Jobo Giga Vu Pro Evolution

Having looked at a number of portable back-up solutions for 'in the field' use, I eventually settled on the GVPE (80Gb capacity). Partly due to the price and partly due to Rob Galbraith's eclectic review of the product (which I recommend prospective purchasers to read). I am on the most part very happy with the unit as far as downloading CF cards in the field, which is it's main use. I'm less than happy about it's performance as a media player (I still can't get it to play .avi files even after they have been encoded as per the JOBO website instructions).

A couple of minor gripes:
A soft rubber 'bung/plug' type cover for the CF slot (similar to those found covering the various ports on virtually all DSLR's) would have been a good idea.
A higher capacity internal battery would have been nice.
Built in wi-fi (as opposed to the external CF wi-fi card option) would have been nice too.

I imagine that the unit would appeal to someone who doesn't want to carry around a laptop and yet wants a secure way of backing up all those CF cards.... a 'jobbing smudger'.

The screen is extremely bright and contrasty and does allow you to switch between Adobe RGB and sRGB colour space (nice). Colour (or color if you prefer) rendition is superb, knocking spots of the competition.

Transfer time between CF and GVPE is reasonably fast at around 8-10 Mb/sec (certainly A LOT faster than the Epson P-4000, which is painfully slow).

Given the choices out there, the JOBO GVPE is a great unit....IF you can get it at a decent price (my opinion regarding JOBO pricing of the unit, is that the suggested retail price is a tad expensive).

I bought mine from Merkle Camera in Canada and had it shipped to the UK (it still worked out 75% cheaper than anywhere in the UK).

Minor gripes aside, the unit is a very useful tool (I've just bought the JOBO Giga Vu Extreme (160Gb), so I guess I must like it ;-)

Screen Resolution.
Decodes actual raw files (not just the embedded JPEG).
File Transfer Speed.
Well Built.
Intuitive Controls.
2 x USB (inc. USBOTG).
Runs on LINUX.
Software Developers Kit Freely Available.

CF Slot open to the elements (when the cover is removed, which it must be in order to use it).
Battery Capacity.
In-Built Wi-Fi (should be there, not as an optional extra).

Epson.
Digimate 2 Plus.

Not had to use customer service yet. The JOBO site does however carry all the firmware upgrades and manuals, which imbues a certain confidence regarding future support.