Tablet PC

Has anyone had experience using a tablet pc (the kind where the

screen turns around and sits on top of the keyboard) in the field for

landscape and nature photograhy? I'm thinking the smaller profile

will be easier to use for downloading, burning CD's and initial

review of shots while on location. Any opinions or experiences would

be most appreciated. Karen

I see no advantage over a conventional laptop, unless you use the features unique to a tablet PC - mainly taking manual notes. I type faster than I write, so I see little use in this feature. Many of my colleagues type with two fingers - for them, the tablet PC would be an advantage.

 

A smaller, slimmer laptop would work better in the field than a typical 15 to 17 inch version. You pay a significant premium for "smallness", as well as the tablet PC features.

As far as I can tell, tablet PCs seem to be more expensive than conventional ones. If you want a small PC for field use, you can always get a small conventional one. Recently I was looking into a small laptop for international photo trips. A friend of mine bought a Sony T series at about $2000. Those are really small and weight only 3 lbs (about 1.5 kg). They include a built-in DVD writer, which IMO is a must. The problem is that they can take only 1G of RAM. I ruled it out for that reason. With some of the current high-MP DSLRs, I would rather have at least 2G of RAM for PhotoShop work. Those small PCs tend to be expensive also; you pay extra for the miniature size.

I've tested both, and each has their own advantages and disadvantages. For field work, I prefer something more durable; the tablet PCs that I have tested sacrifice screen protection in order to gain a weight advantage. That said, there some very small conventional notebooks that have surprisingly durable screens. If you are very careful with your equipment, I can see some advantages to tablets versus notebooks.

I considered tablets too when I was looking for a portable rugged laptop suitable for digital photography, then I figured I don't really need a tablet. After looking at and handling many laptops and tablets -- I settled for a Thinkpad T43 with 15" 1400x1040 sxga+ flexview wva screen with 1.86ghz sonoma/80GB/ATI radeon x300 64mb/ultrabay multi-drive and 2GB memory upgrade. The best combination of power, portability and ruggedness. And yes -- those FlexView wide-viewing-angle screens are superb, also great for outdoor use.

I have both tablet pcs and regular laptops at work. Hands down I would choose the regular laptop. You get more power for less money. As a photog, there isn't the processing power in the tablets that you should have to run a program like Photoshop.