If you plan on being away from your trail camera for long periods of time, battery life is one of the most important features you should look at. Few things are more frustrating than going to check your camera after a month and realizing that the batteries went dead, leaving you with limited knowledge of your scouting area. When combining these tips below, the new Edge camera has shown to last for up to a year on one set of batteries.

Trail Camera Settings to Extend Battery Life

How long do batteries last in a trail camera? If yours seem to be draining too fast, there may be a few factors at play. Take a look at some of the most common settings people adjust to prolong their battery life without losing too many features.

Upload Images Less Often

If you’re using a cellular trail camera, consider lowering the frequency at which your photos are uploaded to the cloud. Every time your camera connects to the cloud, it uses a lot of battery power to upload your images. We suggest keeping your upload frequency to once or twice a day for the best battery savings.

Image Resolution

Although high-resolution photos are great for seeing small details, you likely don’t need your trail camera photos to be at the highest possible quality. If you only need your camera to do basic scouting of the wildlife in the area, you may want to lower the image resolution to save camera space and power.

Camera Mode

Most newer trail camera models have both photo and video options. While video is excellent for observing game behavior, it requires more power. If you’re only looking to see what game is in the area and when, turn off the video feature and stick to photos.

Detection Delay and Multiple Shots

These settings refer to how many images the camera will take after the motion sensor is triggered and for how long. If your camera is recording a high-traffic area, adjusting these settings can make a significant difference. The more pictures your camera takes, the faster the battery will drain.

To avoid getting multiple shots of the same game, you’ll want to raise the time on detection delay and decrease how many shots your camera will take at one time.

Add External Power For Best Performance

External solar panels and battery boxes are the best way to increase battery life for many months. Solar panel options will maintain battery life the best as they continue to charge the internal rechargeable battery during the daylight hours. Solar options that get 6-plus hours of direct sunlight per day will keep a camera running for many months and sometimes even years. If you plan to use video mode and immediate upload mode, it is highly recommended that you use an external solar option.

The Best Batteries for Game Cameras

To get the best batteries for your game cameras, shop with Moultrie Mobile. Our alkaline batteries offer peak performance, but like most cellular cameras lithium batteries are highly recommended, especially in the cold months. A fresh set of our batteries can provide you with months of run time and thousands of images depending on your camera. For more information, submit a request form or call us at 844-908-1219 today.