STC-CRV20
StealthCam Memory Card Viewer
www.stealthcam.net
Read our 2009 Hand Held
Photo Viewer Overview and Analysis |
It seems that recently we have
been bombarded with requests for information on the portable field
card viewers. It didn’t take long to see the reason why because
there just doesn’t seem to be much information out there on these
handy devices. Of the several we had ordered the Stealth viewer was
the first to arrive. This is a rubber armored 5 X 21/8th
X 1 1/8th inch handful. It is
suppose to be a 2 inch view screen model but my ruler could only
stretch it to 1 5/8th inch across the screen so evidently
they do the diagonal measure thing as with monitors. Buttons next to
the screen are the power on/off and mode button all in one. Power on
and off is accomplished by holding the button longer. Once on the
mode button is operational with a short push. Above the mode button
is the scroll buttons for toggling through the mode functions and
through the pictures stored on the card. The bottom of the unit has
a rubber door that when lifted exposes two SD card slots. The left
end of the case has two small rubber covers that are for the
external 6 volts in and the USB port. The size and feel makes it
very nice to slip in a jacket or shirt pocket and the rubber armor
would aid in keeping it from slipping out of your pocket when you
bend over.
Included in the box are the wrist
strap, USB cable, and the 12v adapter for the Stealth 6v external
battery. The documentation was a small 18 page booklet but was very
easy to follow. The first thing that I noticed was that the booklet
states that this reader is for the Stealth and
Wildview cameras. Well I had already poked around and had a
couple of cards here plus the high speed card for my Canon G-9 and
all seemed to work just fine. There is a bold warning
“make sure the unit is OFF whenever
inserting or removing the memory card”. There are two SD
card slots under the rubber door and when using a single card always
use the slot marked A. The second slot (B) is for transferring
pictures stored from the card in the A slot. There is also a way if
you have two cards inserted to select either card and view images
that are on the card selected. With one card with stored pictures
inserted into the A slot, push and hold the on button and you will
get the wait indicator appearing on the screen. Once that goes away
you can toggle through the pictures in sequence using the left/right
buttons. If there are two cards inserted you will be asked to select
which card to view, then the left/right buttons will toggle through
the stored pictures. If you have a picture where you need to know
what is on the picture in greater detail then
push the zoom button. There are four stages (1X) to (4X) of
magnification when this button is used. In the zoom mode the
left/right and up/down buttons can be used to pan across the
selected image to view a particular area on the picture in detail.
The MODE button has a number of functions, memory card slot
selection, Delete, Delete all, copy, and cut. With a card selected
you can select a particular image and delete it of you can delete
all images. You can select to transfer all or a single image to the
other card in slot B. This “copy” function will still leave the
images on both cards. The other option comes when you toggle down to
copy and then right button into that election. This lets you move
one or all pictures or cut one or all pictures. During the cut
function the image or images selected will be deleted completely off
card A. Once the on button is pushed it takes about 5 seconds for
the screen to come on I guess we could say this unit has a 5 second
trigger time). I am going to put this unit through its
paces and being this is the first in we will eventually have others
for a comparison.05-08-2009 update:
The champ so far because it handled the JPG and video both except for the
strange stuff from Leaf River would not copy. All in all this reader has worked
very well and should be close to first choice if you need both picture and video
capabilities. A small screen but other functions made up for this. The rubber
armor was also a plus for our field use which at times is some what rugged to
the point to where we have left a string of cameras on the ground that bounced
out of the back pack on the ATV. This review is closed.
04-16-2009 update: I had assumed
that this was just a picture viewer but once into the programming I
discovered that it will also play the videos that are stored on the
card. To initiate this you just have to push the zoom once the first
frame is displayed. The video will start and if you press the zoom a
second time the video will stop and rewind. This just about doubles
the versatility of this device. The maximum file size supported is 5
MB for still images and 1.8 MP for video. Memory cards larger than 2
MP are not supported. So far I have tried videos and pictures stored
on cards from four different cameras and all played and was
displayed without issue. Today I am going to be doing some bright
sunlight testing to see if the view screen is readable under those
conditions. So far this viewer has done everything that I have put
it to very well with one exception. It is very slow in reading the
card and to toggle through a lot of pictures on the card will take
some time. The area that makes this of great value to us is in the
security angle to scouting cameras. When we arrive on our properties
and start to see that we have had maybe some unwanted visitors we
need to start to check some cards from those hidden cameras we have
deployed to catch such violators. This saves us from keeping a
laptop in a vehicle which is another target for many who would see
it lying on a seat. So if we do not carry our computer to the field
then we would have to wait until we get back to the lab to view just
who the visitor was and call the law. This means another long trip
back to the property to meet with the enforcement folks. I am not
saying that a card viewer would take the place of a large screen
laptop but the small screen can give you enough detail to know just
what was in front of your camera and if warranted that card then
could be saved and viewed on a large screen if greater detail is
needed. In most cases the viewer will do all the work that is needed
for field use.
04-16-2009 update-2: I picked a card
that had very good distinct pictures with good detail and walked out
into the bright morning sun (10 AM) and tried to view the pictures.
I found that it is nearly impossible to see the pictures under those
conditions. I had to move to the shade and let my eyes re adjust in
order to see any detail at all. Should you get stuck in the sun and
need to see what is on the card then you are going to have to stick
it under your hat or improvise some type of shield from the sun to
view the pictures. We find the same case scenario with our lap
tops.
04-25-2009 update: Loaded and
traveling I managed to remember to bring this viewer along for some
additional testing. One of the functions we needed to know was
whether or not this viewer would read the Leaf River video format or
not. My first stop on my route around checking the cameras was to
check the Leaf River IR-5 that has been watching the Lucky Buck
mineral attractant for us. This cam is set up in the video mode and
so I pulled the card and stuck it into the viewer and the viewer
would not read the Leaf River .ASF format. It does however read all
the other cards we stuck into it that came out of some of the other
manufactures cameras. So if you have Leaf River cameras on your
route and they are in the video mode this viewer will not read the
movies. We had no single capture LR pictures to test so as of now we
cannot say if the stills will work but eventually we will find out,
So far this has been the viewer of choice because of it being able
to read the video’s off the SD cards
05-01-2009 update: I have logged
more time this week with this viewer and so far it has done very
well. A little aggravating with the slow load but the fact that it
functions as advertised makes the slow loading minor. It is a great
companion for me when I am out back and need to know just what
knocked my camera around backwards on the tree. Most of the cameras
we have do not have the view screen or we choose to not bend over
for an hour under a tree to try to see the pictures and eat up our
valuable camera battery life. |
