Here’s my dilemma or maybe my dream.

I shoot a butt-load of photos and like most people who shoot digital, I have an almost religious desire to download/backup my photos from my media cards as soon as possible. I also shoot exclusively in RAW image file format as apposed to JPG; a format that is far less displayable on devices but far better for post-production.

Currently, I drag my ThinkPad with me everywhere I go along with my camera equipment, and this is fine for most circumstances. However, if I find myself climbing in the Himalayan mountains or sailing around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, having a ultra portable device to handle my RAW image files would save a ton of weight and space in my camera bag.

Numerous pro photographers use and strongly recommend the Epson P-3000. The P-3000 does exactly what it’s designed for and does it well. Importing images (including RAW) with two built-in media card readers, organizing them and displaying on a nice 4 inch LCD color screen.

Everyone’s happy, right? Well almost.

The Epson P-3000 is smaller then my ThinkPad, with both mp3 and video playback capabilities, however I don’t see it replacing my iPod. With only a 40gig drive it really doesn’t have the space needed to handle both my photos and even a fraction of my 150gigs of music and movies.

The iPod, on the other hand, can play music and movies (duh), display photos, is available with a huge 80gig drive and Belkin has an external media card reader but the iPod doesn’t support the RAW image file format. Close but not good enough.

Then there’s the iPhone. To be honest I have to fight the urge to buy one of these (first generation Apple hardware, blah, blah, blah), but I did have a chance to mess around with one a friend bought. The interface is slick and intuitive. The resolution is nice and having the ability to email, make calls, watch movies, text (although texting on the touch screen is not even close to texting on a Blackberry) and hitting the web is damn cool. But only 8gigs of space? I have 8gig compact flash cards.

And I’m sure there’s no support for RAW image file format…yet.

I guess it was too much to hope for a single device that would combine my Blackberry, iPod and image storage. Someday maybe, but not anytime soon.

Epson P-3000 it is for now.

Links:

• Epson P-3000 (B&H Photo has a video demo)
• iPod
• iPhone