The UK's bestGarden Wildlife Cameras2022 Review

If you’re interested to know which animals are visiting your garden, day or night, the GardePro A3 Trail Camera is a great option to consider. It records clear videos (with sound) to give a fascinating insight into the wildlife that comes to your own back yard. It can also take 24 megapixel photos.

Even when there’s very little light available, during cloudy nights for example, the camera is able to produce clear pictures using its low-light-recording features. These include no-glow LEDs and a large lens aperture. It records using a resolution of 1080p, which equates to approximately 2MP, at a rate of 30 frames per second.

Instead of recording all night (or day) long, the camera only starts to record when it senses movement which is useful for saving both memory and battery. It requires an SD card to store the photos or videos, which doesn’t come included.

The videos are stored as MP4 files, which, according to GardePro, use 80% less space than AVI files (used by more basic trail cams), allowing more media to be stored. Nevertheless – this trail cam is quite hungry with its memory usage; approximately six minutes of video can use around 15 GB of space.

The media files can either be downloaded onto a computer directly from the SD card, or using the mini-USB cable provided.

In terms of performance, this camera can sense animals up to 25 m away from the lens and, as mentioned, the night vision is particularly good. The infrared makes it possible to see images on the camera up to 18 m away in the dark. Overall, this is one of the best garden wildlife cameras for recording clear night-time images. Two side sensors, operating at 30°, prepare the camera even when the subject isn’t even in the main 60° camera trigger zone.

The biggest downside to the design is probably the battery consumption. Within 7 or 8 hours of continuous recording, it’s likely that the batteries will run out. How long this actually takes will depend on the traffic in the area – if recording in a high-traffic area (like near a bird feeder) this could cause the 8 x AA batteries (not included) to run out very quickly.

Also, each time the batteries are removed, the date/time clock will require manually resetting, which is a little time consuming and inconvenient.

Apart from this, setting up the camera is very straightforward, with a logical interface and clear screen. Like most trail cams, the camera can also be displayed on the screen during set up, to make sure the unit is positioned to capture the desired area in the garden.

Running your own ‘Springwatch’ from home is pretty easy to do nowadays, especially using equipment like the Crenova 4K Trail Camera. It’s extremely simple to set up and easy to use, producing clear 4K videos (approx. 8MP) so that you can keep an eye on the wildlife in your garden, day or night.

It also has a a 20MP camera with which it can take still images. The Crenova trail cam has the ability to take either still photos, videos, or timelapses. All of the images it produces are clear and in crisp colour during the daytime. At night, it uses infrared LEDs to create black and white media with well-balanced tones that clearly depict wildlife, even in the dark.

There are several useful features that make this camera simple to use, as well as some drawbacks to its design which will be covered below.

Good things first: it comes with a 32 GB SD card meaning that no additional memory is required to get it to work. Given that the set up is easy, and the instructions are clearly explained, the camera can be up and running within a few hours of opening the box.

It also has the capacity to take 8 x AA batteries (not included), but only requires 4 x AA to run. The extra four can be placed inside the camera as a backstop, for when the first set runs out (however, this is optional).

Customers report success using rechargeable batteries, which is a better choice for both the environment and wallet. Battery usage is high, but not excessive – eight batteries may run out of charge after approximately four weeks (recording an average of 30 x 20 second videos per night). It’s also possible to use an external power supply, but none of the cables are provided for this.

To help with conserving power, there is a programmable timer function so that the camera is only active when you want it to be.

Now to the downsides. Although the camera states to have a 0.2 second trigger speed, it seems to often take longer to start recording – anywhere up to 10 seconds. Naturally, this means some footage can get lost.

The video recording length is also limited, to between 10 – 90 seconds, so don’t expect to capture any feature-length films. However, it’s worth pointing out that 90 seconds is actually longer than some other trail cams allow (for example, the GardePro A3 Camera can only record a maximum of 30 seconds).

There’s also a delay time between each clip, of around 15 seconds, so you miss some of the activity in between videos.

Nevertheless, this is one of the best garden wildlife cameras if you want something that is easy to set up and use. It has some interesting features, such as the timelapse option, as well as a decent 4K camera, so you can also learn to use it more effectively as you go.

The SUNTEKCAM 24MP Wild Camera is a great budget option, offering many of the same features as more upmarket models.

It offers 1080p (~2MP) video recording, has a 24 megapixel camera for still photos, 36 infrared LEDs (allowing for both day and night vision) and the ability to record at a 120° angle. It’s also easy to set up and operate. Of course, there are some functions that it doesn’t perform quite as well as premium cameras, but given the price it’s one of the best garden wildlife cameras if you’re working on a budget.

If you’re simply looking to get some basic footage of the wildlife in your garden, this camera will be more than adequate. The images may not be quite as crisp as the other cameras on this page, with the night-time light-balance occasionally creating more “burnt” images (not enough light balance resulting in whiter/brighter shapes), but they’re still of reasonable quality.

For best results, the animals need to pass within approximately 5 metres of the camera, as its sensitivity is a little less accurate than some other models as well.

Images are recorded onto a micro-SD card, and an 8 GB card is included in the purchase. There’s also a USB cable so that you have a choice of methods to upload the videos to your computer. Unfortunately, the video format is a little outdated, using AVI files instead of MP4, which take up more space and can be more inconvenient to work with.

There is a mounting strap included, for attaching the camera to small trees, and a fixed metal stand.

As you can see, this is a good, basic trail cam, although it’s not without flaws. Given the price, it performs as you would expect, and if you’re only after a camera to capture a bit of the wildlife in your garden (and perhaps capture the interest of kids and/or grandkids at the same time) then it’s a good option to consider. If you’re more concerned with video quality and ensuring you don’t miss any wildlife, you might prefer a more premium model.

Finding gadgets that offer value for money isn’t always easy, but the Technaxx Nature Wild Cam TX-69 offers a good balance between quality, performance and price.

It’s a relatively middle-of-the range camera, with some features that match more upmarket models.

The camera records video in 1080p resolution (equal to approximately 2MP), the same as many other units on this list. When it comes to photos, it shoots at 12 megapixels, which is slightly less than a lot of other cameras (for example, the budget SUNTEKCAM uses 24 megapixels). However, this is less important if you’re going to be using the camera predominantly for videos.

There’s a built-in microphone and speaker, as well as a timer and timelapse function. The timer helps with conserving battery power and is relatively straightforward to program – there is a 960 x 240-pixel screen on the unit with a keypad for setting different functions.

It’s worth pointing out that the camera trip time is advertised as 0.6 seconds, which is the slowest published time of all the cameras on this page. It also triggers late, resulting in a fair few seconds of video being missed.

Included with the camera is a mini USB cable for connecting it to the computer, as well as an AV cable (which isn’t included with many other cameras) for playing back the recorded media on the TV. 8 x AA batteries are required but don’t come included, and you’ll also need to supply a micro-SD card.

Overall, this is one of the best garden wildlife cameras if you’re after value for money. It shoots videos at reasonable quality, during both day and night, and can take photos and timelapses too. Once again though, just be aware that it has a slow trigger speed.

Coming with everything required to start recording straight away, including batteries and an SD card, this SecaCam HomeVista Premium Pack is a high-quality product that will satiate the needs of most wildlife hobbyists.

There are two different frame types available – either ‘HomeVista’ or ‘Raptor’ – which is a choice not offered by other cameras on this page. HomeVista provides a wide 100° shot, capturing a lot more background and surrounding action, whilst Raptor is a narrower 52° and can focus further into the distance. As you can imagine, having the choice makes it possible to get the most out of the camera, depending on where it is positioned.

It captures night-time images using 56 black LEDs which produce no glow – the camera is completely undetectable. The images and videos, during both daytime and night-time, are clear and the tones are well balanced. The camera captures small animals, such as mice and insects, just as easily as larger animals like foxes and deer.

The overall quality of the images are very good; you can choose to take photos in a range of qualities, from 5 – 12 megapixels, and the video records in ‘Full HD’ (which generally equates to approx. 2MP). The trigger is also quick to recognise movement, for both photos and videos, meaning the camera doesn’t miss a lot of action.

The set of 8 x AA batteries, and SD card, supplied with the camera, will allow for approximately 60 minutes of video – but there is an adjustable timer in order to limit how long each individual recording lasts for.

Programming the camera in general isn’t difficult to do either. The display screen is easy to navigate and all of the functions, like timers and timelapse, are simple enough to get to grips with.

Overall, if you’re after a versatile piece of recording equipment, this is one of the best garden wildlife cameras to go for. Not only does it offer a range of frame options, it’s also sensitive enough to pick up a lot of different animals and starts recording quickly.  You also get to choose which resolution to use for photos, in order to use less memory space.

The only downside of having all these features, of course, is that it’s a little more expensive than other cameras on this list – but it does at least come with both an SD card and 8 x AA batteries included.