Customer Reviews

Wolverine ESP 80 GB Portable Multimedia Storage Player

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

UPDATE (9-2-2010) price has really dropped since I bought mine and I still have it / use it / upgraded its drive and firmware / and take it with me on trips. It now works with both my digital cam and my 32GB sdhc cards from my HD DV cam. I thought it was nice that they did not void the warantee if you opened the case to put in a larger disk later on, as I did. My only con after so long is that the DVR ability is limited with digital TV but I think that was a feature they crammed in at the last minute. My unit is still going strong. Original 2+ year old review below -->

MP3 players. I've resisted buying one until they made it close to perfect. Wolverine exceeded my expectations. Here's some features I like - you might think about how you could use it, i.e. empty your digital cam's memory onto the disk inside, zoom way in to check focus, if your cam doesnt support zoom, and have an empty card ready to keep shooting.

My favorite features:

Removable, drop out $30 li-ion battery - keep a spare after 14 hours of songs!
CF/SD/MMC/and more slots for reading memory cards AND saving photos on the hard disk
80 GB hard disk is user upgradable (instructions in the manual) when big ones get cheaper (which they will - you know it!)
Big, BIG screen. 320x240 but wow - it's a display in and of itself. I use it to review photos on the spot from my 8MP digicam with the tiny viewfinder
Video - well they all have video now, so that's an expectation. it's compatible with itunes, so I'm fine - but it does WMA and PC video too!
Microphone built in - record conversations on the spot
separate video/audio outputs for watching video or playing photos - even with a soundtrack!
Separate configuration for screen setup, hard disk timeout, and system power down times.
Easy to zoom in/out on photos for focus checking - wonderful feature by itself to know your shot came out.
Empties both high and low speed CF cards. My 4GB sandisk extreme III dumps to this fast, letting me keep shooting those big photos.
Automatic, well organized file structure. Your last photo will be on the last folder, at the end easy to find.
small built in speaker - not much but enough to verify audio transfers too.
And the features go on and on - too many to list here but I may find the manual to upload.

Basically - you are looking at a video MP3 player on steriods - supports universal formats, has an upgrade path, records audio on the spot, even has a video recording dock and can be setup as a TIVO. USB, 5VDC, dock ports on the bottom, ear buds included or use standard 1/8" stereo headphones with it. Uses common li-ion battery securely tucked in the handle. And with all those fetures, it's easy to use, not too big, and comes with a beltloop case. When the 200 gb disks come out, there's a button to setup one on it. No need to buy the expensive 120GB disk today.

The screen color is wonderful and performance is just flawless. For example - I shoot in Olympus Raw format so I can fix things later without compression loss. This thing understands most SLR raw formats on the market today! And it's firmware is upgradable as more arrive (the factory encourages you to check for the latest version).

I haven't drained the battery yet - but I've moved alot of data to it. You can use it as a USB disk as well. It also charges off the USB connector via a special cable with 2 usb plugs to snag enough power from your pc to juice it up off the USB bus.

It's a winner - Comparing it to my parent's IPOD the size is close, but the functionality is far more impressive. My dad's camera uses SD cards and it cleared his card out just like my CF card - so we both can use it on trips. It even works with my micro-SD cards for my motorola phone (1GB).

At 399 [2008 price] - Amazon's price is great. No shipping - prime members get it in 2 days or less (mine arrived next day for 2 day price - free) and no tax. I'm impressed - I think you will be too.

I spent a while trying to find a multimedia device that could read multiple types of flash memory cards (Compact flash cards, SD cards), read the raw files from my Canon EOS 5D camera and have at least 80 GB storage.

This device met all those requirements and also has a big vivid screen. In addition to the above, it is an mp3 player, video player and has an FM radio.

I have the 100 GB version that I purchased from costco for $ 350. I took this along on a long trip (3 weeks), along with a couple of spare batteries.

It performed wonderfully. I downloaded the pictures from my 2 GB compact flash cards at least 15 times. It stored all my RAW files without a hitch. It could also read the raw files generated from my camera and display it. The download speed was very fast.

The Canon EOS 5D generates large files at it highest resolution and fills up my 2 GB compact flash cards quickly. It is too impractical and expensive to carry too many compact flash cards. This device really helps to bridge this gap.

It also has a tetris game, music and video capability in it, to keep my kids happy during long drives.

Highly recommended for digital photographers and also for people looking for a verstile multi media device that can do more than the ipod.

The concept of the product is good. Functionally, it works as advertised. I recently purchased the 80GB version and used it on location where electricity was scarce. I uploaded as many as 10,000 photos daily while camping. I was able to review my photos with ease. However, upon my return to my studio, the hard drive within the unit failed completely, unable to recognize the primary partition. My 63,000 plus photos which I could not re shoot were gone. Thank goodness for third party data recovery companies. Wolverine tech support was sympathetic and helpful, saying that I should have taken two units with me on location. They quickly replaced my new unit with a refurbished one. Many hundreds of dollars later, I was able to recover my data, but my confidence in this product was shaken. How can a new unit, less than a week old, always hand carried, fail so completely?

I bought this device to be a temporary storage device for pictures taken while I travel. I wanted to travel without my computer, and did not want to buy enough cards for an extended trip. This device has performed well for that purpose.

The areas I am disappointed in are around the viewing.

First, when viewing on the screen, the picture is displayed as expected for a relatively low resolution device. I knew this when buying, but I think the display could have been a little better.

Second, the connection to the TV distorts the picture, so the display is much worse than having the picture displayed through the camera (connected to the TV).

These two items are the disappointment, but the device was not bought for those purposes, so I am still very happy with this purchase.

This is an excellent gadget for travel. It is very easy to use. You can quickly transfer all of your photos to the ESP and then reuse your memory card. It is fun to sit around with friends and look at the day's travel pictures. I carry pictures of my family and pets with me and look at them when I am traveling and (if appropriate) even share a few with people I meet when traveling. It is amazing what happens when I look at my pictures on an airplane - the Wolverine ESP becomes the center of attention and everyone wants to see it and then buy one after they see what it is capable of. For me, it is as much a camera accessory as is my camera battery charger.

I'm an amateur photographer shooting only monstrous RAW formats (13 MP, from a Canon 5D). I bought the Wolverine to transfer the pictures from the CF card to a portable hard drive while in vacations. The transfer speed is adequate (faster than any laptop I used previously) and it does open the Canon RAW formats, just like advertised. I'm very happy with this. The mp3 side is average, but I don care too much (I have smaller players which I carry). I did test some movies - clips downloaded from Internet and works fine, except the ones protected. The charger is good for 100-220 V, so I had no problem using it in Australia. The CF interface is not the sturdiest, attention should be paid when the card is inserted or removed. Recently tried the Wolverine with an SD card from Canon G7, it works just fine. The radio has no antenna - only through the audio output. If nothing plugged in, there is no signal. The built in speaker sound just like a cell phone speaker.

My wife and I ordered the Wolverine for a vacation so we could download pictures from our digital camera. The wolverine is very user friendly and downloads a 4g memory card without any problems. We also recorded several movies and tv shows to watch on the plane using the cradle. We used the large screen to review pictures to decide which ones to keep. When we returned from our trip, we showed family the pictures by attaching the wolverine to the tv and then using the remote control to scroll through the pictures like a slide show. I highly recommend this produce.

I bought the Wolverine ESP 5080 (80 GB) version less than 1 year ago (9 months ago). I've been using it predominantly for travel and as back-up for images. I currently have -- now had -- about 55 gigs stored on it when the device experienced a partition failure.

My computer cannot recognize the device and I cannot see any of the images or music stored on the device, including those recently transferred, but not copied to my desktop. The only message when trying to access is "path does not exist".

Most of the reviews appeared to be short-term use of the product which I found satisfactory for storage and simple viewing. I was thinking that I should have purchased a larger version, but after this experience maybe not.

I've email customer support, but I am left wondering about the longer term reliability. 300+ bucks seems rather pricy for 9 months.

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Update June 2009: I had the device repaired under warranty. The assumption from Wolverine was that I had mishandled the device (dropped, water) which I had not. I actually think that they were trying to find a way out of having to honor the warranty coverage. I paid for shipping the device. Wolverine replaced the hard-drive.

When it came back, it was acting a little buggy initially, then seemed to function. I did not have any confidence in the device so I used it only as a teriary back-up device. I used it for one trip (7 days) and it was fine. None the less, on day one of our last family trip the device failed again. Again "path does not exist", everything that had been stored on the device was lost. I doubt that I will bother to have it repaired again, but does confirm to me that long term reliability is an issue. I'm now considering buying a small netbook.

I picked up this storage device for a recent trip, and it was great to have. This unit makes it easy to download from flash media cards. If you're a traveling digital photographer you gotta have an external storage device as a back up for photos, and this one is great unit to have. The price is right especially in relation to the pricier Epson devices. It also does double duty as a media player, for those MP3s/videos that you want to access on the long flights.

Just two minor points: 1 - There's a small joy stick that sticks out - it's easy to accidentally press this button if the unit is in a shirt pocket.
2 - I wish the carrying case was a bit bigger, so it could stash the usb cable and small ear plugs.

Other than that this is a great unit to carry around.....

Purchased primarily for family photo backup on trips and vacations since it can read and backup almost any card. (ie; Everyone can use it with their respective cameras) I loaded about 15 documentaries into the video folder for viewing at our isolated vacation house. About 20% of them were incompatible file formats so I'm glad it's firmware upgradable. Easily hooks up to TVs for viewing on larger screen. The controls are completely logical. It automatically switches to 'Mass Storage Device' when the USB cable is used to connect computer. The 3.6" screen is amazingly clear. I actually watched a couple of the videos in the car. The Linux operating system allows you to create your own folder structure or view and inserted media card as a separate folder if you just want to view your photos. Great little MP3 player. The AC charger works on 110volt or european 220volt (with a 3d party socket adapter). Finally, can read text files. I dump my entire Palm content into a text file and have it available. <------> DECEMBER 2007 update <--------> Great news. Recently purchased a state-of-the-art 4GB SDHC media card and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Wolverine CAN read it. Not so for the card reader on my Dell Dimension E510. Be sure your Wolverine firmware Version is at least 1.2.8 - available at wolverinedata.com.