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Specifically... Adobe Lightroom

Hey All,

I am sure this has been asked before and I did search but could only really find a little on the subject (mostly on Photoshop).

The Surface Pro 3 comes out in Australia in a few weeks and I am looking to get the i7 / 8gb RAM version but I was wondering if anyone is using it specifically for photo culling / editing in Lightroom?

I have always used MacBook Pro's and whilst I don't expect the same results (the MBP's had 16gb RAM in them) I was hoping for on location editing (so not full on 5 hour sessions) the SP3 would do the job.

Is anyone running Lightroom on this setup and could provide some real world feedback? does it import / render and edit say 4000 images not to slowly?

Any feedback specifically around Lightroom would be much appreciated :)

Cheers!
 

Fast-T

Member
I use the i5 4GB - does a decent job. 12Mpix pictures are what I have. I noticed the Corel Aftershot pro is much faster in batch processing. So far no need for me to go for a i7. invest in a external SSD maybe?

You won't do jobs like that on battery, don't you? not sure about the performance on 4000pictures being processed at once ... I assume that is the size of your library?

I am thinking to switch to Corel, because the processing speed is better. Did not test this on more than 150 pictures in a row.

I use the i5 for movie editing and brochure/magazine publishing on the road. it runs most of the jobs without throttling the processor. on battery it will always run at reduced speed (checked with movie rendering -> 1.3Ghz on battery vs. 2.9 plugged in).
After 5 minutes of rendering, the processor runs at low speed to cool down and the device is getting really hot.

For picture batch processing it is OK. the only thing you may want to do is to go for the 8GB version.

Best, go to a MS store. in the US they have a 14 days return/exchange policy. I think they do this world wide.
 
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thefollans

Member
Thanks for the reply Fast-T.

Yes I have a fast USB 3.0 SSD external drive where the images will be stored on. I was planning on keeping the Lightroom catalogue on the internal HDD, import the images with smart previews and then edit using the smart previews rather than the real link to the large RAW images.

Was just wanting to confirm that it worked without "too" much delay. I actually use Photo Mechanic for culling but thought it was easier just to stick to Lightroom for the question.

Happy to hear from anyone else that uses Lightroom (especially if they have the 8gb version).
 

Fast-T

Member
Better wait for a Lightroom PRO. but what I can tell, you'll love the Stylus feature for fine editing. Install the NTRIG Wintab driver for pressure sensitivity in desktop mode and you will never give the SP3 away :)
 

Moonsurface

Super Moderator
Staff member
Wow rendering 4000 images at once, even my desktop PC would take quite a while to do that. I am in the same boat as you since I won't get my SP3 for a couple of weeks yet, I'm unlikely to use it for that many images at once though, normally importing up to a max of around 500 at a time and creating smart previews. That takes a bit of time on my desktop (36mp camera) so I'm not expecting it to be particularly fast on the SP3 but I can't take my desktop in to the field.. ;-)
 
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