Zeiss Secacam 7 review: the perfect trail camera?

Watching or tracking wildlife used to be incredibly time-consuming, requiring days or even months of constant observation before you glimpsed the creatures you were hoping to see. Not so with the best trail cameras to help you in your wildlife-watching quest. 

These camera traps lie dormant and spring into action when triggered by a passing animal (or family member, or dog walker, depending on where you leave it), either with motion or heat detection. They’re designed to be hardy and well-built against the elements so you can leave them in damp, cold environments and continue to monitor the areas from miles away.

The Zeiss Secacam 7 is one of two new models from the well-known manufacturer (along with the Secacam 5), released after it acquired the German trail camera brand Secacam in 2023. It’s the company's first trail camera, and one I was keen to try. Its major selling point is the ability to send images straight to your phone, meaning it can be set up and left untouched for as long as the batteries or storage lasts. You can monitor the footage without regularly trekking back and forth to check the card – ideal if you plan to set up several cameras across a wide area or to position it somewhere remote.

Of course, the cellular connection isn't unique to the Secacam 7, and plenty of non-4G models like the Bushnell Core DS-4K No Glow can provide you with higher-res stills and 4K footage. I started using trail cameras a decade ago during my university course in wildlife photography, and I'm testing the Secacam 7 to see how it fares as a relatively new model to the market. 

On paper, it builds on Zeiss' pedigree for spotting scopes, binoculars, and nature-watching imaging products, boasting a 'best in class’ build quality and light sensitivity for nighttime imagery. But what about in the wild? Read on to discover whether it earns a place among the best cellular trail cameras.

Zeiss Secacam 7: Specifications

Zeiss Secacam 7: Price

The Secacam 7 is currently available in the UK and Europe, with American supplies set to land later in 2024. It has a recommended retail price of around £249/€279, which is at the more premium end of the market but certainly not overpriced. The upfront cost includes 8 x AA batteries, a multi-roaming SIM card, and a Zeiss-branded 32GB SD card, which adds value to the package.

By comparison, the Spypoint LINK-MICRO-S costs slightly more but offers a solar panel for charging. The SpyPoint FORCE-PRO is cheaper, with 4K footage and 32MP stills, but there's no cellular functionality.

You also have to factor in the cost of Zeiss' Secacam "Service Plans", which allow you to unlock the camera's smart features and image storage. There are three tiers – Basic, Premium, and Professional – depending on how many photos you want to send across the cellular connection per month. The basic plan starts at £2.69 monthly, while the professional plan is £13.49.

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Zeiss Secacam 7: Design & Handling

Trail cameras are meant to be left out in all weather, so it follows that they need a rugged build. The Secacam 7 is made from a solid plastic housing, with an incredibly robust clip to open up the casing and seal it shut again. The IP-66 rating offers reassuring protection against rain and dirt, and having left it outside for a week in substantial wind and rain, I was pleased to find the inside of the camera’s case totally dry when I picked it back up.

The Secam 7 is 120g heavier than the Secacam 5 (440g), but it feels solid rather than unwieldy. Its bigger size improves handling too, as the lens is above the front flap rather than on it so you can check the capture area on the screen. It sounds like a simple difference, but it's much easier to find the right position and height, where stray branches don’t ruin your view.

Given that it had been a while since I last used a trail camera, I found operating the Secacam 7 incredibly easy. The batteries come pre-installed, as do the 32GB SD card and SIM, and there's an eject button to pop out the battery magazine, and a depress for the cards. All are easy to remove and change should you want to, but you can basically start shooting as soon as you get the camera out of its box. Epic.

Handling is straightforward, too. The big, backlit rubber buttons allow you to see what you're doing in low light, and the 2.4-inch LCD screen (bigger than most traditional camera traps) allows super quick menu navigation and clear image playback.

So much of the failure or success of a trail camera comes down to where you mount it, and there are several options with the Secacam 7 - either with the included camouflaged strap, tripod mount or by using cable locks. The strap has a claw that holds it tightly around trees, and while I’d have liked it to be a little longer for chunkier trunks, I could see it becoming grotty – especially if left out in the wet.

You'll get the most out of this trail camera when you pair it with the Secacam app. I was dubious about Zeiss' offering given how glitchy and slow some manufacturer's remote apps have historically been, but immediately pleased with just how clear, navigable and detailed the Secacam app was.

Among the four main sections along the bottom of the screen, the most important are the Gallery – where images are stored – and Cameras, where you can check the status of your subscribed cameras, and tap in to change its settings via the Remote control menu. The app is responsive, and there's even a choice of Light or Dark Mode to change the overall appearance, showing that Zeiss has put real effort into its design.

Zeiss Secacam 7: Performance

Above: Video clips show with the Zeiss Secacam 7

Although you don't expect the images from a trail camera to be of a professional quality, they should be detailed enough for clear identification – especially if you want to monitor specific animals by their markings, for example. The Secacam has three capture modes; Photo, Video, and Photo + Video, and out of the box the camera defaults to capture images in 5MP resolution, while 8 or 12MP stills are also available. 

These sizes are saved onto the SD card, while the size sent to a phone is smaller and maxes out at 1920 x 1440. In Video mode, the resolution can be set to 480p, 720p, or 1080p, and between 5 and 59 seconds of footage, which is great for balancing storage space and your use case for clips.

The Secacam is designed to handle all of the exposure and focus settings automatically for you, and overall it does a great job of this, with a vibrant color rendition in the day that tends a little towards the cooler side. When the flash came into play at night, the results were sharp enough to tell the difference between several foxes who regularly visit the garden. 

But its still images aren't as crisp as models with upwards of 30MP sensors. Zeiss claims that the infrared flash (60 black LEDs so as not to disturb animals) can reach up to 30 meters away, and I found this to be accurate. Foxes very close to the flash were overexposed, but it's not often that subjects will be within touching distance of the camera!

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What I really liked about the Secacam is its ability to fire a burst of up to five shots in quick succession after being triggered, and while only the second image is sent to your phone by default, you can change this within the app. With it activated, I was more likely to have at least one frame with the animal in focus and centralized in the frame, especially when it was running fast.

There are also three sensitivity levels, which give you some control over how many images the camera will take. I set it to the medium level for the optimum chance of triggering sightings, while avoiding misfires of trees moving in the wind. It’s a trial-and-error approach that requires a few weeks of use to get the most usable results.

The Secacam 7's trigger time (< 0.35 ~ 0.45 seconds) is slower than some competitors – almost double that of the Bushnell Core DS-4K No Glow at 0.2 seconds for photos. It's fractions of a second, which might not sound significant, but it meant I only caught the tail end (literally) of a deer passing the camera in a darkened woodland.

Video is more exciting than stills for trail cameras, as it allows you to see where the animals are coming from, and observe behavior. So what of footage? Zeiss recommends that you record in 720p resolution over 1080p, given that the quality is only partially better, yet the size fills up memory cards quickly. Being a pixel-peeper, and someone who hates being told what to do, I started testing the Secacam in full resolution. It looks great, but the Zeiss Secacam App is there should you change your mind about settings once the camera is in place.

It took minutes to download the Zeiss Secacam app to my phone and pair it with my camera using a unique code inside the box. There are status symbols to confirm whether the camera is online, plus its available memory, signal strength, and battery level – all of which are hugely helpful in letting you know how long you can leave your camera out, and if it's recording.

You get the most out of the Secacam 7 with one of Zeiss' paid Service Plans, which also unlock – depending on the level of payment – remote control capabilities, AI animal recognition, and even a theft replacement service. While I'm not sure I needed AI recognition to help me identify a squirrel or dog, I found it impressive that the camera could pick out tiny animals in the undergrowth of a woodland, or the behind of a deer when only a tiny portion of it was in the frame. You'll be given an ID within the app interface if you've turned it on.

Cellular function is the main reason to buy the Secacam 7 over cheaper rivals. Thanks to its LTE module and multi-roaming SIM card it can dial into networks from a wide range of providers and choose the best one automatically to give you a strong signal for accessing recordings. I found the connectivity consistently fantastic, and no sooner had I set up the camera than I started getting notifications on my phone for new sightings. It's exciting hearing the noise and brought back the magic of my first wildlife-watching trips.

That doesn't mean you have to maintain a constant connection, though. You can customize the communication frequency, with more frequent intervals draining the battery faster. If you change any camera settings during downtime, they'll be pending and remain orange in the app interface until communication can be made with the camera again.

I didn't get close to running down the AA batteries while testing the Secacam 7 in the wild, which is a testament to the camera's efficiency. Videos drain power more quickly than stills, but after a week of constant use, the battery level was barely depleted, and I'd imagine the camera to last for longer than a month with a few sightings a night. If you want to supply the camera with continuous power, I'd invest in Zeiss' solar panel with a built-in power bank.

Zeiss Secacam 7: Sample footage

Over a month or so, I tested the Zeiss Secacam 7 in my local woodlands and Cotswold countryside, to get a feel for how well it performed on location. I also captured some footage in my family garden, as I knew local wildlife including foxes would visit. 

I tested out the Zeiss Secacam app on my iPhone 15 Pro, using a free trial of the Premium subscription option so I was able to test all of the control options and download images over the cellular connection.

Zeiss Secacam 7: Verdict

I've been impressed with the Secacam 7, so much so I didn't want to give it back. Its ease of use stands out, thanks to the well-conceived Secacam app and bigger-than-most LCD screen. At times I was disappointed with its response times and image quality (at night), but tracking cameras like this are designed to be used over months, and a certain level of trial and error is par for the course. With the amount of customization that the Secacam 7 offers, and more time spent honing the camera's position based on wildlife sightings, I'm convinced I'd get even more out of the device.

With eight batteries, energy-saving features, and the ability to power the camera with Zeiss' Secacam solar panel (sold separately), it can provide true longevity in the wild. You could easily drop this camera off and return for it weeks later; ideal for photographers in hard-to-reach locations, or even gamekeepers with large areas of land to monitor.

The image and video resolution does lag behind similarly-priced competitors on paper, but the content is acceptably sharp and adapts well as the light changes. The camera's real draw is its network coverage, and my experience was almost flawless, with images accessible on my phone moments after being snapped.

Alternatives

Bushnell Prime L20 Low Glow

Bushnell's budget-priced option is more than half the price of the Secacam 7. You don't get the same app connectivity and the image quality is inferior, but it's a very serviceable option for beginners or those with less to spend.

Bushnell Core DS-4K No Glow

A few years old but still top of the pack for specs, the No Glow is similarly priced to the Secacam 7. It's a premium option with 4K video and much larger 32MP stills, making identification easier.