Home > Consumer Reviews > Epson P-3000 40GB Multimedia Storage Drive, Viewer, and Audio-Video Player w/ 4-Inch LCD

I've tried to go the cheap route when it comes to backing up my digital photos in the field, such as combining the (awful) Aleratec Copy Cruiser Plus with a large-capacity (16G) USB pen drive, and using an adapter and my iPod to offload the data from my CF cards. The latter solution works OK in a pinch, but has several limitations, including the iPod's small screen, the slowness of the process, and the very narrow functionality of the interface (great for music, not quite adequate for viewing, judging, and copying photos).

The Epson was designed from the ground up for duplicating digital photos (JPEG and RAW formats) on the road, a necessary task for photographers who prize their images as well as their sanity. It should fit nicely into any photo professional's 'out-of-doors' workflow.

The device works very well (and pretty fast: for instance, I just copied 322 Mb worth of data -- that's 100 JPEG photos taken with a 10-megapixel camera at the highest-quality settings -- in just over 60 seconds). The 4-inch screen is bright and draws beautifully detailed images. The controls, while not the latest in ergonomic excellence (the 'back' button in particular could have been better placed), are easy to press and a cinch to figure out (I never even had to crack the manual).

Like my Apple computers, the Epson multimedia viewers stand out for their plug-and-play elegance and simplicity. Push a CF card into the slot, or an SD card in a different slot next to it, and the viewer offers to let you browse the files on the card or copy the data to the P-3000's hard drive. You can also copy data to or from a USB device such as an external hard disk or a thumb drive. Want more? You can hide and password-protect folders; play slideshows with or without visual effects and with or without built-in music files playing as a soundtrack; give your photos a one-to-five-star rating to quickly separate the wheat from the chaff; look at EXIF data, blown highlights, and a histogram for each image; use an AV-out cable to show your images on a TV screen, and on and on.

Of course, when viewing a photo, you can zoom in (up to 400 percent) to check details and sharpness,

Later on, when you're ready to copy your images to your computer, just run the supplied USB cable from the Epson to your Mac or PC and the viewer shows up on your virtual desktop as a standard USB 2.0 drive. After a big job such as a wedding, this obviates the need to copy three or four or more memory cards to your computer via an external card reader. With the Epson viewer, all the backed-up data are already in one easily 'copyable' location.

The Epson also lets you copy and play back video footage and MP3s. I have little use for the latter (that's what my iPod is for), but the video-player capability, though hardly crucial for my purposes, makes the P-3000 a pretty sweet and versatile road tool.

I can't think of an actual feature that I'm missing -- OK, maybe wireless capability -- though that's not to say that this is a perfect product. The viewer is slightly unwieldy (about the size of the average automotive GPS unit); I have to think that top-notch engineering could reduce the dimensions a bit. I would have liked some kind of built-in protector that you can fold or draw shut over the fairly vulnerable screen. Speaking of missing hardware, the Epsons really should come with a stand that lets you angle the unit for optimal viewing. Also, it's a bit annoying that the device won't copy data to your computer's hard drive unless the unit's power adapter is attached, even if you have a full battery.

Still, other than my cameras and lenses, this is the best photo tool I've bought in a long time. If you're a professional photographer who, like me, doesn't like to lug a laptop around but could do with fewer backup worries after you're done shooting a big assignment away from home, the Epson P-3000 or P-5000 will bring both pride of ownership and peace of mind.

First of all, Amazon came through with all stars on this order. Cheers to them for the screaming-fast processing that got me the product when I needed it.

As for the P-3000, I needed something like this bugger as I photograph models in outdoor settings using available light. Thus, it's a hassle to lug around the laptop, and when I do, the laptop takes too long to dump my 2-gig CF card. The viewer is another necessity because I like to know if I missed any shots due to lack of focus, etc. I screw up sometimes and the screen on my D-200 doesn't always show my errors.

The P-3000 dumps a full 2-gig CF card in 5 minutes, as per tests I just conducted this evening. With 126 .NEF images on the card, a mere 5 minutes was a miracle compared to my laptop. When I'm out in the field, this will be an invaluable tool.

Is it expensive? I don't think so, but I did think the 80-gig unit was more than I want to spend. Furthermore, I'm only using this as a dump drive for location shoots, not as a storage device...I have other drives for that. I thought the price was reasonable, so far I have no problem with the interface and I can rest easy knowing if I have a 1-day shoot that requires 2,000 RAW .NEF images to be shot (that would wear me out) that the P-3000 has room for them.

If you want functionality, sleek design and a decent interface, buy this unit. If you feel it's too expensive, buy a unit with no display, as that will knock down the price. In my business though, I like having the viewer...it'll save me a lot of time and anguish.

So far, so good. Buy with confidence, this is a good brand and a fine product. Bravo, Epson!

On the plus side, the screen is beautiful and the best I've seen compared to say a SmartDisk (but the SmartDisk is less than half the price of the Epson, even after rebate). On a recent trip to Katmai, an acquaintance showed me a SmartDisk's view and the image was quite pixelated; he was quite impressed with the Epson's display. Four inch is quite big and usable for decision making such as delete. The transfer rate from card to the P-3000 is acceptable, though I didn't time the rate. The P-3000 acts as an external harddrive and the saved files can be easily read by Windows Explorer; that means no additional software is needed, which none was included.

On the bad side, this device at $500 for the 40GB is very, very expensive; Dell has a cheap laptop for only $450! I wonder if Epson realized the high price and played with rebates. If going out to the wilderness is not your idea, then it would make much more sense to get a small form factor laptop instead.

At $500, the quality should be much better. I checked for bad pixels against a black image and found too many that are always on. Some on pixels can clearly be seen when viewing a typical image.

Usage is not intuitive, especially when deleting an image. To delete an image, you have to dig into the menu and go into delete mode as oppose to simply deleting it. So there are a normal view mode and a delete mode and you'd have to navigate between the two. The worst part is that zooming works fine in normal view mode but is disabled in delete mode. It makes sense that when you delete something, you'd want to zoom in, at least for sanity check.

I save my files both RAW and jpeg. In the view mode, there's no option to view only RAW or jpeg so you'd have to view both. Obviously, viewing both can be annoying and wastes battery juice.

The device can play mp3 and video. If you're going out in the wilderness, it doesn't make sense to waste your battery juice with these options. Since the device is (I think) designed for the wilderness, these two extras are useless unless you have access to an outlet.

The screen, though pretty, only has a soft pouch to protect it. The device at 1.3" thick, it's quite bulky. It's not designed for your pocket because of the thickness and bulkiness.

I would have liked to be able to return it for a refund but the place that I bought it from only gave me 7 days, which doesn't work when you're on a two week wilderness trip. I am at least can exchange it so I will do that, mainly because of the pixel defects.

This device serves its main purpose well and the display is beautiful. If you can spare some battery juice, it's nice for viewing your photos in your tent while waiting for the rain to stop. I would recommend it if you'll travel to where an outlet is not available for at least a few days and a laptop is too bulky and heavy for you; if you don't care about the display, then the P-3000 is too expensive. However, I would not recommend it to anyone who at least have access to AC outlets at your destinations. It's hard to justify spending that much money so you can show your friends your photos. At $500, a laptop option is much better and you can do much more with a laptop, even use the internet at my friends' places.

********** USEFUL HINTS **********
If you like Epson's storage viewer but want a larger HD, then I suggest buying the P3000 and then upgrade the HD later. Doing so will save you at least $150 off the 80GB version. I replaced the HD with a Fujitsu 120gb MHV2120AH, same HD manufacturer, bought on Ebay for $50. Works perfect after the upgrade. Search for "upgrading p-3000 hard drive" for the easy to follow instructions. I cannot provide a link as doing so has already caused Amazon to mess up my review.

OK, I'll grant you it's pretty expensive, and the use of it isn't immediately obvious to anyone who doesn't already own one. But let me explain: I'm a semi-pro photographer, and given today's travel restrictions and airline weight limits it isn't always practical to carry a laptop computer with a bulky charger in order to back up and view photos I take on the fly. The Epson P-6000 isn't much larger than maybe 4 decks of cards stacked together, and it weighs only about two pounds. (The charger, a standard 9 volt with a transformer, weighs a couple of ounces.)

BE AWARE, though, this unit ONLY ACCEPTS COMPACT FLASH (CF) AND SD CARDS. NOT MINI-SDs; NOT xDs; NOT SONY MEMORY STICKS. This makes it perfect for Nikon users and the many point-and-shoot camera units utilizing SD cards.

This item will store pretty much all the photos I can throw at it over the course of a two-week visit virtually anywhere. It files items where I can find them easily (it helps to back up photo cards as you use them, since the backups organize by date). It also hooks up to any television and to my desktop computer with ease for instant slideshows for friends and family, and - nearly best of all - it'll play the MP4 movies I download to the same memory cards I use to store photos. This is a real lifesaver for the 10+ hour plane trip, such as the one I recently took on a third-world airline with no in-flight entertainment.

You can buy replacement batteries for around $65, and they're also not huge and bulky, maybe the size of two AA batteries end to end and slightly thicker. Each battery lasts from two to three hours, depending on how heavily you're accessing the memory. Although the P-6000 is lightweight, the image quality of the screen is nothing short of really fabulous. It's sharp and not pixellated. At the same time the metal casing of the unit is pretty sturdy - I wouldn't drop it on a cement floor just for fun, but you get the sense it could take a fair amount of jostling and abuse without coming apart.

The unit doesn't overheat and I've had zero problems getting it to connect to my Macintosh G4 computer for transfer of photos for longterm storage. (It shows up in Finder as simply another external drive, allowing me to transfer files to and from with ease.) This is lucky, because the computer interface program that comes with the Epson is not very well designed. Among other issues, it'll try to make you download movies straight to the Epson using a very, very time-consuming conversion process - when you can simply convert the movies from DVD to MP4 using a faster program like Handbrake, and then plop them in and out of the Epson using either a CF or SD memory card.

Another mild issue - the manual for the Epson isn't great. I didn't realize until some lengthy trial-and-error that movies I tried to watch wouldn't play because the maximum MP4 image size the Epson will read is 640 x 480.

More positive issues: The backups run pretty quickly - I can move 4 gigs of photos off a CF card in about four minutes; the Epson doesn't take forever to generate thumbnails so you can view your photos; and the user interface on the device itself is very intuitive. I'm told older versions of the Epson photo viewer made it difficult to batch delete photos; not so with the P-6000. It's also easy to lock photos, to prevent yourself from deleting them accidentally.

Also, the Epson can be plugged into either 110 or 220 volt outlets, enabling you to carry it around the world without toting a bulky step-down transformer. (You *will* need an adapter to make the U.S. two-prong plug fit the, say, two round pin outlets found in places like Europe and Africa, though.)

If it weren't so expensive and did it not have a few problems with the software interface and instruction manual I'd rate this a full five stars. Should anything happen to mine, heaven forbid, I'd replace it like a shot. Along with my IPod and Garmin GPS unit, I am never without this item on a trip I take anywhere.

Oh, and the unit I purchased from an Amazon vendor worked great. The one I bought straight from Epson needed to be returned due to a faulty power supply. Just another data point.

I bought the P-3000 specifically to have redundant storage of pictures taken on trips. The way I would like to use it is to download each day's shots at the end of the day while also leaving them on the card in the camera. Ideally, the P-3000 would import only new pictures since the last backup, not the ones already downloaded; but it cannot do this (which I confirmed by a call to Epson technical support). I therefore have two choices: (1) backup all pictures each day including those already backed-up (wasting considerable time) and then delete the prior day's backup to avoid having multiple copies on the P-3000 or (2) manually browse the card and place a check-mark on each of today's hundreds of pictures among thousands on the card to select just them for download (wasting even more time). Non-duplicative backup is a function that ought to have been included because it is possibly the principal use of the product. (Note that when connecting the P-3000 to the computer, the software is smart enough to remember which folders have been downloaded already and not download them again, so the concept at least occurred to Epson's software engineers.)

Otherwise, the unit is an overgrown iPod: larger, heavier, with a less elegant interface, and shorter battery life. Since I can download pictures from my camera to my iPod for redundant storage on a trip, why even use the P-3000? (1) Download times are ten times faster to the P-3000 than to the iPod (based on my test of downloading 153MB from my Canon 5D camera to both devices; the P-3000 took 34 seconds and the iPod took 6 minutes and 4 seconds). (2) The picture is larger (4 inch screen vs. 2.5 inches (though the new iPod Touch has a 3.5 inch screen)). (3) The P-3000 displays EXIF data and a histogram and permits zooming in to pixel-peep the images and judge quality.