Product Reviews

There's a lot of interest in portable storage for digital images at the moment, due to high-resolution digital cameras producing large files, and the need to back up images on the hoof. Most professional and semi-professional photographers find these devices indispensable and can justify and offset their relatively high cost.

The new Innoplus Phototainer 300P uses a 20Gb hard drive. While this isn't very generous, it's unlikely to be filled using the high-capacity rechargeable Lithium-ion battery on a single charge. Still, if you intend to use it on an extended trip without transferring images to your Mac, then it may become a limitation.

Store your songs

There's a built-in MP3 player, with a small speaker and an audio socket for headphones, but the Phototainer's most dominant feature is its 3.5in colour LCD, which dwarfs monitors found on digital cameras. However, the monitor's resolution is just 112,320 pixels, which makes it difficult to check focus with any real precision even when scrolling and zooming. There's also a degree of flickering with some images. Nevertheless, having such a large screen has definite benefits: up to 12 thumbnail images can be displayed simultaneously, and portraits can be viewed in portrait or landscape and are still displayed at a reasonable size.

The design of the Phototainer is generally impressive,

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with some of the MP3 player's controls situated to the left side, while the rest, including a large keypad, sit under the laptop-style folding screen. The control keys and menu-driven options take a little getting used to, and some don't operate as expected or - in the case of the monitor's colour adjustment - at all.

However, help is at hand for those who just want to insert their digital camera's memory card and copy images to the Phototainer's hard drive: Innoplus has included a shortcut key next to the CompactFlash slot allowing fast start-up and copying in one action. The CompactFlash slot is Type I and II compatible, and supports Microdrives. Other formats (SmartMedia, Memory Stick, SD and MMC) are supported with an adaptor, which is not included.

Like most digital media storage devices, the Phototainer can't view images on the memory cards until they've been copied, so all of the files from a camera have to be copied before you can select the ones you want to keep. RAW files can be copied, but not viewed directly. This is something that may well be addressed in future firmware updates.

Connections

The lack of FireWire connectivity is disappointing. Although the device supports the competing USB 2.0 standard, Mac users will have to be content with USB 1.1 speeds. There's also an analogue video output, with the cable and remote included.

The Phototainer's large screen is a definite plus, but at 143mm x 92mm x 32mm and weighing 340g, the device is a little bulkier than its rivals, such as the PicturePAD from Delkin and the Archos JukeBox Multimedia 20. More of a problem for Innoplus is the recently announced FlashTrax from SmartDisk, which appears to use the same chassis and screen as the Phototainer, but includes a 30Gb hard drive for just £349. Unless you can find the Phototainer 300P on sale for significantly less than its £425 price tag, you may be better off waiting for the FlashTrax.