Flashtrax Mini Review

dkoyanagi

For a recent trip I needed a portable storage device for storing all my photos. A laptop would be too big and expensive. Also, with a laptop there would be too much temptation to edit photos while I'm on the road, burning precious vacation time when I should be out taking photos. After a bit of research I decided on a Flashtrax portable hard disk.



I got the 40GB model (20GB and 80GB also available) which turned out to be more than what I needed. It's fairly small, smaller than a CD player, and looks like a tricorder from Star Trek.






On the right side are the USB, 5v DC, video out, and headphone jack. The USB lets you use Flashtrax as an external hard drive for your pc. Video out lets you show photos and videos stored on the Flashtrax on your TV.




On the left side are the MP3 player controls (play/pause, FF, Rev, Vol up/down, lock)

dkoyanagi

At the bottom is the slot for plugging in your CF card.



You can also get an adapter for other memory cards.



The biggest selling point for me was the Flashtrax's big, beautiful, full color LCD screen, which you can use to review your photos.

To power up you have to press and hold the power button for at least 3 seconds, then release. The flashtrax takes a few more seconds to fully power up, so be patient.

To copy files from your memory card to the Flashtrax simply insert memory into the slot and hit the copy button. Note: if the flashtrax is not on then you have to press and hold the copy button for 3 seconds for the Flashtrax to power up and start copying.

Flashtrax has three different modes of operation: photo, file, and music. In photo mode the filebrowser only lists and previews .JPG files. In music mode the browser only lists MP3 files. In file mode the browser displays all files.

The controls are fairly simple. There a 5-way control pad plus zoom +/-, Mode, Esc, and Fn buttons. The 5-way control pad lets you navigate the filebrowser. Pressing the center of the pad selects and displays the file. Press it again and up pops a pop-up menu where you cans disply the photo's RGB Histogram, Y histogram, or full EXIF info. You can use the Mode button to rotate the photos.

dkoyanagi

In music mode the browser displays .MP3 files. Select the file with the control pad to play it. The zoom buttons become the volume controls and the external player controls are activated. You can listen to your MP3 either through the headphone jack or the build in speaker. (The speaker sounds pretty horrible so you'll want to use headphones).


Full filebrowser mode lists all file types. This mode also lets you launch .AVI video files. This mode also lets you copy, move, and rename files.

What I like about the Flashtrax:
1. Very lightweight and portable. Much better than lugging around a laptop.
2. Full color LCD screen for reviewing photos. Flashtrax lets you look at your photos after you've dumped them to the internal hard drive. It also lets you zoom and rotate the photo while reviewing, and lets you see the photo's histogram and EXIF data.
3. One button copy from memory cards to hard drive. You don't have to mess around creating directories and copying files. Press one button and the flashtrax automatically creates a new subdirectory and copies files to it. However, it does take quite a long time to copy all files. A full 1GB CF took about 15 minutes to copy. However, I was using a slow CF so that might be the problem. Copying memory sticks usually goes faster. Also, the LCD will go dark after a few minutes if the copy takes a long time. Although it looks like the Flashtrax has powered down, it's really just the LCD that's powered down. The Flashtrax is still copying. Don't hit the powerbutton in the middle of a copy.
4. Multimedia player. Plays AVI and MP3 files.

What I don't like about the Flashtrax:
1. Won't recognize my 1GB Memory Stick. Although it does work with my 256MB MS, Flashtrax won't even recognize that I have a 1GB MS plugged in. Perhaps I have a faulty 1GB MS, but I'm not about to buy another one just to find out. It had no problems with the 1GB CF.
2. Short battery life. If you're just reviewing photos the Flashtrax's battery lasts about 2 hours. If you're playing MP3s or AVIs it'll last alot less.
3. No external battery charger. If you want to recharge the battery you have to do it on the Flashtrax. There is no separate battery charger for its proprietary battery:



Recharging takes about 4 hours, though I wasn't really timing it.

4. Not able to multitask. You can't, for instance, review your photos while listening to MP3s at the same time. You can only do one or the other.
5. Doesn't let you view raw files, only JPG and TIFF. This isn't a problem for me since I rarely shoot raw.

The Flashtrax is small, lightweight, portable, and versatile. It has a great display and fairly simple controls. It lets you view photos and videos, and listen to MP3s. On the downside it didn't read my 1GB MS. The battery life is shorter than I'd like and you can't multitask.

Overall, I really like the Flashtrax, even with its shortcomings.

wxwax

Excellent review, dkoyonagi, very helpful. I really like the feature that allows you to see the pics, even if it's just the jpeg thumbnail instead of the RAW.

How sturdy is it? Do you feel confident that it can handle the abuse of travel?

dkoyanagi

wxwax wrote:

Excellent review, dkoyonagi, very helpful. I really like the feature that allows you to see the pics, even if it's just the jpeg thumbnail instead of the RAW.

How sturdy is it? Do you feel confident that it can handle the abuse of travel?

Thanks Sid.
The Flashtrax isn't quite as robust as I would like. It will stand up to the usual bumps but I don't think it'll survive a 4 foot drop to the pavement. I remember reading a review once, on Amazon I think. The reviewer's Flashtrax stopped working after he used it listen to mp3s while jogging. Not surprising, really. I think Flashtrax was designed to be a photo wallet rather than a sturdy mp3 player. When I took it on my trip I would usually leave it in my hotel room. I'd carry enough memory cards for the day's shooting and then dump the photos to my flashtrax at the end of the day. If I were to carry it around with me I'd prolly get a compact camera case to carry it in (it doesn't come with a carrying case).

wxwax

Cool, thanks. I'm edging towards getting something like it, because I'm doing a wee bit of travelling and running out of memory too often. But even if it stays in the hotel room, it has to be bullet proof, or I'll lose my shots. And travelling has a way of being rough on gear.

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

Cool, thanks. I'm edging towards getting something like it, because I'm doing a wee bit of travelling and running out of memory too often. But even if it stays in the hotel room, it has to be bullet proof, or I'll lose my shots. And travelling has a way of being rough on gear.

Waxy - Michael Riechman has an excellent review of the Epson P-2000 Digital Wallet that I think you may find appealing.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessories/P-2000.shtml



It seems to solve many of the complaints about these type of devices - It is 40Gb - so the hard disc space is adequate. The LCD screen is 640 by 480 but looks very sharp with good color in the review. It will copy over a dozen 1 Gb cards without recharging and it will accept spare Li-ion batteries. It is about the size of a paper back book and can be carried on your belt in its own pouch. And the most significant feature is that it can read Nikon and Canon RAW files and display them on screen!! Now that is cool!!

Check out the review and give me your opinion. Epson on-line shows it "in-stock" and ready for delivery. 5 Benjamins, tho

wxwax

Great link, Pathfinder. Although he doesn't devote many words to its sturdiness, the fact that he's OK with the thing hanging off his belt in the field says a lot. 500 clams is a lot... maybe it will come down. Sure looks like a good device.

yvonne

I love my flashtrax
I have been using the flashtrax for about 1.5 years and I love it.

I use it during weddings and keep it in my belt (I shoot with a "tool" belt so I have all my lenses in easy reach). It's perfect because I can download my CFs whilst shooting the next ones.

But I would agree that it is slow to download and the battery life is a MAJOR drawback.

But it's also very handy for taking files back and forth between my home and the office, so I can work on them in both places, and it is an absolute ESSENTIAL for my travel stuff. I shot about 2000 pictures on my last trip, and that would be a LOT of CF cards to carry round - and I've got enough weight in my camera pack to drag a PC along to boot.

The screen however, could be better. It's really just there to give you an idea of what photos you have there. They are slow to load, and I never waste time deleting anything from there. Also it really isn't very sharp. I would not like to delete a shot on the basis of it looking fuzzy on the screen. I wait till I get home and plug it into my PC.

But as a pure storage device, it rocks!

gus

wxwax wrote:

And travelling has a way of being rough on gear.

I can vouch for this one...it coped a bigger hiding than my camera. Cheap too.

http://www.xs-drive.com/xsdrivepro/



"It can be used with all types of memory cards: Compactflash, IBM Microdrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, and MultiMediaCard."

Even takes xD even though they dont say it.