I have bought 4 different game cams in the last 4 years and didn't want to buy a cam with a view screen built in because of the cost and the small size of the view screen.
My solution was to buy a cheap portable DVD player, $69 it think I paid, and I can plug it into any one of the three cams I am running now and view the pictures in the field without taking the cam off it's mount or pulling the chip then have to wait till I get home to view the pictures on my computer.
I'm sure this isn't an original idea but thought I would share it with some hunters that had not thought of it.

TB

Ii usually take my digital camera everywhere I go, so I just pop the card out, put a new one in and look at the pics on my digital. Of course as soon as I can I look at them on the computer so I can see better.

That posed a problem for me, I already had an Olympus camera that uses XD chips but when I went to buy my first game cam it seems they all use SD chips.

TB

I've got a Casio Digital camera with me all the time. It uses the same SD cards as my trail cams. When I put the cards in my camera I can zoom in on anything interesting even though it does have a small screen.

Laptop.

We just bring the laptop with us to the lease, and check the cards on it. You can take your time and oooohhh and ahhhhh over the nice ones, and not be in a rush. We have several extra cards ready to put in the cams after pulling the used ones. I clean off the cards after each viewing, and just save all the pictures to a jump(thumb) drive.

I don't own a laptop so the portable DVD player was a much more echonomical solution. I too keep extra chips in my digital camera bag and change the chips out each time we go to the lease and take the chips home to get a better view on the desktop computer. The DVD player (or laptop) is also a good tool for aiming the game cam so you know exactly what area is going to be in the pictures.

TB

That's a good idea, twinbubba!!
Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
Scott

Scott, I don't want to mislead anyone about using the DVD player to aim the camera so I want to explain how I do it. The video plug on the game cam is inside the case so you have to open the case to plug the video cable in. What I do is remove the video cable, close the case, set the cam in the ready mode, let it take a picture then I open the cam back up, plug in the video cable then display that image on the DVD screen. I may have to do this two or three times but when I am done I know the cam is aimed where I want it.

TB

Twin- I never thought of that! I happen to have the aforementioned portable dvd player. I've used my GPS which has an SD slot and picture viewer, it works well and is compact.

Laptop. Bout one of those cuddeback portable download/viewers for $150. Took about 30 minutes to download several hundred pictures. Most expensive paper weight I ever bought.

My Garmin GPS that is in my truck has a picture viewer in it. I am able to slip the SD card into the side and can thumb through them fairly quickly. Comes in handy.

I like the laptop idea. I have an HP mini that will work just fine

hmmmm... another reason I need to buy a GPS...

x2 on the GPS unit. Mine is the "nuvi", I believe by Garmin. I have used my digital camera, but the GPS has a larger screen and is always in my truck.

Just curious, why does a GPS have an SD slot and the ability to display photos? I can understand a memory card slot to upload maps/software and download waypoints and trip information but having the ability to display photos surprises me. The only GPS I have is a hand held Garmin, no memory chip slot.

TB

We also bring a laptop with card reader and pull all the images from the cameras down to the laptop and review over a beer or six back at camp.

twinbubba, I have no idea why there is a slot. Like you said, probably downloads, etc. Mine is the GPS type for navigation in a car. It is not the hand held type that is designed for hunting, hiking, etc.