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A new portable storage device from Vosonic promises a lot. They call it a multimedia storage viewer. With a built-in 4.3-inch 800x480 pixels TFT screen it is slightly larger than some earlier storage devices, but it is still compact enough to fit into your photo vest.
Vosonic has always used standard 2.5" hard drives in their portable storage devices. And they always let you install your own drives. The VP8860 is no exception, using a standard notebook 2,5”SATA drive. Loosen a few screws, open the back, slip in the new hard drive, format, and you are good to go. The whole process takes only a few minutes, and it is one of the main reasons I keep buying Vosonic X-drives. The VP8860 has been tested with drives up to 500GB, how much space do the competition give you, very little, and when they include larger drives they charge an unreasonable amount of money for what is just a cheap notebook drive.
The screen is bright and clear and large enough that one can watch a movie and read the subtitles. It loads the raw files from my Canon 1Ds MKII fast enough not to make you impatient, zoom and panning is fast and effective. But as most other image viewers it shows the embedded jpg and not the whole raw file. I think that is a good compromise, loading and viewing the full raw files would slow things down to a crawl which would not be practicable, the trade off is lower resolution files, that do not show 100% precisely how sharp an image is. But for me it is close enough to judge if the focus point is correct or if the image has motion blur, and it is better by a wide margin than any camera Lcd I have seen. The preview equals what I get on my laptop using the FastStone Image Viewer, just in a smaller carry around format.
You get a lot of features in the VP8860. Built in radio, sound recorder, video recorder through AV IN. Plug it into your TV/video and press record. Those are nice features, but the VP8860 has a few weak points in my opinion. The CF card to device transfer rate is a measly 3mb/s that is just too slow in this day and age. The device has no AV OUT, so you can't view your photos or your videos on the TV set. What where they thinking. The previous model had this feature. Battery life they promise 2-3 hour video viewing or ca. 40GB flash card transfer, adequate but compared to what some sub notebooks offer, not too impressive.
Built quality and design is OK. Feels like most of Vosonics devices - a little cheap with different shades of plastic. They have fixed the on/off problem of earlier models, and added a lock so you don't risk the device turning on in your bag or in your pocket. The included “leather” bag has a retro look, and is not very well designed, it can be hard to connect the usb cable and access the buttons. The bag has to be open to attach the flash cards, and they have chosen to add a - desk fold out stand on the back - a belt attachment loop would have been more useful, compartments for storing a few extra flash cards would have been nice too, and a compartment for the tiny screwdriver you need to change the hard drive, I always misplace mine.
The VP8860 is a great image storage and viewing device. The extra features are nice to have, but not including and AV OUT is a major mistake, being able to share your images and videos on a TV when you are traveling is a big deal, you need a computer to see your pictures in a larger format. Even the most basic digicams can do better than that. It retails from about 300 Euro without a hard drive and about 150 Euro more including a 500GB drive. That may be a bit too much, considering a little more will buy you a mini notebook. You decide.. ;o)-max-
For more specifications visit the Vosonic website and the VP8860 forum
Vosonic has always used standard 2.5" hard drives in their portable storage devices. And they always let you install your own drives. The VP8860 is no exception, using a standard notebook 2,5”SATA drive. Loosen a few screws, open the back, slip in the new hard drive, format, and you are good to go. The whole process takes only a few minutes, and it is one of the main reasons I keep buying Vosonic X-drives. The VP8860 has been tested with drives up to 500GB, how much space do the competition give you, very little, and when they include larger drives they charge an unreasonable amount of money for what is just a cheap notebook drive.
The screen is bright and clear and large enough that one can watch a movie and read the subtitles. It loads the raw files from my Canon 1Ds MKII fast enough not to make you impatient, zoom and panning is fast and effective. But as most other image viewers it shows the embedded jpg and not the whole raw file. I think that is a good compromise, loading and viewing the full raw files would slow things down to a crawl which would not be practicable, the trade off is lower resolution files, that do not show 100% precisely how sharp an image is. But for me it is close enough to judge if the focus point is correct or if the image has motion blur, and it is better by a wide margin than any camera Lcd I have seen. The preview equals what I get on my laptop using the FastStone Image Viewer, just in a smaller carry around format.
You get a lot of features in the VP8860. Built in radio, sound recorder, video recorder through AV IN. Plug it into your TV/video and press record. Those are nice features, but the VP8860 has a few weak points in my opinion. The CF card to device transfer rate is a measly 3mb/s that is just too slow in this day and age. The device has no AV OUT, so you can't view your photos or your videos on the TV set. What where they thinking. The previous model had this feature. Battery life they promise 2-3 hour video viewing or ca. 40GB flash card transfer, adequate but compared to what some sub notebooks offer, not too impressive.
Built quality and design is OK. Feels like most of Vosonics devices - a little cheap with different shades of plastic. They have fixed the on/off problem of earlier models, and added a lock so you don't risk the device turning on in your bag or in your pocket. The included “leather” bag has a retro look, and is not very well designed, it can be hard to connect the usb cable and access the buttons. The bag has to be open to attach the flash cards, and they have chosen to add a - desk fold out stand on the back - a belt attachment loop would have been more useful, compartments for storing a few extra flash cards would have been nice too, and a compartment for the tiny screwdriver you need to change the hard drive, I always misplace mine.
The VP8860 is a great image storage and viewing device. The extra features are nice to have, but not including and AV OUT is a major mistake, being able to share your images and videos on a TV when you are traveling is a big deal, you need a computer to see your pictures in a larger format. Even the most basic digicams can do better than that. It retails from about 300 Euro without a hard drive and about 150 Euro more including a 500GB drive. That may be a bit too much, considering a little more will buy you a mini notebook. You decide.. ;o)-max-
For more specifications visit the Vosonic website and the VP8860 forum