CamTrap Pro and Timelapse are both Windows applications for analysing data from camera traps (also known as trail cameras or field cameras). These are cameras which take one or more photos or videos whenever motion is detected in their field of view. They are widely used in wildlife studies and can produce large datasets of over a million images.

Detailed Comparison

Conclusions

CamTrap Pro is less flexible in the data it can store about images, but installation and updating are straightforward. It can apply tags as Windows metadata optionally without image inspection, has inbuilt reporting capabilities and can assist users in animal identification. New tags can be added dynamically. Added tags are stored as file metadata and detection data in the file name. All this data is visible in Windows File Explorer. CamTrap Pro’s use of image time data allows spurious detections from vegetation movement to be distinguished from animal detections.

Timelapse installation comprises extracting about 25 files from a zip file. Shortcuts to operate the program from the desktop must be created manually and operation of either TimeLapse Template or TimeLapse requires a warning to be ignored on 1^st use. Operation requires selection of the template database rather than a folder containing images, which is not intuitive. It does not have internal reporting and although image attributes can be applied to groups of files, some user input of attributes is required. Image attribute data is stored in a database (including user specified identifications). Creation or editing of attributes requires editing of the template database and re-opening of the data set. However, use of the more modern Windows Presentation Foundation architecture gives improved performance over Windows Forms applications and the use of a database rather than file metadata for storing image attributes gives great flexibility. Users should have a reasonable level of Windows expertise and should be prepared to carefully read instruction screens and manuals before using the software.

CamTrap Pro is more suitable for users without extensive computer experience, provides more support for animal identification and reporting features. It can also create an inventory of species present where these are not known beforehand. The application can install the latest version of the EcoAssist machine vision if required.

Parameter	CamTrap Pro	Timelapse
Cost	Demoware – inbuilt Demo license gives 30 days of operation and loading up to 20,000 files. Licenses cost between US$49 and US$89 dollars but may be available free.	Free
Source Code	Proprietary	Open-source. Although open-source products are in principle better maintained and tested than proprietary products, complex niche applications such as Timelapse tend to lack the broad user base required to gain development and maintenance support and generally rely on the efforts of a single person. Open-source may also be mandatory if certain libraries or components are used. Most open-source products are libraries and components rather than applications, although there are some very widely used open-source applications in media. Availability of source code makes it possible for development to continue if the original developer is no longer active. Without source code, products are effectively frozen, but may continue to function for many years, especially if installers are available from software libraries, which may host products long after proprietary web sites have disappeared.
Installation and Updating	Standard Windows application installation via self-extracting .exe file. The user only needs to double-click on the installer file and select two installation options. The application appears as a desktop icon and in the Programs list. It can be removed via Control Panel. New versions can be installed over old ones. Other installation options are available for locked-down environments.	No installer file – content must be extracted from the downloaded Zip file and shortcuts to Timelapse and Timelapse Template Editor created and placed on Desktop. Executables are not code-signed and generate the warning “Windows protected your PC”, requiring the user to click “More Info” and “Run Anyway” on 1^st use. New version installation requires replacement of the folder containing the unzipped content and recreation of the shortcuts.
Loading Data	By selection of folder with images below it. The folder containing images must be at least 2 levels below the selected folder. As only a single image is shown at a time, loading of large data sets is fast. Camera folders can be specified as the parent or grandparent folder of image files. The Site or Epoch folder is the parent folder of the camera folder. High resolution images process display and image recognisers run much more slowly with large (> 5 MPixel) images and it may be advantageous to resample high-resolution data sets. This can be done within CamTrap Pro.	Operation requires selection of a template database file, which must be created in the folder below which data exists, rather than selecting the folder itself. It is not obvious that a template file must be created before data can be loaded. As Timelapse stores file data in a database, which is created in the same folder as the template file, first-time loading may be quite slow for large numbers of data files. Timelapse offers a selection of recently loaded template databases to open.
Data Types	Data Types JPEG image files, AVI and MP4 video files. Frames are extracted from video files and saved as JPEG files.	JPEG images and video files

Windows	CamTrap Pro operates with two windows, one showing the image and the other the Count vs Time plot. Images can be ordered by Modified or Camera Name and Modified Date and can be selected from either screen	Timelapse uses a single window with a zoom option which can display single images, magnified single images or multiple images on the same screen.
Displaying Data	CamTrap Pro can display data on its main window ordered as specified in Options (either Modified Date or Folder->Modified Date). Modified Date metadata can be edited via the Options screen and can be set to DateTaken. All dates can be changed in bulk to account for errors in camera date setting, which are very common. Files can be selected via slider, entry of a sequence number or by searching for string in a file name. They can also be stepped forward or back or shown as a slideshow sequence.	Data appears to be displayed in Folder->Date Taken Order. Date Taken is an EXIF metadata field and is not necessarily the same as Modified date, which can be altered by editing programs. Date Taken can be changed in various ways via Edit=>Date Correction. These edits change the database, not the file metadata. The display can be stepped forward or back, moved to the start or end of the displayed sequence or displayed as a slideshow at two different speeds. Where multiple files are displayed, the display can be moved to the next row or screen of data.
Configuration	Via General and Advanced tabs of Options screen. Operation is possible using default settings and without Project data. Project data (name, site, camera locations) can be entered via screens or from text files. Camera location data required for map reports.	Via Template database. This must be created using Timelapse Template Editor before Timelapse can be used. The template database defines information stored about an image in a number of different field types which are displayed above the main image a shown below. This gives great flexibility.
Selecting Data for display	The Options screen allows selection of files to be loaded by camera, whether or not a detection (or highlight) is present, by single or multiple detection names, by strings appearing in tag names and many other options. Detections (highlights) can be created using data from a machine vision classifier such as EcoAssist, created manually if machine vision fails to detect the animal or not created at all, as only Tag information shows the identity of the animal.	Files can be selected from a wide range of options from the defined image attributes and from results of the EcoAssist machine vision classifier via the Select->Custom Selection screen.
Processing Data	Species names can be applied to the data manually by selection from a preset list, usually after selecting only highlighted files to be loaded. Highlights can be shown on the image as shown below and are stored as metadata in the file name. Tags can be applied to single files shown in the main window or multiple files selected from the Count vs Time plot as shown below. The count of individuals present is added to the tag if greater than 1. Tags are saved as Windows Tag (or Keyword) metadata. Tags can be created automatically from detections or combinations of detections can be mapped to tags. Comments about an image can be added. Machine vision analysis results from EcoAssist can be imported.	Image attributes (often including the names of expected species) can be edited to add a count of the number of individuals present. The image attributes are added in the database and can be exported as a text file for processing by other applications. Image attributes can be applied to a group of closely spaced images (an Episode). An example of the interface screen is shown below: A new template must be created in order to add a new species. Timelapse can display detections from machine vision data on the image as shown below. Machine vision (or recogniser) analysis results from EcoAssist can be imported.
Animal Identification	CamTrap Pro can show detection bounding box content as a new window at a magnified scale, which can assist in identification. It can also perform a Google search to display images shown using the tag string as keywords. These often detect high quality images of animals. The display can also be zoomed by factors of 1.5 and 2. New tag definitions can be added within the program. The displayed image name can be searched for and displayed in Windows Photo Viewer different data set from that loaded, allowing high-resolution copies of loaded data to be examined, which may assist in individual identification.	Timelapse has a magnifying glass feature which shows an expanded view of a selected region, which can assist in identification. Any new attributes (such as different animals) can only be added by editing the template.
Reporting and Export	Text and Map summaries of tag data can be created as shown below, and data can be exported as a text file if required. Text summary data including tagged image count and detection event (similar to Timelapse Episode) count can be consolidated over all cameras, and over different time periods. . Images and detection region content can be exported.	Timelapse can export database content containing all the image attributes for analysis and display by other applications. Selected files can be copied to another location.
Architecture	CamTrap Pro is a Windows Forms application giving a “grey box” appearance to the application.	Timelapse uses the more modern Windows Presentation Foundation architecture, providing a more configurable user interface and improved performance over Windows Forms.
Machine Vision Integration	CamTrap Pro can use data from and install the EcoAssist machine vison application for detection of animals, people or vehicles or specific species using custom models.	Although TimeLapse cane use data from the EcoAssist machine vision application, installation must be done separately.