Coolwalker

[Rick Waller]

Have you folks noticed that Ritz Camera is selling the Coolwalker for

$299? I wonder what gives - sounds like Nikon is about to release a

newer version or perhaps discontinue the product. B&H is still

showing it at $499.

[wilfred_wong]

If Coolwalker is selling at $499, i think many (if not most) people would go for the epson. Everyone 've quite positive review on the epson.....Larger screen, larger HDD, good battery life, view RAW from different brands, more features (might be just fancy but i use "digital wallet" usually only dring trips so those fancy features are fun to use when i'm not having trips)

 

the epson is quite attractive....I don't 've one, i'm considering one, but people said it just accept 8.3 filename. since i use rather long file name for my pictures "yyyymmdd_"+ name from camera so i'm a bit worry about this.

[lex_jenkins]

I handled a Coolwalker in a local shop about six weeks ago. It felt reasonably well made, tho' not as sturdy as I'd hoped. It was a convenient size and weight, definitely a plus for the traveler. Transfer speed from my Sandisk Extreme III 1GB CF card seemed reasonably quick.

 

On the down side, menu navigation was non-intuitive. I don't know why Nikon didn't emulate the existing menu navigation essentials of their dSLRs. Neither the salesman nor I could figure out some of the features.

 

And I couldn't tell a thing about LCD image quality because there was a thin plastic protective sheet over the screen to prevent scratching. It not only obscured the image but created nasty moire, which the salesman assured me was not a problem once the plastic sheet was removed.

 

At the current list price it isn't competitive. If Nikon will bump up the hard drive capacity and, preferably, the menu navigation, they'd probably earn some customers who will buy anything named "Nikon" as long as it's not a POS.

 

As for the Epson P-2000, sure, I've heard it's great. Anybody actually been able to get their hands on one before buying it? I mean, other than folks who live in NYC? For most of us it's a buy-sight-unseen proposition.

 

Right now I'm a little more intrigued by the recently upgraded Wolverine.

[kristopher.ian.whitemac.c]

I have the Coolwalker (i won it really cheap from a local camera store) and my good friend has the epson. He spent a lot more than I did, but the improvement in quality is significant, especially if you plan to view your photos with the unit. I got my coolwalker new for $200, so I couldn't really justify the price difference. When he saw mine, he liked it, but once he got to the store he went with the other. I still wouldn't pay the extra $, but I never use the thing to look at my pictures. My biggest complaint, though, is that the coolwalker battery only lasts four about 4 1GB transfers before needing to be recharged (or ~2.5 hours of viewing). I don't think the epson has that problem. Jobo makes several good alternatives as well (no color screen) that just store pictures, and, if I couldn't get the deal I got on the coolwalker today I would probably buy one of the Jobos.

Ian

[joe_w]

Don't know if this'll help, but there's a review of the Epson at

www.dpreview.com

 

Joe

[ShunCheung]

B&H is showing $280 now (June 18). I would guess that this is a "fire sale" price to clear stock, and a newer, higher capacity model may appear soon. 30G is merely 1500 uncompressed NEF's from the D2X, which isn't all that much.

 

Incidentally, the EPSON P2000 is very hard to find.