Travel Photography - Netbook for photo storage/sharing/light edit??

I'm divided on whether this should be here or in Travel Tech but it primarily concerns photography so here it is.

Has anyone tried one of the new tiny netbooks as a primary travel photography storage unit? I carry my laptop when I travel and use it to dump photos from the camera memory cards each evening. On the laptop, I sort, select and categorize images, back all images to flash drives and do some VERY light editing (red eye, contrast, etc.) and resizing of a few to share with family and friends via email. Most images just stay in a folder until I get home and dump them onto my desktop for more extensive processing and permanent storage.

I've been considering lightening my load a bit by replacing my Averatec laptop with a netbook. The 160 GB HD is actually more storage space than I have on the laptop but I am concerned about processing power and speed for handling large image files.

Any experience to share?

I have been using an Acer Aspire One for this purpose since January. I've done about 80K miles and probably 5K shots with it and could not be happier.

The vast majority of my editing work is done in Picasa. No, it isn't PhotoShop but it meets my needs and I try to just take good pictures the first time around rather than spending so much time in post-processing. I tweak a bit and then publish, all from the netbook. Dropping the ~4 pounds out of my travel kit has been a truly wonderful thing for me.

Every now and then I wish I had a higher resolution screen so I could see more on the screen at once, but not enough to justify lots more $$ or more weight to carry around.

I do notice every now and then what I consider to be a bit of lag while I'm processing, lag that I don't think I had on my old laptop. But I also usually have a drink in my hand while I'm doing the processing so that's just a good time to take a sip and come back to whatever I was doing when it finishes up.

There is another more general thread in Travel Tech (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/918708-netbook-travel.html) that has a pretty good general discussion of NetBooks and options there. I see no reason to merge this one into there - at least not yet - as long as it stays focused on the photo aspects of the netbooks.

...but not enough to justify lots more $$ or more weight to carry around.

More dollars – yes, more weight - not so much.

At 2.8 lbs my Vaio TT with an 11" 1366x768 LED screen, 1.6GHz Core2Duo processor, 4GB's of RAM, and 320 GB HD is significantly faster - and lighter - than most if not all 8"-10" netbooks.

Yes, one pays a significant premium for something like the TT but if I were to assign to each trip I have taken just $100 for the convenience of having a full-on desktop replacement [with ~8 hours battery life] in less than three pounds well, it has already paid for itself.

More dollars – yes, more weight - not so much.

At 2.8 lbs my Vaio TT with an 11" 1366x768 LED screen, 1.6GHz Core2Duo processor, 4GB's of RAM, and 320 GB HD is significantly faster - and lighter - than most if not all 8"-10" netbooks.

Yes, one pays a significant premium for something like the TT but if I were to assign to each trip I have taken just $100 for the convenience of having a full-on desktop replacement [with ~8 hours battery life] in less than three pounds well, it has already paid for itself.

What netbooks are you seeing that are heavier than 2.8 pounds?

Yes, it is faster, but I really doubt - based very much on my personal experience over the past 5 months - that the additional cost to get that speed is worthwhile. It definitely isn't to me. I'm not worried about dropping or damaging my $350 netbook nearly as much as I would be about a device that costs 3x the price.

And I can assign a similar price value to mine, I guess. But that doesn't really make any sense to me.

What netbooks are you seeing that are heavier than 2.8 pounds?

Hmm, well - the Asus N10 weights ~3.5 lbs, the Asus 1000HE weights ~3.2 lbs, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10E weights ~3.1 lbs, need I go on?

Yes, it is faster, but I really doubt - based very much on my personal experience over the past 5 months - that the additional cost to get that speed is worthwhile. It definitely isn't to me.

And I can assign a similar price value to mine, I guess. But that doesn't really make any sense to me.

Significantly faster - and with comparable battery life.

My post was really only addressing the weight issue. I never said or suggested such a laptop was for everyone or every situation.

I understand that this might not be what you [and others] want or need but I need to be able to run CS3/4, FormZ, and Alias; can't do that on a netbook.

I'm not worried about dropping or damaging my $350 netbook

Nor am I worried about my Vaio TT.

[1] I usually get the 3-5 year bumper-to-bumper accidental damage protection [only about ~7% of the laptop's cost].

[2] My recently retired 13.3" Vaio SZ [3.7 lbs] made it through three years, three [or four?] continents and about 100 flight segments without so much as a hiccup.

nearly as much as I would be about a device that costs 3x the price.

I only wish – more like 8x the price – which I said at the very beginning of my first post.

I'm divided on whether this should be here or in Travel Tech but it primarily concerns photography so here it is.

Has anyone tried one of the new tiny netbooks as a primary travel photography storage unit? I carry my laptop when I travel and use it to dump photos from the camera memory cards each evening. On the laptop, I sort, select and categorize images, back all images to flash drives and do some VERY light editing (red eye, contrast, etc.) and resizing of a few to share with family and friends via email. Most images just stay in a folder until I get home and dump them onto my desktop for more extensive processing and permanent storage.

I've been considering lightening my load a bit by replacing my Averatec laptop with a netbook. The 160 GB HD is actually more storage space than I have on the laptop but I am concerned about processing power and speed for handling large image files.

Any experience to share?

I purchased a Samsung NC-10 specifically for my RTW trip earlier this year and took thousands of photos. Put them all on the netbook and did the photo edits with Picasa with nary a hiccup. It also had a 160GB HD and was more than enough. A netbook should do well for you. While not absolutely necessary, get one that you can expand the memory to 2GB, i.e. not a Dell.

Thanks for the input. Just what I was looking for.

I have actually been looking at the Asus 10HE and the 10" Acer Aspire 1 so the comments are really helpful. It is good to see that everything I do on the road is being done by some of you on the netbooks of your choice.

I certainly would like something like Vaio TT but no way am I spending that kind of scratch for this.

Again, thanks.

Hmm, well - the Asus N10 weights ~3.5 lbs, the Asus 1000HE weights ~3.2 lbs, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10E weights ~3.1 lbs, need I go on?
Ahhh...the 10" models. The bigger screen is heavier. I was thinking mostly of the 9" models that come in around 2.2 pounds.

I understand that this might not be what you [and others] want or need but I need to be able to run CS3/4, FormZ, and Alias; can't do that on a netbook.I have run photoshop on mine and it works. But it is slow. For basic editing a netbook is probably sufficient; for more advanced stuff not so much.


I only wish – more like 8x the price – which I said at the very beginning of my first post.
I thought they were selling around $1100, not $2500. My bad.

As to netbooks in general, either they are a really, really interesting development with a lot of potential or they are completely, utterly superfluous - I haven't yet figured out which.

The size and performance of notebooks like the TT suggest netbooks will prove to be superfluous but the price of netbooks argue for their continued development.

If I had to bet, I would wager that in the near future scales of economies will make machines like the TT much less expensive and advancing technology will make netbooks faster, thus shrinking the market the for the crippled performance [if still cheap] of today's netbooks.

Dell Mini9, running Adobe CS3

Should the decision be that the Atom-based netbooks are underpowered, Dell has some of their last-generation 12" notebooks (D430, Core 2 Duo 1.2 or 1.33 ghz) available refurbished on their site for about $700.

It would depend highly on what kind of camera OP has and if (s)he shoots RAW or not.
I have used Canon 1Ds Mk. II and even with my MacBook Pro, it was slow when processing RAW files.
I just dumped the pictures onto HDD, and process it when I get back home using a desktop computer.
If OP uses P&S camera in JPEG, then I think netbooks will be sufficient for what (s)he asks for.

I've an Acer 1000HE running Lightroom using it to process D200 and G9 Raw files. It's definitely not a high performance machine, but it's light and cheap. Fiddling with the power saving settings can produce much better processing times, the major limiting factor is the quality of the display. There are upgrades in this sector coming this fall I believe.

It would depend highly on what kind of camera OP has and if (s)he shoots RAW or not.
I have used Canon 1Ds Mk. II and even with my MacBook Pro, it was slow when processing RAW files.
I just dumped the pictures onto HDD, and process it when I get back home using a desktop computer.
If OP uses P&S camera in JPEG, then I think netbooks will be sufficient for what (s)he asks for.
I think these points are well taken. In my particular case, I shoot a combination of RAW and JPG but never attempt to process RAW files on the road. My old laptop wouldn't do very well in that regard and I wouldn't expect a low-powered netbook to do any better. As long as I can open the RAWs to sort and cull, that is all I need. I don't do much processing of JPG either. Just what I need to sort, cull, store and do a bit of clean-up on a few images to resize and share via email. For all of that, I just use Fuji's included software which runs well on the laptop. I really don't have the time to do more involved work on the road. All real processing takes place in PS on my desktop unit after I get home.

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire. Less than 3 lbs, it fits in my purse. Doesn't have a great battery, but my upcoming flts are powered, so that is not really an issue. I did buy a dvd drive for it.

It stores my photos, I can do light editing, saving anything major for my bigger screen at home. Competes with my cup-pilot for the smartest purchase I've made this year.

It would depend highly on what kind of camera OP has and if (s)he shoots RAW or not.
I have used Canon 1Ds Mk. II and even with my MacBook Pro, it was slow when processing RAW files.


Raw from a consumer-level DSLR is going to be a bit less demanding; for another data point, I've got a Rebel XTi and my older notebook (2ghz 1st gen Core 2 Duo; present one is 2.4ghz/2nd gen Core 2 Duo) was comfortably fast for anything I've done in RAW. How complicated the maniplulations you use are may be another factor; I'm not doing tons of layers or complicated masking.

I bought a lenovo ideapad with 160gb hdd for Singapore dollars 700 or about US$500 for my recent Eastern European trip. It serves me well in backing up photos from my D90/LX3. I also use the wireless wifi to contact to the various hotel networks to surf net. It is also very useful for airplane/rail journey as you can watch your favourite movie/tv series (provided you ripped it or download etc).

I bought a Toshiba NB100 from LHR T5 for less than US$400 a few months back, much more expensive here in Switzerland.

Has an Atom cpu, 8.9" screen with 1024x600 rez screen, 160gig HDD. It's plenty fast for light tasks, you could upgrade the 1gig ram to 2 if you want. However the keyboard is not that good as the buttons are very small and require good pushing to register the key stroke. But it has all the buttons (including F11 and F12 which require an alt-key combo to used on say, a Dell 9).

But the upside is that it's VERY small (one of the smaller netbooks out there), weighs about 2pounds/1kilo, and I was surprised at its overall speed even with resource hungry McAfee installed. Like others have said, I too experience a hitch nw and then, say when opening multiple browsers, and the default install contains some junk meaning I reinstalled mine from scratch (no cd drive, had to make a bootable usb stick).

Intel is releasing dual core, faster Atom cpu's in the 4th quarter, you might want to wait if you want a faster setup. I personally really like the Dell 9 and 10. Looks real nice, proper buttons to press too :)

I use my Acer Aspire One to process raw files. I just do basic processing and leave anything extraordinary for my Mac at home. It is somewhat slow, however it does give me flexibility to process my photos on the go.

Thanks for the input. Just what I was looking for.

I have actually been looking at the Asus 10HE and the 10" Acer Aspire 1 so the comments are really helpful. It is good to see that everything I do on the road is being done by some of you on the netbooks of your choice.

I certainly would like something like Vaio TT but no way am I spending that kind of scratch for this.

Again, thanks.

You might want to try one of the refurb TZ models from the sony online outlet store. They are under 1,000...

I bought a MSI Wind for exactly this purpose. I wanted something I could easily install OSX onto and at the time the Wind seemed to be the best option for that.

Using a netbook for photo storage while traveling worked well, but I did find it limiting for actually viewing and manipulation of the photos. Of course, it was much better than not viewing and manipulating them. :)

I bought a Samsung N110 and installed Picassa on it so that I could download my RAW + JPEGS onto it. Picassa would start the download then hang after about 25 files. I'd have to force the app to quit and end up with nothing being downloaded. Not sure if its a problem with Picassa or if I need to install more memory but this was a hard lesson to learn on the road! I did test it before hand but only with a memory card that had about 10 images on it.

Should the decision be that the Atom-based netbooks are underpowered, Dell has some of their last-generation 12" notebooks (D430, Core 2 Duo 1.2 or 1.33 ghz) available refurbished on their site for about $700.

Interestingly, they've now got a bunch of current-generation 12" subnotebooks (E4200, with up to a 1.4ghz, and all with SSD) refurbs starting just under $1000. New ones start at about $1650.

Not a super deal, but an option vs. netbooks worth considering for some.

--

As an aside, I did a round of Netbook shopping/browsing this past weekend, and noted:
(A) the 10" models still have keyboards which are too hit-or-miss to buy without hands-on-time with a particular model. The ASUS 1002HA was the best I tried and might be worth a longer look, although the Lenovo S10 and Dell Mini 10v were just tolerable and a little cheaper.
(B) The "flush" keyboards on many HPs, and the "chiclet" keyboards on many models is apalling.
(C) Screen quality varied more than I would have expected.
(D) Could not find many Eee models to check out, despite the very broad model line. Nobody locally has Samsung NC20 nor the Acer 11.6" models, nor the Dell Mini 12 to try (although the big surprise was that the Mini 10v WAS available at retail and that Amazon now has Mini 12s as well.)

Interestingly, they've now got a bunch of current-generation 12" subnotebooks (E4200, with up to a 1.4ghz, and all with SSD) refurbs starting just under $1000. New ones start at about $1650.

A 12" system is just a notebook in my mind, not a sub-notebook or comparable to a NetBook. At that size (and price) I may as well actually buy something with real processing power.

I have aN Acer Aspire one, 9" its cute and I use it as a main laptop most of the time but the battery life lets it down, especially when using mobile broadband, bought a Samsung NC10 for my HB and the battery life was amazing, I wish I had bought one for myself,

A 12" system is just a notebook in my mind, not a sub-notebook or comparable to a NetBook. At that size (and price) I may as well actually buy something with real processing power.

The sub-4lb 12" notebooks has been definitively a subnotebook since the standard sizes went up to 13-14" back around 1999-2000 (and the 12" ones I had before that, ie Toshiba Satellite 400 were larger-bodied and around 6-7lbs, just with a smaller screen)

2.6 lbs (E4200) or 3.2lbs (D430) is as light as some 10" netbooks, or around half the weight of a serious 14.1" or 15.4" notebook. And "smaller" is only valuable up to the point where the keyboard and screen don't start sacrificing utility. Some people can use 9" netbooks comfortably; I can't - with the exception of the "as wide as the 10" models" with a wider screen bezel, they're uncomfortable to type even briefly.

I've had an older (non-widescreen) 12" subnotebook in the past (sadly my then-employer's), and found it fully usable... and it would open in then-current (MRTC) coach legroom when a 14" non-widescreen would not. 14" widescreens were a little better, but coach clearances have gotten worse and "just under 5 pounds" is still a lot heavier than 2-3.

As for processing power, the gap between a single-core, non-out-of-order Atom and any current dual core processor is a lot larger than that between a 1.3-1.4ghz ULV Core 2 and a higher-speed non-ULV Core 2 - the only exception being the current mobile quad cores -- if you can actually find one.