14 comments

• 

  Anonymous

  10 months ago

  I use this Wolverine equipment since 3 years now, and I must say I don't totally agree with your point of vue, here.
  
  
  
  Ok, as far as backing your pictures up, from a camera, when you're traveling, it's quite good, no problem. It's fast, it's reliable, it reads -indeed- many types of file, no problem.
  
  
  
  But for the other uses (video, audio, managing the files, quality of screen) you mentioned, I would not be so sure.
  
  Video playback needs a fast machine, the Wolverine can't keep with this, so very often, movies are chopy (but it's still viewable, only, it's chopy at time).
  
  Quality of the screen is not as good as you say, especially by today's standards. Pictures are "allright", they're not "beautiful" on the screen, if you see what I mean.
  
  Operation is not as easy as it could be. For instance, erasing some pictures (and not all) can be a real pain, thanks to the very small buttons, and the operating interface that's a bit clumsy (there is no way to make multi selections in the same time, so you have to select each file, one by one, and erase each file, one by one).
  
  And as a music player, well, I like VERY MUCH MORE my iPod, for sure.
  
  
  
  I don't want to be hard on this Wolverine thing, because as a photographer myself, I find it very valuable for what it is: a multicard reader and a light, and fast, back-up for many file types indeed.
  
  Also, it's strongly built (metal?) compared to those "plastic" things they sell you those days.
  
  
  
  But for all the other uses, well, it's not really that, for my taste anyway.
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  10 months ago

  I did not say that the quality of the images on the screen was beautiful, at 320x240 they will not look as good as the Epson at 640x480 or my laptop. The point I was making is that the screen is "good enough" for the job. I specifically mentioned that the sacrifice was the screen quality to get the price down.
  
  
  
  As for video, my videos look great on it, not choppy at all. I would suggest making sure you have the current firmware and then calling their tech support for tips on getting video to work great. I did mention that I output my videos optimized for the screen size, I did this so that the ESP wouldnt have to do scaling on the fly. Little things like that can make a huge difference.
  reply
• 

  JmG

  10 months ago

  I use this Wolverine equipment since 3 years now, and I must say I don't totally agree with your point of vue, here.
  
  Ok, as far as backing your pictures up, from a camera, when you're traveling, it's quite good, no problem. It's fast, it's reliable, it reads -indeed- many types of file, no problem.
  
  But for the other uses (video, audio, managing the files, quality of screen) you mentioned, I would not be so sure.
  Video playback needs a fast machine, the Wolverine can't keep with this, so very often, movies are chopy (but it's still viewable, only, it's chopy at time).
  Quality of the screen is not as good as you say, especially by today's standards. Pictures are "allright", they're not "beautiful" on the screen, if you see what I mean.
  Operation is not as easy as it could be. For instance, erasing some pictures (and not all) can be a real pain, thanks to the very small buttons, and the operating interface that's a bit clumsy (there is no way to make multi selections in the same time, so you have to select each file, one by one, and erase each file, one by one).
  And as a music player, well, I like VERY MUCH MORE my iPod, for sure.
  
  I don't want to be hard on this Wolverine thing, because as a photographer myself, I find it very valuable for what it is: a multicard reader and a light, and fast, back-up for many file types indeed.
  Also, it's strongly built (metal?) compared to those "plastic" things they sell you those days.
  
  But for all the other uses, well, it's not really that, for my taste anyway.
  reply
• 

  kgarrison

  10 months ago

  I did not say that the quality of the images on the screen was beautiful, at 320x240 they will not look as good as the Epson at 640x480 or my laptop. The point I was making is that the screen is "good enough" for the job. I specifically mentioned that the sacrifice was the screen quality to get the price down.
  
  As for video, my videos look great on it, not choppy at all. I would suggest making sure you have the current firmware and then calling their tech support for tips on getting video to work great. I did mention that I output my videos optimized for the screen size, I did this so that the ESP wouldnt have to do scaling on the fly. Little things like that can make a huge difference.
  reply
• 

  JmG

  10 months ago

  Well, the problem is that if you have to "optimize" each media you want to take into the Wolverine, you'll end up with no time left to shoot pictures, for instance! ;)
  
  I mean... how is it possible to know in advance on which TV size you'll project your film(s), or images?
  
  I have current firmware installed, the chopiness doesn't come from that, I'm pretty sure it's the slow proc built inside which is not fast enough to decode films at a sustained rate.
  Anyway, it's difficult to debate precisely about these, I just wanted to "moderate" a little, based on *my* experience, what you said I found a bit optimistic about it.
  But as I said, I'm happy for its main usage: multicard reader and back-up for photos when traveling.
  
  Thanks for your cool articles, Kerry.
  reply
• 

  kgarrison

  10 months ago

  You do make a good point but in "MY" case, I did some video presentations that I knew were ONLY going to be played on the ESP to show potential clients. Because this was specifically a marketing effort I took the time to make it look as good as possible for that specific device and the result is great. I am sure if I tried to play a standard definition movie on it, it would probably bog down trying to scale it on the fly. Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  10 months ago

  [...] Wolverine ESP Digital Photo Album and Multimedia Player Review cameradojo.com/2008/09/02/wolverine-esp-digital-photo-album-and-multimedia-player/ [...]
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  10 months ago

  Well, the problem is that if you have to "optimize" each media you want to take into the Wolverine, you'll end up with no time left to shoot pictures, for instance! ;)
  
  
  
  I mean... how is it possible to know in advance on which TV size you'll project your film(s), or images?
  
  
  
  I have current firmware installed, the chopiness doesn't come from that, I'm pretty sure it's the slow proc built inside which is not fast enough to decode films at a sustained rate.
  
  Anyway, it's difficult to debate precisely about these, I just wanted to "moderate" a little, based on *my* experience, what you said I found a bit optimistic about it.
  
  But as I said, I'm happy for its main usage: multicard reader and back-up for photos when traveling.
  
  
  
  Thanks for your cool articles, Kerry.
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  10 months ago

  You do make a good point but in "MY" case, I did some video presentations that I knew were ONLY going to be played on the ESP to show potential clients. Because this was specifically a marketing effort I took the time to make it look as good as possible for that specific device and the result is great. I am sure if I tried to play a standard definition movie on it, it would probably bog down trying to scale it on the fly. Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  9 months ago

  Why no prices?
  reply
• 

  Michael

  9 months ago

  Why no prices?
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  8 months ago

  I'm curious why the transfer rates are so slow. I am very interested in a product like this but if the unit will only transfer one 16GB CF card before needing to be recharged, its usefulness becomes much more limited. I think the same is true for products by other manufacturers too.
  reply
• 

  Don Komarechka

  8 months ago

  I'm curious why the transfer rates are so slow. I am very interested in a product like this but if the unit will only transfer one 16GB CF card before needing to be recharged, its usefulness becomes much more limited. I think the same is true for products by other manufacturers too.
  reply
• 

  Anonymous

  5 months ago

  As a photographer i wanted the 120 Gb ESP to move a selection of pictures from my CF cards to the MicroSD one and put this one in my smartphone, to send the pics with PocketPhojo, but the problem is that i have to copy the pictures from CF to Msd one by one. I think it would be good to save time to have the option to select and copy several pictures at once.
  reply