Would you recommend the P-4000 over the iPod? I have a MBP but I won't be staying in one particular hotel the whole time so I'm reluctant to tote it around with me. However, it would be nice to have something available to view the pics with. I'm wondering what the best storage/viewing option would be. I'm considering the iPod or maybe even a MacBook but the P-4000 looks like a great option too.
I see the iPod and P-5000 (they've since upgraded my old P-4000 to allow zooming in on RAW files) as different beasts. The former is primarily used for other purposes, while the latter is another piece of photographic gear, with a sticker price of almost $700.
For me, as a working photographer who shoots for my own projects, the P-4000 was just another tool in my bag - one with somewhat light use. I only use it when I want to travel ultra light and avoid hauling along a heavier, but more comprehensive, backup system of a MBP, an external 500 GB HD, my 80 GB iPod as another BU HD, and multiple DVD's.
But if I'm in a country where I'm moving around but know that I have to carry everything of value on my person, having all that extra gear is just too much. I usually travel with a couple of bodies, plus 3-4 L-series lenses, and after 12 hours of walking the streets shooting my shoulder is usually trashed. The extra 8-10 lbs of a computer and accessories is just not an option.
So I roll the dice, and hope that the P-4000 will have no problems (i.e. having just a single copy of my images before I purge my CF cards). Note this is the same issue as using the iPod Camera connector alone. My ideal situation is to have 2-3 BU's before I reformat my cards. As you can tell, I am planning for the worst, but the thing is that my images are the thing of value that can't be replaced. My cameras are expensive, but of course they are easy to replace. (As an aside, I've always thought that the ability to easily BU ones "negatives" in multiple locations was one of the greatest side benefits of the digital ages - reading newspaer articles about photographers who have lost their life's work as their negatives went up in flames always was so sad to me.)
Back to your situation of the general use but slow iPod vs the specific use but powerful P-5000 - how often do you need to back up images? How many times would you need to back up on an average trip? Is money an issue? Do you already have a large capacity iPod? If you bought a P-5000 and used it twice a year, would you feel like you made the wrong decision?
