Epson P-2000 (40 GB) Digital Media Player

Most digital photographers face the same limitations of currently available memory sizes and the typically relatively small screen that even the most recent cameras have to offer. Further, reviewing pictures on the camera is often fast but drains the battery and feels cumbersome due to the size and weight of especially SLR cameras. On extended trips the 4 or 8 GB of maximum Flash memory currently available is not only expensive but also under circumstances not enough for extensive trips or jobs. While this is typically only relevant for enthusiasts and professionals, RAW format and high pixel count (i.e. >8 MPx) consume precious memory and even a weekend trip may force you to selectively delete pictures if you want to keep shooting (or spend significantly more money on several spare memory cards).

There are a few media players in the market, but none as sexy as Epson's P-2000 (or P-4000) which also sets itself apart from other by being the only currently available device supporting the RAW format which is typically found in digital SLRs. The P-2000 is more than just a photo viewer, but with roughly 3 hours of operation from one battery charge the video portion is a little handicapped (unless 1.5 movies are all you need on your trip).

Note: [Click here to read about the P-3000]


IN A NUTSHELL

Camera Companion: The P-2000's greatest value comes from its unparalleled functionality as a photo storage device. This mostly contributes to the storage and the beautiful screen. Most functionality is honed in the art of displaying JPEG pictures, but a limited functionality is also available for RAW picture. For the latter, the P-2000 doesn't actually read the RAW data, but extracts the embedded lo-res JPEG picture to view. Due to this limitation no zoom is available and it's mostly a highly detailed "thumbnail" of what the picture is about. Album functionality is great, though sorting (copying) pictures between albums can be cumbersome. The direct support for the two most popular media formats in current digital photography, makes the P-2000 a nice laptop replacement on the go. However, when shooting with more than 8.3 MPx, pictures cannot be rotated and overall speed is even further decreased. (Make sure to download the latest firmware update -- currently v2.51 -- as size limitations, supported cameras and histogram display have been greatly improved over v1.x)

mp3 Player: If you already have it, it's a nice touch to also use the P-2000 as a portable music player. However, in an arena where the iPod Nano shows basically rules the roost right now, it's hard to come up with many reasons why to use the P-2000 for music. Size, weight, content management, battery life and style are clearly at a disadvantage to the likes of Apple's iPod Nano. However, should you try the Epson for this purpose, good replay quality and large storage may help to overcome the very limited play list management, short battery life and bulky size.

Video On the Go: While quite capable of playing a full length video in good quality, the mandatory conversion (MPEG4) via computer and lengthy transfer to the P-2000 (despite USB2.0) handicap the versatility as a video player. Sony's PSP may require special media and therefor reach deep into your pockets as there is no writeable media available either. However, ignoring the monetary issues makes the PSP an unbeatable video player on the go. For that reason, I will only briefly cover the video portion of the P-2000 and focus on its main application: a photo viewer.


MAIN FEATURES

Size & Weight: If my title didn't give it away yet, I going to be blunt right now: The P-2000 is both heavy and large (or at least thick) when comparing it with typical PDAs and even the PSPs weight and thickness. However, other media viewers in this class are not that different and Apple's Video iPod really doesn't count as it doesn't have screen size or media slots to compete. The Epson doesn't fit comfortably in any pocket I typically have on me when shooting, and therefor is banned to my photo bag, waiting to receive my shots at the end of the session. While that's not so much of an issue for photographers that are used to hauling a lot of stuff around, the potential use as a video player or mp3 player is also greatly discouraged by both weight and size of the P-2000.
Rating: **---

Design & Style: The "front" (display side) is rather stylish though minimalistic elegant and fits my desire for a good looking device very well. The side profile looks every bit of its heft (bulky), though the Silver frame helps to slim it down slightly. However, no matter how you dress it up, it's still over an inch thick. The "back" is plain Black with no noticeable style clues -- in other words: boring. The directional buttons and the related Zoom are nicely styled, while the other 4 buttons (Display, Menu, Print, Home) blend almost too much into the surface for "blind" operation (i.e. in the dark, as neither button is backlighted).
Rating: ***--

Display: The 3.8 inch PhotoFine screen stands out for its high resolution (212 ppi, 640x480 pix) which can only be found in a limited number of PocketPCs these days, but also distinguishes itself from those with an extended color depth of 262k shades of colors. The low-temperature polysilicon TFT renders color beautiful and bright despite the "limited" color space (relative to the 24bit or 36 bit in JPEG or RAW). In that regard, keep in mind that the vast majority of PDAs is limited to 65k colors. (The significance lies in the ability to render finer nuances in gradual color differences.) The viewing angle is better than most cameras, but overall not perfect. Typical ghosting is hardly noticeable and for picture viewers insignificant anyway. Movies require extreme situations to be noticeable. The black level is very good for an LCD and under dim light the colors brilliant. In fact, it looks quite good even under normal ambient light and only direct day light washes colors out significantly and makes the picture hard to see because of the related reflection. This may be unique to my unit, but it shows no dead pixels (always off) but 2 hot pixels (always on) -- one green and one blue. The first is good (no dead pixels) and the other is slightly annoying with dark pictures or the mostly black or grey background in most menus. The viewing angle is a little below todays standards and limitation become visible at as little as 15 degrees from normal (90 deg) when viewing from the bottom. Sideways and from the top it's less limited and visible changes don't become problematic until about 45 deg from normal.
Note: Don't confuse the used PhotoFine technology with the upcoming PhotoFine Chromarich generation. The latter is able to display from a palette of 16 million shades of color -- or 64 times as many.
Rating: ****-

Interface: The minimalistic array of buttons and switches is located for your right thumb while holding the P-2000. Outputs (i.e. video or USB) are located on the left and two media slots on the top. This layout is biased for right-handed people but not completely unusable for "lefties" since the design is otherwise ambidexterous. A direct print button is a nice touch though I practically never use the direct print option and always rely on processing via PC before printing. Hence, I would have like a programmable button instead that allows me to define my own function (i.e. rotate). The on-screen menu looks stylish, colorful and is easy to navigate for most applications. In fact, the graphics look better than most cameras or viewers and the albums are stylish organized. Epson makes plenty use of the available resolution and color depth. However, it can be confusing and cumbersome to deal with the file management. Pictures can only be copied into an album and are (always) renamed in the process, while the originals remain on the drive and until you manually delete them. (Either is forced into the 8+3 naming convention.)
Rating: ****-

Media Support: I only use CF (Type 1 and 2) on a regular basis with the P-2000 (1 GByte Flash, 4 GByte microdrive). CF (Type 1 & 2), SD and MMC are directly supported via dedicated slots. Other media types (Memory Stick, xD Picture Card) require an optional adapter, though of the bigger brands that may only be significant for Sony's proprietary Memory Stick. (For Sony fans, the PSP might be a better choice anyway if storage is no issue.)
Rating: *****

Capacity: With the introduction of the P-4000, the 40 GB internal hard drive space may seem small, but using the EOS 20D as an example it still fits roughly 5000 pictures (~ 7MB /ea.) in RAW format onto the P-2000. Of course, other media (i.e. movies) stored on the same device takes away from that theoretical number, but using JPEG instead of RAW also boosts the maximum significantly. As with pretty much all storage devices, the P-2000 is rated at 40 GB despite the user available capacity of only 36 GByte. This is due to both inflated marketing definition of "Mega" and the space occupied by the P-2000 operating system and tools. Either way, 36 GByte of picture storage is more than enough (right now) and will serve me well on my trip to Kenya this year. ;-)
Rating: *****

Performance: Transfer speed (from media to device) is relatively low with right around 1.7 MB/sec or 2 pictures per sec in the case of the EOS 20D RAW (.CR2). (The typical 140 pictures [8 MPx, RAW] on a single one GByte card would roughly take 2 minutes to transfer. That's not too bad, but no match for the typical speed of a Ultra II or Ultra III which can be up to 6x or 12x as fast. Processing pictures to the display size of 640x480 pixels shows the limits of the processor and roughly 3 - 5 seconds (unbuffered) may be stretching patience a little thin for large collections. Fortunately, the P-2000 buffers processed pictures and (re-)displaying those goes significantly quicker. The initial processing time also heavily depends on the original resolution. Consequently, RAW displays faster than JPEG, since the embedded control picture is typically much smaller than the original, hence less to process.
Rating: ***--

Extendability: The P-2000 does not offer the download and installation of custom programs that might extend the usability of the device. The only upgrades can be published by Epson and as seen in the case of the 2.04 firmware upgrade, functionality can significantly improve (extended RAW support, added histogram, etc.). The firmware is generally not open for third party applications. However, the same is true for a PSP and similar device and therefor cannot be held against the P-2000. (Of course once PDAs offer that kind of storage one might argue to differ.)
Rating: ***--

P-2000 vs. P-4000: Unlike the upgrade from the discontinued P-1000, the main difference between the identical looking P-2000 (40 GByte) and the P-4000 (80 GByte) is storage capacity. Processor, battery, screen and interface are the same. Program changes that were introduced with the P-4000 can now be downloaded to upgrade the P-2000 for better RAW support and the display of histograms. So in a nutshell, the only difference is the bigger hard drive and the price difference of about $200. You decide it that warrants to buy the P-4000 or if you might get by just fine with the P-2000.
Rating: n/a


SUMMARY

The Epson P-2000 is currently the best photo viewer available that even supports popular versions of the RAW format (Canon & Nikon). As such it's in its own league and hardly punishable for its shortcomings which might reflect limitations of current technology at a reasonable price. Its main use is likely to be a JPEG/RAW photo viewer and portfolio for more serious photographers. It's also a great storage device for the rest of us on that long vacation we all like to take to exotic places (hence plenty photo opportunities).

The best features of the P-2000 are without a doubt a good screen (under normal light conditions) and relatively large storage. It's pretty much 10x the storage of a similar priced 4GB Flash card and even provides file management tools. The easy and intuitive user interface doesn't require much learning to master and overall it's much more handy to show your pictures on the P-2000 than the typical SLR camera. To some it may be even an important factor that the photo functionality can get by without a computer. Printing to supported printers via USB is one of those.

On the negative side, the P-2000 is big and heavy. Its media player functionality for video and music is greatly stifled by size and weight of the hardware. The iPod Nano fits the music bill much better though it only offers 1/10 of the storage capacity. Further, a computer is required to process and transfer such data to the device. Overall processing time is relatively slow compared to the latest SLR cameras (i.e. EOS 20D), but once buffered reasonably "fast". Once organized in an album and processed for viewing, the lag isn't as bad. However, zoom and scrolling is still kind of sloooow as the P-2000 doesn't appear to buffer the pictures and every zoom or scroll step is newly generated. (8 Mpx JPEGs can take several seconds between steps.)

Overall, the P-2000 is a great answer to photographer's needs for more storage when on a trip or without a computer (laptop) to upload pictures. It's significantly cheaper than the same amount of storage in Flash cards and at the same time more user-friendly due to an excellent screen and user interface. Battery life is a little handicapped and a spare is highly recommended. Fortunately no data gets lost when draining the battery.

Speed and RAW format limitation leave room for improvement and the P-2000 is not likely to survive for more than 1 - 2 years. Then new models might replace it and fix those shortcomings. Beyond storage capacity, the P-4000 is not yet the answer either. So you might just go ahead, and get a good media player like the P-2000 for the next 1 - 2 years and then upgrade to a (hopefully) much more powerful model. For JPEG shooters looking for versatility, the PDA format may be more appealing despite smaller storage. The slightly troubled Palm LifeDrive, for example, offers 4 GByte of storage, a camera companion to copy pictures from your SD card, and a nice viewer -- incl. zoom and auto rotate. (CF cards and RAW may not apply.) Further, should you own a Sony camera the PSP might be a good alternative, as it displays JPEGs straight off the Memory Stick, but lacks the ability to transfer pictures to storage (to free up the Memory Stick).


© 2005, Thomas Theuerkorn