I should imagine that there aren’t many digital photographers around that haven’t run out of space now and then; the dreaded ‘card full’ symbol is enough to make anyone mutter a few expletives under the breath. Fortunately, Epson have come to the rescue with a handy little storage viewer that will fit into virtually any camera bag pocket. Now you don’t need to panic when you’re down to your last few megabytes of space!
The P-5000 is a versatile, reasonably well put together package that goes above a beyond a simple picture viewer. It offers a variety of card formats, video and audio capabilities, and a respectable list of practical features, including a gorgeous high definition LCD screen, a fast 80 gigabyte hard disc drive, a rechargeable Li-On battery for long life, and a high speed USB 2.0 connection for complete storage and management capabilities for both PC and Mac operating systems.
Physically, the unit is intuitive to work with, comfortable to hold with the majority of the work being done with the right thumb. The two memory card slots are sensibly placed on the top for easy access along with the headphone socket. The remainder of the connectivity hardware is situated under flush fitting rubber flaps on the left hand edge. These consist of an A/V Out, two high speed USB2.0 connectors, a mains adapter socket and a reset button. One interesting point to note is the placement of the speaker. Unfortunately it’s on the bottom, nestling neatly within the confines of a remarkably soundproof rim. If you plan to indulge in movies or music you’ll need your headphones. The four inch, 640x480 screen is probably one of the nicest I’ve seen on a device of this size. Using low temperature polysilicon TFT technology, the quality of this display is superb, colours are warm and well defined, whilst grey scales have excellent contrast and sharp, crisp edges.
