I should've done this earlier!

bartjeej

Hall of Famer
I've been working on a Samsung netbook for the past 2 years, which pretty much coincided with my picking up photography again, and (thus?) also picking up digital post processing. I can tell you, netbooks are NOT suitable for anything heavier than GIMP! Silkypix, RawTherapee and Lightroom have all been somewhere inbetween slow and maddeningly slow, and although LR3.6 was allright, LR4 is costing me about 20 minutes to half an hour per photo, simply because every smallest adjustment needs between 1 and 30 seconds to compute. Needless to say this is a waste of life time, and when my netbook started showing its age (they're built to be as cheap as possible and have horribly short lifespans), I finally had an excuse to buy a proper laptop.

So, today I got a Toshiba C670 with 2,53GHz and 4GB RAM - and WOWWWW this thing flies!:eek: In LR4, all the adjustments I make are virtually instantaneous! I bet I can edit most photos in about 2 or 3 minutes now! Also having a (surprisingly good for the price) 17.3", 1600x900px screen really enhances the photo viewing experience, as well as the accuracy of my editing. For the money I put into it (less than € 500), I'm extremely pleased with what I got:) and I can't wait to put the time I'll be saving to good use!
 
I know nothing about computers, but when the time comes for me to replace my craptop, I'll definitely be soliciting the opinions of the peeps here. Mine runs smoothly enough, but I'm sure when I upgrade it'll be a real treat. More time spent "in the field" is always welcome. Congrats on your new ride!
 
I once had an old laptop that could take up to 5 minutes or more to apply a Silver Efex filter :eek:

That's me now !!! ....frustrating to say the least, so much so that I try to avoid using SFX which is a shame because it's a really good bit of software.
I know diddly-squat about laptops and computers in general but that'll have to change now....I think an upgrade is required, especially given my LR4 should be arriving today !
 
I thought about it but a new one is too expensive for me (I'm still on a student budget) and buying a used laptop just isn't something I feel comfortable with...
 
haha I must admit I haven't looked into that, but looking at the prices for refurbished macbooks of similar specs on the US website now, it's still way above my budget (starting around € 800 for, to me, lower specs).
 
I've had a series of middling desktops over the years (mostly HP and its predecessor Compaq) along with Dell laptops for work. None had the computing or graphics power to make the image processing programs perform well. With retirement just around the corner, I decided to treat myself to a system with good power, a nice monitor, and a clean(er) user interface experience. So I bought an iMac, 27-inch screen variety. I'm not going to gush about it and claim superiority for Mac over PC; only thing I know is that it's a lot more fun to run Lightroom, Photoshop, and Elements on this machine than any of my previous platforms.

Oh, and a postscript: I deferred my retirement to pay for this and other toys...

Second ps: the iMac doesn't address image storage while traveling. I use my iPad to some extent for this, but it really doesn't have the capacity for storing many RAW files. So I have a cumbersome workflow involving uploads of some images to the iPad, then all images to the iMac upon return. I'd like to get to the point where I don't need to bring along a laptop when on holiday...
 
Chuck...one solution would be to just have enough memory cards when you go on holiday and leave the processing until you get home.

also, it's not fair to compare a decked out Mac to middling PCs. Perhaps someone who isn't a cheerleader for one platform over the over and really has experience with both can out in their 2 cents. I have an el cheapo laptop that I've been using problem free for 3 years and runs photoshop fine. My one and only Apple laptop died after the 2 year warranty and cost twice as much to begin with. I don't need the greatest machine, but a good value.
 
Luke, thanks. I try to carry enough cards with me and I haven't run into that limitation yet. My kids and now grandkids like the instant gratification of seeing images the same day they're taken and posting some of them on Flickr and/or Facebook. Some double handling, at least with the iPad, is inevitable. And, of course the issue of having backups rears its head.

Agree with you in value being important part of the equation. I'm not likely to invest in a MacBook any time soon.
 
For my holiday needs I use a netbook with a 10" 1356x768 screen. It's not perfect but it runs FastStone Image Viewer which will let me preview all my RAW files and I can copy the images from the cards to the harddrive for backup. And of course it lets me browse the interweb and watch movies and what have you not.
 
For my holiday needs I use a netbook with a 10" 1356x768 screen. It's not perfect but it runs FastStone Image Viewer which will let me preview all my RAW files and I can copy the images from the cards to the harddrive for backup. And of course it lets me browse the interweb and watch movies and what have you not.

That's my exact solution (y).....plus I use the Netbook to keep in touch with loved ones back at home....beats watching cable in US hotels :laugh1:

10/10 points for Faststone as a Lite image viewer. Always amazed how it beats LR to the punch with viewing RAW files (had to wait for ages with my X100 but Faststone already had the file read the day I had the cam). A great little program indeed...
 
also, it's not fair to compare a decked out Mac to middling PCs. Perhaps someone who isn't a cheerleader for one platform over the over and really has experience with both can out in their 2 cents. I have an el cheapo laptop that I've been using problem free for 3 years and runs photoshop fine. My one and only Apple laptop died after the 2 year warranty and cost twice as much to begin with. I don't need the greatest machine, but a good value.

Luke, what I was trying to say was that I couldn't make a judgment for exactly the reason you give: I had a series of beer PC's with a champagne Mac as a chaser. If I implied I believed Mac was fundamentally superior to PC, that was unintended; I have no basis for making that comparison.
 
Chuck, I wasn't pointing fingers. It just seems the Mac guys are quick to prop up the holy Mac brand, but I think if you compare like-priced machines there probably isn't much difference. But that is an uninformed guess and should be treated as such. To me they are just tools.....and unexciting ones at that. Cameras get me excited...computers are just a place I store and work on my photos.
 
Chuck, I wasn't pointing fingers. It just seems the Mac guys are quick to prop up the holy Mac brand, but I think if you compare like-priced machines there probably isn't much difference. But that is an uninformed guess and should be treated as such. To me they are just tools.....and unexciting ones at that. Cameras get me excited...computers are just a place I store and work on my photos.

Agree with you there! I'm not a Mac guy; I'm a guy who happens to have a Mac. Last year, I was a guy with a PC. The only "Holy" I associate with the Mac brand is the epithet I whispered under my breath when I saw the all-in cost: "Holy S___!"
 
Even with my 27" iMac from 2011 (with 6 gigs of RAM), running LR4 on it has been blah at best. I haven't upgraded to 4.1 yet.

The new MacBookPro with retina display and superthin (and lighter) body looks really nice!!
 
Back
Top