MacBook (not pro) for shooting tethered?

[jakobox]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at getting a new laptop and have been comparing the MB pro and the regular MB.

I've got a tower at home, and I'll be doing all the intensive processing and editing there.

My biggest concern is that I'd like it to be able to keep up with me shooting a 5d tethered with c1pro... and maybe down the line a mark II or mark III (hopefully!).

The truth is, I like the MB for its smaller size (I travel a lot), and it also appears to have a longer battery life.  Somehow, it also seems less fragile than the mbpro (maybe this is just in my head though...).  And of course the $1k price difference is nice as well.

So is there anyone out there shooting tethered to the regular Macbook.  Care to share your experience?

thanks!

Jake

[Ken Bennett]

I have a Macbook, and I can confirm that it's possible to shoot a 1-D Mark II tethered using the (awful) Canon software. I have not done this extensively, nor have I tested the speed limits of tethered shooting. I own a copy of Capture One Pro, but haven't used it in a couple of years, so I can't comment on how it might work with the MB.

Finally, my year-old Macbook is easily as fast as my dual G-5 tower in processing raw files, though I doubt it could hold up to a large steady diet of such use. I also like the small size, and it's been very reliable though I don't treat it too carefully. It's a very capable little machine.

--Ken

[David McCaughan]

We use an older (6 months old) macbook tethered to a 5D, with 20" apple display, everyday without a problem. The occasional difficulty reconnecting is fixed buy quitting CO and then turning the camera back on. The new macbook will accommodate 4 gigs of ram and will be necessary upgrade before we make our planned step to a 1Ds III.

Good Luck

[David WM]

I had the same decision and 15 months ago and bought a MB 2 Ghz. I use a sinar eMotion 22 tethered (using  Sinar Captureshop) and it has had no problems.  I am not a fan of the glossy screen and would prefer the matt option of the MBP (I don't know if the MB has a matt option presently).  
David

[jakobox]

Thanks for the input guys...  I've got a Macbook in the mail, and I'm pretty confident that it will cover my bases.

[JessicaLuchesi]

Thanks for the input guys...  I've got a Macbook in the mail, and I'm pretty confident that it will cover my bases.
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Even being a little late, I really got much help from posts like this when making the same decision a while ago. I got a MacBook (2Ghz, 1Gb Ram, 80Gb disk) and it works great for tethered shooting. A 5D or a 1DsMkIII won't be an issue, even a digital MF Back, UNLESS you want to do some processing while shooting. On C1, a 22Mp digital back on a MacBook Pro ( the first model, 2Ghz, 2Gb RAM ) was really slowed down from converting from RAW into JPEG, I wonder how much a Macbook would be hindered. So, for shooting, it should work great, for processing, I'd either do it after the shooting is done, or rely on your desktop.

Mind you, my Macbook is my main workstation. But I don't work on 16Mp or 22Mp files, my camera is a simple Canon DSLR, so, for me, I never felt any problems on my workflow, even when it comes to processing on CS3 while shooting tethered (using canon's EOS Utility remote capture feature ). But it was really slow to process a batch of 22Mp PhaseOne H25 files a while back. from RAW into 16-bit TIFF, so, it's only a matter of how heavy the files you're handling are.

[K.C.]

Let me really stress what a HUGE benefit it is to have 3GB of ram in a Macbook.
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I had the same experience. Going to 3GB is the best money you'll spend.