Netbook Software Question

I agree. I use my netbook to store my photos and do quick and dirty edits for posting to blogs or Picasa, or to email. Any heavy duty editing gets done when I'm at home.

Hi Ken: I have what (I think) is ASUS's latest N450. 7 to 9 hours battery life, good for long hauls over the Pond. But I do the same thing as Nancy and Steve: just basic downloads of pics, haven't tried running PhotoShop. Windows 7 Starter has taken care of my needs so far, which are basic. They say the battery is good for 9 hours, probably more like 7 if you're running certain programs. It runs Office 2007 fast, with no problems. Screen resolution does seem to be limited, as you mentioned.

Fuggedaboudit.

You are NOT going to be able to use PS on a netbook. Period. RAW images? Good luck. Just not up to the task. At all.

If the Mac is what you know and like, but you just think a MacBook (Pro and non) are just too big/heavy, consider a MacBook Air. It's optimized for being light and minimalist, but still has plenty of oomph for Photoshop. And it's what you know - no hassles. Sure, it'll cost more than some cheap netbook, but...well, you get what you pay for.

I'd suggest you go try some netbooks. Bring some of your typical RAW files along on a USB thumb drive, and see how you like working on an inexpensive, smalll Windows netbook. I suspect in 5 minutes you'll be heading for the nearest Mac store.

Good luck.

Thank you all for your comments and feedback!

I've been looking at this issue for the last few months, but haven't found the "ideal" solution yet. It seems that a computer that fits all my needs doesn't exist (small, light, easy to travel with, able to process photo files, long battery life). One thing I haven't determined yet, is whether a Netbook is at least capable of storing RAW files for "backup"?

At this point I've kind of concluded that perhaps I'll just go with a Netbook and find some other solution for the photo processing, as I'll only need that function for the trip I'll be taking this year. I've contacted the Photo Workshop I'll be attending to see if they have any suggestions.

Kent, from what I've been able to determine, the N450 doesn't really have much more "horsepower" than previous processors such as the N270/280. The big difference seems to be that the N450 has the processor and video in the same chip. The Netbook model I've been considering (Toshiba NB305) has been getting good reviews so far, so that's probably the one I'll go with. As I'm not familiar with Windows 7, how do you transfer photos to the Netbook?

David, yes, I've concluded that a Netbook won't work well for photo processing. As an alternative, I have looked at both the MacBook Air and the smaller 13.3" MacBook. However both are at least 2-3x the price of a Netbook. Rather than spend $1K or more on either of those models, I may as well just "suffer" and pack along my MacBook Pro.

"I suspect in 5 minutes you'll be heading for the nearest Mac store"

The store that I deal with (London Drugs) handles both PC Netbooks (except for Acer and ASUS) and MAC's, so it's kind of "one stop shopping"; I wouldn't have to go far to get either model! We don't have the same type of competition in Canada as you have in the U.S., and just about every dealer charges SRP (especially with Apple products, as they set the prices).

Ken, storing photos (even large ones, RAW files) is certainly doable on a netbook - and should be fairly straightforward (even in Windows). But that begs the question: If you really just want to store photos, why bother with a computer at all? There are many other options (probably the best would be a dedicated photos storage device).

If you want an inexpensive small laptop for storing photos AND for web surfing, email, jotting down your thoughts, etc., then a netbook might be just the ticket.

Agreed with other posters. If all you want to do is "store" photos and surf the web, a netbook will work fine (a robust PDA will as well, for that matter).

If you want to 'work with' your photos you'll need to step up to more computer than a netbook -- and the Macs are king of the hill with regard to multimedia editting.

(Note that I have neither... I carry a Palm OS PDA with several extra memory cards -- I can view my photos on a screen quite a bit larger than on my camera -- -- and if I'm in a WiFi hotspot, I can use the PDA to e-mail images back home... but I'm itching to upgrade to a Macbook or something...)

assuming you don't HAVE to do all the editing while traveling and are able to save the work for when you get home, what about taking multiple memory with you?
you could keep all the images on their disks in their original RAW formats and the cards would take up very little space/weight in your storage.

Not practical for many photographers. Large numbers of big files (I shot over 3500 on my last trip, and I exercised more restrain than usual - I've come back from trips with upwards of 10,000 photos - then there's the video footage, which eats up even more storage).

Sure, you could just cart around a crate of CF cards, but it would be dumb to do so (expensive and heavy). For large storage, there are many better options. There are dedicated photo storage devices, small gizmos with a reasonable sized hard drive in a small enclosure; some have display screens, some don't, but the cost/megabyte is much more reasonable than it would be for flash card media.

My netbook, the Asus EEEpc 1000ha has been wonderful for what the others have mentioned - portability, storage, battery life. We will be taking it with us on our Europe trip as it weighs just over 2 pounds. However I do /not/ do any heavy lifting app wise on it as it simply can't handle it. And indeed as you mentioned there are some programs that have minimum resolutions that wouldn't fit on the netbook.

I have an early version of an ASUS netbook. I second all those who've said you might find a netbook a bit underpowered for your purposes.

I also have a tablet PC that has a bit more oomph than the netbook, plus better battery life. We don't know much about it yet, but the Apple iPad looks like a terrific travel tool, perhaps better than a netbook. I've read that the chip Apple uses in the iPad may have more power than processors in many other machines. Still, since the iPad is basically a giant iTouch, and therefore might not even run any complicated photo editing programs, it is doubtful it would meet your needs either.

Thankyou again for the comments. They've been a big help in trying to sort through this decision.

Although I didn't mention it, I did consider Portable Hard Drives such as the Epson, GIGA, etc. While these are great for backing up photos, they don't have the versatility to provide E-mail or net access, journalling, blogging, etc. I usually try to get the most "bang for the buck".

I usually travel with a good number of large capacity CF cards (8 GB), so on most trips I have lots of capacity and don't have to resort to erasing cards and re-using them. However, my trip this year will involve a Photography Workshop so I'll probably be taking more photos than usual.

I decided to contact the Workshop leaders, and they'll be able to help with the situation by allowing me to use one of their computers to transfer a limited number of images for review each day. While it would have been nice to do some post-production on at least some of the images, this will be a workable compromise.

Now that the photo processing issue has been resolved, I'll probably start looking at Netbooks again. I'll be using it for net access and E-mail, journalling (probably using WORD), possibly Blogging as well as backing up photos (if I can figure out how to transfer RAW & JPEG images using a CF Card Reader). I have no information on what type of photo software is provided with Windows 7 Starter Edition or how to use it? Without something like Canon DPP software (or Elements), I doubt that I'd even be able to view RAW files, but hopefully there's some provision for viewing JPEG files?

Thanks again for all the information!

Ken, I use my Asus 1000HA with all of my digital photo files. It's dead simple, as my Canon T1i takes SD cards, and the Asus has an SD slot built in. No need for a card reader. When I put a card in, I can open things up to view and transfer the files. It's incredibly easy, and reasonably quick.

I haven't done any RAW files yet, but have no problems working with my JPEGs, which are fairly large in size, transferring, and opening a few with paint.net to resize and retouch.

JumpinBug,

Thanks for the additional info. One question, are you using Windows 7 with your ASUS? Also, how well does Paint.net work with the somewhat "underpowered" processors that are typically used in Netbooks? Is Paint.net as complicated to use as Photoshop?

I use both SD cards for my P&S Camera as well as CF cards for my dSLR. I have a USB-CF Card Reader which will hopefully work with Windows 7 (without Drivers).

Cheers!

No, my Asus is over a year old, and on XP.

I have no problem using paint.net - it can take it 30 seconds to a minute to load the program, but then the pictures themselves load fairly quickly. Keep in mind, I work with my pictures one at a time, usually. Open, crop, resize, lighten/brighten, some minimal retouches, etc. It's basic, but that means that the netbook can handle it, and it's free. :)

You will likely end up with Windows 7, unless you buy one that has been discontinued or on clearance, but I don't see it being a big deal.

I do suggest buying it a few months in advance of your trip and then playing and testing. I waited for Staples to have a decent sale, which was about 5 months before I left. It gave me time to try installing everything, load on movies, and generally try out all that I would want to be doing.

The one thing to keep in mind is that you'll be working with your images on a 10.1 inch screen... it's fine for getting things up for friends, but harder to do real work. As someone who shoots 30GB on a weekend, I consider my netbook incredibly important, but it's not perfect by any means.

JumpinBug,

Thanks for the reply. I knew there would be limitations with the Netbook, but aside from the photo processing it will be a useful travel accessory. Although I'm used to at least a 15.4" display on my MacBook, I can tolerate the smaller display for E-mail, etc.

The Netbook that I've pretty much decided on is the Toshiba NB305, which was just introduced in the last month or so. Buying early for "familiarization" is a good tip, so I'll try to pick one up within the next month or so.

Cheers!