Ultra portable Laptop for Storage ?

For those whose cameras live on tripods... is there a way to tie the laptop to the camra directly and skip the time-consuming back and forth with the memory card?

Yep, I do it all the time. Then again, I know what camera I have. Sadly I don't know what camera you have. Best of luck to you~

Hey, sorry I didn't mention 5D canon and a sony Vaio loaded.
Can you give details of what I need to connect hard and soft -wear.
Thanks
Franco

In that case, EOS Capture will do it. It is part of the canon software. (Assuming the 5D comes with the same software the XT does) Instructions are in section 3 of the "EOS Digital software instruction manual". All of it can be downloaded/updated on the canon site.

Among other things the software will allow you to store files directly to the computer instead of or in addition to the memory card.

There are several tricks to view the photos as you shoot. Personally I use Bridge and just point it to the folder where I am storing the photos as I shoot.

Good luck~

Hi Skagen,

Are you still happy with you W5? I'm seriously considering buying one, since it seems to be the ideal solution for travel.

A few quick questions: are both RAM slots accessible (e.g. can I buy the 512MB model and then later buy two 1GB chips to upgrade the memory to 2GB?) Also, have you tried upgrading the HD? I know it's inside the machine. Just wondering how easy it is to access and upgrade.

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Fabian

The Samsung Q1 is a worthy option. Not as rugged as some of the dedicted storage viewers, the battery will not last as long as other devices and the CF card slot is slow compared to a full speed external USB 2.0 reader.

However, you can run most common RAW software (I have tried Lightroom Beta 4 and RawShooter for instance). The smaller vertical screen dimension makes this a bit fiddly (unless you resize to 1024 X 768 and accept fuzzy resolution) but if you're a Nikon or Canon owner Mr Gates has a free Windows XP RAW viewer (one of the XP powertoys that will doubtless be integrated into Vista) that will display thumbnails and slideshows without any additional software.

The screen at 7" is a useful size and decent colour / brightness. Built in CF (albeit slow) is useful is you don't want extra wires and other clobber for a short trip and the machine is a fully wireless - enabled PC with reasonable speed (especially the Pentium M version with 1gb RAM...) to boot. A good mix in my view.

Look at a Samsung Q1, Pentium version if possible. See my seperate remarks. This is basically non-ruggedised laptop technology so if you're planning use in a hostile (i..e dusty / wet / salty) environment you might want to look at other options eg. Panasonic Toughbooks. Depends on your budget, specific needs and how determined you are for a small size / light weight I guess.... You might need to consider an extended battery (they make a six cell version that's apparently good for 5 hours plus) depending on availability of battery charging too.

There are two memory slots but on my model (512MB from factory) that 512 is soldered in. The other slot is accessible, so you can stick another 1GB stick in there. Just a normal hatch on the underside that you unscrew in about 10 seconds. I have ordred a 1GB stick from Conics.net and it is supposed to arrive today.

The HDD is more complicated. You have to take the whole laptop apart by opening about 20 screws. Any HDD you put in also has to have pins 41 and 44 broken off to match the 3.3 v setup of the laptop. There are detailed instruciton on the LeoG ultraportable forums.

I I have printed these out and will do the job tonight, to put in a Samsung 120GB 5400 drive. Wish me luck! ;-)

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/q1/

the Q1 has gotten uniformly mediocre press. The hard drive is 40GB, but it already holds whatever version of Windows the computer uses, so you're down to about 35GB of useable storage. Complaints include small screen (it's bigger than the Giga Vu Pro Evolution, though, so that's relatvie) and lack of processor power, which is a problem for a photo viewer. It includes 10/100 ethernet, WiFi, and a CF card slot, so it might be worth considering at $750 in lieu of an Epson P-whatever or the Jobo Giga series. The problem remains the lack of space on the hard drive. I don't know if it's user swappable for a bigger one.

skagen said:

There are two memory slots but on my model (512MB from factory)
that 512 is soldered in. The other slot is accessible, so you can
stick another 1GB stick in there. Just a normal hatch on the
underside that you unscrew in about 10 seconds. I have ordred a 1GB
stick from Conics.net and it is supposed to arrive today.

The HDD is more complicated. You have to take the whole laptop
apart by opening about 20 screws. Any HDD you put in also has to
have pins 41 and 44 broken off to match the 3.3 v setup of the
laptop. There are detailed instruciton on the LeoG ultraportable
forums.

I I have printed these out and will do the job tonight, to put in a
Samsung 120GB 5400 drive. Wish me luck! ;-)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Let me know how it went. Kind of disappointing that they solder on one of the memory sticks. If the RAM goes bad, you have to toss the whole MB (not to mention it's not upgradeable).

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Fabian

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Myanmarchit , D200, 18-200VR,Tokina12-24,50mm 1.4D.