Minimum Computer requirements for 5DMark II

[john_forney1]

<p>I am interested in getting a small light netbook/laptop to take on a trip in a few weeks and would like to know what the minimum computer system requirements are for the 5DMarkII for all features to work properly. A previous person said that if the screen resolution is too low the photodirector program may not work or downloading may be a problem. This is basically for storing and viewing images as well as connecting to the internet when needed. The high resolution video does not play back properly on my old laptop with windows XP so I know that there are some minimum requirements for that.</p>

[avery1]

<p>This is not a complete answer to your questions, but I have a toshiba netbook NB305 running windows 7 starter and a 5Dmkii. Storing images is no problem as long as you have the hd space. Viewing images is a little slow (in slideshow mode, i sometimes have to wait a second or two for the picture to render), but I've never heard of this just not working at all because of screen resolution issues (I'm running at 1024x600). I'm not familiar with photdirector, though, so my help might be useless. I would definitely recommend shooting in both RAW and JPEG and viewing the JPEGS and I would recommend not even thinking about editing. That pipe dream of mine was quickly squashed. :) If you want to edit, you're going to need to get a laptop.</p>

[john_forney1]

<p>I think a 10" netbook/laptop with a 2.5 Ghz processor, 4 GB RAM, and 250 GB hard drive that is 3 pounds or less under $400 would work. But doing some checking I do not think this exists. All the netbooks have 1.66 GHz processors and low RAM which may be a problem when playing back video.</p>

[philip_wilson]

<p>For static images I have not had any issues but for video you need quite high performance. Canon gives you the spec on their website but treat this as a minimum if you plan to shoot video. The unfortunate thing is that many people cannot play your video files and keep the audio and video synchronized as their PCs lack the power.<br>

My old XP machine (desktop) Dual core 2.8GHz processors with a big video card and 4GB RAM seems to stuggle with 5DII video. It works fine so long as you have nothing else going on. If you have 1 or 2 more sessions active then the video / audio can stutter.</p>

[phule]

<p>My understanding (which may be limited, I fully admit) is that, in the netbook world, the AMD Neo processor/graphics chipset (the equivalent from nvidia is called ION) is a better choice than one with an Intel processor for HD video playback.</p>

<p>Don't look at straight MHz numbers though. That doesn't count dedicated hardware used for decoding HD streams. </p>

<p>I don't know how well this would translate to 5D Mark II video file playback, but it should help you narrow down the google results a bit.</p>

<p>The alternative is just to review movies on the 5D Mark II or connect it to a TV when you can and use the netbook simply as storage.</p>

 

[john_forney1]

<p>Rob, I did not think about connecting the camera directly to a television to view video. I should be able to do that in the hotel room when traveling. I will look into the AMD Neo processor.</p>

[felix_mizioznikov]

<p>after getting the 5d2 I realized I needed a mac and I havent looked back.</p>

[steven_crist]

<p>I don't know about the "netbook" type computers, but I use Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS3 on a 4 year old Dell laptop with a Celeron precessor and 2 gig of ram. It works fine with my 21mp images from my Canon 1DS3. I believe the problem with the netbooks working properly on photo files is the video card. I'd check with a good computer or camera store for more details.</p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>I tried a photo editing software on a 10.1" netbook, and minimum required resolution was 800 pixels vertical, while the netbook had only 768, and the software installation had to be cancelled.</p>

<p>Be careful with any netbook, and make sure you have all requirements met, and video processing speed in important, even though may not be specified.</p>

[mike_oflaherty]

<p>Judging by the responses so far a net book is not the answer. You would be better off to upgrade your laptop with the jam to do what you want. I'm running a Gateway NV53 it has the power to do video and still editing. Nice thing would be you can load all the software you have. Just a note no problem running video unconverted using Quicklime. Hope it helps.<br>

Mike</p>

[jaydesi]

<p>Laptops and other computer gear can be found for great prices at tigerdirect.com. I highly recommend, I've been getting stuff there for a while now and have no complaints about their service or products.</p>