Recommendations for lightweight computer for travel

I am hoping to go on a couple of extended photographic trips in the next year and I have decided to buy a lightweight PC laptop in order to monitor and transfer photos onto an external hard drive. It would be helpful if the computer can handle Lightroom and email. Can anyone recommend a good candidate? My present Dell XPS 15 laptop is just way too heavy. Thanks.

Also the MacBook Air.

+1 for iPad - there are many bluetooth options if you need a keyboard.

Sorry, not up to date / down to candidates.

• E-mail is a piece of cake; any pre-owned Netbook (50€/$) will do fine.
  
• Data transfers: USB 2 is sluggish. But how / where are you going? Cycling into an unplugged tent? Or sleeping near rented wall sockets, where transfer time doesn't matter?
  
• No comment on LR. Resolution and screen size will matter.
  

I 'd hit a couple of electronics malls etc. and ask around, after(!) figuring out how to open a gnarly test image on demo devices, to look which screen convinces me. You need an early / easy search hit for that purpose.

MacBook Air might be the elephant in the room? I poked for keyboard replacement cost and ran for my life.

 

I 'll stick to my Netbook. Peace of mind, while leaving it somewhere, is unpayable.

Before Apple, I preferred Lenovo (IBM) Thinkpad laptops for their build quality and general compatibility. However "light weight" was not in their description. The Thinkpad battery alone weighs more than my MacBook Pro. Ab15" screen is best used at home, a smaller 12"-13" screen is much easier to travel with. I also carry one or two 4 TB WD Passport hard drives, and back up my photos each evening.

 

You can get a subscription to Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom for $15/mo. Lightroom Classical (local) is better than the cloud version (you get both) on the road, where fast internet isn't always available.

Can you do fine photo editing (cropping, cloning, etc) with a laptop? Can laptops be paired with a Logitech mouse? Minimum size screen needed to get the job done. The Apple mouse is an ergonomic disaster that cuts into my fingers, a case of style over function.

The Apple mouse is an ergonomic disaster that cuts into my fingers

 

If Logitech is your ideal, you might want to try some new 'mice' and other stuff.

 

Sounds to me like you're imprinted on hardware you got when you were a mere boy. :)

 

How hard are you grasping that mouse anyway?

I have always used PC, not Apple. I know that one can run Apple computers in PC mode but does one lose any functionality? Is it pretty much transparent to the user? I'd rather not have to learn a new operating system on the road. And I have used PS/LR for years. The point is not to do any serious editing on the road but to transfer files and have a first look at them every night. One of the trips is trekking in Nepal where there will be power available at least every few days.

The Apple mouse is an ergonomic disaster that cuts into my fingers, a case of style over function.

Then pick another one.

Can you do fine photo editing … with a laptop?

Roughly 10% of photographers can do fine editing. Roughly the same percentage can do it on a laptop.

Can laptops be paired with a Logitech mouse?

Yes.

Minimum size screen needed to get the job done.

Whatever you can afford and fit in your space.

The Apple mouse is an ergonomic disaster that cuts into my fingers, a case of style over function.

Or possibly a case of user malpractice. :)

Second on the M$ Surface Pro line. I have had one for years, and I also use it to control the camera.

I have always used PC, not Apple. I know that one can run Apple computers in PC mode but does one lose any functionality? Is it pretty much transparent to the user? I'd rather not have to learn a new operating system on the road. And I have used PS/LR for years. The point is not to do any serious editing on the road but to transfer files and have a first look at them every night. One of the trips is trekking in Nepal where there will be power available at least every few days.

I believe lots of portable laptops available now, plus get portable HD for storage they are chip and small, add mouse and you are good to go. Win 10 works fine.

Like this

Microsoft Surface 3 - 13.5" PixelSense Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core i5 Processor, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD

Or possibly a case of user malpractice.

Dupuytrens Contractures...but I still think it's poorly designed.

I agree, try an IPad or the Surface. IPad is the best Apple product IMO. Could you not look at your photos on the camera's screen too? Would allow you to delete the useless, repeats, or out of focus ones which is a big help.

Thanks to all for your inputs. Not sure why it's necessary to be so argumentative and defensive when we are just looking for opinions and information.

 

[uSER=10955656]@Ludmilla[/uSER] et al - isn't it the case that iPads do not have USB ports? Saving to the cloud can be problematic when traveling so I want to save to a hard disck. Do the Surface devices have USB output ports?

 

@robin - of course I peek at the camera screen but that is not an efficient way to check if focus is tack sharp. Also that eats up camera battery which is a problem when one may be several days between possible charging.

Not to be argumentative but my iPad that I am using right now doesn’t have a USB port. I had to deal with this exact issue a couple of years ago. My solution was a small lightweight Dell laptop and both a stand-alone hard drive and a couple of thumb drives. Not much space on the computer but it does what I want, fits easily into my bag and cost less than $200.

 

Rick H.

@rick maybe the latest iPads have USB ports but I know the older ones do not, which is exactly why I didn't consider them. What model is your Dell?

The touch pad on a MacBook Air or Pro is large, haptic, and has all the precision and features (through gestures) I need for photo editing. Haven't used an Apple mouse in over 4 years.

 

Had a Dell once (rhymes with ????).

Edited July 7, 2022 by Ed_Ingold

Nearly all my photography is carried out on trips 1-4 weeks away from home. I don't want to edit photographs whilst away for lots of reasons, apart from getting rid of obvious rubbish or some of the duplication to free up space on cards. My cameras have two card slots so I make two copies of every photograph and delete nothing until I get home & load onto my computer. I have two stores for used cards- one in my camera bag & one elsewhere so I can afford one piece of carelessness or bad luck while still having my pictures. If I want to look at pictures I've taken I'll put that card in the camera. So- a low cost, low weight solution. I've been through the netbook thing and got no benefit other than something else to carry & I have quite enough anyway. If I didn't do what I do, I'd buy an external HDD with a screen. I do carry an older low capacity iPad too for all the usual reasons, but with a decent trip producing c 80GB of images my photos won't fit on there and buying a current high capacity iPad seems to be close to the most expensive way to buy storage capacity known to man.

If you don’t plan to edit on the road, a portable storage drive as mentioned above, with a screen will allow you to do some mild sorting on the fly and free up card space too.

 

don’t forget that portable solar charging systems are also available if you’re going to super remote (Nepal?) places with no or little power

A few years ago on a trip to northern India, I took along a MacBook Air, a couple of external terabyte drives, and mostly kept the camera memory cards without formatting until the end. No problems. I did bring a mouse along for the occasional edit.

 

Although I feel that India could use a revolution, I had to recognize that their phone and internet were generally more advanced than what I have at home in Southern Illinois. My iPhone worked flawlessly and my calls back to my daughter in Washington state were clear as a bell. I didn't bring home any internet infections either.

@robin - of course I peek at the camera screen but that is not an efficient way to check if focus is tack sharp. Also that eats up camera battery which is a problem when one may be several days between possible charging.

 

It may depend on your camera's screen, but for my Canon and Olympus 10X magnification will tell you whether something is essentially a hit or a miss. It may not be completely sufficient, but it is quite enough to get rid of the time wasters. Batteries are indeed a curse though. My Olympus charges from a USB cable or direct from the AC which helps.

I agree with Robin. I think the finder will enable you to dump obvious errors and some not so obvious, against a background that any doubt can be resolved better at home. Batteries? Well I get about a day on average which includes quite a bit of time assessing whether I need another go, or a slightly different treatment. I travel with at least 6 batteries and two chargers so I can afford a failure- not all of this stuff in the camera bag bag but always accessible once I'm at my room or car.

@rick maybe the latest iPads have USB ports but I know the older ones do not, which is exactly why I didn't consider them. What model is your Dell?

If you actually look at the Apple site you will see that the iPod Pro has a USB-C port that supports USB-4 and Thunderbolt and the iPod air has a USB connector. the regular ole iPad has a "lightning" connector so I'm not sure what that is. All the computers type Devices people have been throwing out here should have available specs, including connectors on their website.

I have an 11 inch MacBook Air, dated 2012, that I got from Goodwill, replaced the battery and SSD, and have had lots of fun with it, including writing this.

 

I presume that newer ones are better, but this one works find for me.

 

As for iPad, newer ones use USB-C, and older ones the "lightning" connector.

For both, there are adapters to USB-A, the connector most of us think of as USB.