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I don’t think there is a good answer to this however.   As a news photographer I have a high spec lightweight laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad X1 6th Gen).  This allows me to file within the hour window from the field.  Sadly it stopped working two weeks ago.  Fortunately I had purchased an extended warranty.  But, due to covid they would not come and repair on site and I had to send it off.  Overall I have lost two weeks work at a key time in UK politics.  
 

I did have the old laptop as a backup.  But, it is big and painfully slow.  Yesterday I did five covid related stories, but the laptop was so slow I ended up only filing two.  And, the old laptop has stopped working.  
 

Getting to the point, how do others have a contingency in these situations?  I don’t think I can afford a second high spec laptop just as a spare.

 

The other minor niggle is that they had to reinstall the SSD so I have lost everything.  I had backed up the photos but it is going to take a lot of work to reinstall Lightroom and, more importantly set up photo mechanic with all the templates, code replacement lists etc that I had set up over the last couple of years to speed up workflow.  At least I have learned to take a copy of these for future failures....,

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I use an old lower spec laptop when out on the road, mostly for fear of damage. I use it purely for that though, so I've wiped it and re-installed just the basics that I need for reporting, and I don't save anything on it. That way it's still fast enough for Live News.

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5 minutes ago, Avpics said:

I use an old lower spec laptop when out on the road, mostly for fear of damage. I use it purely for that though, so I've wiped it and re-installed just the basics that I need for reporting, and I don't save anything on it. That way it's still fast enough for Live News.

Philip 

thanks for your response.  I will have a think about this solution. It did bring it home to be how much faster a modern high spec machine is.  On the old laptop it took nearly two hours to edit and file two stories rather than about 15 minutes on the high spec machine.  That is why I gave up on the other stories.

Edited by IanDavidson
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I'm using a newish but lower spec laptop, its only running Office, Edge and Light room. I only download my best pictures from card to laptop when out. Upside is it makes me critical of my pictures.

 

Full card download onto the pc with separate backup at home. Review at leisure for stock options.

 

Hardware is always a challenge, but my main challenge is there are a lot of better 'togs out there!

 

Stay safe kids. 😷

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

I'm using a newish but lower spec laptop, its only running Office, Edge and Light room. I only download my best pictures from card to laptop when out. Upside is it makes me critical of my pictures.

Without wanting to go off (my own) topic.  I often find that having filed “from the field” I reviews the images and think “I should have send that one instead”....

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Just now, IanDavidson said:

..... and think “I should have send that one instead”....

Frequently. I think those that send straight from the camera are very brave/far better photographers than me!

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I mentioned this before when you were buying your current laptop but the iPad Pro is really worth a look for this purpose. They are incredibly powerful and fast for image ingestion and have become more computer-like recently with the ability to easily connect card readers (SD) and cameras (XQD) as well as portable drives. There is an initial moderately steep learning curve for Lightroom Mobile and Shutter Snitch but not terribly difficult. The weight advantage is huge. I am typing this on my device lying down with the iPad held in my left hand (the device is really light). Julie Edwards has written a lot of stuff about the workflow. I don’t normally do news where I need to upload on the fly but, if I did, then I know how I would do it. 

Edited by MDM
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4 minutes ago, MDM said:

I mentioned this before when you were buying your current laptop but the iPad Pro is really worth a look for this purpose. They are incredibly powerful and fast for image ingestion and have become more computer-like recently with the ability to easily connect card readers (SD) and cameras (XQD) as well as portable drives. There is an initial moderately steep learning curve for Lightroom Mobile and Shutter Snitch but not terribly difficult. The weight advantage is huge. I am typing this on my device lying down with the iPad held in my left hand. Julie Edwards has written a lot of stuff about the workflow. I don’t normally do news where I need to upload on the fly but, if I did, then I know how I would do it. 

Thanks for this.  I have an IPad Pro so this may be an excellent backup solution. I do hate to think of the cost of an iPad XQD card reader though.  Having thought about it for 2 seconds I could find a way to link to the camera.

Edited by IanDavidson
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I have an SD card reader so that works for most of my gear but the Z series only have an XQD slot so I have connected the camera directly with no problem. Definitely worth practicing in the absence of your main machine as it could save you a lot in terms of weight and money. 

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31 minutes ago, IanDavidson said:

Without wanting to go off (my own) topic.  I often find that having filed “from the field” I reviews the images and think “I should have send that one instead”....

Ahhh yes!

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22 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Not brave, just confident of the equipment.

A couple of weeks ago with the hot weather, 22 usages in The Sun, Daily Mirror and The Mail Online all filed in minutes from my iphone and from the beach

Any breaking news story I can shoot and send at the same time

 

 

 

and there is the catch, for tagging the image.  

 

 

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47 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Not brave, just confident of the equipment.

A couple of weeks ago with the hot weather, 22 usages in The Sun, Daily Mirror and The Mail Online all filed in minutes from my iphone and from the beach

Any breaking news story I can shoot and send at the same time

 

I remember you explaining about FTP on phone during the London meet up last year 🙂

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An update on my laptop.  Back today but in order to get it to work I have to reinstall Windows 10....  Why they did not do that is beyond me.  Exceptionally poor customer service after nearly two weeks to repair.  The Thinkpad X1 Carbon 6 gen is an outstanding laptop that could almost have been build for photojournalism but sadly their support, which is expensive, is appealing poor.  Avoid like the plague or Covid 19 if you prefer..., Lenovo is part of IBM, you would think they would know better! 

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13 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

the image? the only edits I do are straightening and cropping, if needed. (which is easy using two thumbs)

I have a preset in shuttersnitch that will add some contrast, etc as they are being ingested

All IPTC data is saved as presets as well, like in PhotoMechanic you can set up variables such as month, year, credit, etc, etc.

If you really want to get rid of your laptop you could start off with your iPad and once you get use to it downsize :D

 

 

I would stick with the iPad Pro and transfer to the phone if necessary to submit if using the WiFi only iPad if there is no access to fast WiFi. The file transfer could be done with a fast USB pen drive for speed as the iPhone has the same file system abilities as the iPad now with iOS13x. The iPad Pro has the extra advantage of being incredibly fast for ingestion and editing (as well as having the larger screen). 

Edited by MDM
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1 hour ago, IanDavidson said:

Lenovo is part of IBM

Sorry Ian but you're way out of date. IBM developed the Thinkpad series, but sold it all off to the chinese many years ago. Lenovo is headquarted in Beijing, and all the kit is manufactured (I think) in China.

 

Thinking about your old laptop though. Have you considered replacing the hard drive with an SSD. It should have a significant effect on performance, and SSD drives are getting pretty cheap.

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24 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Missed this, I'm sure Ian has wifi capability on his camera if he is using a 1DX or Nikon equivalent

So, wirelessly transfer images to iPad in Shuttersnitch, then open up hotspot and send.

 

I haven't used the setup very much but I tested it out with my D850 which is similar in specs to the Nikon D5 which I recall Ian mentioning recently and the WiFi transfer was very slow between the camera and iPad and the connection kept going down. I was using 45MP raw files so that probably didn't help. I'm sure JPEGs shot at a smaller file size would have gone a lot faster but not being used to this I would be inclined to trust direct transfer which is megafast. It's interesting to see what people are using in case I ever actually do it. 

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38 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

No need to transfer, open up a personal hotspot on your phone and send direct.

I must admit it is much nicer to use the ipad when im out and about but I have just got used to going really light

 

I find my old iPhone SE is too small for editing. My iPad (the 10.7" 2017 one I think) is incredibly light and thin but it's WiFi only. For someone doing news in the field regularly, then the cellular version would be just the job I think. 

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43 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Nope, I only ever send jpg

Slot one Raw file

Slot two full size jpg, these are then resized to 3000px on the longest side when they are sent

I think the largest file I ever send is around about 4mb

 


I didn’t actually send them anywhere beyond the iPad. I was just checking how it works. I must try it again with JPEGs to remind myself in case I ever need to use it for a job. 

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11 hours ago, Russell said:

Sorry Ian but you're way out of date. IBM developed the Thinkpad series, but sold it all off to the chinese many years ago. Lenovo is headquarted in Beijing, and all the kit is manufactured (I think) in China.

 

Thinking about your old laptop though. Have you considered replacing the hard drive with an SSD. It should have a significant effect on performance, and SSD drives are getting pretty cheap.

Thanks, I did not know that, although all the UK support is appears to be undertaken via IBM

 

The kit is, until this (apparently well known) fault good, it’s the service is crap.  When you pay nearly £2,000 plus extended warranty I have the old fashioned belief that Lenovo should sort the problem.  But I guess that is me being old and cranky 

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  • 1 month later...
On 16/06/2020 at 13:12, meanderingemu said:

 

 

interesting.  i asked last year for help on Android and was met with silence.  What app is usable? 

Hi, I have only just come across this thread and I am also an Android user.  I have an Android tablet which I ocassionally use until I sort myself out with a lightweight laptop.

 

I downloaded the Press IPTC app it is possible to apply metadata to images and to send to Alamy Live News/stock via FTP.  Unfortunately, at some point the developer stopped updating the app and its hit and miss whether it applies metadata to the files.  It is such a pity as it was a useful app once you got the hang of it. 

 

I then downloaded an app called "Photo Editor" (there are many with similar names but it's the one with a white camera outline logo with a pair of scissors on the right).  Here you can edit images and apply metadata but they need to be uploaded via a separate FTP server or directly on Alamy's website.

 

The former I used on my phone but the latter I have to use on my tablet as it ends up getting very fiddly keeping track of the files.   

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