I’ll add the links, but you may be able to spot some of them
Good luck.
