photo storage and viewer for D3x?

[Udo]

Greetings to all,

for travel purposes I am looking for a storage and viewing device for my D3x RAW files (not to mention P30+ files). Storing doesn't seem to be a problem for most of the available devices, but picture reviewing seems to a bit of a problem. (at least for now)

Is there anybody out there who could share some experiences. Your thoughts are most welcome.

Many thanks and best regards,
Udo

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

I consider buying one of the HP Mini 1000 laptops instead of a conventional storage device. They cost around $500, weigh around 1kg, have an 8" monitor, up to 60GB HD and 2GB RAM. They run Windows, and you can actually install Photoshop. It will be relatively slow, but work fine for viewing photos.

In addition, it's possible to add external disks, giving unlimited storage capacity and backup.

 

[Oxide Blu]

I also like the idea of a cheap mini computer, but for portability and easy of use, no. The personal media players (PMP) have it over a mini computer in those areas.

Cowon (Korean company) is pretty serious about the media their players support/play/display. The audio quality from Cowon's audio players is unsurpassed by anyone. I think it is their A3 PMP that will display PNG and TIFF, RAW files, and of course JPEG, BMP. Don't know about Nikon or Canon's proprietary formats.

Something you may want to consider is the standardized application for downloading your image files from your camera directly into the PMP. You do not need to go through a computer. Not all PMPs have that feature; some do, some don't. It would make things very convenient.

Btw, I believe the Epson photo viewers display Canon and Nikon RAW files.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

The Cowons don't read RAW files other than PNG. The Epson does, although not D3X yet. I don't know if the firmware can be upgraded at a later date. It should, since the Epson units are rather expensive at $500-800.

I forgot about the ideal solution for this, the Fujitsu Lifebook U820. It's a micro tablet PC with a 5.6" touch screen and a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Maximum HD size is 120GB and it has slots for SD as well as CF cards, so no external card reader needed. It runs Windows Vista Home Version. Maximum RAM is just 1GB, so Photoshop will run slowly, but you can attach an external mouse, external HD, external monitor, and there's a full, although tiny, keyboard. Best of all though is the size: 171mm (W) x 135mm (D) x 26.5 - 33.0mm and the weight is just 600g (only marginally heavier than the Epson).

It's rather expensive at between $1,000 and 1,450, but it's a real gem, and you can obviously connect to the internet (wi-fi and even UMTS 3.5g on some versions), send emails and do all other kinds of computing with it. There are also other models in the range, called U1010 and U2010. I think the models depend on where in the world you are.

Here are some links:

http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=U820
http://www.fujitsu.com/sg/services/computing/pc/notebooks/useries/u2010-3.5g/index.html

 

[Oxide Blu]

But you know what the problem with internet access is -- it's the fee you must pay every month for access via wi-fi. Or, if you are going to be near a hot spot or hard wired internet access, you can just as easily bring a regular laptop with you.

Photo viewers are their own special animal. Computers are at the other end of the scale. PMPs are somewhere in the middle, a compromise of what either of the other two can do better.

I just looked, the Epson photo viewers were just updated to support the Nikon 3D, no mention of the 3Dx, tho the Epson update is just days old, Feb 9, so perhaps. Also, they only display the embedded JPEG for DNG files, not the RAW data, tho I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. And I agree with you, think they are seriously over-priced.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

But you know what the problem with internet access is -- it's the fee you must pay every month for access via wi-fi. Or, if you are going to be near a hot spot or hard wired internet access, you can just as easily bring a regular laptop with you.

A regular laptop is around 2kg, the Fujitsu is 600g. Big difference. In many big cities, access to free wi-fi is becoming increasingly common, even here in the land of smiles

The Epson is an excellent device, and Epson knows, so they price it accordingly, but to me, it's too expensive. I'd rather pay a bit more for the Fujitsu, and get access to my email and the possibility of having a small backup drive connected. Disks do crash sometimes, and when they do, it's mostly at the most inconvenient time possible.

 

[GrahamWelland]

My Epson P-3000 obviously didn't get the memo about not working because it loads and displays the D3X files just fine. :thumbup:

It shows D3X files as raw and will zoom, show histogram and all of the EXIF data. It even shows blinkies. The only problem with it is that I feel the need for one of the bigger versions now. :wtf:

As regards backup, you can save images off from the Epson to a connected USB drive as well.

Epson firmware version 01.20.01.00 is what's on mine.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

As regards backup, you can save images off from the Epson to a connected USB drive as well.

Epson firmware version 01.20.01.00 is what's on mine.

That's interesting. I didn't know. Will it be able to power the other drive as well?

 

[GrahamWelland]

The Epson P-3000/6000/7000 have a full USB connector (& mini for connection to Mac/PC) and can power external USB devices. Obviously the recommendation is that you provide power to the Epson and/or external drive if you expect the battery to last.

I actually just played with my Epson P-3000 & P-4000 and connected them together to backup some D3X files to the P-4000 to see how they render. It works fine, although the older P-4000 is USB 1.0 so slowed things down a lot compared to a USB 2 device.

Btw, Epson P-4000 also renders NEF files from all of the Nikon D cameras, although it's only the embedded JPG. It still displays the EXIF info but not the histogram. This is the same behaviour as with the D700/D3 files but the good news is that it didn't barf on the files. :thumbup:

If you're interested in the Epson devices then I'd definitely go with the newer P-3000/6000/7000 series because they are a LOT faster and also have a much nicer screen too. The big advantage for Nikon RAW files is that you can zoom & see the histograms etc. They also have Epson Link Backup which is a relatively smart app for transferring files from the devices to your Mac/PC too.

 

[GrahamWelland]

BTW, if I were looking to buy a viewer today I'd seriously consider some of the other competition out there such as the HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA ... it looks faster, cheaper and you can easily upgrade the internal drive (or get one with no drive and install your own).

 

[Udo]

Thanks a lot for all your replies!

Afterall I got the Epson P-7000 these days and although the firmware isn't the latest release (V1.29), D3X RAW files can be displayed even with histogram and the basic EXIF data. The screen is awesome, i.e. great color and sharp and the unit itself is very well built.

Regards,
Udo

 

[GrahamWelland]

Udo,

You can get a firmware update from the Epson web site.

Graham