Shoot from a bird

The Ultra Sport UMove SecureGUARD is available in two versions, one version with white flash and another with a 'Dark LEDs flash. The latter I have tested. What makes this 'Dark LED' version is that it makes at night only monochrome pictures and the flash as opposed to a white LED flash animals not scared. With sufficient daylight but do these camera color images.

The package contains everything you need in, next to the camera in a waterproof housing, a fastening strap, 8 AA batteries for the power supply and a USB cable for transferring images to a PC. It lacks only an SD card, since the internal memory is a bit poor.

Since housing is stable and can be secured with the supplied strap well to trees. In case also a small color monitor housed, as well as a couple of switch which apply the settings. That's all done something cheap, so that the switches do not work quite as perfect, but with a little patience, all settings can be done.

The setting surface can be set to English or German. Since the German translation (Blur instead Cancel / Cancel) and, unfortunately, the instructions may not be quite bumpy quite such detail, I needed some attempts a nocturnal animal observation in the garden on the SD card to capture. The exposure is problematic because it can only be set in 3 stages. So the device tends easy to overexposure. But even with a bracketing day gives very differently exposed images throughout the range of companies overexposed to.

In addition to the attachment to the belt, it is theoretically possible to bring the camera to a photo tripod in position. However, the thread not at the lower housing area, but on the back side. Since there are also the holders of the belt, you need a tripod adapter, which is not so great. And even then the tripod head by 90 degrees must be tilted, which restricts the positioning possibilities. Since there is no external viewfinder, the orientation is also a matter of luck.

The camera can be operated with batteries 4 or 8 AA. In addition, a 6V power supply could be connected, however, seems to me the only sensible for use in the house. The batteries last for a long time, however. After several night photo series, the display still shows a full battery pack, which of course could not correspond with the facts.

The camera has its weaknesses, such as the very different exposures, the reasonable controls and a guide that is not enough to the camera to use it properly. The quality of color images and video, if they were properly exposed, are mediocre. The monochrome night shots are a bit noisy, but to determine when and which animals across the screen wander, they are sufficient. I suspect, however, that the camera has problems with the detection of animals. For recordings of birds, I had to place very close to the bird feeder camera. But if I have it set up in about 1 meter above the ground, and 2-3 meters from the bird feeder, was indeed initiated as a cat in the area came, but not a single bird broke the camera. For this reason, I give the camera 3 stars.