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Travel Laptop Solution Suggestions Please

ndross475
I am new to CO transitioning from LR. I have Apple Desktop and 15" laptop solutions for editing. What I am considering is a small 12-13" Apple Laptop solely for travel. I am shooting a Nikon D850 so files are large. This will primarily be used for image downloads, reviews, and culling with minor edits. In the Laptop world there seems to be 3 variables, speed, weight, price. I am going for price and weight. I have read the CO min hardware specs, what I am wondering is what are people currently using that they find adequate. I understand adequate is subjective. I have been eyeing 2012ish MB air i7 8gb 512gb flash models, they seem to be going in the $500-$600 range which is my threshold for pain at the moment. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Side note, the transitions is coming along nicely, I wish I would have done it sooner.

If there is a previous thread on this topic let me know didn't find it in my search.

Nick
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Comments

9 comments

Date Votes
  • Rick Allen
    I have a 2015 MBa with tiny 128gb flash drive and 8gb ram, I love it for downloading and basic image edits. While I have tried to calibrate the screen I need to redo the colour once I get images on the desktop.

    My worry with a 2012 MBa is OS updates will be limited (not sure you can get it to 10.12.x even).
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  • Permanently deleted user
    D850 files on $600 laptop budget?

    Pretty much SOL. Maybe a used thinkpad workstation laptop.
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  • Permanently deleted user
    I bet it will work fine. It may not be as quick and I'm sure it will drain the battery faster processing that much data, but I think it will work fine. I've been using it on my 2015 MBA with RAW files (not D850 though). The way the software works, creating the preview ahead and then working from that should work the same way.
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  • Permanently deleted user
    [quote="BryceSteiner" wrote:
    I bet it will work fine. It may not be as quick and I'm sure it will drain the battery faster processing that much data, but I think it will work fine. I've been using it on my 2015 MBA with RAW files (not D850 though). The way the software works, creating the preview ahead and then working from that should work the same way.


    Yeah, depends what you are able to bear. One of my testing laptops is a 2009 Dell Inspiron with an Intel Pentium Dual-Core, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, no GPU and a dog slow 5400RPM hard drive. I can, technically, edit my X-T2 files there.

    On the other hand, buying a used 5 year old Apple laptop for $600 is a very bad idea.
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  • ndross475
    Well, I will post my outcome, found a $500 2013 MBA @ a pawn shop for of all places. i7 1.7ghz 8mb 500gb flash... gonna load it up and see if I can bear it... I have been running el Capitan, had some problems with LR tethering when Sierra came out and went back to EC. I think I am going to go ahead and bump this one to Sierra. Will leave High Sierra to the "beta testers" for a while. Learned my lesson w/ Sierra.

    Thanks for the replys.

    Nick
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  • Wesley
    I'm using 2011 MBP and it's on 10.12 so OS support is okay.

    I think MBA would be adequate for culling work with no other programs in the background.
    CO probably gobble up all the RAM dealing with D850 files.
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  • Permanently deleted user
    >>On the other hand, buying a used 5 year old Apple laptop for $600 is a very bad idea.<<

    Umm. No. It will be just fine.

    We all know that over the past five years Intel really didn't do much in terms of speed. They came up with new names of lakes but it made no difference other than it gave a "selling" point to people have Windows and their computers were constantly running slow.

    The computer he is talking about has an i7, 8GB and an SSD and runs Mac OS which is twice as efficient with memory as Windows is out of the box. It will blow most desktops away in that era, and even now, and can boot in about 7 seconds. It will be able to handle Capture One.
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  • Permanently deleted user
    [quote="BryceSteiner" wrote:
    >>On the other hand, buying a used 5 year old Apple laptop for $600 is a very bad idea.<<

    Umm. No. It will be just fine.

    We all know that over the past five years Intel really didn't do much in terms of speed. They came up with new names of lakes but it made no difference other than it gave a "selling" point to people have Windows and their computers were constantly running slow.

    The computer he is talking about has an i7, 8GB and an SSD and runs Mac OS which is twice as efficient with memory as Windows is out of the box. It will blow most desktops away in that era, and even now, and can boot in about 7 seconds. It will be able to handle Capture One.

    Bryce, I agree with your argument 100%. I should have been more specific.

    The MacBook Airs are actually lucky to not have had major recalls, but pretty much everything else had.

    These machines will fail if you look at them wrong or if it rains outside (little exaggeration). Buying used makes impossible to know what the previous owner was up to, how much beer they poured on it, unless you know how the machines are inside and take them apart for inspection.

    I recommend having a look at Louis Rossmann's YouTube channel if you have more interest in MacBook internals.
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  • Permanently deleted user
    [quote="ndross475" wrote:
    Well, I will post my outcome, found a $500 2013 MBA @ a pawn shop for of all places. i7 1.7ghz 8mb 500gb flash... gonna load it up and see if I can bear it... I have been running el Capitan, had some problems with LR tethering when Sierra came out and went back to EC. I think I am going to go ahead and bump this one to Sierra. Will leave High Sierra to the "beta testers" for a while. Learned my lesson w/ Sierra.

    Thanks for the replys.

    Nick

    I hope it works out well. Performance wise it shouldn't be bad.
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