Epson P2000 Comments

[Jack Flesher]

I like mine.  Fast, easy to use, great screen, long battery life (good for about 10G of images if you don't review a lot).  What more could you want?

Jack

[jani]

Summing up, I would always buy the P-2000 again, as it has the best screen for viewing images and stores the images safely.

Is there any competition at all, really?

I know that MSI has the Mega View 566, which is a bit cheaper and doesn't support RAW or anything really useful for photographers, but I don't know whether the screen is better or worse than Epson's.

[Jack Flesher]

Bernard:

While we're at it, why not a super-fast SATA 100G drive and four times the battery life AND all of Andrew's updates in a package 1/2 the size and 1/10th the cost?

My point being it is not perfect for sure. But right now it is the best thing out there.  And as Jani pointed out, there isn't any competition.   Other than maybe a high-end sub-notebook...  

Cheers,
Jack

[Marshal]

But that's what they're saving for the Epson P-4000 in a few months to make all the 2000 models obsolete. And the P-4800 will be out a year later to replace that one.  

[blueshadows]

If you use an Epson P2000, I'd like to hear your comments, pro and con, on its performance (especially if you've relied on the unit on an extended trip, sans computer). My wife and I are visiting England in the fall, and I'm tempted to leave the Powerbook at home and purchase a P2000 for this, and other, trips. It's either that...or more CF cards.

Thanks for your opinions  

[Woodcorner]

I agree with Jack, the P-2000 is very useful and I often leave my laptop at home and simply carry along the P-2000 (software version 02.02).

Things I dislike:
- 8.3 naming convention, a pain if you try to copy files with long names from your PC to the Epson
- still no way to zoom in to RAW images, zooming is limited to JPEGs
- no histogram for RAW files, only for JPEGs. Technically, this is probably correct, nevertheless a histogram could at least be based on the "as-shot-information" from the metadata from the camera.

What I would like to see in a future version:
- histogram with RGB channel information
- include meta-information on color space for JPEGs
- a clipping indicator for highlights and shadows (RAW and JPEG)
- when copying from cards, the progress bar should give you more information on estimated duration, number of images being imported, name of the image currently being copied, etc.
- better handling of errors during import. If an image on the CF card is corrupt, the copy function stops importing further images beyond the corrupt image. If you try to import the same card for a second time, the already copied images are being transferred again. It took me some time to figure out that I'd have to delete only the damaged image from the CF card. Afterwards the remaining images will be copied as well.
A "skip import" button would be handy in such situations.
- larger harddisk for longer shootings / trips

Summing up, I would always buy the P-2000 again, as it has the best screen for viewing images and stores the images safely.

Hope this helps!

Andrew

[BernardLanguillier]

I like mine.  Fast, easy to use, great screen, long battery life (good for about 10G of images if you don't review a lot).  What more could you want?

- Twice that battery life?... :-)
- a 60 GB HD instead of 40?

It is overall a very nice tool though, but considering the weight of the battery, doubling its capacity would have been very possible. To my eyes, it is close to a design flaw.

Regards,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

Bernard:

While we're at it, why not a super-fast SATA 100G drive and four times the battery life AND all of Andrew's updates in a package 1/2 the size and 1/10th the cost?

My point being it is not perfect for sure. But right now it is the best thing out there.  And as Jani pointed out, there isn't any competition.   Other than maybe a high-end sub-notebook...  

Cheers,
Jack

Jack,

It is indeed the best thing in town, but they could have made it a lot better for my usage easily:

- higher capacity batteries exist as we speak, doubling the capacity is only a matter of increasing the weight and space a little bit,

- the 60 GB HD of the same format hardly cost more, don't consume more energy and are only a few grams heavier.

Reducing the size of the package by 2 and reducing the cost by 10 are entirely different matters... :-)

Cheers,
Bernard

p.s.: my usage being typically treks of a few days away from power plugs during which I could shoot as much as 400 images a day...

[BernardLanguillier]

But that's what they're saving for the Epson P-4000 in a few months to make all the 2000 models obsolete. And the P-4800 will be out a year later to replace that one.  

Marshal,

You shouldn't write these things, some guys might think that you don't like Epson... :-)

Cheers,
Bernard

[wolfnowl]

Fast, easy to use, great screen, long battery life (good for about 10G of images if you don't review a lot).  What more could you want?

My suggestion would be a user replaceable hard drive.  The Vosonic VP6210 uses this idea, which means that even the new Toshiba 100GB 1.8" drive can be accomodated.  OTOH, I tried e-mailing Vosonic twice for more information and got no response either time, so I abandoned that idea in favour of the Epson.

Mike.