We know how exciting it can be to return to your trail camera after a long day out to find out what you’ve snapped a shot of, but make sure you don’t sabotage yourself. Many new trail camera users make the mistake of trying to view their photographs on the wrong device, frustrating you at best and potentially permanently destroying your photographs at worst.

In this blog, we’ll look at the common mistakes trail camera users make, and how you can ensure that your precious images make it back home to your computer safe and sound. Read on to learn more...............

 

The Right Way To Check Your Trail Camera Photos

We know how exciting it can be to return to your trail camera after a long day out to find out what you’ve snapped a shot of, but make sure you don’t sabotage yourself. Many new trail camera users make the mistake of trying to view their photographs on the wrong device, frustrating you at best and potentially permanently destroying your photographs at worst.

In this blog, we’ll look at the common mistakes trail camera users make, and how you can ensure that your precious images make it back home to your computer safe and sound. Read on to learn more.

Avoiding SD card write protection

One of the worst decisions a trail camera user could make is to attempt to view their photos in the field on a digital camera. Especially if you’re relying on being able to quickly view your photos so you can start tracking that big buck, it can be tempting to just pop the SD card out of the trail camera and slide it into any commercial camera equipped with a viewing screen.

In a word, don’t. You could potentially lock yourself out of those photos forever, ruining a day’s work. While the hardware may be compatible, often the software in a digital camera and the software in a trail camera aren’t. Your trail camera’s SD card is likely to be formatted (configured) in such a way that it is only compatible with trail cameras, and trying to insert it into a digital camera will cause the SD card to become write-protected, meaning you’ll need to erase all the data on the card in order to access it on any device. Note that some trail cameras do allow you to drop your SD card into another device for viewing, so it’s important to check with the manufacturer or retailer if you wish to do this.

Investing in the right equipment

The only sure-fire way to view your photos is by plugging the entire device into the USB port of your computer and viewing them there. That way, you side-step the entire write protection issue and can safely extract the photographs for filing.

If you can’t wait and you’re raring to view your photos in the field, there are a couple of options open to you. Many trail cameras are manufactured with built in viewing screens, allowing you to quickly preview images without having to unstrap the camera from the tree and connect it to your computer. Alternatively, you could consider investing in a 3G-enabled camera and have every photograph sent straight to your phone in real time.

For more information on safely viewing your photographs or to learn more about the range of options open to you, speak to Pro’s Choice today.

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