Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: Murray Fredericks on February 12, 2010, 04:48:03 am
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Hi All,
just destroyed my Laptop (Macbook Pro) today so I am in the market for a new one.
What's the best way to setup the new model now for best capture and then processing performance on location?
Is it using an SSD in the slot or internally?
Any advice?
Cheers
Murray
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I have both versions of the 17inch 3.06 with a 256gb ssd and a 500gb 7200rpm HDD. The ssd smokes the HDD..... simple as that.
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Hi All,
just destroyed my Laptop today so I am in the market for a new one.
What's the best way to setup the new model now for best capture and then processing performance on location?
Is it using an SSD in the slot or internally?
Any advice?
Cheers
Murray
Hi Murray,
If you are using Mac(?) I equipped my MBP with one of these...
http://www.excaliberpc.com/592467/wintec-f...8m-wr-48gb.html (http://www.excaliberpc.com/592467/wintec-filemate-solidgo-3fms4d48m-wr-48gb.html)
Here I installed Snow Leopard and Apps only.
All data goes on an 7200rpm internal drive.
It also meant that as my laptop also died last week, that my loaner laptop has my OS running on it... all my Apps.. because I simply took out the card bringing it over to the loaner Mac.
Boot time is about 30seconds... performance really nice!
Sad thing is, express card slots are only on the 17" models now.
David
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Maybe wait for the MBP update? It should be here within a couple of weeks (if previous updates mean something). The current line does have pretty dated processors and GPU's at this moment. With the current hardware MBP's are downright expensive. I know I am waiting with a new MBP till the newer versions with i5 or i7 CPU's and better GPU's. I will definitely also install a 200GB SSD drive along with 8GB of memory (buy these somewhere else and not with Apple).
I can wait since my 2008model MBP is still working. I was thinking about getting the SSD Xpresscard34 to but for the price of the one that I wanted I can also buy a much faster SSD drive with more storage. Than I figured that when I would be doing this I just might as well buy a new MBP, etc... now I am waiting patiently for the update
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I have both versions of the 17inch 3.06 with a 256gb ssd and a 500gb 7200rpm HDD. The ssd smokes the HDD..... simple as that.
I did some research on SSD hard drives about a year ago, just when they started using them in computers. From what I have read, SSD's wear out much faster then normal hard drives and can only be rewritten 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 times before becoming fried, whereas normal hard drives can be rewritten 10,000,000+ times. Not sure if this is still the case, the people at the Apple store told me it was not.
Wiki link on SSD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive)
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Hi Murray,
If you are using Mac(?) I equipped my MBP with one of these...
http://www.excaliberpc.com/592467/wintec-f...8m-wr-48gb.html (http://www.excaliberpc.com/592467/wintec-filemate-solidgo-3fms4d48m-wr-48gb.html)
Here I installed Snow Leopard and Apps only.
All data goes on an 7200rpm internal drive.
It also meant that as my laptop also died last week, that my loaner laptop has my OS running on it... all my Apps.. because I simply took out the card bringing it over to the loaner Mac.
Boot time is about 30seconds... performance really nice!
Sad thing is, express card slots are only on the 17" models now.
David
david,
does the use of an ssd card help phocus run faster? the last session i did with phocus was painfully slow. i've got a macbook pro with 2.4ghz intel core 2 duo, 4 gigs of ram, a geforce 8600m gt grafic card... what can i do to speed things up?
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Maybe wait for the MBP update? It should be here within a couple of weeks (if previous updates mean something). The current line does have pretty dated processors and GPU's at this moment. With the current hardware MBP's are downright expensive. I know I am waiting with a new MBP till the newer versions with i5 or i7 CPU's and better GPU's. I will definitely also install a 200GB SSD drive along with 8GB of memory (buy these somewhere else and not with Apple).
I can wait since my 2008model MBP is still working. I was thinking about getting the SSD Xpresscard34 to but for the price of the one that I wanted I can also buy a much faster SSD drive with more storage. Than I figured that when I would be doing this I just might as well buy a new MBP, etc... now I am waiting patiently for the update
I'm doing the same thing here. Wait, if possible, until Apple releases the new MBP models - indicators say they should be out shortly.
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david,
does the use of an ssd card help phocus run faster? the last session i did with phocus was painfully slow. i've got a macbook pro with 2.4ghz intel core 2 duo, 4 gigs of ram, a geforce 8600m gt grafic card... what can i do to speed things up?
This is the same setup as me and Phocus should run fine on this. The reason why my laptop went for repair was that Phocus was becoming very slow. After checking all error logs and everything coming up clean, one of our R&D guys suggesting running another App that also relied on the video card (iPhoto / Aperture).
Both these apps were also suffering serious slowdowns. I then looked into 8600 card and it seems a lot of these were prone to overheating and various other issues.
When I took my MBP into the service centre, seems the graphics card was failing and now the logic board is being replaced!
Funny thing is though, is that apps appeared to run normal.. but intermittent slow downs, especially on GPU aware applications.
So might be worth getting your MBP checked.
David
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i've sold my 15" 8 months old, and bought the 13"... all i can say is that the 13" has a better screen !
calibration is much better !
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This is the same setup as me and Phocus should run fine on this. The reason why my laptop went for repair was that Phocus was becoming very slow. After checking all error logs and everything coming up clean, one of our R&D guys suggesting running another App that also relied on the video card (iPhoto / Aperture).
Both these apps were also suffering serious slowdowns. I then looked into 8600 card and it seems a lot of these were prone to overheating and various other issues.
When I took my MBP into the service centre, seems the graphics card was failing and now the logic board is being replaced!
Funny thing is though, is that apps appeared to run normal.. but intermittent slow downs, especially on GPU aware applications.
So might be worth getting your MBP checked.
David
i actually just had my graphics card replaced about 6 months ago, so i doubt it's that...could be though, i'll check it.
what i noticed with phocus is that it gets slower the longer i shoot. i don't know if the previews slow things down, but at around 500 frames it starts to get really slow and at 800 it's crawling. i thought about changing the folders when doing like 6 to 8 sessions during a shoot, so i'd end up with 8 foders of about 200 pics. it's time consuming though, but maybe faster in the end. would that help or is this a non issue when the graphics card is running correctly?
or would it help to relocate the hasselblad folder i'm shooting to, to the ssd card?
i like the new phocus, but i'm almost faced with giving it up if i can't get around the this speed (lack of) barrier...when the art director asks to see 20 pics from a session, out of about 1000 pics and you need to run through them in phocus, tag em, export them as jpegs so he can do layouts during the shoot and then keep shooting while they're being processed, things just start breaking down... it's no fun.
how can i get more speed with my macbook pro? or will the next generation of books get there?
thanks, kipling
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how can i get more speed with my macbook pro? or will the next generation of books get there?
the issue with manipulating our big files is a combination of processor speed, number of cores, total memory and memory bandwidth. So unless the new MBP has at least a 4-core processor and 3 DDR3 ram slots, I would not expect huge gains...
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Stupid Big files! LoL. Last night I did some head shots for my wife, tethering the D3. I had to dial the D1's all the way down because of the 200 ISO and shooting at 2.8. Shooting to C1 Pro with the Nikon was wicked fast and the D1's kept right up with me.
Then working on the files in Photoshop made my MBP feel like a speed demon.
I think I'm beginning to like small files.
Heh.
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i actually just had my graphics card replaced about 6 months ago, so i doubt it's that...could be though, i'll check it.
what i noticed with phocus is that it gets slower the longer i shoot. i don't know if the previews slow things down, but at around 500 frames it starts to get really slow and at 800 it's crawling. i thought about changing the folders when doing like 6 to 8 sessions during a shoot, so i'd end up with 8 foders of about 200 pics. it's time consuming though, but maybe faster in the end. would that help or is this a non issue when the graphics card is running correctly?
or would it help to relocate the hasselblad folder i'm shooting to, to the ssd card?
i like the new phocus, but i'm almost faced with giving it up if i can't get around the this speed (lack of) barrier...when the art director asks to see 20 pics from a session, out of about 1000 pics and you need to run through them in phocus, tag em, export them as jpegs so he can do layouts during the shoot and then keep shooting while they're being processed, things just start breaking down... it's no fun.
how can i get more speed with my macbook pro? or will the next generation of books get there?
thanks, kipling
Hmmm shouldn't be any difference regarding the number of images in a folder. What version of Phocus are you using? Are you shooting to the internal hard drive or elsewhere? How much space is left on that hard drive.
It shouldn't make much difference relocating to the SSD drive. Unless your MBP has a low RPM internal hard drive?
I was on a shoot last week with a 17" MBP bought in 2009, 8GB RAM, fastest video card and it was extremely capable and fast to use.
David
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Hmmm shouldn't be any difference regarding the number of images in a folder. What version of Phocus are you using? Are you shooting to the internal hard drive or elsewhere? How much space is left on that hard drive.
It shouldn't make much difference relocating to the SSD drive. Unless your MBP has a low RPM internal hard drive?
I was on a shoot last week with a 17" MBP bought in 2009, 8GB RAM, fastest video card and it was extremely capable and fast to use.
David
Hey David,
i'm using phocus 2.1.
17" mbp, 4 gb ram.
SAMSUNG HM250JI hard drive
hard drive size: 232,57 GB
available scace: 143,01 GB
as i said after about 500 shots it gets pretty slow, ansd keeps getting slower the more i shoot.
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Hey David,
i'm using phocus 2.1.
17" mbp, 4 gb ram.
SAMSUNG HM250JI hard drive
hard drive size: 232,57 GB
available scace: 143,01 GB
as i said after about 500 shots it gets pretty slow, ansd keeps getting slower the more i shoot.
Well you should be ok really.
That drive is only a 5400RPM unit, which as you moving very large files all the time, and deleting them.. if the data is getting fragmented then you could be experiencing issues.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge on 5400 vs 7200 could chime in?
Certainly shooting tethered it will hinder your performance. In terms of burst rate.
David
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new macbooks (and hopefully mbps) are days, weeks away....the new i7 chips run circles around the c2d chips....
biggest performance jump i have ever seen was the introduction of a fast (there are plenty of not so fast ones!) SSD on my system....it's like getting a new computer....especially for aperture/ LR work...so much better...
OWC just came out with a new line of SSDs...they look incredible....250gb+/sec read and write....and supposedly none of the drawbacks of older SSDs....
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new macbooks (and hopefully mbps) are days, weeks away....the new i7 chips run circles around the c2d chips....
biggest performance jump i have ever seen was the introduction of a fast (there are plenty of not so fast ones!) SSD on my system....it's like getting a new computer....especially for aperture/ LR work...so much better...
OWC just came out with a new line of SSDs...they look incredible....250gb+/sec read and write....and supposedly none of the drawbacks of older SSDs....
It still have one of the main drawbacks of the old SSD, which was price. :-)
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I will gladly pay that price if I get rewarded with speed. The OWC's are the SSD's that I had in mind as well.
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Stupid Big files! LoL. Last night I did some head shots for my wife, tethering the D3. I had to dial the D1's all the way down because of the 200 ISO and shooting at 2.8. Shooting to C1 Pro with the Nikon was wicked fast and the D1's kept right up with me.
Then working on the files in Photoshop made my MBP feel like a speed demon.
I think I'm beginning to like small files.
Heh.
i remember when i switched from my phase back to the canons...i thought i had a new computer.....time spent on post was cut considerably....
the D1s are great....and FAST!
i have all D1 500 air heads....i am getting so used to the speed that when i have to dial them to anything above 8.5 and actually have to wait for almost a second, i actually get impatient....
do you have the 500s or the 1000s? i am wondering if the 1000 would recycle a little faster (at a higher output...)
btw: i use them on location with the alienbees vagabondII (i know, i know....).....works amazingly well...almost no difference in recycle and (the other day) i got 600 pops at 9.5 out of one vagabondII on the fast setting......they are 300$ a piece....highly recommended....
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I will gladly pay that price if I get rewarded with speed. The OWC's are the SSD's that I had in mind as well.
i have a vertex 256 and it is great....no problems at all.....
i actually could not care less about a fast start or apps loading fast.....but working in aperture is a pleasure.....and no processor can make up for slower access.....so even with the fasters/biggest mac pro, a "normal" HD will only read/write so fast....
if i would buy now, i would get the OWC...
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I've got the 17" MB Pro with the 256gb SSD and the wintec 48gb card. First performance is just awesome and very appreciated. I mainly shoot tethered to the MBP and then use the wintec espresscard as a shuttle to move files from the laptop to the desktop as its super easy. Note that I don't store the tethered files directly to the wintec but rather make a temporary copy or backup to the wintec then move so I have a working backup in all steps. After using the SSD and expresscard, I'm thinking hard drives are on their way out except for mass storage. I did read digilloyd's article on the SSD's and figured I'd do the formatting he recommends at some periodic interval but haven't seen any slowdowns on either card so far in 6 months or so.
btw - My experience with O W C has been mixed though - seems like the last two ram orders I purchased from them had EEC errors and had to be replaced. Also before that both mercury elite hard drives failed. They did replace but what a hassle and bunch of wasted time. "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of a low price is forgotten"
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Hi Eric,
I've become a big fan of Hoodman products recently,
and am planning on getting their SDXC cards for back-up or start-up duty
when they become available in the Spring.
The BIG difference is their cards (http://www.hoodmanusa.com/products.asp?dept=1007) are SLC inside
translating to longer life.
Billy