Bill Forbes, who lives in Arizona, produces this fine system, principally designed for wildlife applications. It has gone through a number of revisions and styles, and is now the preferred trigger system of Joe McDonald and Dave Northcott – two premier wildlife photographers, who are known as well for their high speed flash work. The Phototrap boasts a number of features, with various sensors, and a weatherproof case. The case is quite large, and the system requires a 12v sealed lead acid battery for operation, making it quite weighty, however its flexibility and straightforward interface make this unit one of the better ones available today. Possibly its best feature is the retro-reflective sensor. This is an IR transceiver which detects objects in its path/beam. The beauty of it is that it does not require a reflector – it actually detects a reflection from the moving subject in order to create a trigger event. Very useful for placing under bird cavities in tree trunks, as well as alongside burrows. Anyone who has done remote photography knows that one of the main challenges is keeping the beam sensor and transmitter out of the image, and this retroreflective technique sure helps that. Furthermore, there is one less cable to connect to the controller!
