Laptop specifications

As many Digital SLR photographers, are now downloading their images in the "field", I'm left wondering what specifications, are required by todays laptops.
In terms of memory and cpu, what is now required to run programs like Lightroom 2, and all the latest Photoshop, and indeed future programs from Adobe?

Regards,

Peter

Not sure on specifics, but the normal answer is 'as much as you can afford!'

One very important thing to look for when out in the field is how long the battery lasts for, and most people do seem to look this point over. As an example we've just got a 17" MacBook Pro which is a powerful desktop replacement laptop with a large internal battery.

There are a lot of complaints as the battery is 'sealed' in so not easily swappable when out in the field if it runs out, but, and it's a big but, the battery can last upto 8 hours, and in practice we have had around 5 hours whilst downloading and viewing photos etc. In comparison we have a desktop replacement Alienware laptop where the battery lasts around 45 mins to an hour! Not only that it's only an inch thick, very solid as it made from one lump of aluminium, and lighter than any other comparable laptop, and can recover from standby in less than 3 seconds, literally lift the lid, and away you go, no wasting battery life to boot up!

Sorry if you're not contemplating a Mac, but having just got this one, and having owned a large quantity of laptops (I can see 4 more from where I am sitting), the differences are absolutely amazing and make a huge difference to what you can do in the field. If you are serious about it, it would be mad not to at least have a look and consider it! My only regret was having put it off for so long!

Most current laptops that are better than the really cheap ones will do the trick. Even 1GB of RAM will suffice, and most offer more than that now.

A good mid-range machine should be fine, but look at the quality of the screen in particular. Some are very poor for imaging, others are OK.

Regarding the processor and memory, whatever comes with the likes of even the cheapest current DELL laptop (full size type) will be powerful enough.

Don't be too influenced by the capacity of the hard drive supplied. It's usuall easy and inexpensive to swap it for a larger one yourself.

Opt for a matt rather than glossy screen if you will be using it anywhere other than a darkened room!

I recently bought an Advent
Pentium dual core,
2.16 GHz , 3 GB Ram - and 300 GB Hard drive.
17" monitor as well.

Just to give you an idea, I can run Adobe Bridge, and Photoshop CS4. Open up to 60-80 RAW files on ACR, and process everything together. As smooth as you can imagine. Really really quick.

SPent £400 at PC world.

HOpe this helps

The spec above that nathan suggested would be fine.

Anything over a 2ghz dual core processor and more than 2gig of ram will be fine maby a bigger HDD if possible though
.
Ide also recomend a decent amount of gfx mem as well which seems to of been overlooked. 512mb gfx should suffice.

Also I would recomend to get one running XP as aposed to vista as Vista is very, very greedy with ram!

Obv batt life and screen should also be considered as mentioned above.

One last thing.... AVOID PC WORLD!!!!

Try out the smaller retailers, you normally get more for your money and there more helpfull if something goes wrong.

Hope thats some help to you.

I also got a complete care plan.

It covers absolutely everything, for £7 a month - through Pc-world.

This makes me think as uploading images in the field and doing extensive imaging work are two completely different things. If I was to use a laptop in the field, I would not be using it for extensive editing, for instance LCD callibration would be an issue

I have been looking at small light laptops that would provid a good screen to view images on to determine if there were any problems. For me this would mean I need a laptop that can power up fast and has decent amount of RAM. any editing jobs would be done on a callibrated desktop screen.

Still with the possibility of a much improved screen on the K-7, and editing capability in camera and huge SDHC cards, do I really need to carry a laptop as well? My money is on the K-7

I'm with Andy
2ghz dual core, 2gig ram (minium of cs4!!!) and an newer Nvidia card.
Photoshop should be able to use the newer Nvidia cards to speed it up, check which cards can do that. Don't know if there is any ATI card.

Also look at the screen indeed for photo work, some dells have very good screen but I don't like DELL to be honest. The laptops are fine but what they ask for shipping cost and that, also you need to send it to them if anything goes wrong... there is simply a lot of shipping going on and I just want to be able to go to the shop, much easier but that's a personal thing.

If it's really just to store your photos and do a quick selection then you don't need much of an PC, maybe even a netbook will do with an external harddisk.
I've been playing with that tought of when going on holiday and simply use it as storage.
There are some models now that can last 8 hours on one battery.

A total rip off ... £7/month = £84/year or £252 for 3 years.


Buy a Dell Latitude and it comes with 3 year on site warranty and add 3 years accidental damage cover for £109!

It also covers me worldwide - I doubt if the PC World cover is valid outside the UK.

I've had dells before.

I can't stand having to send the laptop in for repairs.

THis assistance comes with a technician on call, and free support on the phone.

And because I already bought it, there is no point suggesting buying something else. Good advice though!

Roscoe ...

The best you can afford - and then go one step further.

Go for a business quality machine such as the Dell Latitude which has a metal frame. My Lat D620 has been dropped from 500 to 1000 mm quite a few times and still works and is undamaged.

I would say a Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz as a minimum but do not go much faster - faster CPUs eat battery power.

Plenty of RAM - it is more power efficient than swapping to HDD 2GB minimum, 4 GB better.

Largest battery that the manufacturer can provide.

Graphics - choose a machine that has a separate Graphics card rather than the onboard chipset. Select one that has 256MB of memory and capable of driving the LCD and a separate monitor which you can connect when needed - and both at high resolution.

Don't forget an DVD burner - either for backup or to give people a set of images "on the spot"

Bluetooth and WiFi are essential too.

When you set it up - minimise the applications that start on boot - then run applications as yo need them.

I have NEVER sent a Dell back - they have always come to me, whether it is London, Cornwall, 50 miles outside Perth (Australia), California, Montreal ... Not normally failures but wearing out keyboards or accidental damage on a couple of previous ones. Just select the option when you specify it.

I have worked in the IT industry for twenty five years now and have handled most brands on the market, for the last five years I have been administrating a site with a Dell only purchasing policy. I have found the Dell Latitude range to be very robust and the business service to be the best I have ever encountered. The company I work for has surveyors travelling up and down the country and abroad onto building sites, they treat these items with very little respect, however very few are bite the dust. The one bit of advice I will give, always check the screen quality with Dell's, the best offers usually have the worst screens. I hope this helps!!!!!!

Techno - one of my Dells, a Lat 610 actually managed 1,000,000 miles of travel with me. And 4 years later it is still going, the battery does not hold much charge but can manage an hour or so. Aircraft overhead lockers with all the vibrations, probably 1000 trips through x-ray machine, thrown into car boots, dropped, 50 degree ambient temperatures &c &c.

Moved to a new company and their policy was - whatever the requisitioner/manager asked for! They were surprised at the number of problems seen support costs &c.

Based on my experience they decided to do a three month trial of purchasing Dell only - costs went down, failures almost disappeared ... they changed policy to Dell only unless there was a specific reason to use another where there was no Dell equivalent.