Epson P-5000

[bob_r]

Last year when we went to Florida, I didn't have anything to transfer my image files to (I'm not going to take the laptop), so I shot in JPG. I was disappointed with the results (part of the poor results were the lenses).

We have another trip planned for next month, so I hope to increase the number of keepers by shooting RAW and with better lenses. I bought the above unit and received it today. I have the battery charging now, so haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but have seen some promising reviews.

Does anyone else use a similar unit and do you have any tips for me?

Bob R

[hw771230]

Bob,

All I know about that one is what I read in OP. I'm looking at getting a Wolverine for my next trip. They have a couple of options, so I am not sure which one yet. The Epson is out of my price range. I am going to be out in the boonies for about 3 months working (and thaking photos) so I want something like that. I will not have power all the time, so having a good backup device is going to be worth it's weight in gold.

Let me know how it works.

Caleb

[bob_r]

Caleb,

I downloaded yesterday's RAW pic files to it, viewed them, copied to my PC and then deleted without any problems. The software seemed to have a problem installing, but did finish on the second try.

The display is big and bright and allows magnification to check finer detail when needed. I think this is going to work great.

Bob R

Forgot to add, that according to the specs, it only supports CF cards up to 8GB. I have an 8GB, but thougt about buying a larger one for the trip, so I'm glad I didn't.

[bob_r]

Another update.

The P-5000 has an option that allows you to use a camcorder AV cable (3.5mm to 3 RCA type jacks) to view your files on a TV. This is a pretty cool way to cull out the bad shots.

A word of warning and this could be an isolated case, but I bought the first cable at Best Buy in the IPOD section (with the help of a salesperson) and it did not work. Everything hooked up properly, but it simply didn't work.

I bought a different cable at Radio Shack and it worked fine. It does appear to be much better quality and the price difference was only about $2 more, so I'd definitely recommend getting it at Radio Shack.

Bob R

[Bonish Photo]

Hey Bob, I'm on the same lines with Caleb as I've been wanting to buy that model for a few months now, but the price tag was a little steep for me. I'd love to know if it's justifiable and worth its cost.

Right now I'm usually only shooting for a day at a time without access to a laptop, so I dont really need it yet, but as our trip moves out West and we'll be out shooting for a few days at a time away from the truck, I thought that might be my next purchase.

One thing that you might want to check into, is if you're going to be out for awhile, CF Cards are so cheap now, I carry 4 2gig cards in my camera bag, and you have to be shooting like crazy to fill up that amount in a few days. If you were to carry 4 4gig cards with you, you should be able to go for an extended time in the field before having to stop and download.

One thing that always worried me about going up to the 8 gig cards is I had a 2gig card fail on me one time right before it filled to capacity, and I lost all the shots on it. Luckily it wasnt anything real important, but I've always thought how devastating it would be to lose an 8gig card!

Keep us posted on the Epson

Thanks
Pat
http://www.everymilesamemory.com

[bob_r]

Pat,

I also share your concern about having so many images on one card. My son went to Florida a couple of weeks ago and I loaned him a couple of my 2GB cards. His card crashed while at Disney and he was so thankful to have spares. He lost some shots, but didn't come home without pics.

Of course, I've been on the other end too. Once while shooting at a lake, I had taken a lot of shots and was about to leave, when a great blue heron came swooping in right near me. I took 2 shots and ran out of space on the card. AARRGH!

I think the ideal situation would be as you suggested. A couple of 4 gig cards and the Epson. If you capture something that you really couldn't bear losing, switch cards and copy it to the Epson while shooting on the spare.

Pat, I can't really say whether the price is justifiable for you. It is for me because I don't want to carry a laptop with me on trips. As for filling up the cards, it doesn't take long on a vacation trip to the beach with 3 kids. The unit seems well made and I expect to get a number of years service from it. If you average the cost out over a few years, it really doesn't seem so high. Of course, once the competition figures out how to handle RAW files, the prices will probably come down.

Bob R

[hw771230]

Pat,

If you are interested in a lower cost option checking out the wolverine mvp might be worthwhile. They have a smaller screen, 2.5in, but a 60GB model can be had for about $250 and they display RAW from a couple of manufacturers. They come in upto 120GB.

Like you guys I carry multiple cards. I stick with the 1 GB cards, and refrain from filling them completely. 100 pics per card is more than enough for me, but I am still in the dark ages at 6.1 MP. My hard drive is filling fast enough as it is. I lost a couple of shots on my last trip because a card froze on me. I think there were only about 10 on there, but the computer would not recognize them so I just formatted it, and it works fine now. It is also my backup now. I think Target carries them, but I cannot be sure, because there is none around here.

Bob,

Glad to hear you are enjoying the new toys. I hope it works out well for you.

Caleb

[bob_r]

We returned from our trip to the Emerald Coast last night after being gone for 6 days. I didn't take any shots the last day since I was busy driving for 12 hours, but still had over 15GB of pics stored on the P-5000.

Before we left on our trip, my son recorded 3 full length movies (1.9GB) on it and over 30 albums of music (1.7GB). My vehicle already has a DVD player, so the kids didn't watch the movies, but my wife listened to the music for hours. Even with all this plus all the pics I took, I still had over 54GBs of available space remaining.

Reviewing the shots on the P-5000 was so much better that using the camera. The bigger screen made it a lot easier to review finer details in the shots. I was having a problem using a new polarizer with my Canon 70-300mm lens and was made aware of it because of the viewer. Since the viewer on the camera is so much smaller, I couldn't tell that all the shots I took with that combination were not sharp. I reshot some of the blurred shots the next day. If I had waited to find out this when I got home, I wouldn't have been able to reshoot some of the shots.

Anyway, I'd give it "2 thumbs up". I've downloaded my pics to the PC, but I'm going to wait until I process everything before erasing them from the P-5000.

Bob R

Bob R