VE6AB Technical
Trail Cam Recon
With the trail cams that I have out in the field doing recon on potential locations for me to photograph wildlife with my DSLR cameras, I have been on a learning curve as to what works and what doesn't when it comes to using trail cameras.
One of the things I wished for was the means to check the memory cards of my trail cameras out in the field with out swapping out cards and waiting till I got home to look at the results on my computer.
Now having said that, one of my trail cams does have a viewing screen, but it leaves a lot to be desired when looking at captures on a 2" screen.
I had been looking at trail cam viewers and was close to purchasing one when I had a eureka moment when I realized I had a trail cam viewer already, that being a Epson P3000 viewer sitting at home doing nothing.
In this photo you can see my Epson P3000 viewer sitting on my day pack where I laid it by a tiny creek in a ravine west of Calgary where I was about to install the trail camera shown in the photo.
I have owned this viewer from back in 2006 when the device was current and they were a necessary tool for photographers that wanted to back their camera memory cards while away from their computer.
I have not used my P3000 in some time as with all the other devices that have come on the market as well as larger memory cards at inexpensive prices, the P3000 is not as big a deal as it was back in 2006 and the years following.
Also the high resolution LCD screens on todays digital cameras are much better than they were back then for viewing files on the memory cards.
The P3000 has slots for both SD cards as well as CF cards, and also has USB and micro USB ports as well.
The storage capability is only 40 gigabyte although there is a hack available to turn it into a 500 gigabyte storage device by replacing the internal drive.
Still the P3000 has a very nice screen with good resolution and I have discovered that it works great for viewing my trail camera photos in the field by inserting the SD card from the trail camera into the top of the viewer and then for backing up the memory card.
The memory card can then be reinserted back into the trail camera and formatted to clear the files from memory.
I guess this is called re-purposing a device that had been collecting dust on my desk at home.
The P-3000 will not play back the HD video files shot with my trail cams, but does back up the files fine for downloading to my computer once I return home.
I have found that I can move the video files to my smartphone if I wish to view the MP4 HD video generated by my trail cameras in the field.
I use my OTG adapter cable with my smartphone to do this.
What is an OTG cable you ask......
http://www.jerryclement.ca/HamRadio/VE6AB-Technical/i-zBpHzRn
What I was up to on this day.....
http://www.jerryclement.ca/HamRadio/VE6AB-Technical/i-ktTdnjr
Click on the photo for a closer look.....
