Took a lesson from my own books and decided to be patient - really patient with a trail camera. So much so that when I went to retrieve it I really felt that it was going to be a wasted trip. Inside the cam there were obvious signs of moisture. A mess. The external battery was still intact, buried in the battery box under a mountain of leaves. The solar panel was still attached to the tree, mind you, it looked like something was playing with it. It was angled in a funny way. Maybe a raccoon or squirrel.
The memory card had green fuzz on some of the contacts. I have not tried to read it yet. It's currently in a sealed container with rice and silica gel packs.
This camera has been out for almost 2 year. Yes, 2 years. Why did I wait so long? What was the point?
Having used this camera before (I have a 2-pack of them) I knew that with the right setup these things can go pretty much forever, using renewable energy and a good external battery.
The display was still on, mind you some of the elements in the LCD were flickering and some were not even showing up at all. I thought it might have been because of a low voltage situation but the low battery LED was not on. Maybe it was beyond that or burnt out.
Not being able to read the display very well, I can only guess that the picture count said 1248. Now if that is the case, then the memory card is still able to be "read" by the camera, meaning we might have a good chance of downloading the photos. It will stay in the dehydration setup for a while, then I will try and communicate with the card.
Wish me luck!
