Trail cameras and night vision—what's actually effective for cryptid research?

I've been documenting possible big cat activity on the moors near Bodmin (Devon/Cornwall border) for about eighteen months now, and I'm upgrading my monitoring setup. Currently I've got a basic trail camera setup but the night vision is pretty poor quality and I'm missing sightings because of battery drainage.

Question for the experienced researchers here: What combination of equipment actually works? I've been looking at high-end trail cameras (£300-500 range) with infrared, thermal imaging cameras (expensive but better night vision), and possibly even night vision goggles for personal observation. But I want actual advice from people who've used this stuff in the field, not marketing blurb.

Also, if anyone here has done successful cryptid documentation with good evidence, what was your setup? I know there's a lot of blurry photos and unconvincing footage, but there must be some techniques that actually produce decent results.

Bodmin big cats are well documented at this point - good choice of location. For trail cameras, skip the expensive ones and get Browning or Bushnell models in the £80-150 range. They're reliable and the night vision is adequate. The expensive cameras don't always have better sensors, just fancier features. For your setup: space cameras at different heights (ground level, chest height, elevated) because big cats move at various angles. Battery drain is real - use rechargeable AA batteries and replace them monthly. Thermal imaging is overkill for initial research unless you've already got confirmed activity on video.

What combination of equipment actually works?

The honest answer is that most trail camera footage of cryptids is garbage because (a) cryptids are smart and avoid the cameras, or (b) what people are filming isn't actually cryptids. I don't mean that harshly - I'm just saying the equipment works fine, but capturing actual evidence of unknown animals is genuinely difficult. Night vision goggles are a waste of money unless you're doing personal observation and they'll make you exhausted. Stick to cameras and patience.

One tip nobody mentions: get multiple cameras and place them to triangulate. If you capture the same creature from different angles on the same night, the evidence gets exponentially stronger. Also, document all the standard animals you film (foxes, badgers, deer) so when you analyze footage later you can say definitively "that's not a fox." Comparative analysis matters.

I've been doing this work for years and genuinely, the most effective tool is human observation combined with tracking. Footprints, scat, kill sites, behavioral patterns. Cameras are useful for confirming patterns but most researchers overthink the equipment side. Get good at tracking, learn scat identification, join with actual zoologists if possible. That's how you build a case.