Netbooks...

I

Irishwhistle

New Member
Okay, so I'm an amateur photographer and was going to get the best camera that I could with my limited funds, but then I was thinking and I realized that I didn't have the ideal setup for editing. My desktop is in the basement and I'm not that crazy about sitting down there all the time working on photo editing, not to mention it's got a CRT monitor. :P I'd like a very portable laptop I can take with me wherever I go so that I can quickly review my pictures after I've taken them and then edit them.

So, my thought was that I could get a less expensive camera that is still pretty much perfect for my purposes (which I'd be more than happy with) AND a netbook. The particular netbook I've been looking at is the MSI Wind... it's inexpensive, looks nice, and has the standard netbook hardware from what I can tell.

Now my question: A netbook would seem to be ideal for my editing needs, but is it powerfull enough? I can always upgrade the RAM, but is a 1.60GHz single core Intel Atom powerful enough to edit large (3872 x 2592) images? I would be using either Photoshop Elements or Gimp (and eventually Photoshop Lightroom) to do my editing.

I could resize the images to a much smaller size when I copy them over to the netbook, but would I even be able to open the images in order to edit them? Sorry for my ignorance, I've never dealt with a netbook before. :P
 
Irishwhistle said:
Okay, so I'm an amateur photographer and was going to get the best camera that I could with my limited funds, but then I was thinking and I realized that I didn't have the ideal setup for editing. My desktop is in the basement and I'm not that crazy about sitting down there all the time working on photo editing, not to mention it's got a CRT monitor. :P I'd like a very portable laptop I can take with me wherever I go so that I can quickly review my pictures after I've taken them and then edit them.

So, my thought was that I could get a less expensive camera that is still pretty much perfect for my purposes (which I'd be more than happy with) AND a netbook. The particular netbook I've been looking at is the MSI Wind... it's inexpensive, looks nice, and has the standard netbook hardware from what I can tell.

Now my question: A netbook would seem to be ideal for my editing needs, but is it powerfull enough? I can always upgrade the RAM, but is a 1.60GHz single core Intel Atom powerful enough to edit large (3872 x 2592) images? I would be using either Photoshop Elements or Gimp (and eventually Photoshop Lightroom) to do my editing.

I could resize the images to a much smaller size when I copy them over to the netbook, but would I even be able to open the images in order to edit them? Sorry for my ignorance, I've never dealt with a netbook before. :P
Click to expand...

The screen res of the netbook might be a limiting factor as you would have limited room to work with.... Plus the atom might be somewhat of a limiting factor...
 
bomberboysk said:
The screen res of the netbook might be a limiting factor as you would have limited room to work with.... Plus the atom might be somewhat of a limiting factor...
Click to expand...

I don't care about the screen size or res as I want something compact to check photos on and do minor edits on. The atom is a much larger concern.

According to a reviewer the Wind allows OC'ing up to 2.0 GHz... would that help much do you think?
 
Forget it. Photoshop's RAW editor requires a minimum resolution of 1024x768 to run. Editing photos, or just viewing them on a Netbook is useless. The photo is also compressed so much to fit on the screen that the quality will be low.
 
[-0MEGA-];1264704 said:
Forget it. Photoshop's RAW editor requires a minimum resolution of 1024x768 to run. Editing photos, or just viewing them on a Netbook is useless. The photo is also compressed so much to fit on the screen that the quality will be low.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if your planning on editing RAW it wont even open due to the res. Plus editing is kinda hard when you only see 1/10th the pixels of the image unless you zoom in.. Netbooks were designed for internet/music, not photo editing. Best bet would be to get a cheap notebook...
 
Nah, no RAW editing. Just basic jpeg editing and viewing on the fly. The only thing I'd do with RAW files as far as the netbook would be concerned is save RAW files to the HDD so as to free up space on my camera card. The idea isn't to replace my desktop, but to have something that is very portable and that I can use to store photos, for viewing immediately after shooting, and some minor image editing that doesn't require the full power of my desktop.

On top of that I'd like to have a netbook sooo...


Do you think it would work for what I've described though? Thanks! :)
 
Irishwhistle said:
Nah, no RAW editing. Just basic jpeg editing and viewing on the fly. The only thing I'd do with RAW files as far as the netbook would be concerned is save RAW files to the HDD so as to free up space on my camera card. The idea isn't to replace my desktop, but to have something that is very portable and that I can use to store photos, for viewing immediately after shooting, and some minor image editing that doesn't require the full power of my desktop.

On top of that I'd like to have a netbook sooo...


Do you think it would work for what I've described though? Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

As said, the low resoloution is seriously gonna limit what you can do. First try this- set your desktops res to the res of a netbook, and try to edit what you want. Bear in mind though it will be at only 10" vs whatever size on ur screen, but as far as screen real estate see if that would be enough for you. After that though, if you still feel like that res would be alright for you then a netbook might work alright for you....
 
Last edited:
bomberboysk said:
As said, the low resoloution is seriously gonna limit what you can do. First try this- set your desktops res to the res of a netbook, and try to edit what you want. Bear in mind though it will be at only 10" vs whatever size on ur screen, but as far as screen real estate see if that would be enough for you. After that though, if you still feel like that res would be alright for you then a netbook might work alright for you....
Click to expand...

Just tried that, and though it could be bigger I really don't mind the low res, it should work well enough for basic editing as long as it's not too slow. So maybe I will be getting a netbook. If I decide to I'm gonna have to decide which I should get: MSI Wind, or Acer One... I'm leaning toward the Acer as it has 6 hours of battery life as opposed to 2. It costs $30 more, but I can deal with that.
 
for what it's worth, I use my netbook for editing using adobe lightroom. It does it's job. I can pop in my SD card, load up lightroom, edit the picture, then view it fullscreen. It certainly gives a better view of the picture than a camera screen can offer.
 
speedyink said:
for what it's worth, I use my netbook for editing using adobe lightroom. It does it's job. I can pop in my SD card, load up lightroom, edit the picture, then view it fullscreen. It certainly gives a better view of the picture than a camera screen can offer.
Click to expand...

Okay, cool. So what netbook would you recommend? An Acer Aspire One 10.1", MSI Wind U123 (the U123 has longer battery life than the other Winds), or something else. I really like the Eee 1008HA, but it costs $420, which is more than I'd like to spend... the max I'd like to spend is $320.
 
speedyink said:
for what it's worth, I use my netbook for editing using adobe lightroom. It does it's job. I can pop in my SD card, load up lightroom, edit the picture, then view it fullscreen. It certainly gives a better view of the picture than a camera screen can offer.
Click to expand...
I prefer viewing it on the camera opposed to on a Netbook.
 
Irishwhistle said:
Okay, cool. So what netbook would you recommend? An Acer Aspire One 10.1", MSI Wind U123 (the U123 has longer battery life than the other Winds), or something else. I really like the Eee 1008HA, but it costs $420, which is more than I'd like to spend... the max I'd like to spend is $320.
Click to expand...

Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5

$320 after rebate:D
 
I agree with omega. Don't use a netbook for editing. They are pretty damn slow and the resolution is low as well. I bought one for my little brother and I couldn't imagine doing anything like that on it. The processor is also pretty slow, and I know photoshop runs slow on my tk-53 x2 as it is. Save your money and do it right the first time.
 
Motoxrdude said:
I agree with omega. Don't use a netbook for editing. They are pretty damn slow and the resolution is low as well. I bought one for my little brother and I couldn't imagine doing anything like that on it. The processor is also pretty slow, and I know photoshop runs slow on my tk-53 x2 as it is. Save your money and do it right the first time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I suppose photoshop would run a bit slow, but do you think something lightweight like lightroom or even picasa would run well enough? Also, the MSI Wind can apparently be overclocked to 2.0GHz, which may help a bit.

I realize it's nothing near as powerful as my desktop (which isn't all THAT powerful itself :P), but as long as I can backup my photos to free camera card space, view my photos, and do very minor edits I'm fine with that.

Of course I also kinda want a netbook just because it's a netbook... ya know: ultraportable and fun to play around with? :P
 
bomberboysk said:
Wow, i thought the newegg link had copied, looks like it got the ratings instead somehow>_<. Not the 1008HA, but the 1000HA is $320 after rebate....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220534
Click to expand...

7 hour battery is nice, but I think I might get the Wind U100. It looks awesome and only costs $300. It's only got 2.5 hours of battery life, but I rarely would need more that... only when I'm in the car for an extended period of time, but still... 2.5 hrs is plenty of time to watch a movie while traveling, after I run out of charge I can just listen to music like I always have.
 
Lenevo s10 without a doubt,Its got a 10.2" screen,atom processor,i upped the ram to 1.5gb but can take 2gb max.

i have teh 80gb version in siggy.

love it,i installed Xp pro on it and it flys...also OSX flys on this netbook too but i shouldnt mention that lol
 
Nevakonaza said:
Lenevo s10 without a doubt,Its got a 10.2" screen,atom processor,i upped the ram to 1.5gb but can take 2gb max.

i have teh 80gb version in siggy.

love it,i installed Xp pro on it and it flys...also OSX flys on this netbook too but i shouldnt mention that lol
Click to expand...

Really? The Wind seems so... perfect. Not to mention it's less expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top