There are several of these on the market. The Buckstruck model is a well priced cable card reader. The allure around these devices is convenience. You can pop the micro SD or full sized SD card out of your game camera in the middle of the woods and use the Buckstruck Game and Trail Camera Viewer to see what is on the card and even download the images to your phone.
Using the BuckStruck Game and Trail Camera Viewer for Smartphones is easy. These are made specifically for Android. Sorry Apple owners, no lightning cable support. Only a micro USB adapter. If you have an Apple device, see our article on the BoneView Game and Trail Camera Viewer.
The Buckstruck viewer is comprised of a card reader connected to a short micro USB cable. The micro USB part of the cable connects to your phone. The device works with phones with USB Host Support. The manufacturer recommends the app called OTG Troubleshhoter to ensure USB Host Support is available. That app is available in the app store for free.
It doesn’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. You can view, delete, edit or share the photos while standing in front of your camera. No need to swap cards then wait until you get home to use a laptop for your photo viewing.
Although marketed towards hunters, you can use it for other devices that generate photos such as any DSLR camera. Anything that will write files to a card in standard photo formats. You might find it’s faster to get a photo from your camera to your phone versus inserting the SD card into your laptop, opening a folder then emailing it to yourself and having to view it from an email client on your phone. The Buckstruck Game and Trail Camera Viewer is especially useful for phones running short on memory as you can access large ebooks or videos directly from an SD card that’s inserted into the device.
The manufacturer recommends MX Player to view videos. This is available in the Google play store for free. I suspect other video viewing apps would work as well. For photos, the File Manager app is recommended. An SD or micro SD card must be inserted for a phone to recognize this is a drive. If you simply have the Buckstruck attached to your micro USB port without a card in it, it will not be recognized.
The BuckStruck Game and Trail Camera Viewer for Android Smartphones is a good accessory for hunters that are using one or more trail cameras. Being able to connect this to your phone provides instant access to your photos and videos. No more waiting until you get home let alone carrying a laptop into the woods. The Buckstruck is small and light so using a mount on a tree stand with your smartphone should be possible even with the Buckstruck attached to your phone.