Netbook screens are surprisingly good
The little netbook is a very capable device, we say that all the time. What makes the netbook such a strong performer overall is the highly portable form that makes it easy to take anywhere and do just about anything. We are seeing more folks try these little laptops and discover they can do far more than they originally thought.
Rob Galbraith is a photographer who recently has picked up a netbook, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, to give it a try in the field. The intent was to have a portable laptop that could do very basic image handling on the go. What Rob discovered was that the Dell could handle far more in the photography world than they originally thought. His article that looks at the evolution of the LCD screen from a professional photography angle is very eye-opening as it shows that the netbook can be a very strong performer. He compares the Dell display to those of higher-end notebooks and shows it can do a lot more than they figured it would. Check out the article and see what Rob shares about the netbook. It’s especially cool to see the netbook nestled in the photography gear bag.
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That’s a slightly misleading title James as the article (as you demonstrate in your summary) only refers to the Dell Mini 9, not Netbooks in general.
I’ve seen this article referred to around the web lately and the thing that strikes me is the way everyone writes it up as a glowing recommendation of the Dell. The reality is that the Dell is only referred to briefly and more time is spent discussing the MacBook Pro and the Lenovo W700.
What’s really worth noting is the criticism of the Macbook Pro and the fact that it fails its target market – photographers. The fact that an expensive MBP can get the same rating as a cheap Dell netbook is damning enough but the issues with the screen and other hardware failings should make anyone think twice about buying one of these.
My MSI Wind is a great machine and using Photoshop Elements I find the RAW conversion speeds from my Canon 40D are more than tolerable.
The screen is bright and colors are very true…The only issue is that Photoshop requires better than 600 vertical resolution, so that there are parts of the program that are not easy to use because it ‘spills over’ the 10″ screen.
Once I connect to my monitor it’s fine obviously, but this is the one area of Netbook improvement that I am waiting for.
If anyone can recommend any other RAW processing photo software that works on Netbook resolutions, please post!
There are three programs that I would recommend to a person using their netbook in conjunction with image management while on the road. the first is Fast Stone Image Viewer. This is a great program for quick browsing, and, it is also portable so you can carryiit on a flash or USB hard drive. It will do many basic tasks, and it has the ability to read the embedded jpg images in raw files.
The next two programs are primarily for those that want to tackle image management tasks while on the road. If you need to convert your RAW files to DNG, I would recommend Adobe’s stand-alone DNG converter. And, this program works great in conjunction with Image Ingester Pro. IIP can easily rename, convert (inconjunction with the Adobe DNG converter) and back up files with minimal user action. And, it will allow you to work with image metadata as well.
Thus, you can handle most of the “prep” work while on the road, and then bring your images into your primary system when you are back home. Its one of the main reasons that I purchased a Samsung NC10 last month. I would attempt to install Lightroom, but that may be pusing things farther than I care to go.
–Ken
Ken, thanks for sharing these great tips!
Jake: while the article refers to only one system, there are actually very few LCD display panel* manufacturers in the world (Samsung, Sharp, and LG account for almost all production if I remember rightly). So it’s entirely possible that the same LCD is present in many other netbooks.
*As opposed to LCD displays as a whole device, which are made by countless dozens of companies using panels bought from the big three. Obviously on a TV, images are commonly scaled so the image processing system greatly affects quality, but on a notebook where it’s being fed a native-resolution signal all the time, the differences are reduced.
Ken, Very helpful.
I will give these ideas a whirl.
I’ll admit that I only skimmed through the article but I could find no mention of how good these screen were outdoors. Does ‘in the field’ mean something different than what I think it does?
You are quite welcome! It is my pleasure to be able to give back as I reallly enjoy reading your site.
While I may be stating the obvious, I will add that while netbook screens are great “in the field”, they will suffer from the same limitations as most notebook screens, and I am going beyond the annoying glare and reflections of glossy screens common on todays machines.
The big issue is color critical work. Yes, you can calibrate a screen, and that often makes a huge difference, as most come “cold” out of the box. But, the big problem is that almost all of them are not true 8-bit displays. They are usually 6-bit displays that dither the “last 2 bits”. This, combined with narrow viewing angles (as compared to an IPS panel), makes it quite hard to do fine tuning where color fidelity is important. Its not that it can’t be done. Its just more difficult and sometimes you may not get what you expect.
In short, its great to have a netbook or other MID device in the field for quick viewing, storage, and file management. But, IMO, if you need to do color critical work, you need to consider your skills and equipment carefully, otherwise you may be disappointed.
–Ken
John,
I very much doubt that you going to carry that Lenovo “in the field”. It’s a monster. It’s more like a mobile workstation that you might set up on assignment in a hotel room or something. The only two “field” devices are the old Thinkpad, which is OK outdoors and the Dell, which is not.
Rob Galbraith deserves his reputation as the best reviewer of professional photographic equipment there is. His reviews are always accurate and detailed.
Ken: I have both Lightroom and CS4 running on my netbook. No speed demon for sure but for the occasional few images it’s fine. But I have a Mini-Note so I have the screen resolution required. I also use Micheal Tapes free utility that will extract the jpeg from a Raw file and Picassa for fast file viewing.
Gordon
The title is somewhat misleading, but for my photo work I’m quite happy with the HP mini note. It’s 1280 screen is ideal for high res photos and the extra screen res makes tabs and icons so much easier to manage.