Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Tethered MF field work with Netbooks  (Read 2972 times)

narikin

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1371
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« on: May 21, 2009, 08:21:28 am »

Michael 's recent article jogged memories of this thread, discussing use of Netbooks for field work:

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....ress+card\

that was a year ago, and Netbooks have exploded in their use and variety. They seem like they should be useless and silly, small underpowered minimal feature laptops, but in fact turn into your 'go to' computer of choice when checking mail or surfing, and can handle 90% of everyday computing needs. Apple are very behind the curve on this one, and will have to bring something to market soon, though how they're going to wrangle their usual high markup on it and cripple it enough so as not to leach sales from their profitable regular notebooks, is beyond me.  Touch Screen is the obvious answer, but all the netbook manufacturers are onto that move too, so stiff competition can be expected, at non-Apple prices.

I own one, and bought another for a relative I was so impressed. Wonderful machines, and for $300-$400, you cant grumble.

ps - you can of course hack netbooks to run OSX, the webforums are full of them. so if you're a geek, you can have an Apple Netbook now.
There's a chart of recent compatibles here: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/o...k-compatib.html
personally I find using XP just fine, if you are going to work tethered, be sure to get one with an Express card slot for firewire.

(its really time MF backs came with USB or eSATA port option, now even Apple are dropping Firewire from smaller Notebooks)
« Last Edit: May 22, 2009, 08:05:03 pm by narikin »
Logged

jing q

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 596
    • we are super
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2009, 04:16:55 pm »

For Leaf users I found an easy way to power the Firewire card is to get one of those lithium portable batteries with a selection of power tips that plug into 5v ports.
I'm looking into the whole netbook thing also...let's see what apple comes up with


Quote from: narikin
Michael 's recent article jogged memories of this thread, discussing use of Netbooks for field work:

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....ress+card\

that was a year ago, and Netbooks have exploded in their use and variety. They seem like they should be useless and silly, small underpowered minimal feature laptops, but in fact turn into your 'go to' computer of choice when checking mail or surfing, and can handle 90% of everyday computing needs. Apple are very behind the curve on this one, and will have to bring something to market soon, though how they're going to wrangle their usual high markup on it and cripple it enough so as not to leach sales from their profitable regular notebooks, is beyond me.  Touch Screen is the obvious answer, but all the netbook manufacturers are onto that move too, so stiff competition can be expected, at non-Apple prices.

I own one, and bought another for a relative I was so impressed. Wonderful machines, and for $300-$400, you cant grumble.

ps - you can of course hack netbooks to run OSX, the webforums are full of them. so if you're a geek, you can have an Apple Netbook now.
There's a chart of recent compatibles here: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/o...k-compatib.html
personally I find using XP just fine, if you are going to work tethered, be sure to get one with an Express card slot for firewire.

(its really time MF backs came with USB port option, now even Apple are dropping Firewire from smaller Notebooks)
Logged

Carsten W

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 627
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2009, 04:45:12 pm »

Quote from: jing q
For Leaf users I found an easy way to power the Firewire card is to get one of those lithium portable batteries with a selection of power tips that plug into 5v ports.
I'm looking into the whole netbook thing also...let's see what apple comes up with

I am not sure if Apple will come up with anything. I am only guessing here, but it seems to me that netbooks must cannibalize sales of low-end laptops, as people decide that the smaller form-factor and lower price is more important than the extra processing power. This combined with the made-up fact that netbooks most likely have smaller profit-margins than low-end laptops and it begins to look like a great way to earn less money. I would love an Apple netbook, however, and would gladly travel with one, where my 15" MBP is too large and heavy. It must have firewire though, or a PC Card slot, and I don't expect either, so it may be a non-starter for me.
Logged
Carsten W - [url=http://500px.com/Carste

Jason Denning

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 231
    • http://www.jasondenning.co.uk
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2009, 10:26:45 am »

Has anyone tried using a firewire to usb converter for tethering? All laptops/netbooks will have it and I'm assuming it would work??


Logged

mmurph

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 506
    • http://
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2009, 12:45:04 am »

Can anyone fill me in on what it is like to use one of these beasts?

Can the screen be calibrated effectively?  I assume they can run the software required to tether in a reasonable manner?  Sorry, sometimes I think just 30 minutes of trying something is worth days of reading specs.    

We have 3, soon to be 4, laptops.  We are adding a Mac 13" soon. Plus 4 I think desktops. But these netbooks are quite appealing for cases where I don't want to haul much equipment, and don't want to spend all of my time and energy guarding expensive laptops.     I am so addicted to being tethered, and so disap[pointed in small defects in images sometimes when I am not ...

I use a PC laptop with a Celeron 1.5ghz with 2 GB of RAM around the house for e-mail, Excel, etc.  I asume the netbook might have as much power? I'll have to get technical and go find some baseline specs I guess.  

More toys ...

Thanks!
Michael


Logged

mmurph

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 506
    • http://
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2009, 01:17:48 am »

OK, foundf this:

The rough benchmark used by Intel is that the Atoms have about "half the performance" of a Celeron 430 1.8 GHz processor.[
Logged

narikin

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1371
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2009, 09:11:29 am »

Quote from: satch111
Has anyone tried using a firewire to usb converter for tethering? All laptops/netbooks will have it and I'm assuming it would work??
afaik, these don't really exist. There is one cable for sale that has a very specialised tethered usage, but otherwise - it is not an option.

you must get a netbook with an express card slot, then its easy to buy an adapter for Firewire. That rules out a lot of models, but there is still a decent choice with this feature.
Logged

MichaelAlanBielat

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 78
    • http://www.MichaelAlanFineArt.com
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2009, 09:16:37 am »

I recently purchased a Dell netbook for my wife. The price ran me $350 at Best Buy and it came with an Intel Atom processor, XP home, 1gb RAM and a 160gb hard drive...

I believe the screen is around 10.5" as well. I could definitely see this netbook as a much cheaper alternative to the Epson P series, Jobo or Wolverine devices and it would allow you to also allow you to travel light, do some blog posts, backup your memory cards, write a journal in the hotel and stuff of that nature.

I am not too sure I would use Lightroom on it or anything like that. No firewire so USB would have to be the way to go. I would assume Capture One, NX2 or Lightroom could work on the netbook for tethering. I most definitely wouldn't use it the netbook for critical editing and think it may only have a use in composition and maybe exposure when shooting tethered... The screen is more like 1024x570 so I am not too sure how much of the entire image you would be able to see... I mean if you do fit the entire image on that 10.5" widescreen then I would imagine that it would be right around the dimensions of our 3" LCD screens on the back of our cameras you know?

The keyboard is a smidgen smaller than what we are used to but the mouse/trackpad is pretty crummy to say the least. I would invest in an external mouse asap.

The final hiccup is that these netbooks do not have a CD/DVD ROM. One is needed to be purchased and carried along separately. This is a pain when installing an OS or software and the CD drives usually run $60 to $100 and up.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2009, 09:18:26 am by MichaelAlanBielat »
Logged

narikin

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1371
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2009, 09:16:38 am »

Quote from: mmurph
Can anyone fill me in on what it is like to use one of these beasts?

Can the screen be calibrated effectively?  I assume they can run the software required to tether in a reasonable manner?  Sorry, sometimes I think just 30 minutes of trying something is worth days of reading specs.    

I use a PC laptop with a Celeron 1.5ghz with 2 GB of RAM around the house for e-mail, Excel, etc.  I asume the netbook might have as much power? I'll have to get technical and go find
These are very low power machines, so don't expect to go RAW processing with P45's or anything like that. yes they will run C1, and yes, like in Michael's experience a 100% preview can be seen, after a wait of say 30secs, BUT they are not your usual desktop-replacement-laptops. hence the low price.

I'd thoroughly recommend getting one though - you'll find you use it all the time, for everything surfing/ mail/ accounts/ music/ (but not heavy processor based work) and its your other machines that will gather dust!


Logged

uaiomex

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1211
    • http://www.eduardocervantes.com
Tethered MF field work with Netbooks
« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2009, 10:14:56 am »

I'm currently thinking on buying a Viliv. For its very small size, it means it will always be in my camera bag. It is only usb. No problem for my dslr. It has a very hi def screen that I'm planning to use live for checking composition and focus when working with the camera in tight or odd positions.
Eduardo  
http://www.dynamism.com/#Product=viliv
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up