netbook for photoshop/lightroom?

Four of a kind

Am heading away for 6 months travel and I will be bringing my advent netbook as a way of storing/backing up photos.

What I would like to know is, would it be possible for me to put CS5 onto it and for it to work?

What about lightroom?

Basically I'd like to be able to sort out my photos and polish up a select few so that when I post them onto my blog they will look a little better.

Probably a stupid question, but I use PS and lightroom alot so would like to know would the netbook be able to power them?

Thanks

AlmightyCushion

It might run but if it does it won't be very well. I imagine you'd end up flinging the thing at a wall after a short while.

dazftw

The real question is would you be able to use photoshop on a 10" screen without your brain melting

Resize photoshop to 10" diagonally on your screen now and see if you can use it..

stcstc

actually a techy point, there is an issue with screen res and adobe camera raw if i remember right

most netbooks dont support the min res of camera raw

L31mr0d

CS5 won't run well on an Advent Netbook. Hell, I have a pretty beefy laptop and some operations which I would consider normal on a desktop will slow my laptop down in CS5.

What exactly do you want to use CS5 for anyway? If it's just fixing contrast and brightness there are lighter apps out there already that would run on your netbook.

pearljamfan

you could try windows gallery or picassa maybe? theyve both done me well enough for a while.

NakedDex

I beefed up my netbook, which was already quite well spec'ed for a netbook, with an extra gig of RAM a couple of months ago and it still struggles to load a Raw file in just Picasa viewer.
I ran GIMP on it recently to see if it was worth putting on my spare copy of Lightroom and promptly decided against it. There just isn't even remotely close to enough power there. I don't even use it as a viewer anymore, it's too frustrating.

smash

I wouldn't recommend it. I installed Lightroom on my HP mini note and it takes around 5 mins to even open a photo.

hmboards

What are you shooting with ? My netbook managed Lightroom and CS4 pretty well with raw images from a Canon 40D. But it is way too underpowered to handle the raw image of a 5Dmk2. There's just too much data for it to process :-( I didn't really have a problem with the screen as it handles high resolution.

It was great while it lasted as the netbook is so small to carry around.

smash

hmboards wrote: »

What are you shooting with ? My netbook managed Lightroom and CS4 pretty well with raw images from a Canon 40D. But it is way too underpowered to handle the raw image of a 5Dmk2. There's just too much data for it to process :-( I didn't really have a problem with the screen as it handles high resolution.

It was great while it lasted as the netbook is so small to carry around.

A 5D. The netbook is just too slow for it, and the screen is too small to edit properly too.

hmboards

steve06 wrote: »

A 5D. The netbook is just too slow for it, and the screen is too small to edit properly too.

I'd imagine so Steve. The 40D was only 10mp. I actually meant the question for the OP but it's good to get a comparison with your camera too. BTW, my netbook is a HP mininote too. Resolution is 1280 by 7(something). I could live with it for the 40D given the convenience but not any more.

Abelloid

With a little extra RAM it might be up to the job, but the 1024 x 600-768 resolution will drive you mad.

NakedDex

It's not. As I said, I doubled the RAM in mine to 2Gb. It made a slight difference, but it was still painfully and frustratingly slow to use. Even previewing images was so slow I just gave up trying.

smash

Ram wont make a difference if you have a crap graphics card, and most netbooks do!

NakedDex

The processor isn't up to much either.

Borderfox

I have a Samsung N210 plus and run Lightroom 3 on it fine, 2gb of ram and battery life on high power is over five hours, 11+ on low power. ACDsee is a good program for low power netbooks, can preview and process too

Four of a kind

L31mr0d wrote: »

CS5 won't run well on an Advent Netbook. Hell, I have a pretty beefy laptop and some operations which I would consider normal on a desktop will slow my laptop down in CS5.

What exactly do you want to use CS5 for anyway? If it's just fixing contrast and brightness there are lighter apps out there already that would run on your netbook.

Well basically just fixing contrast and brightness...in much the same way as lightroom allows. What program would you suggest I get for the my advent netbook that will give me some photo editing options while away?

hmboards wrote: »

What are you shooting with ? My netbook managed Lightroom and CS4 pretty well with raw images from a Canon 40D. But it is way too underpowered to handle the raw image of a 5Dmk2. There's just too much data for it to process :-( I didn't really have a problem with the screen as it handles high resolution.

It was great while it lasted as the netbook is so small to carry around.

While Im in asia I'll only be taking with me a Canon G12. I don't want to haul the D80 around with me for 6 months.

Also, since the netbook doesn't have a cd drive....how can I get the software that comes with the G12 onto the netbook?

Diabhal_Glas

How about also taking jpg aswell as raw and editing those on the netbook for your blog.

kevinhalvey

wouldnt recommend a net book for photoshop i would probobly reccomend something a bit better ie acer aspire (have one ) or if your budget went there a macbook pro

Creamy Goodness

I wouldn't dream of it tbh, even if you had the spec's of the most expensive mac pro I wouldn't.

The netbook form factor is just too small your hands eould be in bits within an hour or two. I know mine are and I use netbook for internet and email only.

MaggyM

I have lightroom 3 running on a 1gb ram netbook that I use when I am travelling (can't remember graphics card spec but its not great). I use it purely for storage really as the screen is just too small. While it can handle the 35mb raw files, it is slow.
You could consider using the online version of photoshop for editing and it would also serve as a 2nd backup. Ideally from and internet cafe with better screens than the notebook. Have a look at http://www.photoshop.com/tools

As for getting your camera software onto your netbook, you could try copying it to a usb storage drive from a pc that does have a cd drive and then install it from that.

NakedDex

Borderfox wrote: »

I have a Samsung N210 plus and run Lightroom 3 on it fine, 2gb of ram and battery life on high power is over five hours, 11+ on low power. ACDsee is a good program for low power netbooks, can preview and process too

Mine is the older processor version, the N150. I didn't hear about this ACDsee program, must check that out because my battery life isn't stellar if I'm using it much.

Hecklar

Lightroom will run on nearly any netbook really, Its Photoshop that'll knock the socks out of your system.

The problems id have are mainly, whether you'll be getting an accurate representation of the colour etc on the little screen, and or course as others have said, the tiny size of the screen for working on. that'd drive ya mental.

Four of a kind

Well tbh I had planned on shooting only in JPEG for the 6 months and certainly only editing the JPEG's.

I'd really like some bit of software so that when chilling out on a train journey or even in the room at night I'll be able to organise my photos from the day/week into folders and do basic contrast/brightness adjustments.

So would lightroom 3 be able to handle just jpegs on the netbook?

Forget about photoshop - it was stupid of me to think a netbook would be able to handle it.

Borderfox

Four of a kind wrote: »

Well tbh I had planned on shooting only in JPEG for the 6 months and certainly only editing the JPEG's.

I'd really like some bit of software so that when chilling out on a train journey or even in the room at night I'll be able to organise my photos from the day/week into folders and do basic contrast/brightness adjustments.

So would lightroom 3 be able to handle just jpegs on the netbook?

Forget about photoshop - it was stupid of me to think a netbook would be able to handle it.

ACDsee would be perfect for you http://www.acdsee.com/

The viewing section of it works really fast even on a netbook

Four of a kind

Borderfox wrote: »

ACDsee would be perfect for you http://www.acdsee.com/

The viewing section of it works really fast even on a netbook

Thanks. Which product though would I need? There seems to be 4/5 different ones?

woody_2000

Four of a kind wrote: »

Well basically just fixing contrast and brightness...in much the same way as lightroom allows. What program would you suggest I get for the my advent netbook that will give me some photo editing options while away?

IrfanView is another program that might be worth checking out, and would suit a smaller screen. It is free to use for personal use. I have it running on a Compaq Mini 311 11.6" netbook (nVidia ION platform, with 1.6Ghz Atom CPU and 2GB dual channel RAM). It just mainly runs off the Atom CPU (which I'm guessing is just a re-branded 1.6 Ghz Pentium 4), and runs fine without issue. It doesn't utilise any extra graphics performance that the nVidia graphics may offer, which would make it similar to running on a regular netbook. You can do most of the usual image editing tasks with it - and even batch process, if required (may be handy for batch resizing your images if working on a smaller lower resolution screen, and then posting online).

While Im in asia I'll only be taking with me a Canon G12. I don't want to haul the D80 around with me for 6 months.

Also, since the netbook doesn't have a cd drive....how can I get the software that comes with the G12 onto the netbook?

Just copy the program files directly from the Canon software CD and put them on a USB flash drive or SD card and then install the programs into your netbook from one of these devices. That's what I did. You could also copy the files from the CD and transfer over a network. I have both the ZoomBrowser and Canon DPP software installed on my netbook, and they run as good as one would reasonably expect - and without problem (at lot depends on your screen size and resolution).

Borderfox

Just the basic one is fine

Heebie

I really think Photoshop/Lightroom + Netbook = EEK!

Four of a kind

Heebie wrote: »

I really think Photoshop/Lightroom + Netbook = EEK!

very true, but my other laptop is huge and not practical.

I'm checking out this ACDsee pro program and it seems to look ok to me.

LeoB

Hope I am not hijacking this thread.

I have neither photoshop or Lightroom. I just use windowns or Picasa for basic fix's like cropping/contrast jpegs. What netbook would any you recommend? or is it better to wait and get a smaller laptop?

Borderfox

I use the Samsung N210 plus from Argos, €320 (I think) very portable and battery life is excellent. I put another gb of ram in it €54 in maplins and it runs really well.

soccerc

I have used a Samsung NC10 as my primary in the field machine for two years now and run both PS and Lightroom on it and have had no issues.

However, I import only selected images via Nikon Transfer on the hoof so it's quick.

Later I'll import all the others after the event when there are no timing issues and if they are RAW then it can take some time.

The netbook is handy as the battery charge is more than sufficient to last 3 hours plus.

woody_2000

No particular recommendations, but maybe some points to consider:

I guess it depends on what you plan to use your netbook/notebook for, and what programs you plan to run on it. If you have no need for the extra performance offered by an nVidia or ATI GPU then a more modestly specified machine might be ok - e.g. a netbook just running on the latest Atom processor (which has the graphics integrated directly in the CPU chip), or maybe an ultraportable notebook running an Intel Core i3 CPU (dual core CPU "packaged" with integrated graphics). For photo editing a higher resolution of 1366 x 768 might be preferable, which would mean an 11.6" or 12" screen format for either a netbook or ultraportable notebook. Netbooks can also be got with 1366 x 768 10" screens, but some might find that a bit small to work with - and ultraportables can also be got with larger 13.3", or so, screens. The main difference between a netbook and an ultraportable is mainly down to what CPU is used. This can make the distinction a bit blurred, as this usually means an Atom, or such, CPU for netbooks - and an Intel Core i3, or such for ultraportables -- however, there are also dual core Atoms, and such, as well... Netbooks are also usually limited to being no bigger than 12".

Programs which should benefit from GPU accleleration would be Photoshop, video decoding and editing, 3D applications, and so on... If you have a requirement to use programs which would benefit from GPU acceleration then a netbook or ultraportable with an nVidia or ATI GPU might be preferable to more effectively run these programs... I chose an nVidia ION based netbook (Compaq Mini 311) because I needed something ultraportable that would run SketchUP effectively. That was my primary consideration, and if I didn't need to run SketchUp then something lower specified would have done fine. It also helped that I happened to come across it quite cheap new on Amazon for approx. €290, and I got an extra 1GB DDR3 RAM module from Crucial for less than €25 delivered -- for a total of less than €315. The extra 1GB module enabled a dual channel memory mode, which allowed for better 3D performance.

EDIT - Some further points to consider:

Atom CPUs may not be the best for floating point computing performance, so if using programs that require good floating point performance but can't leverage GPU computing then alternative CPU based systems might be worth considering... The Atom should be as good as any other similarly clocked CPU for most usual computing tasks such as web browsing, office tasks, etc...

Many recent netbooks and ultraportables use "switchable" GPU/graphics when using nVidia or ATI graphics. This is because more basic integrated graphics are used for power saving when doing non GPU intensive tasks, and then seperate more advanced "discreet" graphics cut in when a more powerful GPU is required - e.g. for an nVidia based system look for the "Optimus" switching feature.

Four of a kind

Thanks for the help and advice guys.

One more question....is there a program again that would work on the netbook but this time just for cutting/stitching small video clips that I'd like to upload to youtube from it?

woody_2000

Four of a kind wrote: »

....is there a program again that would work on the netbook but this time just for cutting/stitching small video clips that I'd like to upload to youtube from it?

I know practically nothing about video editing, but maybe Microsoft's free Windows Movie Maker might be worth checking out... I think there may be different versions of the program depending on what version of Windows you may have (actually the Windows 7/Vista version is called Windows Live Movie Maker).

I don't know how video codecs are handled with these programs, but some codecs may be more "bandwidth friendly" than others for uploading to YouTube...

Ricky91t

Borderfox wrote: »

I use the Samsung N210 plus from Argos, €320 (I think) very portable and battery life is excellent. I put another gb of ram in it €54 in maplins and it runs really well.

*dies a little on the inside*

Why oh why would you buy that from Maplin?!

From my experience they're a last of a last resort for anything, Only used if I need something urgent.

You can get (probably better ) the same memory from MemoryC.ie ( Irish company based in Kildare ) for under €32 with free shipping. Pay a little more and you'd get it next day.
http://www.memoryc.ie/products/description/2GB_G_Skill_DDR2_SO_DIMM_PC2_6400-800MHz-laptop_memory_module/index.html
Also, When I was using a netbook a year or two ago ram upgrades were pointless, They showed no performance increase in any benchmarks and were really only helpful for showing off :pac:

Edit: I found no perfomance increase with mine anyway. But that was just my opinion...