Notebook Suggestions
 

What notebooks are you guys using with your EX1s? We are looking at the Sony TZ series for size/weight and the ExpressCard slot but wonder if the 4200rpm 100GB drive might be too slow.

The 250GB/5400rpm option isn't available in Canada.

We're also considering the ShotPut Express software from Imagine Products.

Take a look at the Dell Vostro series. Good price. Fast and available with 7200 rpm drives if you want to. I own a Vostro 1400 and it transfers an 8 GB-card in 3-4 minutes. It also manages playback of full 1080p-files in Clip browser.

I use the Dell M1330. Small light and portable and also plays back 1080p. At 1.9KG it is easy to carry. Express card transfers are also very quick.

When I finally purchase the camera this is the notebook I plan on getting : http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921665291455

A bit pricey but has all the bells and whistles (I believe the 2 - 200 GB 5400 rpm drives in Raid 0 config should handle editing ok - a fellow from another forum uses the European version of this and works well). I like the idea of the blu-ray burner for archiving on the road.

Bob Grant put me on to Sager and I love it. Best I've ever had. And they quad cores now.

I'm not sure what NLE software you guys are using, but I would go Apple just for the capability of using FCP. It is by far my favorite NLE, and second only to top notch avid system in terms of power and function.

It is so intuitive that a switch over from an adobe or vegas editing suite will take you at most a day, and to be honest, the apple OS is just lightyears better than anything microsoft is pushing out of its bowles nowadays.

That isn't to say that there won't be issues in terms of cost, however the peice of mind someone gains in working off of an mac os x operating system is priceless.

However, that is just my two-cents.

I am using this NB as well. I swop the 2 X 5400 RPM to a 7200 RPM HDD
Very fast NB and transfer a full 16GB card in about 5 to 6 mins.

I also have a top Vaio model, and the only thing I am not satisfied with is that its two 250 GB drives (configured into RAID 0) are only 4200 RPM (what were Sony thinking ?!!). Am also thinking of swapping them with faster ones; why did you only use one 7200 RPM disk, John - space or power considerations?

oops, sorry i meant 2 x 7200RPM HDD. No point using different RPM drive, it will only slow down the faster one.

Hi Piotr, I see that you have vegas on Vista x64, did you remove the 32 bits version that came with the Notebook and do a new install of Vista 64 bits? I wanted to do that to overcome the 3GB limit. Do you find vegas runs faster on Vista x64? I know vegas 64bit will only be avail later this year

John,

The specs in my sig are those of my main editing PC (dual-booter), not the laptop. Vegas does not run considerably faster under Vista x64 than XP x86 (well, perhaps rendering can use more CPU resources in certain scenarios - but the real bottlenck, i.e. timeline playback dropping frames, is still there). However, the 64bit Vegas version is coming!

On the Vaio, I still have the 32bit Vista.

I'm using a new MacBook Pro 17" and I really like it.

Right now, all my editing is done in Windows on the MacBook using Bootcamp, but I just bought the Adobe Production Premium for Mac and will see how that goes.

Not sure I want to try FCP yet.

Can FCP edit the raw EX1 files like Premiere?

John - thanks for clueing me in - I just checked on the Sony website and you can customize the base model Vaio to better specs than on my previous post including 2 - 200 GB hard drives at 7200 rpm and a cheaper price - even the processor is a bit faster (2.6).

I opt for the 2.5Ghz processor and 7200RPM drive. With Riad 0 I think this is 1 of the fastest NB you can find now. I wanted Macbook Pro initially but the lack of blu-ray burner has led me to choose Vaio instead

I also work on a Macbook Pro, the 15" of the previous generation. At this moment seems to work like a charm. Just import files in FCP via the Sony Browser and edit right away.