Media Storage Viewers

jamesward93

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James
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Does anyone have any experience of using one of these? I like the idea of being able to store and view images whilst on a shoot without people trying to crowd round the cameras lcd, which isnt the greatest for showing images anyway, and have been considering getting either the epson p5000 or canon m80.

Any experience/opinions appreciated
 
I use a couple, but generally as a data safe whilst on holiday without laptop (Epson P2000 and GigaOne)

The are great devices and reliable (the gigaOne saves but doesn't display) but i wouldn't worry about using them to check shots - not much better than the caamera LCD for that.

A friend of mine has the M80 which, whilst good, is no better than the Epson range.

If you're on a shoot and want to display to the gallery, i'd recommend using a laptop - if you just want to save data then pretty much everything on the market is able...

The best review i've seen is here with emphasis on praticality rather than flash!!
 
I use to use a creative Zen Vision W, but I have now switched to an Asus EEE PC.

For about the same price as a epson P5000, you could get an Asus EEE PC, add 2gig of ram, and a 120gig external usb drive. The screen is bigger, and you get a full functioning notebook as well. The only reall issue is that you might need to take time to install windows XP, and also you need to make some kind of contraption to stick the drive on the lid or bottom so that you don't have it hanging loose.
 
I had that in mind when I bought the Asus eee pc, tie it in with a 40gb usb drive and a card reader and you have almost the perfect 'portable' storage/viewing setup, costs about ~£300 all together.
 
I had that in mind when I bought the Asus eee pc, tie it in with a 40gb usb drive and a card reader and you have almost the perfect 'portable' storage/viewing setup, costs about ~£300 all together.

That is all well and good, but the EEE pc needs 2 gigs of ram, and the 8041 firmware (for running at 900mhz) to really sing. The ability to run windows XP means that you never need to worry about RAW file compatablity issues, and you can use it to shoot teathered for macros.
 
You could get youself a cheap & cherful storage box and a LCD TV. Maplin are selling a 7" TV for £80 which would probably be a good size for previewing shots :)


..and you can always watch the TV when you're waiting about :D
 
I have the Vosonic 8360, 80GB - works well but has limited graphics - the quality certainly isn't good enough to choose "deletions", does support several RAW formats too

simon
 
That is all well and good, but the EEE pc needs 2 gigs of ram, and the 8041 firmware (for running at 900mhz) to really sing. The ability to run windows XP means that you never need to worry about RAW file compatablity issues, and you can use it to shoot teathered for macros.

Certainly the eee with xp installed runs more smoothly with 2gb but it does run perfectly well with the stock 512mb too. I should add to my first post that mine has xp home installed and that of course adds another £50 to the total price.
 
went to Japan on a press trip and one fo the guys from EMAP had one of those Nikon Cool Walker things. He rated it very hiughly and he's a very, very, very, very busy bloke, taking shedloads of pics for various mags. Says he's never had a problem with the portable drives. All he did was back-up to a HD when it was full.
 
If you're on a shoot and want to display to the gallery, i'd recommend using a laptop

I would further consider this, especially as you can get an Asus EEE range laptop for under £200 and it is almost as portable.
 
I have the epsom p2000, which is slow starting and closing, and really slow to disconnect from PC or Mac, well The unit thinks it's still connected, while the computer doesn't. apart from that It's great. I use mainly to back-up and dump pictures to when I have no computer with me. I may go through and deleted obviously useless shots, but mainly do that on computer.
 
I would add that i have a macbook, that i carry to alot of shott, but its not always practical to do so, so althought eh the Asus eee looks like a good, cheap option i cant help feel it will be a bit more than i really need!
 
I bought one of these. a couple of years ago. It's probably a bit dated now but you could probably pick one up cheap.
 
Another with the Epson P-2000.

Agree with natjag about it performance wise, it is a little slow, but the LCD display is sharp with lovely colours. Apparently the P-3000 and 5000 download times are significantly quicker, plus the screen display has been further enhanced.

Really can't fault mine though, apart from slow performance.

Cheers, Mark
 
iPodTouch.jpg


And then there is the iPod with Camera Connector. Stores tens of thousands of high-res photos, and quadruples as a portable harddisk, and as your music and video repository.
4 machines for 1 price!

Ideal to show a client when 'in the field', while you can keep shooting away.
 
iPodTouch.jpg


And then there is the iPod with Camera Connector. Stores tens of thousands of high-res photos, and quadruples as a portable harddisk, and as your music and video repository.
4 machines for 1 price!

Ideal to show a client when 'in the field', while you can keep shooting away.

The ipod does not do RAW files (though you can shoot RAW + Jpeg), and the camera connector is just about the slowest thing you can use to transfure pictures over. It takes about 20min to copy over 2 gigs right?
 
The ipod does not do RAW files (though you can shoot RAW + Jpeg), and the camera connector is just about the slowest thing you can use to transfure pictures over. It takes about 20min to copy over 2 gigs right?

Yeah, but apart from the obvious short-comings, its a great idea. Imagine - you do your shoot in 600x400 jpegs, they transfer almost immediately and at that resolution you can indeed store tens of thousands on a flash-drive..........

or not.
 
I looked at both the M80 and P5000, couldn't find a decent review on either so opted for a Giva Vu Evo Pro. Am really impressed, very quick download of 4gb or 8gb CF cards, battery life is good and the screen is clear and crisp, highly recommended.
 
I have the epsom p2000, which is slow starting and closing, ....


I've got an Epson P5000. Its really quick to start and to close. Sounds like its a huge improvement over earlier models. Its screen is excellent and is certainly good enough to tell if you got - eg - focus issues.

I've had no problem with PC connection - it just plugs and plays.

It takes CF and SD and has a USB port too, so you can double back up to a USB stick. It does jpg, bmp and raw without any issues at all.

It also does video (avi and maybe some others) and will play mp3s too. Battery life is pretty impressive - I'd guess about 3 hours). It can back up a 2GB cf card of raw files in about 5 mins.

80GB hard drive.

Its expensive, sure. But it just works.
 
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