Epson P-3000 40GB Multimedia Storage Drive, Viewer, and Audio-Video Player w/ 4-Inch LCD

I have had this viewer for almost three years and have always had problems with the software between my PC with Windows XP and the viewer. I recently returned from a two month trip to China with several hundred pictures in the viewer. I have always followed their instructions to the letter and somehow this time both the computer and the viewer locked up. I was forced to reset both and in the process ALL MY PICTURES WERE LOST. Epson should have a foolproof way that won't let you lose your files without manually deleting them. Generally that is the way it is on computers unless you have an outright crash.

And, everything on your camera card downloads everytime, a very bad feature. If I continue to use this piece of crap I will carry several cheap multi gig cards and back up from the viewer to the cards daily.

It is exactly what it says it is. It downloads my SD cards and gives me added security when you have to bring home that shot. It is also a great tool for showing your shots off and getting people interested in what you do.
This has become my digital portfolio. In a matter of seconds I can be showing shots and making a sale. My laptop takes several minutes to boot up and by then you have lost the moment. My Epson P-3000 is ready in seconds.

I bought this for a specific purpose. We were going to Hawaii, and I for once in my life didn't have access to a laptop computer that I could use. My wife forced me to agree to not take a laptop so I couldn't do work when I was on vacation. But, I take a lot of pictures, and needed a storage solution.

The Epson P3000 solved the problem. I also carried a USB2 160 GB 2.5 inch hard drive, and was able to make a second backup copy of all images on that, so I was never without 2 copies of every image.

I take D200/D300 RAW images, so they are large. And on longer trips (such as that trip to Kauai), I will take 5000 or 10000 images. In reality, the P3000 is too small for me, and on that first trip I took 48 GB of images, and the device could only hold 40GB of them. I had 4 8GB CF cards, so I was not at risk at that point, but for me, larger would have been better. But this was much cheaper than the P5000 available at the time, and I decided to save the bucks. That's really the only limitation that I wish could be changed, that you can't change out the hard drive. But Epson, like Apple, makes drive size part of their business model and marketing, and that's not going to change.

The screen is small (if you're used to a notebook screen), but larger than most portable viewers. And the quality of the rendered images is very good. Color rendition is accurate, vibrant, and the images are contrasty and plenty bright. It's much better to view images on the P3000 than on the D200 LCD. But the D300 3" LCD gives the P3000 a run for it's money (D300 is not better, but it's very close). For RAW files, it will render the embedded JPEG, which is fine as long as you understand what this implies. The human interface to the device is easy to navigate and use, and in the end has all of the functions I needed it to have.

The User's Guide isn't always clear about how to use it, or about what it can do. For instance it was not clear from Epson's description whether I could actually backup to an external USB2 hard drive. In the end, lots of forum posts confirmed that I could. However, it would not drive the external device power, and so I needed a drive that would support a separate power source. So, for instance, you cannot use it with a WD Passport drive unless you get a USB split cable to supply power from another source.

Speed is reasonable, remembering that I'm dealing with large images. Copying a full 8GB CF card didn't take much longer than with most USB CF readers on a notebook computer. Making the backups to the USB drive were not fast, but it was start it and let it run, so I didn't care. You can browse the external USB drive to verify the copy of the images there is good, although doing that is really slow so you would only do it to spot check some images, not to browse a different set of images.

I didn't use any of the media features (like music or video) of the device, so can't comment there. But I know the features are there.

I have had two other similar storage solutions in the past, neither of which had a display. And that makes them useless. You never know if you have saved your images or not if you can't actually see them. With the P3000, you can see them, and even zoom in on them, and do a great slideshow of them, and even do some culling if you are into that because the display quality is very good given the size.

In short, if you want to go without a computer, this device plus an external USB2 2.5 inch drive gives you a very compact storage solution that gives you viewing and backup capability.

A must have for serious photographers doing field work in today's digital photography age. The Epson P-7000 provides rapid transfer of photos from the camera to the device on the go without requiring the aid of a computer. The Epson's 4" viewing window and histogram also provides a crisp and vivid look at your photos in the field, adding an extra layer of protection and quality control to your work. The price is high, but for my money, it's worth every penny.

I got this to back up pictures off of my CF cards for my digital SLR. There's plenty of storage, easy to use, and is very versatile! This is the perfect accessory add-on for your digital camera. Don't go with a cheaper alternative. This is well worth the money!