Wild Game Innovations VU50 Trail Pad Handheld Card Viewer

Wild Game Innovations VU50 Trail Pad Handheld Card Viewer is a no hassle snapshot viewer.  It’s as simple as removing the SD card from your trail camera, inserting it into the Trail Pad and scrolling through the photos taken while you were away.  Since it’s hunting season in New Jersey, I’m looking over a few ways to view hunting camera photos.  I recently took a closer look at the BoneView Trail and Game Camera Viewer for Smartphones.  That’s a great device for use with your smartphone.  The Trail Pad doesn’t require a smartphone and means no more need for your laptop on hunting trips through the woods (can’t believe some people do that, but they do).

This device is made by Wild Game Innovations which is a company that specializes in hunting accessories.  They market a several lines of trail camera line such as the Cloak and Buck Commander and make a lot of accessories for cameras including mounts.  They also market a nice line of range finders.

The Trail Pad features a 4.3 inch diagonally measured color display which is about the size of a small GPS screen.  The screen is surrounded by a thick camouflage colored housing.  There is an SD card slot and the unit handles cards up to 32GB which is likely larger than what’s in most trail cameras.  The Trail Pad is powered by four AAA batteries.  I suggest using alkaline batteries for longer life.

You can scroll through photos on the card by pressing the buttons on the Trail Pad.  You can also zoom in and out.  When done viewing the photos, simply remove the SD card and place it back into your hunting camera.  Move on to your next camera.  Repeat (since most hunters have multiple cameras).  It shouldn’t matter which brand camera that you are using.  Most cameras from Moultrie, Bushnell and Stealth Cam store photos in a standard format on an SD card or micro SD card.  While it’s marketed towards hunters, there’s no reason you can’t use it for other devices that generate photos such as any SLR camera.

The Wild Game Innovations VU50 Trail Pad Handheld Card Viewer is a nice accessory for the purpose of viewing photos.  It’s purpose is to eliminate the need to bring as laptop into the field or bring home the SD card for viewing.  It’s a nice accessory for killing time when hanging out in a tree stand or, as most hunters do, wait for something to stroll by.