Laptop suggestion for travel

I really hadn't considered bringing a laptop when going to Namibia next year but talking to another danish photographer that just returned I am considering to get a laptop afterall.

So what would be an ideal laptop for doing following tasks:

- backup of photos
- sorting photos (deleting really crappy photos)
- no serious postprocessing to be done, I will most likely only install the Canon software
- it should be small and light

I was suggested something like this 12"Fujitsu Amilo model T5500

Any other suggestions?

any laptop will work as a backup and be able to delete poor photos.
Things to consider - hardrive size for storage - you may want to consider getting one with a DVD writer so you can write the images to DVD or CD as another source of backup - make two copies too.
also get a card reader if your camera has a CF card to speed up backup.

Yep I would plan to get one with DVD burner (8,5 GB) and a card reader. I never connect my cameras to my pc with the usb cable I always use cardreader.

I would research next June or so as models will all change, get better specs and be better value then. They are getting better and cheaper all the time. At the moment the Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 specification is excellent and a good brand: Celeron M 430 1.7G, 512MB, 60GB, 15.4TFT, DVDCDRW, Wifi, and XP Pro. Cost is around £485 inclusive here. Not the smallest but they tend to be very expensive and no good for image work due to screen size. The small Sony Vaio's are probably the nicest all rounders for travel, or the small Macs. I see a lot of Vaio's on all the train journey's I have to do. I have a Sony, my second, and very good machine. I may well take it next year as the spec is still going to be fit for purpose. Most new machines will do the job, some will do it better for less of course.

It doesn't really matter if I get it now or wait 6 months. What I can get today will be just as usefull in 6 months.

A danish magazine tested some ultra light laptops and this MSI ( weighs 2 KG) won over Lenovo IBM, Toshiba and Acer. A Sony Vaio was also choosen a winner in that test however it was twice as expensive and I can't find any prices for other Vaio models in Denmark.

MacBook

I second a macbook 13"

The Fujitsu's are nice, small laptops. I have my doubts about the durability of the 1.5" hard drives though. My advice would be to use it as a current project device and backup each night to DVD.

If you can still find one, I'd suggest the subnotebook Toshiba Libretto U100. 3.5 lb including the DVD burner dock. 60 GB HDD, USB 2 and FireWire connections. About a 7" screen, and smaller than a hardback book; without the dock it fits in the outside pocket of my Domke F-1x; with the dock it still fits in the F-802. 3 hr. battery life. Mine went 18 days through Greece with me, and is coming up on its first birthday of riding around in camera bag/backpack/whatever on a daily basis. The screen's plenty big and crisp enough for viewing and sorting your work.

I'm going through the same process myself - want a portable notebook with good battery life that I can do basic image processing on. Limiting myself to 13-14" screens the following crop up:

Sony FZ series/C series
Toshiba Pro100
Dell Inspiron 640M/latitude 620
Samsung X11/Q35
Lenovo X60
HP DV2000 (or something like that anyway!)

Sony FZ seems to fit the bill best but costs far above anything else. C series is pretty much the same spec wise but bigger and heavier. Dell and Lenovo seem to have best battery life.

I'd be interested to hear real life stories on these machines!

I'm sure you have thought about it Tommy, but why not a P5000 or similar? For just the photo requirements you listed, it would fit the bill perfectly.

EOSAddict wrote in post #2383971
I'm sure you have thought about it Tommy, but why not a P5000 or similar? For just the photo requirements you listed, it would fit the bill perfectly.

I have thought about that. Or actually about the Canon media storage when that is released but am afraid the capacity might be limited. I spoke to a dane that have just been 3 weeks in Namibia and he brought 100 GB photos home and that is even after sorting really bad photos out. I know that I shoot a lot so I want to make sure I have enough storage. With a laptop I can burn DVD's too as extra backup.

And I have now ordered this small laptop with 1 GB memory and 100 GB hd.

Very nice, I must admit I saw one of those recently and it looked good. No CF reader built in tho unfortunately! Be keen to hear what you think when you get it Tommy, esp how you think the screen stands up to PS/RAW processing.

I should get it tomorrow. Though I don't plan on doing heavy PP on it. I will probably only install the Canon software.

I saw it brifely in a store sunday and it looked really good.

old mac ibook g3 800mhtz. perfect for travel.