Lightroom on MacBook Air (13")

[Manoli]

I may be fortunate enough to come across a relatively inexpensive MacBook Air (13") . Thinking of using it as dedicated Lightroom computer, on location, tethered (Nikon) - mainly for checking focus and light on-site pp, no large catalogs, no printing. Anyone with any hints and/or experience ? - How does Lr perform with only 4MB RAM ? Any advice or gotchas much appreciated.

[Ken Bennett]

I use Lightroom on my 11 inch Macbook Air. It's my primary computer at work. It's fine, but I have 8GB of RAM which probably helps.

[mezzoduomo]

I may be fortunate enough to come across a relatively inexpensive MacBook Air (13") . Thinking of using it as dedicated Lightroom computer, on location, tethered (Nikon) - mainly for checking focus and light on-site pp, no large catalogs, no printing. Anyone with any hints and/or experience ? - How does Lr perform with only 4MB RAM ? Any advice or gotchas much appreciated.

I have a 13 inch MacBook Air with 4GB from mid-2012.  I use it for all my pp with Aperture and Lightroom (NIK plug-ins too), no large catalogs, large libraries on an external hard drive, no tethering.  Works very well, and faster than my 2011 iMac.

[Manoli]

Thanks to both of you for the input.
M

[sharperstill]

Yep, all good here too. A capable little computer. I use mine 90% of the time hooked into a 24inch monitor.

[ericperlberg]

I have a top of line MacBook Air 13" from 2011, an i7 processor and 4 gigs of ram using several external HDs and a thunderbolt monitor. I don't find it a pleasant work experience with Lightroom 4 on Leica m9 files, sigma dp2M converted tiffs or fuji x100s files. It's painfully slow at times and the fans are frequently on full. It may well be that more recent airs are better (I'm pretty sure they are) but as you didn't mention which year the MacBook Air in question is from, thought I'd add my 2c.

[luxborealis]

Be sure to boost the RAM to 8GB. The 13" MBP I'm using just sails with 8GB.