Lightweight Notebook Computer

[rpcrowe]

My wife and I are traveling to China this Spring and in the interest of cutting traveling weight we are taking her notebook computer which is both lightweight in physical bulk and in capabilities. Judy uses this notebook primarily for surfing the web, it is an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC.

We plan on adding a bit more RAM and removing all but the necessary programs but, this will not turn the little computer into a powerhouse.

I want to use the computer to download my RAW images prior to copying them to a pair of small external hard drives. I will duplicate the images on each hard drive and Judy will carry one hard drive in her check-on luggage and I will carry the other hard drive in my carry-on camera bag.

I have a personal copy of Adobe Creative Suite CS3 and I like the interface of Adobe Bridge. I would like to use this to download my RAW images using a card reader and then batch name the images but, I do not expect to do any post processing during my trip. I will be far to busy shooting to do anything more than the downloading, batch naming and saving on the hard drives.

Buying a replacement computer prior to the trip is not an option.

I am hoping not to bog down the little computer with the entire Photoshop CS3 program (I certainly would not load the entire CS3 Creative Suite).

Can I just install the Adobe Bridge and use it as a stand alone program for the downloading and saving? This abbreviated program would, I expect, work faster than the entire Photoshop CS3 (or am I wrong regarding this).

If I cannot install the Adobe Bridge as a stand alone program, is there another program which will let me accomplish what I want to do? Of course, Lightroom would be nice to have but, I cannot afford it.

One other possibility would be to download the free copy of Lightroom two weeks before the trip, get used to using it, work with it in China and get rid of it after the trip. However, I would much prefer using a program with which I am a lot more familiar...

[KentDub]

Can I just install the Adobe Bridge and use it as a stand alone program for the downloading and saving? This abbreviated program would, I expect, work faster than the entire Photoshop CS3 (or am I wrong regarding this).

Yes. You can install just Bridge, and it will force-install the "shared components". Having additional programs installed won't slow your computer down*. If you are strapped for disk space then it might be good to do the minimal install of Bridge. If you have plenty of disk space, just install the whole program and don't use it while on the trip.

Hope this helps

* Not exactly 100% true, using additional hard drive space will slow down your HD, and adding additional registry keys will increase memory usage of the OS. These are minimal impacts that only matter in the most extreme performance-critical situations.

[rpcrowe]

Yes. You can install just Bridge, and it will force-install the "shared components". Having additional programs installed won't slow your computer down*. If you are strapped for disk space then it might be good to do the minimal install of Bridge. If you have plenty of disk space, just install the whole program and don't use it while on the trip.

Hope this helps

* Not exactly 100% true, using additional hard drive space will slow down your HD, and adding additional registry keys will increase memory usage of the OS. These are minimal impacts that only matter in the most extreme performance-critical situations.

That helped quite a bit. Thank you...

[rpcrowe]

Could I install the Canon programs included on the disk which I got with my 40D and use those programs to open, view and copy RAW files to my external hard drives?

I could install the programs on the disk and just try them but, I'd rather not go through the installation of those programs only to have to delete them soon after.

[Donald]

Could I install the EOS Utility and Canon Digital Photo Professional Software programs included on the disk which I got with my 40D and use these programs to open, view and copy RAW files to my external hard drives?

Don't see why not. This would be a very simple and straighforward way to achieve your goal.

I could install the programs on the disk and just try them but, I'd rather not go through the installation of those programs only to have to delete them soon after.

Not sure I understand what you mean. If you install them for the purpose in mind, then you can uninstall once you're trip is over and you're back home.

[Colin Southern]

I simply use the free Adobe DNG converter to transfer the files from my card reader to PC which means that they're in the open DNG format (so I don't get companion XMP "sidecar" files, or rish losing all my RAW edits because I relied on using the (usually un-backed up) PC database) - and - you can batch rename the files as they're transferred/converted using up to 4 variables at once (so VERY powerful renaming).

[rpcrowe]

I installed the free Canon Digital Photo pro software on my larger Toshiba Notebook computer on which I also have Photoshop CS3 including Adobe Bridge. I am planning a trip in my motorhome to New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi over the month or so that I will be gone. I will play with DPP on that trip and see if it suits my purpose. I can always fall back on Adobe Bridge if I don't like working with DPP.

A local photo store is having a one day seminar on Capture One 5.0 software in January, after I return home. The fifty dollar (USD) cost is minimal since the charge includes Capture One Software. I am going to make sure that this software deal is not just the free download of Capture One and I am going to play with that program and see if I like it any better than DPP.

[Colin Southern]

I installed the free Canon Digital Photo pro software on my larger Toshiba Notebook computer on which I also have Photoshop CS3 including Adobe Bridge. I am planning a trip in my motorhome to New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi over the month or so that I will be gone. I will play with DPP on that trip and see if it suits my purpose. I can always fall back on Adobe Bridge if I don't like working with DPP.

A local photo store is having a one day seminar on Capture One 5.0 software in January, after I return home. The fifty dollar (USD) cost is minimal since the charge includes Capture One Software. I am going to make sure that this software deal is not just the free download of Capture One and I am going to play with that program and see if I like it any better than DPP.

I'm a bit confused. Just wondering why - when you have a top-of-the-line package like CS3 (complete with ACR and Bridge) - would you even bother looking at low-end packages like DPP?

I installed a Capture One trial a few months ago - perhaps I'm a bit too used to the "Adobe way", but I just found it frustrating to use.

[KentDub]

I'm with Colin on this - Why would you ever want to move away from the Creative Suite? Are you looking for a particular feature you havn't found in Bridge?

[Dave Humphries]

I'm a bit confused. Just wondering why - when you have a top-of-the-line package like CS3 (complete with ACR and Bridge) - would you even bother looking at low-end packages like DPP?

Why would you ever want to move away from the Creative Suite? Are you looking for a particular feature you havn't found in Bridge?

In Richard's absence; he stated that this was because he wanted something to go on his wife's small and not too powerful notebook for the trip to China.

Aside from licence (sp?) issues, I would imagine something lower powered will take up less disk space and be less resource hungry than CS3+bridge. And he doesn't need to edit while away.

Cheers,

[KentDub]

Aside from licence (sp?) issues, I would imagine something lower powered will take up less disk space and be less resource hungry than CS3+bridge. And he doesn't need to edit while away.

I suppose I can understand wanting a light-weight program for that purpose -- you'd have to pull me kicking and screaming away from photoshop though! Licensing can be deactivated on one computer and reactivated on the laptop when you leave for a trip - then swapped again upon return. Although a bit of a pain, it's at least possible and legal.

[Colin Southern]

Licensing can be deactivated on one computer and reactivated on the laptop when you leave for a trip - then swapped again upon return. Although a bit of a pain, it's at least possible and legal.

You can also legally install onto a work and a home PC so long as both aren't in use at the same time etc.