VE6AB Technical
Once Upon A Time
In today's world of photography, it amazes me how quickly some devices become obsolete it seems like overnight.
So back in 2008 compact flash memory cards used in DSLR digital cameras such as the one I was using at the time, the CF cards it required as seen in my photo were quite pricey compared to today. They also were quite limited in memory, with maybe a 1 - 4 GB capacity at the most, with larger sizes very expensive.
Mind you I won't tell you what the viewer cost at the time, however I will tell you I had a new in the box DSLR Canon camera that I'd recently won in a photography competition, and I traded that camera straight across at the Camera Store in Calgary for an Epson P-3000.
When out shooting photos the memory cards filled up quickly, and without a computer along to transfer the photos to, there was no good solution until Epson introduced the multimedia storage viewer seen here.
The P-3000 with a capacity of 40 GB accepted both SD and Compact flash cards allowing you to transfer the images from the cards to the viewer for storage. Then with the card back in the camera, you formatted the card and got back to shooting. Once you returned home, the photos stored on the viewer were then transferred to your computer.
You could also leave the photos stored on the viewer, and if you wished to view the photos, once you selected a photo for viewing, it could be expanded full screen. The P-3000 also allowed you to transfer video files that were treated the same way as the images, also allowing for viewing them on the viewer. The viewer has a built in speaker or a 3.5 mm jack allowing headphones to be used with the viewer.
The resolution of the screen on the viewer actually outperformed the camera LCD's of the day, and gave you a truer rendition as to how the photos displayed.
Funny how it goes, as both SD and CF cards begin to appear with larger capacities, and the prices fell, my viewer saw less and less use. In fact I had to spend time looking for the charger allowing the internal battery to be charged so that I could shoot these images.
Today the DSLR that I use on most days has two card slots, one for an SD card, the other for a CF card. Some of the cards that I'm using today are 64 GB capacity with 128 GB cards available, larger that the capacity of this viewer, go figure.
Now some guys that own these same viewers have actually replaced the 40 GB hard drive with a larger capacity hard drive, however I don't plan on going down that road. Instead I'll find a place for it to be displayed along with my other obsolete photography gear.
Expand the photo for a closer look....
