Photoshop Insider

Review: Epson P-6000 & P7000 Photo Viewers

By Scott on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 5:46 am | Reviews.

If you’re not familiar with any of the “P-series,” (technically Epson calls these “Multimedia Viewers” because they play videos and music), they’re part portable hard drive for safely backing up your memory cards on location, part photo-viewer with a big bright screen, and part in-the-field laptop replacement, because you can create collections, do slideshows with a music background; you can sort and rate your images on them, and a half dozen other things in a size so small you can fit it in your camera bag. I’ve been using these “P’s” since there was a P-2000 and I take one on every location shoot without fail, as it’s become an important part of my workflow.

Anyway, I got to play around with the P-7000 quite a bit this past week, and I wanted to give you a quick review on what’s new, and why I like the P-7000 so much better than my beloved P-5000.

Here’s what I loved:

The Larger Storage Size; Epson has doubled the storage sizes of both units (compared to the previous P-3000 and P-5000). At 160GB the P-7000 has double the memory of my P-5000 and the P-6000 is 80GB (vs. 40GB for the P-3000). Last week (at my Mary Duprie workshop), I had to delete files on my old P-5000 to fit the shots from that day, so the 160 GB version is going to mean more to me than I once thought.
Better Software: If I had a gripe with the P-5000, it was that the software needed to be a little more robust. It did a lot, but it fell short in a couple of areas (especially when it came to importing images), but luckily the new software is MUCH better (it looks pretty much the same, but it has enhanced functionality in a number of areas).
It’s faster at Importing Images. These new units are supposed to be 35% faster at importing images ( I didn’t run lab tests to confirm, but I can tell you it definitely feels faster).
The Screen Display is Off The Hook: The new screen technology, using Epson’s “Photo Fine Premia” technology (which displays 16.7 million colors) is just stunning. It’s incredibly crisp, bright, and pretty much blows away what you see on the back of your camera’s LCD (and the new screens encompass 94% of the entire gamut of the Adobe RGB Color Space used by many photographers). When you zoom in tight to view your images really close (to check sharpness, etc), the display is tack sharp, and you can get in really, really close.
They added a new Jog Wheel to help you scroll through your images more easily (this is bigger improvement than you might think. Ask anyone who has an earlier P-series).
The P-7000 comes with a nice little travel pack, which includes a travel case, a car charger, and dual battery charger, and a few other little kickers.

What I Wish Were Different:

The software is much better for sure, but the overall design of the interface still needs a lot of work. Since this was designed for photographers, the interface design should appeal to creative types. Looks matter, and I’d love to see the look of the interface get the same amount of attention everything else has. Right now, the software is very functional. The problem is; it needs to look better, be easier to use, and more fun to use.
They’re pretty darn expensive; The P-6000 has a street price of $599 and the P-7000 goes for $799. I know they replace you having to carry an expensive laptop into the field to back up and view your images (which is does for me), but it shouldn’t actually cost as much as a laptop (for example, Dell’s new Vostro 1710 laptop, with a 17″ widescreen LCD display, 1 GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and built-in DVD burner sells for $100 less than the P-7000; at just $699). I think Epson needs to reevaluate the prices of both units, but the marketplace will ultimately decide if it’s too high or not.

The Bottomline
It is, without a doubt, the best P-series Epson’s ever made. The software, while not where I’d like it to be, is certainly much improved over earlier versions. The speed is better, the screen is insanely good—all the hardware parts of this puppy just rock. Best of all, it fits snugly in my camera bag (even my smallest one) and knowing that my images are backed up while I’m on location is absolutely invaluable to me. If price isn’t a big factor, and you want the very best back-up and photo viewer on the planet, pick up either the P-6000 or 7000 when they come out in September.

(Photo above courtesy of Epson).

Comment form for this post

^#1

Hi Scott, thanks for the review!
It’d be cool if you could shoot tethered into them (especially if your camera doesn’t have a Nikon LCD ).
Any way to do that?

Mau on August 19th, 2008 at 7:22 am

^#2

Thanks for the review Scott, I have been considering purchasing one but will wait until these come out. However, I agree with your view on pricing. I think an ideal price would be $449 for the p-6000 and $599 for the p-7000.

Sadly, here in the UK these things always cost more, I expect the p-7000 will be around £499 here (roughly $1,000!!!)

When I can pick up a Lacie portable 250GB hard drive for about $100 it does seem as it maybe Epson are charging a heck of a lot for that fancy screen, card reader, controls and battery!

Ed O'Keeffe on August 19th, 2008 at 7:52 am

^#3

Thanks for the review, Scott!

There is one feature I’ve been missing on these Epson P’s for years, and it’s not an intuitive one: a GPS option. Huh? Let me explain: three gadgets I am always taking along on a photo trip are my P-5000, a Gisteq GPS receiver (for geotagging photos) and a Garmin Nuvi (for navigating my car).

With the addition of GPS functionality, the Epson could replace all 3 units. The screen is big and clear enough to work as a navigation tool. It’s got the speakers to give turn-by-turn guidance, it is always in my photobag, so it could easily track where I take my pictures (and later use that for geotagging).

Do you think we’ll see such a cross-over device soon? And for less than $100,000?

Hubert Kay on August 19th, 2008 at 8:38 am

^#4

Those darn Epson people are getting big heads! Seriously I think they are a little over priced for what they do. You really can buy a Asus EEPC that is about the size of the epson P device and plug in a external HD. Then you have a fully funcional computer for the most part with you.

Scott I have been very patiently waiting Coreys Wacom training series that is suppose to be on Kelby Training site, but have not heard mention of it again since you mentioned it in your videos.

Steve Beck on August 19th, 2008 at 9:00 am

^#5

Scott,
I have to agree with some of the posters above. I just can’t bring myself to shell out the kind of cash Epson wants for these “P”’s. Memory gets cheaper every day - except at Epson. If they had introduced these 2 models at the prices demanded for the P-3000 and P-5000, THAT would have been a great new product / price combo. For $600 to $800, I’ll just take my MacBook Pro along.

Bryan Whitehead on August 19th, 2008 at 9:36 am

^#6

Thanks for the write up Scott,

As cool as these little guys are, I feel the price is just too big to justify for less seasoned photog’s who could better put that $800 to other gear. The biggest gripe I have about the price is not that is $800, but rather for that $800 you are only getting 160GB of storage. Hard drives are cheap, really cheap and you can get some ultra fast 320GB slim (2.5″ form factor) drives for under $130. I would feel alot better about dropping $800 on a hard drive backup unit if it was over the 500GB mark.

I mean for the sake of argument a brand new Apple 13″ Macbook is only $1.099 (US) with no student or NAPP discount, so for an extra couple hundred dollars you could have an Intel based Mac.

So for me, even though this little guy is small, portable and pretty darn slick as it is, it just doesnt seem to have the capacity for storage to make it worth the price tag.

Sean Leahy on August 19th, 2008 at 9:49 am

^#7

Thanks Scott for your great Blog. It always offers helpful information. I have a P5000 and one of its features, transferring files FROM the P5000 TO a portable USB Hard drive (as a form of a secondary backup of your P5000) does not work as advertised. At first I was unable to get it to work at all and calling Epson support was useless. They had no worthwhile suggestions and referred me to a local “Authorized” Epson dealer who had no clue what to do with the P5000 (My suspicion is they only fixed printers.)

Ultimately, I determined that you could transfer files from the P5000 to another drive if you did them all in one try. But, once you made one transfer (even if it was only a single file), then you need to shut down the P5000, disconnect the hard drive, then reconnect and restart the P5000 to make another file transfer. This is nowhere in their instruction book and Epson support seemed to be unaware of this as well. I would hope Epson might have a software update for the P5000 that would supply some of the improvements you note are in the newer models as well as fix the file transfer problems.

Have you, or other blog readers, ever made file transfers from the P5000 to an external USB hard drive multiple times without the restart?

Marty Cohen on August 19th, 2008 at 10:08 am

^#8

Not related to this post: Sorry!

Thank-you for teaching & sharing! I currently have 3 of your books & look forward to getting more. I have 2 requests:

I am a novice photographer that would love more tips/tutorials on taking better photos of my children! I would definitely buy a book or DVD filled with advice on taking better “Mom” photos! (I have a Canon Rebel XT)

Where would you recommend printing 4×6 prints? I don’t want to loose on quality but I would like the best value for my dollar.

Thank-you!

Debbie on August 19th, 2008 at 10:19 am

^#9

Do they have the ability to display RAW files?

John on August 19th, 2008 at 10:19 am

^#10

I too have drooled over the Epson viewers but just couldn’t bring myself to spend the big bucks. I finally got a Hyperdrive Colorspace O instead for about half the price and have been very pleased with it. It’s not as slick looking as the Epson viewers but it works great.

Barrie Brewer on August 19th, 2008 at 10:25 am

^#11

Hi,

I saw some comments on a message board that the earlier P-series (e.g., P-2000) cannot handle fast CF cards. I use Lexar 133x cards. Can anyone comment on which P-series will or will-not support them?

Also, to the fellow who wrote about geotagging (Hubert?) (or anyone else doing it). I’m interested in figuring out how to do that. I’d appreciate you contacting me directly. (click on the link to my brand new site. Use my first name at that domain).

Steve Kalman on August 19th, 2008 at 11:00 am

^#12

Yeah, I’ll chime in like a lot of other people and say the pricing is really out of whack. I mean they are really great and poratable but, how much more portable do you need. Presumably your hauling around your camera gear - so haul around you laptop - aside from maybe a bit of an advantage in battey life I just can’t see this as a good backup solution; not at this proce point anyhoo. Just my two cents.

Steve Allison on August 19th, 2008 at 11:30 am

^#13

I don’t think the price is that much of a problem if only it has a better warranty. Epson has not been kind to those who has a P series with a dead harddrive…

And say you manage to replace the harddrive yourself after it failed, where do you find the software that’s on the original harddrive? This basically means (and I am absolutely not suggesting anyone to do this) voiding your warranty on day one and save an image of the original harddrive. It’s not even funny.

Maverick on August 19th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

^#14

To John above….
Yes they do display RAW files.

To Steve Kalman above…..
I can say that I use SanDisk Extreme IV CF cards and the P5000 reads them fine. I suspect they will also read the fast Lexar cards as well.

Marty Cohen on August 19th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

^#15

I finally saved enough money to buy a P-3000 about a month ago. It is great to know your images are backed up and be able to look through them over lunch on a bigger screen. But how much “bigger, better larger faster” does one need? I mean, it’s just a backup device and the case it comes with is like a paper towel. One small drop and it’s done for. Like Scott said, “if money isn’t a factor” then it’s cool, but it doesn’t do the dishes for you no matter how much cooler the software is. Just get a cheap one and delete the files in it after you get them into your computer. Then you’ll never run out of room even on a 40 gig P-3000.

Matt Timmons on August 19th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

^#16

Scott,
In your book, “The Adobe Photoshop CS3 book for digital photographers”, the chapter on “Rule Breaking Resizing for Poster Size Prints”, you don’t mention sharpening. Do you sharpen before you upsize or after you upsize the print?
Thanks in advance.
Terry

Terry on August 19th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

^#17

If you’re after geotagging, it’ll be along shortly but built into the camera. The new Nikon point and shoots have it. I think its the P6000.

Phil Thomas on August 19th, 2008 at 5:01 pm

^#18

Greetings -

Just to add my thoughts here;

I also thought this was a nifty little gadget - but even if money were not an obstacle, I’d not buy it. I’d rather have a nice Lowe Pro bag with a notebook pouch and notebook. At the price point Epson has set, you could likely do just that or come very close.

Doug

Doug E. on August 19th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

^#19

Hi Scott, wanted to share a couple Steiglitz-related things, First, a video documentary I recently watched, (available from Netflix): “Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye”. It generously covers other artists of the time as well as Alfred’s many contributions. It failed somehow to include this quote, however:

“Photography as a fad is well-nigh on its last legs, thanks principally
to the bicycle craze.”
– Alfred Stieglitz
The American Annual of Photography, 1897

Just goes to show that experts are not necessarily prophets?

Bruce

PixAlchemy on August 19th, 2008 at 7:36 pm

^#20

The main disadvantage with these devices is that while they are lovely, you just can’t add any metadata and that to me was the biggest pain. So I sold mine and use a MacBook instead.

Richard Earney on August 20th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

^#21

I’m with Mau (the first commenter).. It’s surprising to me that I never hear talk about folks wanting these to work in tethered modes. For me, that feature would probably make the price reasonable. Even recent model Canon camera LCDs (can’t comment on Nikon) just plain aren’t good enough to confirm focus with fast lenses.

Shooting tethered (especially if that meant images could be saved on the card _and_ the device.. would give me the comfort of know my images are backed up within moments of pressing the shutter, as well as being able to check focus on a nicer LCD.

I guess while we’re wishing, I’d like the thing to support wireless tethering as well

Phill on August 21st, 2008 at 4:55 pm

^#22

it’s true the case that comes with these viewers is flimsy and for the price something better should be included (I’ve got a P3000 which I like quite a bit) However, I bought one of these Case Logic external hard drive cases which you can find for around $15 and it fits like it was custom made for the Epson

http://computers.pricegrabber.com/accessories/m/28093771/

MS on August 21st, 2008 at 5:05 pm

^#23

Scott Thanks for the books which I think I have al of them including the Mac Leopard one.
I watch all your photoshopuser tv podcasts which I enjoy i also have matt’s book on Layers. but You seem to promote Adobe and use Macs. I use an Imac and Aperture 2 along with Photoshop CS3 I am aware that you are promoting your new book on Lightroom 2 also the program. I guess. Can you please comment on the comparison between Lightroom and Aperture.
Thanks I am keen to learn as a pensioner enjoying photography again after many years. Thanks Dale Irving

Dale Irving on August 22nd, 2008 at 5:51 am

^#24

Hi Scott, Greetings from the Highlands of Scotland and thanks for the review. I had just ordered a P5000 (as suggested in your book when I found an article about the new P6000/7000 on www.umpcportal.com by chance via a google search. I decided to cancel the order and wait for a P7000. Since then the guys on umpcportal are recommending a umpc (like the Fujitsu U2010) saying they have better screens, options, SW etc. So far I am not convinced and would be interested in your opinion.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
Bill

Bill Beardmore on August 24th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

^#25