Ridgeline RL 4K Trail Camera

OVERVIEW 

Well known and respected brand Ridgeline Australia recently entered the Trail Camera market, so I reached out eager to do a review for Australian Deer readers and Ridgeline has delivered. I had the new product within a week and testing got underway. I am lucky enough to have some great areas where I get a lot of photos and videos of not only deer but kangaroos, wallabies and various other birds and critters. The camera was in the field for two weeks, with regular checks to ensure proper function.

UNBOXING 

The packaging is appealing, and clearly states the capabilities of the camera. After removing the outer packaging, the camera was encased in a protective bag, along with the other necessary attachments, including; 

-A Strap 

-A metal mount including screws 

-A USB cord 

-A user manual  

DESIGN 

The camera is a small unit, 133mm high x 90mm wide x 52mm deep. The lower third of the front swings out to allow access to the battery compartment, SD card slot, and the digital display. It is good to see a full-size SD card in use, as most cameras of this size utilize micro SD. The battery compartment was easy to access and held the batteries in place well. It has a 2” screen to check your pictures whilst still on the camera. The menu was very easy to follow, I had no problems with any of the menus. There are a lot of features in the menu, more than I normally use, but all functioned well.  

RATING 5/5

SET UP 

Following the instructions, I went about setting the camera up. I used cheap generic batteries from the $2 shop, and am pleased to say that after 300 plus photos number of 30-second videos, the batteries still had a ¾ charge. So the claimed 8 months and a similar stand-by time look’s achievable. I set the sensitivity of the sensor to medium, the camera to 5mg photos, followed by an HD video clip. 

RATING 4/5

INSTALLATION 

I placed the camera on a fence post near a gate facing east. This spot is a funnel near Lake Wellington on private property that usually has good activity. The camera was in a clear spot 16m wide x 10m deep. I chose this position as I have a lot of photos from five other brands to compare the captures to. 

PHOTO QUALITY 

The captured images were all around the 4mg size. The images are clear with very little blurring on moving subjects. I captured several images of birds flying through the set-up with good results. The only downside here was on overcast days, the images were dull and in a couple of cases not very good at all. An example can be seen here on the image from 16/11 at 13.36 pm. But generally, the images were good if the sun was shining. Images are JPEG. 

RATING 4/5 

VIDEO QUALITY 

The video quality during daylight hours was good, however, on overcast days it too suffered a lack of brightness. Nighttime video is infrared and was as can be expected. Video captures are AVI. 

RATING 4/5

TRIGGER SPEED 

The trigger speed is fairly quick, I would agree it’s around the .5 second mark that is advertised. Unfortunately, the camera couldn’t take an image and video off the same detection. As you can see with the still image of the sambar, the corresponding video clip only captured the deer’s hind leg as it exited the set-up. Time constraints to get the review done prevented me from running the unit as a video capture only to gauge trigger speed. 

RATING 4/5 FOR THE CAMERA, 3/5 FOR THE VIDEO

BATTERY LIFE 

Battery life using cheap 2dollar shop batteries was very good  

RATING 5/5

MANUFACTURERS SPECS 

5MP CMOS SENSOR, LENS 2.5 f=3.6mm, 2’LCD SCREEN, RESOLUTION 14,12,8,5,3MP, VIDEO RESOLUTION 1080P, 720P,WVGA, VGA, MEMORY CARD CLASS6 TF UP TO 32GB MAX, JPEG AVI, USB 2.0, POWER 6V, LANGUAGES: ENGLISH CHINESE GERMAN FRENCH ITALIAN SPANISH PORTUGESE JAPANESE DUTCH  

RRP 

$199.95 

WHERE TO BUY 

Distributed in Australia by OSA, this product is available through your local gun shop or sporting goods store. Alternatively, it is available online at ridgelineclothing.com.au 

CONCLUSION 

I have run trail cameras for a very long time. I have had over a dozen brands of various price and quality over the years. All cameras have good and not so good points, I’ve given this camera a rating of 4/5 overall. Whilst a few images suffered on overcast days, the captures were consistent with how the camera was set up, with no blacked-out images or blurry images even on moving subjects. The IR doesn’t overbear the nighttime images either, which can be a real problem in some cameras.  

All in all, for the RRP of $199.95, this camera would be a good addition to your scouting arsenal.

Cam Johnson