Camera Trap Journal
A field notebook for camera-trap setups — record positions, settings, visits, results and the changes that made the shot work.
- Launched
- March 2025
- Last update
- April 2026
- Categories
- iOS app · Camera trap
- Status
- Active
Document your camera-trap setups in one place: the layout, settings, checklists, visits, photos, notes and changes that made each image possible.
The problem
A camera-trap photograph is the result of far more than the settings stored in the image file.
Your camera may record the aperture, shutter speed, ISO and focal length. But it does not remember where the flashes were placed, what power they were set to, how the sensor was aimed, what vegetation was in the way, which trail you expected the animal to use, or what changed between one visit and the next.
That missing information matters.
When a setup works, you want to know why. When it fails, you want to understand what to change. And when you return weeks or months later, you need more than a vague memory of where everything was.
Camera Trap Journal was built to close that gap.
What it does
Camera Trap Journal gives each camera-trap setup a structured field record.
Use it to document the physical layout of your rig, store camera and flash settings, follow deployment and maintenance checklists, attach reference photos, record voice notes, log visits and track how a setup changes over time.
It is designed to make camera trapping more repeatable, more methodical and easier to learn from.
Visual setup records
At the heart of the app is a top-down setup canvas.
You can place cameras, flashes, sensors and subject markers relative to one another, then add trails, obstacles, vegetation, annotations and other notes. Flash directions, power settings and equipment details can be recorded alongside the diagram, so the whole arrangement is preserved in a way that is much easier to understand than a written note alone.
That is especially useful when you are refining a setup over multiple visits, working with collaborators, or trying to recreate a successful configuration later.
Settings, checklists and visits
Camera Trap Journal is not just a sketchpad. It is a complete setup record.
For each deployment, you can record the camera, lens, focal length, exposure settings, flash settings, trigger details and other information you may need later. Built-in setup and visit checklists help you work through the small but important steps that are easy to miss in the field.
Each visit can be logged as a new version of the setup, with its own notes, photos, checklist history and changes. Over time, that creates a useful record of what you tried, what you changed and what actually worked.
Built for field use
Camera trapping rarely happens in ideal conditions, so the app is designed to work where ordinary note-taking often falls apart.
It works offline, supports iCloud sync when you are back in signal,
includes a map view of your setups, and lets you attach photos and
voice notes when typing is inconvenient. Night Vision mode helps
preserve dark adaptation during nocturnal fieldwork, and import/export
support lets you share .cameratrap setup files with collaborators.
Shareable setups
Camera Trap Journal also helps you share your setups.
You can export setup files for other app users, or generate shareable images showing your setup diagram, configuration settings and photos. That makes it easier to explain a configuration to a collaborator, archive a successful setup, or share the thinking behind a camera-trap image without relying on screenshots and scattered notes.
Who it is for
Camera Trap Journal is for wildlife photographers, researchers, filmmakers and camera-trap enthusiasts who want a better way to document their deployments.
It is especially useful if you run multiple setups, revisit locations over time, work with collaborators, or want to improve your results by learning systematically from each deployment.
What it is not
Camera Trap Journal will not make a camera trap successful on its own.
It will not choose the perfect location, aim your flashes, or solve the endless field problems that come with remote photography. But it gives you a better record of the decisions you made — so you can repeat what works, avoid repeating what failed, and build a more reliable camera-trapping workflow.
Where to get it
Camera Trap Journal is available for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision. It is free to start, with a Pro tier for unlimited setups and the full feature set. The app requires iOS or iPadOS 17 or later, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon Macs, or visionOS 1.0 or later.