Netbooks for pitchside uploading?

Cathus

Cathus

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Name
Garry
Edit My Images
Yes
I shoot a bit of nPower league soccer & currently use the only laptop I have - a 17"er - to upload at halftime & after the game.

Apart from being big & heavy & taking a long time to boot up each time it's rather unwieldy.

I was thinking about getting one of those 10" screen netbook thingys but notice that they generally only have 1gb of ram.

I use Photoshop to straighten, crop & resize & add keyword data.

Would I still be able to use Photoshop on a netbook, if not what other software is available for basic editing & keywording which works OK on a 1GB machine?

Anyone have any good or bad experience with a netbook?
 
Pain in the arse in my opinion, difficult to upgrade often no CD/DVD drive so loading software over the web which is a pain. Took 4 hours to download and install MS office and I have an 8meg link and get around 7meg transfers from normal web sites. lots of problems with screen scaling

But thats just my experience
 
I use an USB CD drive to install software on my notebook, cheap & easy :)

BUT the problem I do get is that some Image editing software will not run on the low resolution screen :(
 
I have a 10" dell netbook. Nothing fancy, just about £250 in tesco iirc.

I have lightroom 3 installed on that, it's ok for some very basic editing, cropping etc. Not used it to upload tot he net, but have printed from lightroom using it.

For general web browsing, it's been fine. If i am away from a wifi hotspot i can use my phone and use the 3G on that. Or it will take a sim card and save the hassle.

The ram on mine can easily be upgraded from 1gb, to a maximum of 2gb. Though it's not something i have done yet.

So to summarise. Yes you can use one for simple tasks, but i would never expect it to perform as well as a laptop.
 
Thanks all,

I don't want to use it for any heavy duty stuff, just to adjust shots at the pitchside & ftp them. Anyone doing that on a netbook?

What do other people use?
 
I have a Dell mini 9, I upgraded the ram to 2gb.

I don't have PS but I do use Fastone and it will do everything you need apart from entering the keyword data.

It also has the built in sim card slot.
 
I don't really need to get images to anyone quickly so it can all wait till I return home.

I would imagine something like THIS would suit your needs
 
I have just bought one of these it has elements 7 already installed.

netbook

spike
 
Got a Samsung NC10, which is an older netbook, a little slow compared to some new ones out today.

It's perfectly fine for most basic tasks. Installed OpenOffice and took not much longer than it does on my big desktop. Even installed Nikon's Capture NX. Launching these apps is slower, though not entirely painfull.

Basically if you look for a decent netbook (going to be in the £300+ market), with good hardware and processor, you'll get an "okay" speed.

However, it's still not going to be fast. Running Photoshop will definitely be a struggle. It will work, but it will be quite slow. I run Capture NX and it's certainly quite usable, but it is slower than on a desktop. I've used it on occasions where I have no other option, just to do a quick edit and then upload.

Another problem though is netbooks often have small resolutions. Mine is 1024 x 600. 600 height is very small for photos, and causes problems with some applications that assume all displays are 800 high. Though newer netbooks may have better displays.

I'd say if you just wanted to upload photos from the pitch, a netbook would definitely be all you'd need. Editing is another matter, though I'd say it's possible. There are likely other options to Photoshop that may work better. You'd need something fairly slim that isn't going to be too slow.

The other thing is how are you going to upload? Some netbooks have a 3G option. Alternatively you can get a 3G dongle, or you could tether to your mobile though tethering is often penalised and costly to transfer data.

But perhaps you have a network connection, and/or some nice WiFi on the pitch :D
 
Tim,

thanks for the input.

I'd be using the ground's wifi to upload & the editing would be minimal, just straighten, crop, resize & keyword.

I might pop in to PC World or somewhere & take a look at a few. The other alternative would be a smaller laptop than the bulky one I have now but as the one I already have is more than capable I'm it seems silly to buy another one if something a whole lot lighter & smaller will do the simple job I need it for.
 
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