Is there a device that triggers camera shutter upon subject movement?

Have you seen the infared trail camera's for hunters? Not a device for your current camera but a standalone camera that should do what you want. I have been thinking of getting one for the house to see what's outside.

There are trail cameras that do that. You can also make/ buy the set up to make a regular DSLR trigger with motion. I started a couple of threads on pictures taken with trail cameras..

Here is one

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=88047

Yes, as a stand-alone camera, they work pretty good if you get them into the right location.

By daylight, they use normal daylight for illumination, and the passive infrared detector triggers on movement. Some will trigger out to 50 feet or so.

By night, they use the same passive infrared detector for the trigger, but then (some of them) use infrared emitters to light up the scene. The only problem is that infrared has no normal color information, so it appears to be black and white.

I've never seen anything like this that will trigger a normal camera, although they might be around. There is one camera trigger that works on lightning.

–B.G.–

Camtrapper.com has tutorials on how to make your own.

Trailcampro.com has a variety of cameras including those with a white flash for color night time pictures….but those will alert intruders if you use them as security cameras.

https://uk.hama.com/00005203/hama-dccsystem-base-ir-remote-release-with-photoelectric-detector

The problem with this type is that the camera has to be switched on and of course you will need some sort of light to capture the subject at night.
Some cameras including Canon have been converted to Infrared bu that gets a bit expensive…

Interesting. So, any compact cameras with this capacity, that you can name? And let's widen the net to say: it doesn't have to have night-time capacity, although it would be nice. White flash would be fine.

A few years ago I could have told you without having to look it up (it was part of my job) but not any longer.
Hama has a list of the corderd remotes their unit take on that page.
If you go to DPReview and place your pointer over cameras on the banner , the drop down menu will include Feature Search
Click on that and then below the zoom range box you will see "show advance feature search" click on that and activate Remote control
Click on the type of camera you are after (ultarcompact/compact…) and watever other feature you are after and you will find out what camera can take a cable remote then see if you can match it with the Hama ones.

A good tool for your yard. Not for the trail.
A little petty perhaps but nature is my get away and the thought of game cameras on the trail kind of brings back the paranoia I'm trying to leave behind in the city. Honestly, they just seem creepy. Maybe I'm just paranoid and creepy? Well that's my right. Please be conservative.

There is a script for CHDK that will do this (for cannon powershot cameras only). I used it successfully on my SD600 but haven't tried it on my S100. You are suppose to be able to get pictures of lightning if the sensitivity is set to high and the timing is set to zero.

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

Steve

There are a number of devices that will do that, but they need to be specific to a camera model. Back in the "old days" with 35mm cameras this was easier as they all had standard threaded cable release ports.

If you have a Nikon or Canon DSLR, this is an example of what you can use:
http://opteka.com/ltx80.aspx

Weather and theft are considerations. I would lean to the game cameras for casual use.

There was a David Attenborough program on PBS a few weeks ago where they put video cameras in fake tree trunks and had elephants hauling them around to get incredible shots of tigers in the wild.

"Weather and theft are considerations. I would lean to the game cameras for casual use."

Most of these trail cameras have some kind of weather seal around the door that opens to the batteries and electronics. Still, it is thought that rainwater causes failure in some models.

Most of these trail cameras come with some kind of nylon strap to attach it to a tree trunk. Then there is a lockable steel cable as an accessory. Also, I put a padlock on the door of mine so that nobody can steal the batteries and memory card.

Last year I checked with two of the national parks about using these. I was told that they were forbidden in the backcountry. They are allowed in a campsite as long as the campsite is occupied, but they are not allowed to be installed and left for a few days. Neither park was able to explain why, but trail cameras are not even mentioned in the park superintendent's compendium, which is the set of park laws.

–B.G.–

I have built several trail cameras . Basically, there are control boards you buy, then you hack into certain cameras to connect it to the control board, the whole thing goes in a waterproof case. The control boards use a PIF (passive infra red) sensor, you install a Fresnel lens in the case to focus on it. Few cameras are well suited for use as trail cameras. They need to turn on FAST and be immediately ready to take a picture or you simply will miss pictures. Cant remain on all the time or batteries would be dead very quick. Try Hagshouse.com to learn more than you ever wanted to know.

"I was told that they were forbidden in the backcountry."

Perhaps the spying and intel gathering stream only flows in one direction.

Wow, this rabbit hole is pretty deep. Thanks for all the informed responses; looks like this is a specialty within a specialty. Lots to learn here. Will take a while to digest. I naively thought there would be a simple device or camera that would capture wildlife images using small packable-type cameras, but it looks a bit more complicated than that. Thanks again for the leads. This looks fun.