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Portable Media Players are one of the hottest new gadgets about, letting you watch 24 on the train, or Lost in the bath. The functionality is simple, with PMP's letting you watch movies, listen to mp3s, read e-books or to view and store photos in a nice and small compact package. The first three features are all common uses for PMPs, but the last are two less so.
Photo devices for viewing and storing used to be very popular, enabling photographers to transfer their photos onto their portable device when they run out of space. However, with falling memory card prices, rapidly rising storage levelss and the fragility of older hard-disk devices meant less people used them, for storing photos at least. Canon are aiming to change all this with the Media Storage M30 and M80.
The M30 and the M80 are respectively 30GB and 80GB media devices that can store images, movies and sound either straight off a computer or CF/SD
memory card. The ability to read memory cards is central to this idea, as it means if you are out in the field then when your card is full you can transfer photos and continue shooting. The large and bright 3.7 inch LCD screen is used for playback and idle browsing of photos, and the more adventurous can use the players as a way to display their portfolio.
All this sounds quite normal and uninspiring until you get to the styling, where Canon is going straight for professional users. The magnesium alloy body and navigation system is very similar to its EOS dSLRs. Security and reliability is a big issue as you'd expect - the hard-drive is protected against knocks, files can be passworded with an 8-digit password, and files are validated when they are uploaded to stop corruption. Finally, in what could be a masterstroke for Canon, the units are powered by the same BP 511A battery that powers its 5D, 20D and 30D cameras amongst others - which could help using the product as a viable part of your workflow a lot.
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