Nice work, so many of us have conducted similar research, but not as many have taken the time to put together such a nice presentation.
In a nutshell, if a target animal has a specific purpose for being at a photo site - bait, scrape rubs, etc... They will be very tolerant of a flash regardless of where the cam is mounted; this includes mature game as well (3-5 year old buck, mature bear, elk, etc...).....however, those very same animals will rarely tolerate getting slapped in the face with a whiteflash cam as they are moving from one area to another. This is one instance where elevated cams help a lot, almost all of my white flash trail sets are elevated between 6-8 feet, some in bear country are higher between 7-10 feet to help combat "the chew" (doesn't always work, see pics).
From my perspective the "black-flash" phenomenon is well over-rated, Penn State and University of Georgia have done many studies examining the eye of a deer and they are unable to definitely determine at what spectrum the eye cannot detect light - I'm not saying that a deer can see them, what I am saying is the physiological make-up of the eye doesn't indicate that they cannot detect the light. I know there are a few who swear by them and I am not here to discount their opinions or findings, but only to share mine. In examining some of the best black-flash cams on the market I am not nearly as impressed with picture quality as I am with some other commercial
IR cams and certainly not a quality IR HB cam. Couple the "blur" or "fade" with the extraordinary price tag that often accompany the BF cams and my opinion with regard to their "over-ratedness" is compounded.
The important thing to always consider about trailcams is that folks use them for a wide variety of applications. Some just need to "see horns" while others want magazine quality images. I NEVER thought that this hobby would have evolved in this way for me. I run cams all year and at times, while on stand in the fall, I am thinking of new cam-sets that I could establish. I spend more quality time with my wife and children "in the field" now than ever before. We have shed-antler sets, duck sets, predator sets; it really has come a long way for me from just trying to see what's out there.
I hope this helps some, it really is just my opinion, but it is based on hundreds of thousands of pics across thousands of acres, multiple states, and too many cams to count....
Joe
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