Shotkam is a camera that automatically takes a picture and video when you pull the trigger. It records a little bit of video and photographs and allows you to see where specifically your aim point was when you were shooting.
List of Shotgun Camera – Shotkam Alternative
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Top | The Tactacam 5.0 Hunting Action Camera | Gun Package | PrimeEligible | Buy Now | |
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Prices and images pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on:
This is an amazing device for shooting sporting clays, trap, 5 stand sporting clays and gives you the training tool that allows you to understand where specifically your aim was when you pulled the trigger.
You will be having a good time shooting with ShotKam and will eagerly can’t wait to go back put it on the computer and be able to see whether you were accurate with it.
Whether you are following through, or ahead of the bird or behind the bird. You will see what did your lead look like and it does gives you an exact picture of what actually happened, versus what actually happened in your head, which makes a big difference.
It is incredibly light and mounts directly to the barrel of the gun. Worked on two barrels and single barrel shotguns. It gives you some reticle options and you can plug it into the computer with some software.
We’re very impressed with it so far and we would suggest you bring your laptop to the range so you could look at it immediately. As I said, you will extremely excited about it and can’t wait to continue practicing with this thing.
Shotkam will absolutely help make you a better shooter!
We will talk about the parts of the shot camp and teach you how to mount it to the barrel and go through the different settings.
Let’s get started
Your shotkam comes with a 12 gauge bracket, a built in memory card and an internal battery. At the back of the camera you’ll see a clear membrane which protects the USB port and makes the camera weatherproof.
You can turn it on and off by pressing the control button through the cap. Once you remove the rear cap you’ll see the USB port for charging, the control button, the LED lights and the small hole or a hard reset.
If needed put a paperclip in to push the button. This is like restarting your computer.
How to mount the shotcam.
Begin by making sure that your gun is empty. Then, align the ridges of the bracket pads into the grooves of the shot cam. Make sure the USB port is closest to the barrel. By using the provided allen key, tighten the screws but don’t force anything.
Once mounted, we’re ready to go over the settings.
To charge your camera, plug the USB cable from the back of the shot camp into a computer or wall adapter. The LED light will flash red when charging, and stay solid red when fully charged.
It takes about two hours.
When ready to shoot, press the power button ON with a quick click of the button. You’ll notice a yellow light as the camera warms up, then a solid green when it’s ready.
The solid green means that it’s recording video, but it only saves the video if there’s a recoil. So remember, the blue light will only come on after the shot has been taken.
The time from before, during, and after the shot will have been saved.
Now if there isn’t a shot taken within 20 seconds of closing the action, then the camera will go into sleep mode to conserve battery.
You will notice the slow flashing green light when in sleep mode.
How to use the shotkam’s Wi-Fi
Start with the camera off, then hold the power button down for three seconds. Release, and both LEDs will light up yellow.
A few seconds later, one will turn green. The Wi-Fi will enable you to connect your smartphone, iPad or tablet directly to the shotkam. You will not need any other source of Wi-Fi, internet or data; just the shotkam because the Wi-Fi antenna is built inside.
The Wi-Fi it enables you to select your settings (whether break-action, semi-auto or pump) align your reticle (which is a crosshair or red dot) and download your shot while in the field.
All these changes can be made through the shotkam app which is available in the Google Play store or the App Store.
How does the shotcam work?
Well, it works with what’s called an accelerometer which registers forces to tell it when to record. When shooting sporting clays, for example, you’ll load your shot gun, then close the action.
This force will trigger the shotkam to begin recording a video, but it only saves the video if it feels the force of the recoil. If there’s no recoil, for example you’re walking between stations, then the shotkam will dismiss the video and go into sleep mode.
If two shots are taken within six seconds of each other, then it registers them as a true or report pair and knows to save both shots on the same video.
When you’re ready to go shoot, simply turn the camera ON at the beginning of the day, that allow it to work intelligently in the background. Turn it off at the end of the day and your videos will be saved on the memory card.
GoPro VS ShotKam: Which should you buy?
The GoPro can be mounted to your shotgun using the sportsman gun mount which clamps onto your barrel and the total weight is 9.2 oz.
The shotkam can be mounted using the included 12-gauge bracket and the total weight is only 5.5 oz. One interesting thing about the bracket is that it has a patented shock-absorption system which reduces the barrel vibrations from 1,000 Gs to only 25Gs through the camera electronics.
When you get the GoPro Hero 5, the default setting is a wide field-of-view in 4K x 30 frames per second.
What a shot looks like in that mode? Well, you will see that the trap and clay look too far away. So you have to optimized the camera for shooting conditions by changed it to the narrow field-of-view and select the full HD x 120 frames per second.
When it comes to shooting, the more frames the merrier, so full HD is our best bet.
The same shot (GoPro) with the new settings selected is still looks far away because the GoPro’s narrowest field of view is 64 degrees.
Let’s compare this to the shotkam, with only 18-degree field of view this is the more accurate representation of what the shot looks like in the shooters perspective.
Now the next big difference between these two cameras is how they stand up to the gun recoil.
The GoPro footage slowed down frame by frame, you’ll see the distortion during the recoil then the movement of the camera mount the GoPro foot back during the recoil and ends up facing the ground.
Let’s watch that same shot but from the shot camp’s perspective. You’ll see there’s minimal distortion during the recoil then it’s steady enough to see the wide and pellets traveling towards the clay.
The bracket design mentioned earlier reduces the barrel vibration so that the camera doesn’t move during the recoil.
The crosshair in the centre of the shotkam videos is not just an X in the middle. It’s another patented system that allows you the shooter to align it to your own point-of-aim.
You just mount the camera, connect to the Wi-Fi with your phone then align the reticle to reflect where the bead of your gun is.
Without this reticle or crosshair, you can’t really see where you were. When putting the shot side-by-side you can see that the crosshair reveals where the shooter was.
This reticle will help you correct your hold-point, break-point, follow-through, etc.
Lastly, we’ll cover the self-editing technology of the shotkam and how that affects the process of reviewing your videos.
If you’re using a GoPro then you’ll need to turn it on and off between stations, and remember to press the record button before each shot.
But with the shot can, however, you just turn it on at the beginning of the day then forget about it.
It has an accelerometer which registers forces and detects when your action is closed then save your video if there’s a recoil.
It then automatically slows down your video to one-third speed, so it looks like it did in real life.
You won’t need any editing software to review your video and each video is time and date stamped.
So as we all knew the GoPro is an awesome video camera for capturing the experience at the range, but when it comes to using a camera as a learning tool, the shotkam is a clear winner.
Frequently Ask Questions
Q: How does the ShotKam help me to improve?
A: The main problem for shooters is a false perception of why you missed. What ShotKam do is to captures the reality of your shot to give the objective feedback you need in order to make an adjustment.
With the ShotKam’s reticle aligned to your Point-of-Aim (the bead of your gun), you can train your “subconscious” brain on what the correct sight-picture should be.
The more you watch each ShotKam video, the more you imprint the correct sight-picture into your brain, then the faster your brain will recognize it and pull the trigger.
Q: Will it fit onto my shotgun?
A: The ShotKam automatically comes with a 12 Ga mount which mounts to any single or over-and-under barrel. We offer additional bracket size on our website for $40 each: 12 Ga SxS, 20 Ga, 28 Ga, .410 and a Bow Mount.
The bow mount is an aluminum rod that screws into where a stabilizer normally goes. Our bow mount is the same width as a 12-gauge bracket, so the ShotKam will the attach directly to this new stabilizer mount.