The age old debate of what type of trail camera flash is best, is a moot point. “What is Best” is all application and perspective. From a deer hunting perspective, most agree black flash trail cameras rule, from a scientific perspective white flash cameras dominate, and folks on either side of the fence typically hate red flash. Let’s compare different flash types found in trail cameras and what purpose each serves.
If you’re worried about people or animals seeing your camera’s flash at night, then Black Flash trail cameras are your best bet. Luckily today, most upper end camera utilize this type of flash
The cons to black flash cameras is the night time images are typically lower quality due to the lack of light being emitted. With the limited amount of light emitted from blach flash cameras, motion blur is more common due to the exposure times needed to capture each image. There are several workarounds to overcome this, which we talk about in a separate video that is linked in the description below.
Most researchers prefer white flash cameras due to the color night time images. The advantages of color night images come into play when trying to identify individual animals by less noticeable characteristics…..something like a scar or a unique hide markings. Hobbyist and more photogenic trail camera users prefer white flash just out of the pure image quality.
There are some downsides to white flash trail cameras as well. Obviously the flash is visible, which is a major concern for most folks. They tend to have less than stellar battery life performance and their flash range is typically much shorter when compared to IR cameras.
RED Flash cameras can really be segmented into two categories, Low glow and Red Flash which also fall into the IR spectrum. Red flash cameras put out black and white night images at a higher quality when comparing them to black flash. These work great in open settings where light reflection is limited. Places like ag fields, food plots, etc.
The major con to these types of cameras is the visible flash. A Lot of folks claim Red Flash cameras spook more deer than any other type of flash unit. We actually tend to agree. However, the interesting side of this is that whitetails have dichromatic vision, biologically they can only see yellow and blue colors with everything else being black/white and gray. Blue colors fall between 430-520nm wavelengths and yellow falls between 565-580nm wavelengths. Red flash cameras operate between 600nm and 750nm. So scientifically, Red flash cameras would be visible in Red but in a gray tone.
Over the years, we’ve talked to everyone under the sun on this topic and I want to read some quotes from industry professionals.
JEFF STURGIS SAYS: "Working with over 600 clients in 22 states since 2005, some very common themes pop up when it comes to which variety of trail cam "flash" spooks the most game. By far, in my own experience since 1999 and those of my clients, IR (red glow) trail cameras can be highly invasive for spooking game. I have even captured deer looking 14' into the air to stare at the glowing red bulbs of an extremely hidden elevated IR trail camera. I often miss the days of the white flash cameras, when outstanding nighttime color photos could be captured at far LESS than the level of invasiveness when compared to IR trail cameras. However, I am very thankful now for blackout trail cam varieties, which carry an extremely low level of invasiveness. All of that being said, it still pays to "hide" each trail camera for daytime use, including, cutting the side profile with an adjacent tree and camera locations at 6-10' high. My choice is by far the blackout cameras and I have actually taken it to the extreme of using blackout cameras at a rate of 100%, on the private and public lands that I hunt.
DAVID GIAGRIZZO: "Personally I am not a fan a white flash. Its a mental thing for me. I can't imagine a white flash going off in the woods and a deer not thinking something of it. The infrared flash is better although I have seen deer spook from it especially in video mode. I can think of one buck in particular on our property in New York that spooked from an infrared video multiple times off of different cameras. With that being said, the cameras that provide a "black" flash are my personal favorite. Sometimes it can diminish the quality of night images but I have never seen a deer react differently whether it is on photo mode or video mode."
