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Author Topic: Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel  (Read 2608 times)

pflower

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Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel
« on: January 10, 2016, 03:09:15 pm »

Yes, I know the perceived wisdom.  But I have a very specific use.  I am about to take a number of 2 and 3 week trips photographing in India, China and elsewhere.  All of my serious post processing will be done at home on fully specced desktops.  But I need a system to make backups whilst away.  My thoughts are that a basic 11 inch Macbook Air with 4gb might suit.  It now has an SD card slot, I can backup onto external drives.  But it would be helpful if I could then run LR, do some culling and basic editing - i.e. white balance, adjustment of white and black points etc. and then import the resulting catalogs when back at home into my main system.  Once at home I will have little use for it except as a note taking machine when in libraries etc or doing email when away.  I anticipate that the basic 11 inch could do this and could certainly allow me to write whilst away and (if wifi is available) do emails and keep up with what is happening elsewhere via the internet.

So going for a 13inch with 8gb and 512gb storage is an additional expense that in the longer term has very little benefit.  All I really want to do is sort out a catalog to use as a starting point which I can then work on when i get home.  Any input on whether this is feasible or sensible?

Thanks

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armand

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Re: Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2016, 05:59:35 pm »

Are you on Mac or Windows at home?

For Windows you can find cheaper and as good for your purpose laptops (similar weight and processing power), with probably more on board storage so you can have a double/triple backup: laptop hard drive + external hard drive +/- SD card (if you don't delete them upon importing).

If you are on Mac it sounds reasonable.

armand

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Re: Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2016, 06:10:28 pm »

For example I just bought 1 month ago for my mother this one: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/ASUS-ZenBook-UX305CA-UHM1-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.328071300

It has a bigger footprint but it's just 0.3 lbs heavier with a 13.3" screen, similar battery life, slightly less processing power, has 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM, no fan noise, ok-ish screen, and hundreds cheaper (they have frequent sales when you can find it at $600).

pflower

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Re: Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2016, 07:18:26 pm »

No I am entirely Mac orientated and have been since the SE30 way back in the 1980s.  My main systems have always been Mac and I have no appetite for mixing OSs.  I don't really _need_ a laptop at all for my everyday life since i sit at a desk with a brand new iMac 27 inch Retina screen which is fine for what I do.  All of the threads I have found on the Macbook Air are premised on the basis that it is to be used for serious work.  I need something for relatively light, occasional , work with LR whilst away from home.  Since most threads have concentrated on using MacBooks - whether Pro or Air - as the main computer - these are not terribly helpful.   The entry level Macbook Air is attractive because (1) it is cheap (2) it will allow me to back up a daily shoot to external disks.  But can I do what I want with LR - just get a a basic catalog together for later work?

Anyone doing this?

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degrub

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Re: Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2016, 11:14:16 pm »

some thoughts here about color work with the screen:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3515414
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Joe Towner

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Re: Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2016, 11:25:07 pm »

What other devices do you have?  Would a HyperDrives with a SSD be a better option for backup while traveling?  It's too bad you couldn't do something like Lightroom Mobile and import basic files & make small jpeg's from them, then import the raw's back at home.

For editing, you really can't get better than the 11" - though I would suggest looking locally for a used one.  If you find one and want to swap the battery & SSD for newer/larger, http://macsales.com makes sourcing the parts easy.
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mbaginy

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Re: Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2016, 01:13:00 am »

I use an 11" MacBook Air when traveling and I run LR6 on it.  I perform all regular image processing on it while traveling.  At home I export the catalog and import to LR6 on my 27" iMac.  I usually end up performing slight adjustments on the iMac but the majority of work done on the MacBook Air remains.  Wouldn't want to miss it while traveling!
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bassman51

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Re: Basic 11 inch Macbook Air for Travel
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2016, 04:36:48 pm »

I had a short term need for a laptop to run PS during a photography workshop last year.   I haven't owned a laptop for several years (since I adopted an iPad for my portable compute needs), but was able to borrow an original MacBook Air with 2GB of memory. I wouldn't say it was speedy, but I was able to load and run LR and PS and do the editing necessary in the time available without a problem. 4GB and a faster processor would have been great, but this worked for me. 
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