PhotoWalkPro

The orchid garden in the Singapore airport

I mentioned in a previous post that I had purchased a Netbook computer to use in my travels in place of my trusty MacBook Pro.  I am happy to report that I am really pleased that I made the purchase.  Before I left home, I loaded my new Netbook with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom so that I could process images from my travels.  I also threw a bunch of movies on the hard drive to get me through some of the longer flight segments and layovers (like the 6 hours I spent in Singapore).  Although I would probably have preferred to have my Netbook loaded with Windows XP instead of Vista, I am pretty happy with the performance so far.  The movie playback has been very smooth using VLC as my viewer of choice.  It’s a free program that will show almost any format out there.  I really didn’t have a choice since the Windows Media Player doesn’t come with many Codecs and some of my video files are in DVD format so I would have had to pay for a codec to watch them (way to go, Microsoft).

The wi-fi has been great whenever I have been in range of a free connection.  The built in antennae has been getting decent reception and my only limitation is the speed of the connection.  It really is perfect for email and web surfing.  Speaking of web surfing, I passed over the clumsy Internet Explorer 8 for Vista and opted to use Google Chrome.  It was fairly new to me since it is not yet available for the Mac but I have to say that I am very pleased with the speed and user interface.  It doesn’t have all of the add-ons that I am used to in Firefox but it is satisfying my need for quick web browsing.

I’m sure that the big question that most of you have is, how does my Netbook handle Lightroom.  Frankly I was a bit skeptical when I installed it, especially since my Netbook, like most Netbooks, uses the Intel Atom processor.  I am happy to report that, after importing a couple of hundred images, the Lightroom performance is actually much better than I had hoped for.  Sure, it’s no where near as fast as my Mac, but I didn’t expect it to be.  It does however allow me to upload with relative speed and moving between the different modules is pretty painless.  I think it does help that I purchased the Acer with 2GB of RAM instead of the standard 1GB that most Netbooks have.  I am also pleased that I opted for the 250 GB hard drive so that I can store a ton of RAW images without concern.  I will transfer these to my Drobo when I get back home and then import them into my Lightroom catalog on my Mac for regular use.  I probably should have brought along my Epson P5000 or a small back-up drive but I was really trying to cut down on my carry-on equipment.  I did bring lots of CF cards so I probably won’t have to delete any of them before my trip is over.

Speaking of Lightroom, I was reading my buddy Scott Kelby’s blog and saw that Adobe has released the Beta for Lightroom 3.  As soon as I finish writing this post I am going to head over to Adobe and download a copy for my Acer.  I have heard that the import process has been upgraded and that imports are even faster now so I will be looking to this speed boost, especially since I will be doing a lot of shooting this weekend, starting with a night shoot in downtown Kuala Lumpur and the Petronas Towers tomorrow night.  I will hopefully have a lot of images to post for you next week.  Until then, check out the NAPP Lightroom 3 Beta Learning Center and then download your copy of the Lightroom 3 Beta over at the Adobe Labs.

Have a great weekend!

I love my MacBook Pro but lately I have been giving some thought to purchasing a new computer strictly for travel purposes.  The issue for me is that my MacBook is big enough that it can pose some problems when I am on the road.  First off, I don’t like leaving my laptop in my room while I am out, especially if there isn’t a room safe for me to secure it.  This means that I usually have to take it with me when I leave my room.  My photo backpack is large enough and has a padded laptop sleeve but that means that I have to have all that added weight on my back while I am hiking around.  It’s not just hiking but anytime I have to be on my feet all day, like at Photoshop World.  I like the convenience of being able to log in and check email and post quick updates to the blog but, once again, this means that I have to take my backpack and all the associated weight.  Enter the Netbook.

Netbooks are all the rage these days and for good reason.  At only 3 pounds, these little laptop computers allow you to stay connected to the world without the hassle of carrying a ton of computing power with you.  The downside to the Netbook is that it is small.  Most of them have screens that are around 10″ measured diagonally.  They also have slightly smaller keyboards so typing can be a bit more challenging.  As for computing power, most of them are a lacking in horsepower.  The majority of them use the Intel Atom processor, which does a great job at basic operating system, web browser, and email operations but really can’t handle the processing needs of a program like Photoshop.  They also lack any usable amount of RAM for image processing with the majority of Netbooks topping out at 1GB of RAM.

This weekend I did find one though that might just suit my needs.  Acer makes a Netbook called the Aspire One that is a little beefier than most of the other Netbook offerings.  First off, it has an 11.6″ screen, which is about an inch larger then most other Netbooks.  It does have an Atom processor but it has 2GB of RAM.  The other cool thing is the 6-cell battery that will power the small notebook for an impressive 8 hours (although I’m sure that it would be closer to 7 hours with normal use).  It also has a built-in card reader (SD, not CF) and a massive 250GB hard drive for storing images on the road.  There’s no optical drive but that is typical for all of the Netbooks.  Finally, the most enticing feature to this Netbook is the price, a stunning $329.99 from Amazon with free shipping.

My idea is that I could use this for all of my mobile email and blogging needs and also load Lightroom to process my shots while I am on the road.  I know it would not be the fastest way to go but it would allow me to shoot, store, and process images without the pitfalls of a big laptop.  And it’s small enough that I could comfortably carry it with me anywhere I went without needing to always take my backpack.

If you have any experience with using a Netbook for something other than email and Twitter, I would love to hear from you.  Especially if you are using it for any sort of imaging.

Please drop me a comment and let me know what your impressions are.