Any photographers using Surface Pro?

[convergent]

Can you explain this a little more please? Are you saying that Lightroom 6 runs worse on the same machine as Lightroom 5, but with more resources it runs faster? Or are you saying it runs the same as Lighroom 5, but if you through more resources at it then it will run faster?

I did a little research on this and found this article - https://photographylife.com/lightroom-2-3-4-5-6-and-cc-performance-comparison

This seems to contradict what you are saying. Except in a few specific actions, Lightroom used similar RAM on V5 and V6... and certainly should run fine with a machine containing 8GB of RAM based on that testing.

 

[onlysublime]

I run Lightroom on both my Surface Pro and my desktop machine. My desktop is Ryzen 1800X which is a beast with 32 GB of RAM and 8 core-16 thread 4 GHz performance. It was built to edit 4K video and does so very well.

While I use Lightroom on my Surface Pro machine all the time and find it a fine experience, more RAM definitely helps. If I could afford it, I would've gotten the 16 GB model but Microsoft pairs 16 GB with the larger SSD and charges a premium price which I couldn't justify. When I'm running Lightroom, Photoshop and a few tabs in the browser, my RAM is maxed out (as can be seen in the task manager). Lightroom by itself takes up 4 GB of RAM.

Again, I never said in any post that Lightroom was not doable in 8 GB.

 

[Adam Desrosiers]

Try using rawtherapee for raw editing - I find it very light on resource use but quick

+1
Rawtherapee is great! I have access to Lightroom with my work's Creative Cloud subscription (and no lack of specs on my computer) but I still stick with Rawtherapee. Excellent software.

 

[dnmartin98]

I'm a pro-photographer but have always been a Windows user. A rare beast....lol. I'm also former photo faculty at a mid-west university too.

I use a SP4 for my work. Recently I actually migrated off my desktop rig just to my SP4 to see how that went. It's been great. I work almost exclusively in Lightroom, though, and rarely have a need to do work in PS so can't comment on that side of the house. My SP4 is the i7 variety with 16gb of RAM and 512GB drive. I'm using it with the surface dock and drive two external monitors at my desk.

I haven't had any issues, really. Performance is generally great, depending on the size of your RAW files. I mainly shoot in mRAW or sRAW on my 5dM4. Lightroom can handle those fine, though as my catalogue is growing, I suspect that will become more of a challenge. I generally have created new catalogues every three years or so, but I suspect that part of my flow is going to have to change with the Surface to keep my catalogue smaller. I did an architecture shoot this weekend that require full RAW files. Performance in editing was noticeably slower than with mRAW or sRAW files, but it did not impact my work flow much.

The biggest benefit for me is travel and mobility. As airline seats are getting tighter, editing and processing files on planes is becoming much harder. The SP4 solves that problem as it takes up so much less space on the tray table or on my lap. If space is really tight and I can deal with it, then I use it in touch mode with out the type cover. Adobe have done a pretty poor job of touch mode in Lightroom (IMO) and it slows my workflow down significantly. But when it comes to not being able to do anything on a plane or getting some stuff done, it's definitely usable.

Storage space will be the issue for me. I have yet to solve that. My desktop rig had three huge internal drives in it and I back up to Crashplan. I'm cut off from those drives now on my SP4. I rarely need to back to shoots, but I'm very conscious that it's going to be a pain when I need to. I need to solve that part of the puzzle.

The other annoyance is colour management. I use Colormunki Photo for management. Both monitors are profiles and the SP4 screen is profiled too. But switching between profiles is irritating in Windows. When I am docked I have to go into settings, select the profiles for the external monitors, then restart. When I unplug and go sit on the couch, I have to go in to settings, select the profile for the internal panel and then restart once more. It's a nuisance, but not a deal breaker.

Battery life is not an issue for me. It's not great; building previews, etc. takes a lot of juice. But I am never with a charger and I'm fully charged before getting on a plan. If there is no power on the plane, when the battery stops, so do I....lol.

So that's my experience. I hope it helps you. The benefits FAR outweigh the minor inconveniences.

Cheers!

 

[ananve]

Thanks for all the inputs. There are many people asking on this topic and I'm not photographer. You guys will help me recommend new SP for them. Thanks.

 

[jlabelle]

I am a photographer and using a SP3 8Go core i7 and this is great.
I am using Capture One Pro 10. At home, it is docked and i have a 27" DELL calibrated screen.
Otherwise, i am using it in tablet mode as it is very fast and indeed faster with the pen as with a mouse. You can pan and zoom with touch, move the sliders and maje the mask with pen.
For me, there is no question that for photo editing (where you do not need crazy power), a touch 2-in-1 is vastly SUPERIOR to a Mac, without a doubt. Honestly, with the current line up, where you need to spend 500€ more on the MacPro with TB to have slightly more power and you still do not have touch and pen which are very beneficial for photo editing, i cannot image why someone would choose a Mac but the hardest Apple ******.

Also, knowing the current SP, even the core i5 is more than 50% faster than mine, i do not think there is any issue whatsoever.

Highly recommended for sure.

 

[Hirox K]

One thing that kept me from jumping to other OS is "Menu / Context Key" or shift-f10 (and various short-cut combinations).
Try type "aple" and hit Space, how do you correct it?
1. move you cursor from across the screen -> right click -> move cursor to the top of the list -> left click?
or
2. press Left -> press Menu Key -> (depends on os version you might need to hit Down) -> hit Enter?
Except graphical softwares (adobe xxx, 3dsMax), I can operate Windows, dialog, chrome, edge, visual studio, office, etc without pointing devices.

Back to the topic, I'm no pro photographer, but I do use Photoshop and Illustrator. Giving some time to adapt... Surface Pen and Fingers do work well IMO.

 

[Narr]

Peta Pixel had a write up about this very subject, the photographer was using the Surface Pro on location and liked the experience:
https://petapixel.com/2017/06/15/review-new-microsoft-surface-pro-photographers/

 

[Witness]

I would like to buy the nSP soon but I'm very hesitant that I can adapt from being a longtime MacBook user.

Any photographers out there using Surface Pros to organise or edit their work?

Yes. I'm just using a an SP3 256GB too and if I were to buy again, I'd go 512GB. It has become the main workstation. I cull images whenever and wherever I get a chance, I'll sit on the couch and do any color edits, then I may run batch script to resize/sharpen images to deliver to the client on the move. Having the pen makes image work so much easier and I've been a pro photographer for 17+yrs.

 

[Denni Russel]

I would like to buy the nSP soon but I'm very hesitant that I can adapt from being a longtime MacBook user.

Any photographers out there using Surface Pros to organise or edit their work?

I can't think of a single reason (from a technical perspective) that the switch would be a problem. There is, literally, nothing I can think of in the MacBook lineup that makes it better suited to a pro shooter. I work with both systems and I don't like the direction apple had gone with their laptops. On the surface side, the touchscreen is great when shooting tethered. Windows 10 is good, too.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I can't think of a single reason (from a technical perspective) that the switch would be a problem. There is, literally, nothing I can think of in the MacBook lineup that makes it better suited to a pro shooter. I work with both systems and I don't like the direction apple had gone with their laptops. On the surface side, the touchscreen is great when shooting tethered. Windows 10 is good, too.

I've heard of this concept of shooting photos while the camera is tethered with a pc - how does that work?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

By the way, to all the photographers in this thread @Witness, @Narr, @jlabelle, @onlysublime, @etphoto, @GG002, @convergent, @Adam Desrosiers @dnmartin98

I have a need for a good software for making timelapse videos

I've tried searching but haven't find found the right one yet

I tried the following so far:

• MS Powerpoint - I know, this is a weird choice but in theory it should work though in practice the quality downgraes a lot after the first 5 seconds
• Windows Live Movie Maker - this works but for low resolutions - trying with 720p brings errors
• LR Timelapse - this never installed, even though I tried a couple of times
• Davinci Resolve - this installed but I had to remove it since in itself it was using all the RAM I had in my surface 3 and therefore the sysem would just slow down
• Videomach -this one actually works quite well - I've done 2-3 timelapse videos of 1080p. It technically can go higher than 1080p but the quality goes down as a consequence

So I'm looking for a free or nearly free timelapse video software - where I give it the photos and it converts them to a video without much loss or hiccups. Any ideas? I know, a lot would recommend adobe premier pro but I don't have the money for that at all and it's not available in my country

Thank you

 

[convergent]

By the way, to all the photographers in this thread @Witness, @Narr, @jlabelle, @onlysublime, @etphoto, @GG002, @convergent, @Adam Desrosiers @dnmartin98

I have a need for a good software for making timelapse videos

I've tried searching but haven't find found the right one yet

I tried the following so far:

• MS Powerpoint - I know, this is a weird choice but in theory it should work though in practice the quality downgraes a lot after the first 5 seconds
• Windows Live Movie Maker - this works but for low resolutions - trying with 720p brings errors
• LR Timelapse - this never installed, even though I tried a couple of times
• Davinci Resolve - this installed but I had to remove it since in itself it was using all the RAM I had in my surface 3 and therefore the sysem would just slow down
• Videomach -this one actually works quite well - I've done 2-3 timelapse videos of 1080p. It technically can go higher than 1080p but the quality goes down as a consequence

So I'm looking for a free or nearly free timelapse video software - where I give it the photos and it converts them to a video without much loss or hiccups. Any ideas? I know, a lot would recommend adobe premier pro but I don't have the money for that at all and it's not available in my country

Thank you

I have done some really great time lapsed videos. I start with capturing the series of images with one of my Canon DSLRs and a Canon Timed Remote Control TC-80N3. Then I import them into QuickTime Pro 7 and export to the video format I'm looking for, usually mp4. To my knowledge only QuickTime Pro version 7 will do this, and it is very easy and gives excellent results. There are a lot of tutorials for how to do this if you google "time lapse quicktime pro 7".

 

[onlysublime]

QuickTime should be removed from all Windows machines. Apple ended support for QuickTime a long time ago and refused to patched the critical vulnerabilities that were present. These were zero-day exploits. The most severe kind of vulnerability.

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA16-105A

https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/04/apple-stops-patching-quicktime-for-windows-despite-2-active-vulnerabilities/

Adobe has removed QuickTime from Premiere Pro.

If you only need it for a specific project, you can do a free trial of GBTimeLapse:

Granite Bay Software GBTimelapse for time-lapse remote capture

 

[Chintan Gohel]

QuickTime should be removed from all Windows machines. Apple ended support for QuickTime a long time ago and refused to patched the critical vulnerabilities that were present. These were zero-day exploits. The most severe kind of vulnerability.

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA16-105A

https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/04/apple-stops-patching-quicktime-for-windows-despite-2-active-vulnerabilities/

Adobe has removed QuickTime from Premiere Pro.

If you only need it for a specific project, you can do a free trial of GBTimeLapse:

Granite Bay Software GBTimelapse for time-lapse remote capture

From their website:

GBTimelapse captures a sequence of images, but does not make a movie. To create a movie from the images, you need other software such as Quicktime® Pro, Premiere® Elements, Adobe® After Effects® or Adobe Premiere.

So that's not what I'm looking for

 

[SeanD_Colorado]

Glad to have come across your post. I use Capture One Pro 10 on my iMac, and was wondering about how the Windows version would perform on my Surface Pro. I am glad to hear that it functions as well as your review and works that well with the pen.

 

[etphoto]

Had to look this older thread up. I am shooting some of Western Southern Life ATP tournament this weekend & next week in Cincinnati and images need to be processed and uploaded while at the tournament. I actually thought of this tread because I was considering going out and getting a Surface Pro to do the job. However, after looking at the price, lol, I decided to try and do the image processing with my Surface 3. Thats right, a wimpy S3. I won't be using LR fearing the S3 won't have enough power.

Sent from mTalk

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Had to look this older thread up. I am shooting some of Western Southern Life ATP tournament this weekend & next week in Cincinnati and images need to be processed and uploaded while at the tournament. I actually thought of this tread because I was considering going out and getting a Surface Pro to do the job. However, after looking at the price, lol, I decided to try and do the image processing with my Surface 3. Thats right, a wimpy S3. I won't be using LR fearing the S3 won't have enough power.

Sent from mTalk

I've got the latest version of LR that comes with Creative Cloud. It actually installed and runs on an Atom Z3770 with 2Gb RAM on my Asus T100. It isn't a great experience, but runs better than photoshop. It can edit RAW images 24MP from a Nikon DSLR, but I edit them one at a time and there is occasional lag while moving sliders. LR for android on my phone is a much better experience.

 

[etphoto]

I've got the latest version of LR that comes with Creative Cloud. It actually installed and runs on an Atom Z3770 with 2Gb RAM on my Asus T100. It isn't a great experience, but runs better than photoshop. It can edit RAW images 24MP from a Nikon DSLR, but I edit them one at a time and there is occasional lag while moving sliders. LR for android on my phone is a much better experience.

I'm going to shoot Jpg for this job (depending on how even the light is) so I think I can get by without LR. We'll see. lol

Sent from mTalk

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I'm going to shoot Jpg for this job (depending on how even the light is) so I think I can get by without LR. We'll see. lol

Sent from mTalk

I use RawTherapee on my surface 3 and it works quite well. I can do batch edits and converting the final raw file to JPEG can take about 30-40s per photo