Portable picture viewer?

[tim_poitevin]

Hi All,

 

In lieu of carring a laptop as I walk around China this May, is there

a portable device for offloading pictures from my memory stick that

also has a screen for viewing the shots?

 

It would be sad to get back to the hotel and realize I overexposed a

shot of the Imperial Palace! The viewfinder in the D70s probably

won't be good enough (or will it?)

 

Just curious.

 

Thanks,

Tim

[dennismk]

Epson makes a great one and costs 500 bucks I dont know itsmodle number but doinga search on should find it. There is a review on Luminos Landscape

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

[phule]

Epson P-2000 or the newer P-4000

[fk319]

I have an Epson P-2000, $500. There is a P-4000 and has 80GB, the 2000 only has 40GB. And yes, they are a great piece of hardware. (The software has some oddities, like file rename and no concept of moving a file.)

[eric friedemann]

"It would be sad to get back to the hotel and realize I overexposed a shot of the Imperial Palace! The viewfinder in the D70s probably won't be good enough (or will it?)"

 

 

The D70s has a screen on the back that displays the image and a histogram. The histogram will tell you if you've made a properly-exposed image:

 

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

 

 

With the price of CF memory cards falling so rapidly, I wouldn't bother to download your images until you get home. Just bring a bunch of multi-GB cards.

[ShunCheung]

IMO the histogram and blinking highlights are more than sufficient for judging exposure, especially over-exposure. I wouldn't get a viewer for that reason alone. If you want to check your images more carefully, you'll need a larger screen.

[todd1664878707]

I was looking for the same thing. I looked at iPod because of its size, but it turns out that it won't recognize Raw file formats, just the usual JPG, TIFF, etc. Go to B&H and check them out there. Wolverine also has one. They have a 60GB and a 100GB and they are more affordable than the Epson ones suggested. I may look into one of those.

[tim_poitevin]

Wow, great link Erik, thanks! With the Epson being $500, it probably does make more sense to buy more CF cards and get comfortable with the Histogram. The link you sent explained it very clearly.

 

Thanks everyone for your answers and advice!

[fk319]

When I went on vacation, I would organize my photos at night. The display on the back of the camera will help you with exposure, but not blurr or focus problems. A Photo viewer will give you more detail and organize by folder. It will also slide show and mp3s. It helped me so when I got home, my pictures where already grouped by subject.

 

I have used Epson 2000 only three times in the past year and a half. And all three times it was nice to know I had all the disk space I could need. I have 2 high speed 1/2 GB cards, but I paid about $125 for each, so $500 for 40GB was worth it to me. Now 2GB are about $100, the choice is not as easy....

[Spearhead]

You can get a Toshiba laptop from Best Buy for less than the Epson device, and burn CDs as backup. While the devices are nice and light, if you are carrying luggage, you may as well take a computer, it's a lot more useful.

[eric friedemann]

Tim, I'd just add that the problem with relying on any screen for exposure information- digital camera LCD, Epson viewer or laptop- is that the screen has to calibrated for density and cannot be viewed in a strong light that could throw off your perception of correct exposure. In contrast, a histogram provides objective exposure information that doesn't rely on the brightness accuracy of a viewing screen.

[tim_poitevin]

Thanks Jeff. While it's true that I can get a cheap laptop, I'll already have one back at the hotel for offloading at night. I'm looking for something that I can walk around with in my camera bag.

 

The portable devices are great, and Frank's comment holds weight - it'd be great to check focus on the go. But then again, if I have 4GB of CF cards with me I can aperture bracket and not worry about running out of room. Food for thought, I guess.

[tim_poitevin]

And yes Eric, I agree - the histrogram is going to be crucial in the China sun! That advice alone makes me think I should save the money on such luxuries and just learn how to use my camera :)

[fk319]

Tim if you choose the 4GB CF option, do yourself a favor and get in the habit of renaming directories on the CF, it is a camera ?setup? option. Do it by place, or day or whatever. I find the part of the phot job that I hate the most is sorting and deleating dups and remembering if that was in place A or B, or x, y or z.

[tim_poitevin]

Great advice Frank. I haven't bought the D70s yet, so I'm not sure how it organizes photos, but I'm sure I can figure it out. I imagine you go through the menu, select a folder name, and it starts dumping pictures in there until you create a new menu?

 

Ahh, I'll figure it out :)

[joseph_smith3]

You have a couple of options: the Epson P-2000 or P-4000 or something equivalent, the Jobo Giga. All are viewers. Or you can get a image storage device made by hyerdrive, for storing images from your flash cards, but you cannot view them. More info on this product at this link: http://hyperdrive.com/shop/index.php

Or just buy a bunch of compact flash cards (and cases for them you will not lose) and wait until you get home. If you go the laptop route, you will need an external hard drive for it and maybe DVDs too. You have to back up everything all the time. The exposure problem is solved separately from your image storage problem. Just remember, the more you use that screen on the back of your camera, the more camera batteries you will need. Solve your exposure issues before you begin your trip. Joe Smith

[nikon_user1]

Why not use video ipod? you can get one for $299 and screen is pretty good. You don't have histogram option, and some people complained about the battery life. If you don't already have one, check it out. I am planning to get one... I can listen while I am viewing pictures!

[peter_cofran]

to me if your going to spend $500+ you might as well get a laptop. Then you can use it for more than just viewing photos. As far as checking exposure the camera's histogram should be sufficent.

[mark newcombe www.mcnphoto]

11 inch sony vio with wxga screen is light, portable and pretty good value. Spare batteries are more expensive than the bigger versions probably due to compactness. A lot of guys over on sportsshooter use them because they are small and light weight, I just ordered one for the same reason.

 

Ipods are too slow, great mp3 players but crap photo storage solutions. Extra cards is an option but not like a 60 gig drive. If you go the laptop route get a pcmia adaptor it makes dumping cards quicker.

 

I shoot probably 6-8 512 cards each saturday but still lug around the laptop incase something wonderful happens and I need the space or you loose the cf cards (it has happend to me NOT GOOD, bad habit of putting cards in top shirt pocket) now I have a cf wallet which holds 8 cards chained to my vest with numbered cards which get rotated.

 

Have fun in China it's a great place to shoot.

 

regards

Mark

[Mike D]

I like the P-2000 due to the great display. In my opinion, if an image doesn't look good on the P-2000, you'll have a hard time making it look good on anything else, even after post processing.

[dennis lee]

Hey Tim,

 

I have an Epson P-2000 and ( with only 3 gigs of CF at the time) travelled with

it for a month and absolutely loved having it, but, I didn't take my laptop along

so this was my "bank" so to say.

 

Since you will have your laptop back at the hotel I would probably put the

money into CF cards. Downloading and organizing will happen at the end of

the day with a fresh set of cards ready to go in the morning.

 

I use my P-2000 on every event shoot I do as back-up. It's great to be able to

see what you've just shot on a great screen but it's extra weight and kind of

expensive. Also, there's not often a lot of time during the day to sit reviewing

pictures unless your doing a lot of travel by bus or train. The picture quality

however is excellent and you would get a very good idea of image quality.

There is also a histogram.

 

One great thing about the P-2000 is that you could just download to the

Epson for a few days and then dump into the computer when you're ready.

The P-2000 is really a great little viewer to plug into the TV at night for slide

shows or just hold in your hands while you lay back on your pillow and review

the days take.

 

As a portable viewer I would give the P-2000 very high reviews. As a shooter

travelling with a laptop back in the hotel I would probably spend the money on

more cards. As an owner of the P-2000 I will always take it along whether the

laptop comes or not.

 

Have a great trip.

 

Dennis

[tim_poitevin]

Thanks everyone for your responses, they've been very enlightening.

 

I think for this trip I'm going to invest in CF cards and download to the laptop at night (it even has a CD burner if I want to get really nitpicky about double-backup).

 

I have to think about what happens after my China trip, when I will be near home and/or on US soil, and I don't have as many concerns about connectivity. For those times I probably wouldn't need the Epson P2000, although down the road it might be a fun luxury item to pick up.

 

Cheers all, I'll share my pics when I get back from the Orient! :)

Tim