Short Report: Epson P-5000 Multimedia Storage Viewer

Though I used to look as if I was loaded for bear when I went out to shoot—two cameras, multiple lenses, flash units and a bundle of accessories—those days are gone. My legs, and especially my back, demand that I try to travel as light as possible. But in the age of digital, a laptop has become as necessary as the camera and memory card. The Epson P-5000 Multimedia Storage Viewer provides a great alternative to the laptop and still allows me to back up and share the images I spend so much time creating.

Sporting a bright and sharp four-inch display, the P-5000 (80 GB) and its lower-capacity sibling, the P-3000 (40 GB), provide ample storage for days or weeks of shooting, depending on how prolific you are. During breaks in shooting, it became an easy thing to slip my CompactFlash or SD card into the device and quickly download my RAW+JPEG files directly to the unit’s ample hard drive.

The LCD’s bright, crisp image and its resolution of 640 x 480 made reviewing images a real pleasure. The P-5000 works with both the sRGB color space and Adobe RGB, which is my preferred color space. This helped me to accurately judge color and white balance. I could also evaluate the accuracy of my exposure during playback on the P-5000 using its histogram and highlight warning.

My wife and I, who are increasingly creating short videos using the video mode of our compact digital cameras, appreciated the P-5000’s support of various video formats. The ability to quickly download and share the video footage, complete with sound, helped make us very popular at a recent family gathering. The large screen made it easy for several people to gather around to watch the footage that we had created minutes before. 

The P-5000’s menu screen and controls made navigating through its various features easy and intuitive. Even before reading the manual, I was able to smoothly negotiate many of its functions.