Using a netbook for image backup while travelling

My wife and I will be making a couple of trips to Ethiopia in the next couple of months, travelling with a 5D Mark II and an Olympus E-P1. I shoot everything in raw. I have purchased a Gateway netbook for backing up my photos and video. If I upgrade the netbook's RAM to 2GB it will meet the system requirements for Lightroom 3 which I use on my main PC. Does anyone have experience running Lightroom on a netbook?

Is there a usable alternative program for viewing and sorting raw shots when we're travelling? I do not intend to process my photos with the netbook, merely view, backup, and maybe cull the obvious throwaways.

I will probably also pick up a Lacie LaCinema Rugged Mobile drive, so that I can have two backup copies; one in the LaCinema and one in the netbook's hdd.

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If it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't move, shoot it! With a tripod wherever possible...

Did you ask the salesperson about this? I looked into a netbook for traveling, too, but was told by the Best Buy salesman that the processor would never be able to run Lightroom.

Most netbooks are 1024x600 and Lightroom requires a 1024x768 display. I've hear that there might be a way to adjust the netbook so it thinks it has a 1024x768 screen, but don't know how. You might try doing a search.

I went ahead and installed Lightroom 2 on my netbook, and it ran it, albeit more slowly than I am used to. The screen real estate was definitely an issue. I notice that PSE8 can run with a display as short as 576 pixels, so PSE8 may be the better way to go for the little Gateway. I can always open the PSE8 catalog with Lightroom when I get home.
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If it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't move, shoot it! With a tripod wherever possible...

on my Samsung (in which incidentally I also put 2G) you can switch the display to 1024x768 and the desktop retains aspect ratio but moves up and down as the mouse reaches the top and bottom of the screen to show area larger than the screen at the normal resolution.

I read your question as I sit in my hotel in Bergen Norway after a two week trip with my Acer Netbook. I BU my images (RAW) every day and also BU to an external HD. I have LR3 on the3 Netbook and while it is a bit slower than my desktop at home it does run on two GB RAM.
http://www.alldigital.fotopic.net

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Art

I had this exactly same last year, bringing my 2Gb MSI netbook with LR2 installed. The file transfer was slow enough and a fully loaded 16Gb CF needed hours to do so. I was lucky that I stayed in only one place. Running LR on netbook is a painful process as the screen resolution was not enough and the CPU is so slow.

Today the only satisfactory machine I will carry for travel is Sony's newly launched i7 notebook with 1920x1080 screen resolution and weight less than 1.5kg. Too bad it costs as much as a 5DII
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Mark K

I don't know why we are so obsessed with speed, so it takes a bit longer to download to a netbook, BUT it is lighter, cost less than a notebook and above all works. It was never meant to replace a blazing fast high resolution notebook.
http://www.alldigital.fotopic.net
Art

If netbook is meant for a backup and also the USB connection type is correct, it should not worry all of us.
However, it one intends to use it as a photo editor, there is a problem

all_digital said:

I don't know why we are so obsessed with speed, so it takes a bit longer to download to a netbook, BUT it is lighter, cost less than a notebook and above all works. It was never meant to replace a blazing fast high resolution notebook.
http://www.alldigital.fotopic.net
Art

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Mark K

I don't know if you can call it a problem. You can do image editing but as I indicated it is not as fast as my desktop.
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Art

I have been using the Acer Aspire 1 netbook for almost 2 years to upload files from my Sony A900(RAW). These are 36MB files. Have never had a problem. Use Lightroom 3 to upload and view. I do not edit with the netbook.

The lower rez screen requires some workaround, but not a big deal.

I also use a HP Pocket Drive to backup the netbook before deleting the files from the camera memory card.

This has been a great travel solution for me.

What Sony is that?

The only "small" notebook I am considering for travel/liteLR3/PS5 is a 13" MacBook Pro.

Mark K said:

I had this exactly same last year, bringing my 2Gb MSI netbook with LR2 installed. The file transfer was slow enough and a fully loaded 16Gb CF needed hours to do so. I was lucky that I stayed in only one place. Running LR on netbook is a painful process as the screen resolution was not enough and the CPU is so slow.

Today the only satisfactory machine I will carry for travel is Sony's newly launched i7 notebook with 1920x1080 screen resolution and weight less than 1.5kg. Too bad it costs as much as a 5DII
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Mark K

Click to expand...

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digitalDan said:

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Is there a usable alternative program for viewing and sorting raw shots when we're travelling? I do not intend to process my photos with the netbook, merely view, backup, and maybe cull the obvious throwaways.

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I would definitely recommend something lighter weight than Lightroom. I use a netbook for the same purposes when traveling and have had great luck with faststone for viewing my RAW files on the go. http://www.faststone.org/

There are other freeware RAW viewers out there. The point is - if you are not planning on editing, and mostly going to use a viewer program to verify images -- you don't need Lightroom on a netbook. It will be slow, and take up disk space that is better used for image storage.
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Joe
Old Acct: http://www.dpreview.com/members/5617432530/forums/Messages?Page=19

I have used a netbook with 2GB RAM & LR V2 whilst travelling in a similar way you are suggesting. All my photos are taken in RAW and although of lower res that the 5D (8 & 12M Pixels) it is useable.

OK it's slow and the screen resolution of 1024x600 is an inconvenience but if you only intend to review and tag the images it should be fine. Editing is best avoided.

Phil

It's a older thread, but on a netbook I can run photomechanic by camera bits without issue. It is faster than LR and all it does is cull and allow you to add exif data, etc.
No image editing.
Greatest software I have ever used.

Many of the 11.6 Netbook have 1366 x 768 screens. Acer also sell a 11.6 notebook (Aispre 1830 timelineX ) at 3.1 lbs with I3 or I5 processors.

I have 8.9" Acer (1024 x 600) that I used on long trip for photo backup (I also always backup to a exnternal drive so I have redundant backups). I used Bibble for raw processing which does not have the 768 pixel requirment like the Adobe Raw product have.
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MichaelV

Most netbook's don't have super high resolutions so you aren't going to see your photos in the best possible light but I did find it useful and interesting to look them over when I was a two week trip to Costa Rica. I still left all the pictures on my memory card but downloaded them all also to the netbook.

You can use the DPP software from Canon or buy Photo Mechanic which is very fast and deals well with RAW files. Your overall strategy is sound. A 1GB netbook is perfectly adequate for viewing files and can work well for GPS and email.

Don't know about the 5d Mark II but with Nikon cameras it is relatively inexpensive to use a bluetooth adapter and a $40 Holux or other bluetooth GPS to automatically put longitude and latitude information into the image file's meta data. Later the Nikon Viewer will automatically sort the images by geographic location and display them on a Google Maps image. Great for remembering later exactly where a given picture or group of pictures were taken. Worth exploring the geotagging options with your camera.

Netbooks are often limited to 1GB RAM.

I also shoot with a 5DII and E-P1. Its a great combination. I also travel. Alot. At this time last year I was preparing for a trip to India and the UAE. In May and June I went truly around the world, like 17 countries. And now I am preparing for a trip later this month to Egypt and Rome. I have always taken a netbook somewhere on my journeys, going back a few years to an EeePC running linux, the very first computer that defined the word "netbook."

Here is what I recommend: Don't run lightroom on a netbook, there is no need to do so. There is Fastone Viewer, Bibble or even some free viewers out there. I use Breezebrowser, it is lightweight and easily runs on a modern netbook. It allows 100% viewing of RAW images to verify focus and such. It also batch renames images as you see fit. It can process RAW files, too, should you want to post a few to Facebook or email them home while on the road. Of course, you should be taking advantage of a netbook by also copying your images to an external drive. Leave either the netbook or the external drive back at the hotel, and carry one with you, this assures you of always having a copy of your images in safety. If your bag gets snatched or your hotel room gets robbed, you have another. This is a huge advantage.

I have an Acer Aspire One now, its over a year old, and like MOST netbooks today, can take 2 or 4 GB of RAM. Even my ancient EeePC could take 2 GB. I have not heard of netbooks only taking 1 GB of RAM. Especially these days.

I also have a Timeline 13.3" computer, I call it my "Goldilox" computer, not too small or too weak, not a monster heavy desktop replacement, either...Just Right. Can run full Photoshop & view HD movies. But it is not small and light like a netbook. So for Egypt, the older Acer will go. Its just so small and so easy and if it gets stolen, It would not be the end of the world. I would hate to lose my Acer Timeline, I am almost emotionally attached to this computer like people are attached to Macs

typing on my Timeline right now, in fact...

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