Features for the Digital Photographer

The FlashTrax XT will most likely appeal to digital photography buffs due to the convenience it offers out in the field. When you fill up your camera's memory card, just slide it into the FlashTrax XT's CompactFlash memory slot, press "Copy" and your images will quickly be transferred to the FlashTrax XT's internal hard drive. Now you're ready to reformat the card to re-use it over (and over) again. In fact, thanks to increased battery life, the FlashTrax XT will allow you to transfer up to 24 (512MB) memory cards or 36 (1GB) memory cards on a single charge. The large 3.6" LCD color screen will allow you to quickly scroll through to view, share, verify and/or zoom in on the details of each image.

The internal memory card slot is compatible with Type I and Type II (Microdrives) CompactFlash memory cards and the FlashTrax XT can copy files TO and FROM a memory card, allowing you to share your files with others. Using inexpensive adapters, you can also use other memory cards with the FlashTrax XT.

• Fuji CompactFlash Adapter for xD-Picture Card (Find Best Price)
• CompactFlash Adapter: 5-in-1 Media Compatibility ($39.95 at B&H Photo)

The large 3.6" LCD display allows you to view your digital photographs on a screen that is probably quite a bit larger than the LCD on your camera. SmartDisk has incorporated a zoom feature that allows you to magnify the details of your photo by 2x or 3x. You can then pan up, down, right or left to view the different portions of the zoomed photograph. Zooming in on a high-resolution photo is instant - unlike other devices that often take a couple of seconds to change views. Thanks to the speed of the FlashTrax XT, the zoom feature is is a great way to double-check the details of your images.

The FlashTrax XT supports most popular RAW formats, a must for professional photographers. The FlashTrax XT displays RAW files using the JPEG image embedded in most RAW files, so display time is very fast. Because the FlashTrax XT uses the embedded JPEG image, the resolution of the displayed RAW file depends on the resolution of the JPEG file embedded by the individual manufacturer. This may also affect the extent of zooming possible with RAW files.

The following list of supported RAW formats is listed below, but more are likely to be added:

• Canon RAW (.CRW and .CR2)
• Fujifilm RAW (.RAF)
• Konica Minolta (.MRW and .THM)
• Nikon (.NEF)
• Olympus (.ORF)
• Sony (.SRF)
• Sigma (.X3F)
• Pentax (.PEF)

Entering Photo Mode
To enter photo mode, use the navigation pad to highlight the PHOTO icon, select "Hard Disk" if you want to view images stored on the internal hard drive or choose "CF" if you want to view images stored on the CompactFlash memory card (if present). Press enter, then select the appropriate folder using the up/down on the navigation pad and the ENTER button to select it. When you highlight a photo file name, a thumbnail of the photo will appear to the right of the file listing, along with the resolution (example: 3456 x 2304) and size (example: 2 MB) of the image.

Photo Slideshow with Music

The FlashTrax XT allows you to play a song or playlist along with your photos. Background music can be played while manually viewing photographs or when playing an automated slideshow. Setting up to play background music during photo playback is a two-step process; Highlight a song file or playlist while in the MUSIC mode then select the BACKGROUND option in the drop-down menu. Go back to the PHOTO mode and select ON from the music pull-down menu. SmartDisk should have made this selection available in the PHOTO mode, nevertheless, once done you won't have to do it again, unless you want to change the background music or playlist.

The FlashTrax also allows you to select the delay between photos in slideshow mode. You can choose between manual, 1 second, 3 second, 5 second, 7 second, and 10 second. When you select the manual mode - the photo will change only when you press the up or down arrow keys (up = reverse, down = forward). For some reason, there is a 3-second delay as you move from photo to photo in manual mode, which really felt sluggish. However, this delay ONLY occurs when in the manual mode. If you select the 1-second "auto" mode, then photos will change every second.

You can also view a slideshow of the images while they are still on the CompactFlash memory card. This is a convenient way of looking at photographs that may belong to someone else, allowing you to view and analyze them without copying them to the hard drive. The fastest time between photo's we could achieve when viewing directly from a memory card was approx. 3 seconds. This was using a standard Viking 512MB CF memory card. Faster cards may yield quicker results.

All in all, the photo capabilities of the FlashTrax XT are impressive, but there are some features I'd like to see added:

• Allow the rotation of images from within the FlashTrax XT
• Better yet, have it recognize the auto rotate function from compatible camerass to automatically rotate images
• Add direct printing support (PictBridge, etc) to allow printing without a computer.
• Allow basic editing functionality (auto red-eye removal, crop, rotate, contrast and hue adjustment). This would especially be helpful if direct printing capabilities were added

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