So for all of you looking for something a little less cumbersome to pack around than your laptop here is my experience so far with the Flashtrax.20Gig unit. The main reasons I went with this unit are; price, ease of use, and ability to review pictures. My goal is to edit pictures while on a long trip, no coming home w/2000 pics to review.
Construction:
Made of a fairly heavy plastic equivalent to your standard portable CD player. General construction is also about on par with an average CD player. Not as well constructed as IPODS or high end cell phones. Buttons are also plastic in a silver to make them look like metal. This is probably the weakest point, IMHO. They feel a little flimsy, will have to see how the hold up over time and repetitive use.
Instruction Manual:
Is adequate. At first you think it will be very detailed but seems thick only because it is written in about 7 languages. The instructions on how to download pictures and review them are easy to follow. As are how to hook it up to your TV and computer. The unit also allows you to zoom, rotate images, see them in thumbnail form, etc; instructions regarding these functions are not very well detailed. Fortunately even a non-techy like myself was able to figure out most of the functions via trial and error.
Functions:
I am still playing with the various functions of the unit. To download pictures you just plug your card into the unit and hit Copy. The unit has your standard keyboard for naming files via up, down, left, right, enter, arrows. It is very easy to download to your computer. It is able to store JPEG and RAW files. There is a decent tutorial and the unit does have limited help features. There are several options for viewing files; I prefer the thumbnail mode.
Screen Image Quality:
We all have experienced seeing a picture displayed in our cameras screen that looked great but when you downloaded to the computer it looked horrible. The screen on the Flashtrax gives a fair view of the image. It is very easy to see what ones are keepers and those that need to be deleted. When I compared the images on the Flashtrax to my computer monitor they were very similar.
General:
The small rechargeable battery that comes with the unit is good for about 2.5 hrs. I estimate the 20 gig unit could hold about 760 RAW NEF images and +2000 JEPG Fine. It takes about 4 minutes to down load 36-40 RAW images 36 JEPG take less than a minute. I like the unit; I just hope the construction holds up over time.
Construction:
Made of a fairly heavy plastic equivalent to your standard portable CD player. General construction is also about on par with an average CD player. Not as well constructed as IPODS or high end cell phones. Buttons are also plastic in a silver to make them look like metal. This is probably the weakest point, IMHO. They feel a little flimsy, will have to see how the hold up over time and repetitive use.
Instruction Manual:
Is adequate. At first you think it will be very detailed but seems thick only because it is written in about 7 languages. The instructions on how to download pictures and review them are easy to follow. As are how to hook it up to your TV and computer. The unit also allows you to zoom, rotate images, see them in thumbnail form, etc; instructions regarding these functions are not very well detailed. Fortunately even a non-techy like myself was able to figure out most of the functions via trial and error.
Functions:
I am still playing with the various functions of the unit. To download pictures you just plug your card into the unit and hit Copy. The unit has your standard keyboard for naming files via up, down, left, right, enter, arrows. It is very easy to download to your computer. It is able to store JPEG and RAW files. There is a decent tutorial and the unit does have limited help features. There are several options for viewing files; I prefer the thumbnail mode.
Screen Image Quality:
We all have experienced seeing a picture displayed in our cameras screen that looked great but when you downloaded to the computer it looked horrible. The screen on the Flashtrax gives a fair view of the image. It is very easy to see what ones are keepers and those that need to be deleted. When I compared the images on the Flashtrax to my computer monitor they were very similar.
General:
The small rechargeable battery that comes with the unit is good for about 2.5 hrs. I estimate the 20 gig unit could hold about 760 RAW NEF images and +2000 JEPG Fine. It takes about 4 minutes to down load 36-40 RAW images 36 JEPG take less than a minute. I like the unit; I just hope the construction holds up over time.
