Laptops for photo editing and other use

[RLPhoto]

I Must be the Last person here running an original copy of Windows XP pro 32-bit from 2009! 

[Jamesy]

I Must be the Last person here running an original copy of Windows XP pro 32-bit from 2009! 

Nope - I am too. My main machine is a work provided laptop so I run LR 3.x on it. I have 64 bit machines at home but my main box is still XP Pro 32 bit and it needs to stay that way as there are legacy work related apps that still need to run on it. IP am hoping they change that in the coming year though...

[AmbientLight]

I don't know, if you have ever tested this, but if not, you could actually try to run your older windows apps on Windows7. This operating system will run most apps designed for WindowsXP without any problems, so it may actually work fine for you. Testing this will at least open the door for potential hardware upgrades.

I don't know how this will continue with Windows 8, though. The prerelease versions almost give me a Sony Playstation feel, which for me is a bit scary  . I am looking forward to purchase a new laptop next month running Windows 7.

[neuroanatomist]

I Must be the Last person here running an original copy of Windows XP pro 32-bit from 2009! 

Lol - right, just you and my entire company of >60,000 employees.  Office 2003 as well.  But hey, we're updating to Win7 and Office 2010 this year, or so IT says...then we'll only be a few years behind the times.   

[Jamesy]

Lol - right, just you and my entire company of >60,000 employees.  Office 2003 as well.  But hey, we're updating to Win7 and Office 2010 this year, or so IT says...then we'll only be a few years behind the times.   

That is the exact reason I am still running WinXP and Office 2003 and although I have various systems at home, I have had a unified desktop between work and home for over a dozen years, it would be hard to go back to two distinct desktops again.

I don't know, if you have ever tested this, but if not, you could actually try to run your older windows apps on Windows7. This operating system will run most apps designed for WindowsXP without any problems, so it may actually work fine for you. Testing this will at least open the door for potential hardware upgrades.

I don't know how this will continue with Windows 8, though. The prerelease versions almost give me a Sony Playstation feel, which for me is a bit scary  . I am looking forward to purchase a new laptop next month running Windows 7.

It have tested the 'problematic' app on Win7 to no avail. I am hopeful that this year will bring a solution to that issue and I will then upgrade.

[Jettatore]

Finally got the Lenovo delivered today, was stuck in customs.  I don't want to go into too much detail because I've only been using the machine for a few hours and I just now got Photoshop and Lightroom on here.  My initial impressions are that this machine should be highly useable for Photographers, at least at first glance.  Digital painting on this thing is superior to my Intuos 3 large widescreen tablet, but it's missing brush tilt which is standard in your normal Intuos Tablet pen, it also doesn't support brush rotation which only comes in the 4D Intuos Pen which I had to buy extra for my desktop's Intuos Tablet.  I will miss brush rotation more than tilt, but both will be missed only a little, as the regular pressure sensitivity was the main thing I use a tablet for, the others were just nice features and it's sad to lose them, but I knew that going in.  The thing has a small resolution, but it doesn't look it, it actually looks perfect for this small sized monitor.  Photoshop and Lightroom both look great on the machine with no tweaks, and you have a lot of ways to interact with them.  Pen + multi-touch on the screen, multi-touch trackpad, that obscene looking eraser mouse, and any external bluetooth mouse/device you might want.  Very useable.  But feel free to ask questions if anyone is interested, and I'll probably be back for some better detail once I spend more time on it.

[Jettatore]

negatives I'm noticing right out of the gate/along the way.

-The main battery that sticks out, it's slightly a loose fit, so it shakes a little
-screen is not evently backlit, very noticable on a dark screen, the corners, especially top left have bight backlight spotting, whatever that is called.
-I think this thing could get broken fairly easily.  It is well built, but I'm going to insure it just in case as I suspect it might not be capable of taking a fall.
-Was obviously not designed by artists for artists, however was obviously designed by engineers who tried their best to listen carefully to artists.

So far it's about what you would expect from a 2011-2012, highish end pro-sumer tech gizmo.  It does what you thought it would do, and it does it pretty well, but there are some minor caveats.  In some areas it outpreforms, like resolution/screen size, that parts actually fine.  Pen input is very good, so long as the screen don't fall apart, and we shall see....  A stupid thing, but it has a function button for a thinklight, but it doesn't have the f'in thinklight.  The non-tablet version has it, and they couldn't be bothered to change the paint on the key, or better yet, put the light in the machine.

[Jamesy]

What model of x220t did you end up getting? There appear to be three or four versions: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/webca/LenovoPortal/en_CA/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=A328080E436749CB4CEAE7C4428846A7

[EELinneman]

One thing to try is in Win 7 right click on the app and select "Troubleshoot compatibility" and you will be presented a series of options for running the application with compatibility equal to the previous OS that it ran fine as.  The other option is to download the Windows XP mode for Win 7.  It can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

What you are downloading is a full copy of a virtual machine running XP mode.

Full disclosure - I am a consultant with Microsoft.  I was a competitive technology hire 8 years ago and am typing this message out on a Mac Book Pro, so I feel I can be objective.

Recently, we bought my wife a new Samsung Series 7 laptop - 1 TB drive, 8GB of RAM, Core i5 cpu, but most importantly, an IPS screen.  She does real estate appraisals and takes hundreds of photos each week.  We bought it at the Microsoft store in Lone Tree, CO and I only identified myself as a MSFT employee after we purchased the laptop.  It has no crapware and she is very happy with it.

Eric

[Jettatore]

8GB RAM
Fastest i7 whatever that is
Digitizer + Multitouch {alternative would be no multitouch but outdoor viewing screen}
720Camera+Mic w/ 2x2 antenna {alternative would be no camera but 3x3 antenna}
and the fastest regular wireless card they got without 3G addon.
plus the slice battery

So far, complaints aside.  I do like the machine.  I just don't want to sit here saying about how great it is without pointing out what could be better, so if you go to buy one, you will know more than I did going in.  Also, the keyboard is amazing, better than my desktop Logitech

[Drizzt321]

Also, the keyboard is amazing, better than my desktop Logitech

That's what I thought when I got my Thinkpad. Keyboard is great, even if it was a full size desktop keyboard.

[Jettatore]

Yeah, the keyboard is great, can use the eraser mouse or reach the trackpad with your thumbs, all the touch/pen stuff.  I'm already half-way decent with it and it is a great experience, makes having no regular external mouse/keyboard 1000x more viable to me than a regular laptop, and I do use all of the various input options.

One thing that became immediately obvious to me only after I bought the laptop, is that you will probably, for photo-editing, be using this thing in Laptop mode while still drawing on and interacting with the screen, even better if the laptop is lower than you are, like sitting on the floor/bed.  This is because Photoshop/Lightroom, etc., are not designed around touch/tablet experience, so anything other than a well thought out sketchbook setup, and using it in tablet mode means you are going to spend a lot of time digging around in menus until you create you own pallets and probably could use help from some custom overlay software buttons (alt, space, ctrl, etc. custom macro functions).  It's just a software issue, but as it is, the standard photo editing softwares we are used to are oldschool interface wise and prefer keyboard shortcuts, etc..  There are no programmable function buttons/switches/touch strips on the monitor hardware like there are on an intuos screen to help rid you of the keyboard. 

I wish that there was a software quick panel that gave you access to every button/function etc. of the device in one spot and let you program it as you wish.  So far I have not made any customizations, but the middle mouse button under the space bar, is actually a dedicated scroll or zoom button, and there are no options that I can see to easily change it to a regular MMB.  It seems customization might be a bit of a chore in this regard, but I can say the defaults aren't half-bad at all. Middle button set to zoom is by far the more useful of the two default options, as scroll is already easy enough on the trackpad or swiping the screen or using arrow keys, etc., and I actually will use the zoom, helps for clicking on really small text links, etc.., still would like to be able to customize what the button does, especially on a per-application basis.

Extra 4GB RAM was pretty easy to install, watched someone do it on youtube before I tried it.

[Jamesy]

Extra 4GB RAM was pretty easy to install, watched someone do it on youtube before I tried it.

By my limited research on this, it looks like it maxes out at 8GB, correct? I love ThinkPads and this one looks intriguing as an upgrade for me at some point later this year.

[Jettatore]

That is correct.  8GB max on this model.  So far, I think I can safely reccomend the machine for photo-editing away from a workstation or as a complete workstation replacement/solution for those that would find that much more convenient/mobile.  If you have a permanent home and a desk, I would set up a dock (monitor, speakers, some sort of easel to use this in tablet mode, DIY ViDock/EGPU for gaming/3D work, etc.) but I'm not going to have that for a while, on the go for now.

[Marsu42]

As for PCs you can definitely not go by specs alone, because quality varies wildly.

My advice for using Lightroom: Get a laptop with sufficient cooling (like a gamer-model without the highest end gpu), because rendering in LR maxes out all cpu cores and generates heat only games would do otherwise. My business-oriented laptop sometimes just shuts down when a little dust is stuck in the cpu exhaust because the designers made it flat and stylish but neglected cooling.

In fact, in Germany there were a couple of trials about this and manufacturers tried to argue that when using a laptop with maxed out cpu for extended periods of time you're voiding your warranty... they didn't succeed, but this tells you something about the usage profile they have in mind.