Back in 2005, when reviewing my EPSON P-2000 multimedia player, I concluded that: "Speed and RAW format limitation leave room for improvement and the P-2000 is not likely to survive for more than 1 - 2 years.". So here we are at the predicted future and the P-3000 is replacing the older model. Storage capacity didn't change and overall concept didn't either, but there may be just enough reasons to consider the upgrade.
IN A NUTSHELL
The P-3000 basically serves three basic purposes...
Photo Companion: [****-] - Still the only one to display RAW images, Epson remains the only choice for professionals and enthusiasts that shoot RAW only and don't want to sacrifice storage for recording duplicates in JPEG (as it would be needed for the Archos). The VGA display is simply stunning and the best I have seen in that size. (May not mean much.) Speed increased just enough to be very noticeable when used with with the same camera (EOS 20D, 8 MPx). This is especially true for the previously cumbersome zoom and pan, but still leaves room for improvement. Not sure how this scales for the latest cameras with over 10 MPx. An new feature worth mentioning is the support for Adobe's "independent" RAW format called DNG and the support for Adobe's Bridge software.
Video Player: [***--] - Despite the beautiful screen, capacity limitations and battery life may have a similar impact on the video usability of the P-3000 as size has on the mp3 part. Further, the standard aspect ratio reduces widescreen movies to an even smaller screen and may be an issue for viewers -- at least when compared to the Archos widescreen model which sports less resolution but fills the wide screen fully (16:9). Nevertheless, once on the go, there is no easy way to upload new movies. (This is a major advantage of the PSP despite the troubled UMD format and the lo-res screen. The PSP also happens to be much slimmer.)
Mp3 Player: [**---] - In light of Apple's iPod and Microsoft's "Zune" and many other players in the segment, size is the biggest argument against the P-3000 -- literally. Replay quality and overall usage is good and nothing speaks against using the Epson for this purpose, but it's not a natural for making it your primary music player. (Accessories like iPod docking stations, car adapters etc. are virtually non-existent for the Epson.) Music library and access are not ideal either, and only to recommend if you need everything in one device. (At least it's able to play the iPod AAC format.)
PRO:
+ Extended RAW support with zoom and rotate
+ Adobe's camera independent DNG supported
+ Histograms for JPEG and RAW (with exposure warning)
+ Up to 30 Mpx picture files supported
+ Improved color gamut display (16 mio colors)
+ Improved transfer speed (card to hard drive)
+ Image enhancement to maximize color rendition
+ Improved button layout and on-screen GUI
+ Ergonomic, great industrial design
+ Direct print via PictBridge supported printers (USB)
+ Smooth video replay (incl. DivX)
+ USB control for camera or USB storage device
+ PAL/NTSC video output
CON:
- Screen is very reflective (in bright environment)
- Zoom and pan still somewhat slow (buffer?)
- Progressive JPEG not supported
- Manual rotate only in specific folder
- Folder creation only via copy/move
- High capacity not supported (SD >2GB, CF >8GB)
- Relatively big housing (31mm thick)
- No wireless connectivity
- No battery charger included (in device charging)
MAIN FEATURES
Size & Weight: [***--] I am not a big fan of the thickness of the device and only accept the weight as a result of the implemented hard drive. The housing measures 150mm/88.7mm/33.1mm (W/H/D) and weighs in at roughly one pound. This is slightly bigger than the previous model, but in normal use not noticeable. (It's 0.1" or 0.2mm thicker.) During use it's very easy to hold and operate. Obviously, some of the width and height is driven by the large screen and resting places for your hands. That's an advantage over the Archos, but it's too big to carry anywhere on your body, and the weight adds a pound to your gear.
Design & Style: [****-] Generally speaking, the new generation is easily recognized by re-arranged buttons and more rounded edges. Silver distracts a little bit from the otherwise good shape and gives the P-3000 a slightly cheapish look, but fortunately the new Silver is a lot darker and less "cheap" than the P-2000. The side profile still looks every bit of its heft (bulky). Yest it's thick and heavy. The interface makeover resulted in much easier to use buttons which now are easy to find (raised) and a joy to press (good tactile feedback). The directional pad is now easy to the touch and just as easy to use with a thumb. It's not as ambidextrous anymore and biased towards right-handed users. Though oddly enough I found it to be held comfortably in my left hand while flipping through a mix of landscape and portrait orientations (with auto rotate off). The new location of the directional pad allows to keep free access to the whole display. The on-screen GUI simply looks very organized, and Epson's new user interface lost some of its glitz in order to shine with a simpler interface that sort of disguises the newly gained color gamut (with a very plain interface) ... until it matters. Beyond looks, the user is faced with an easy to use menu and operation is mostly reduced to the directional pad and the ok/back buttons. Menu access via button helps to keep clutter low. The housing is more sculpted and bumps aid the secure fit in one hand. A new rating button allows to categorize files and filter by importance (0 - 5 stars). Yet, two functions are harder to access than it needs to be. Rotating pictures manually is only possible in a specific folder. Creating folders appears to be tied to a copy/move action, and if you need a new folder you would have to copy an existing picture to be presented with the "new folder" command.
Display: [*****] - The front most improvement is the new 4 inch PhotoFine Ultra which sports the same 640x480 pix resolution. The 0.2 inch increase is not significant either, but the use of 4 colors per pixel allows to boast the reproducible color range to a full 16 million shades (gamut) in a handheld. Each pixel consists now of four colors: Red, Yellow Green, Blue and Emerald Green. This hints improvements in the Green and Turquoise shades, but turns out to be not a dramatic change. While maintaining the standard 4:3 aspect ratio, the high resolution is still capable to display widescreen movies with more detail than the (low-res) Archos widescreen model. However, the picture is naturally smaller. The PhotoFine Ultra's viewing angle improved and noticeable color shifts now require significantly larger viewing angles than in the original 3.8" PhotoFine display (still with a handicap when viewing from the bottom). The black level is very good, but still washes colors out significantly in direct sun light and makes the picture very hard to see. This is mostly a result of the typical reflection and the low power backlight compared to the sun -- just like any other display of that kind. In fact, the highly reflective screen may be good to promote brilliant colors, but also functions (too well) as a mirror in bright light. Unlike my previous unit, the P-3000 doesn't show any hot or dead pixels. (Just lucky this time?) Note: Epson's "PhotoFine Ultra" was previously known as "PhotoFine Chromarich" technology.
Media Support: [*****] - I use currently CF (Type 1 and 2) and SD memory on a regular basis. 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. Memory cards have grown in the last year and should you be lucky to own a 16 GB CF card, you may be out of luck for now. The P-3000 is still limited to 8 GB for CF and 4 GB SD. The new SDHC is supported only up to 2 GB, but currently don't own any of those anyway. However, of my two SD cards only the Kingston 2GB was compatible while the RiData 2GB (150x) caused the P-3000 to think it wasn't formatted. Both were formatted and work fine in my Canon SD800 IS. None of my CF cards (Sandisk, Lexar, Kingston) had an issue.
The P-3000 understands MP3, AAC, WMA file formats for music and DiVX, MPEG 1/2/4, AVC, WMV9 and Motion JPEG for video files. Pictures can be in either JPEG or RAW. The latter is Epson's main draw and covers basically all common formats: Canon, Konica Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Epson, FujiFilm, and Sony. In either case, only the embedded thumbnail is extracted and displayed. Implementing several full RAW engines is an unlikely feature as it would probably be cost prohibitive. (In other words, don't wait for it.) However, the P-3000 now allows to both Zoom and Rotate RAW images, but "only" to 100% and it heavily depends on the embedded control picture and what resolution manufacturers choose (some of those let you configure the size). Further, the rotate is limited to automatic portrait adjustment until pictures are in the "My Pictures" folder. Only there you have access to a manual rotate command. To my surprise, a histogram is now available for RAW and the helpful over-/underexposure (blinking areas) -- easily accessible by cycling the Display button.
Connectivity: [****-] - Beyond the SD and CF memory slots, the P-3000 shows interesting features. The headphone jack moved towards the side of the memory cards which makes it easier to hold the device in its normal orientation during use. The other connections are now hidden behind doors. The 5V power jack got its own cover in the left hand's grip. The Audio/Video (PAL & NTSC but no HD) output and the USB connection have a common cover and not much changed here. To display videos on TV you need the optional camcorder cable. Nevertheless, there is also a surprise hidden under the same door. The P-3000 now sports a full size USB port to connect to other devices like digital cameras or even another P-3000 to share or access data. Flash drives work just fine, including U3 enabled devices. However, password protected drives cannot be accessed as the device cannot display the unlock dialog. The P-3000 can sen photos directly to a USB printer, provided it's PictBridge* enabled. There is currently no wireless connection. Epson suggests not to use the AC adapter without an installed battery to avoid damaging the device.
* ... PictBridge is a standard that allows sending images directly to a printer, regardless of brand. No configuration is necessary, devices automatically recognize each other depending on their capabilities.
Software: [****-] - Compared to the predecessor, the P-3000 and P-5000 don't include a CD with support software or electronic manual anymore. However, it's still there just now stored on the device. Connect it to the computer via USB and both Mac and PC version can be copied to your hard drive to be installed. Epson's Link2 software is basically a sync tool to copy files and convert them if necessary (i.e reduce video to below 2 GB). Generally speaking usage is very with only two annoyances. (1) I really would like to have a "level up" button to make navigation easier. There is the explorer tree, but it's not as easy as to go back one level. (2) The other is more of a safety concern since there is no eject button and you're left with unplugging the cable with the USB being active. There is no way to know if transfer is really complete or if the hot plugging may destroy something.
Capacity: [****-] - The 40 GB internal hard drive space (37 GB available) starts to seem small, but in my usage (w/ EOS 20D) it still stores roughly 5000 pictures (8 Mpx) in RAW format. I have no intentions to load movies, but of course any additional media (i.e. music or movies) reduces that into a theoretical number. Of course you can always use JPEG instead of RAW. A different kind of capacity is battery life. I have a hard time to achieve the claimed 3 hours, but my usage involves lots of "simultaneous" access to both memory card and hard drive (while display is active). However, speedier transfer process now allows to move roughly 10 GByte of pictures from memory cards to the device and still leave a little "juice" to actually review a few. (The P-2000 is basically exhausted after roughly 6 GB of data transfer and viewing very few pictures.) Purely playing by numbers, the P-3000 sports a 2600 mAh battery and consumes 6.3 Watt when running on battery. (The P-2000 did include a 2300 mAh battery but only used about 4 Watt.) In theory the P-3000 should be exhausted quicker, but in reality it feels very much the same. In fact, there is a noticeable productivity increase due to the faster transfer and processing.
Performance: [****-] - The P-2000 was a test of patience due to disk access, processor speed and little buffer memory. Even at the time of release this was only a compromise to keep cost reasonable. The good news is that the P-3000 fixes the most glaring performance issues and generally feels twice as fast when moving pictures from a card to the hard drive or simply looking at an album of hires pictures on the drive. Most important is the increase in zoom speed and while Epson claims 500% faster processing, it sure feels faster relative to the old but still not instant. Especially when viewing from a memory card, the P-3000 accesses the card everytime you pan or zoom which suggests that Epson didn't include a large enough buffer (if any). Of course, transfer speed (approx. 3 MB/sec for large files) is still much lower than current high-speed CF cards are capable of, but you're now more likely to transfer more pictures before the batteries run out.
Cost: [***--] - With the rapidly dropping prices for flash memory (I've recently seen Adorama to offer Kingston's 4GB 133x CF card for $39 after rebate.) it's only a matter of time when buying multiple cards outweighs the benefits of such a device as the P-3000 when strictly considering storage. Sure, that would ignore the other benefits and isn't really a fair comparison. Nevertheless, the P-3000 may be the entry model but with $499 it's an expensive one. Even the $450 I got this for, are not exactly pocket change. Compared to the lower cost Archos, the Epson offers better quality expressed by the amazing screen, but for the mass market that may not justify the expense. Further, the P-5000 brings more capacity to the table, but cost was a good reason to forfeit that offer (since 40GB is all I need).
P-3000 vs. P-5000: The most obvious difference between the slightly different looking P-3000 (40 GByte) and the P-5000 (80 GByte) is storage capacity. However, the housing looks different and the P-5000 actually sports an all Black shell, where the P-3000 relies on Silver accents. (The Silver has become sort of a consumer grade style cue.) Processor, display and performance are pretty much the same. So if 40 GB won't do the P-5000 offers twice the storage for an additional expense of roughly $200. Compared to the older P-2000 and P-4000, the P-3000 offers superior performance regarding speed and display quality. Not to ignore is the improvement in ergonomics of the new generation. Given that the older models are still relatively expensive, I would go straight to the new one if you have a choice.
Prediction: Despite all the improvements, I wouldn't be surprised to see a slimmer model with more storage and widescreen display as soon as early 2008. Regarding storage, the implementation of solid-state "hard drives" may be slightly further out, but it sure would reduce access time and improve battery life in the next generation. However, it would have to be at least 50 or 60 GByte for the entry level model and probably 100 for the advanced version. As prices drop, it may also allow to not only shed weight but also take some off the relatively high price tag of either model. (A preview: Sandisk recently introduced the first 30GB hard drive for laptops which is completely based on flash memory.) To round things up, some form of wireless connectivity would be a good idea. (Imagine to have included Wi-Fi and a web browser.)
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