Puter good enough for Lightroom? Help Please.

I’ve been considering downloading the trial version of Light room to my work notebook. Presently I’m restricted to using my work computer until I go home to buy another personal computer in the future.

I would like some insight of the following if possible.

• Is Light Room user friendly to persons totally new to post processing?
  
• Are there any additional programs that you must purchase to get full use? Ex. add-on? Etc.
  
• I presently use software purchased with 30D Zoom browser and such, does adding this compromise my presently used programs.
  
• If I download the trial version, can it be un-installed easily?
  
• And lastly, looking at my specs below is it even recommended that I try to use it? Presently using my work computer to download from the net is my only option since were not allowed to connect up any personal computers to the servers. I could download and then install to another computer from disk, however I would have no way that I know of to do upgrades, and updates etc. So for now, my company notebook is the only machine I have to use.

Kenny, I'll leave the rest of the comments re: lightroom to others, but having used RSP (Lightrooms ancestor) I will comment on the last question

512MB RAM will result in a horrible user experience for you trying to run this sort of graphic ap in Windows or MAC os.. (I'm assuming Windows).

So no, I would not recommend it on that system.

Thanks for your reply. I was kinda scared of that. I guess I should be happy just to have a way to check my e-mail. I'll have to wait till I get home and just intall it on my notebook there and run any updates before returning back to work.

Thanks again,

Kenny

My 2gig of ram on windows is resulting in a not so great user experience with lightroom.
Although photoshop, autocad and all other graphic aps run great.

1.5 gigs over here and light room seems to pain full, config issue? not sure still have a few days left of the 30 day trial, up to now though just not enough flow.
ps
I run pro engineer and autocad on this computer without much problems.

Ditto

hammerz_nailz wrote in post #2915616
My 2gig of ram on windows is resulting in a not so great user experience with lightroom.
Although photoshop, autocad and all other graphic aps run great.

I would update and buy a new notebook at the drop of the hat, if I could just log on and update things. However I only get to go home ever 4-5 months so have a nice new laptop toy is pretty much as useless as this POS I have to work with now.

I may hit our IT department up for some RAM if I can find an applicable excuse as to why I need it........Lol. Perhaps if I'm lucky one of those guys will come visit me when they are sick and enable me to do some trading..............h​ehe. Z-pack for some Ram sound like an even trade?

Stay safe,

Kenny

bigken462 wrote in post #2914481

I would like some insight of the following if possible.

• Is Light Room user friendly to persons totally new to post processing?

Kenny

Yes, I downloaded just to take a gander at it. 3 weeks later I handed them my credit card. You do need to spend a little time with it as it has a lot of features.

bigken462 wrote in post #2914481

• Are there any additional programs that you must purchase to get full use? Ex. add-on? Etc.

Kenny

No, but you might want to download "The Gimp" or buy some other editing software. Having said that, I rarely have to use my editing software.

bigken462 wrote in post #2914481

• I presently use software purchased with 30D Zoom browser and such, does adding this compromise my presently used programs.

Kenny

Nope. You can use both just have to be careful about moving and/or renaming files. LR stores info, including location, about the file in a database. However, even if you move the file LR will help you find it.

bigken462 wrote in post #2914481

• If I download the trial version, can it be un-installed easily?

Kenny

Good question! I never looked back after downloading. It is a nice program.

bigken462 wrote in post #2914481

• And lastly, looking at my specs below is it even recommended that I try to use it?

Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 146.59 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.20 GB

Kenny

No. I cannot recommend it. I'm running 1.5GB with a speedy CPU and it can bog down. I've had the memory consumption up to 300MB and the fans on the CPU running full throttle.

Thank you sir, guess I'll set back and watch you guys have all the fun.............Haha, actually this is the first good excuse now as to why I cant PP my images.........

Thanks again, I'll linger and see how others fair with Vista so that when I do get home, I hope to figure out what I need.

Thanks,

Kenny

In the meantime if you want to do some PP, use DPP that came with your camera instead of zoombrowser... alot more RAW control.

And if you don't have a more powerful editor like photoshop, try The Gimp at www.gimp.org...

Now you DON'T have a reason not to PP. Sorry.

Thanks David,

I have PS 7.0 just never got around to achieving my masters degree in figuring out how to use the thing. I'm tinkering with idea of having my notebook mailed over.....A lil risky, but I think even then I'll still be hurting on RAM. I didn't realize that program was a memory hog.

I have read about it some on here as time here in the clinic allows, most everyone seems to like it - I think. I suppose the smart thing to do is give VISTA some time to do its thing and get a new notebook. I would really like to wait till v2.0 comes out though.

As far as PP? I have toyed with DPP some - nothing good however, if all else fails I suppose I'll have to pull the friggen manual out..........Lol.

Stay safe - happy shootin!

Kenny

I have lightroom installed on my 3 1/2 year old laptop P4 3.06 with only 512mb ram and while it isnt lightning quick its not too bad , indeed with things like exporting files its not much slower than RSP or DPP.

No problem Ken,

Wasn't aware you has PS 7.
I didn't notice the rest of the specs of your computer, like processor speed?

I've got lightroom running on a 2.12ghz AMD laptop with 1gb of memory.
They say memory is probably the quickest, easiest, and cheapest upgrade you can do to a computer... if your laptop has an open slot it should be simple to add more (just check what type and what the max amount is (mine maxes out a 1gb according to specs)).

Otherwise, give DPP a chance... takes a little bit of getting used to but you can get really good results. (There's also some short tutorials online, if you happen to have a high-speed connection.)

Stay safe.

David

When you first start using it, things are slower until the library is built and thumbnails and such are all in place. Once you are up and running for a week or so things run pretty quickly. I am on a fairly recent homegrown box with 2G of RAM I think.

Thank you MIke,

I was hoping to maybe get a sneak peek out of it before going home so I could see if I wanted to buy it. I see now that my work computer would no way handle that kinda load.

Thanks to all those who replied.