H3Dll 39ms - new laptop for location capture. Options?

[DenisM]

Since I bought my H3Dll 39ms, I've been using a Dell laptop with FireWire adapter card in its ExpressCard slot. The laptop is slow, but it's only used for capture - nothing else.

The thing is, when I started using the camera, it was strictly Flexcolor only, which was fine. But, things have moved on with Phocus, and I'd like something with a bit more grunt.

So, given that I will be looking for something that will only be used for capture (I have two computers back at base that do everything else) what are my most economical options in 2016?

Thanks.

D.

[NickT]

Maximum Ram, highest spec video card and SSDs would be my suggestions.

[jerome_m]

If the laptop will only be used for capture, you can lower the requirements on ram and GPU by desactivating some of the features of Phocus like noise reduction and sharpening. Then your only criteria will to find a laptop with an expresscard slot. They are not so common any more. Since your criteria is also price, I think your only choice will be Lenovo. They are the only company I am aware of which still builds expresscard slots in their sub €1000 line.

[DenisM]

Thanks for the replies.

What I want is to be able to use the Custom Color Calibration feature. I can't do this by capturing to Flex and processing in Phocus. (That said, capturing to Flex with Reproduction Mode activated, gives excellent results.)

At the moment, when I capture a file to Phocus on the laptop, I get random coloured pixelations on the image. These are very similar to the coloured pixelations you get with Shadow or Highlight warnings activated.

The same file opened on my desktop back at base is perfect. So, it appears to be a GPU rendering issue that's causing it on the laptop. But, obviously, from a client's viewing point of view if nothing else, it's not a good look!

Bearing in mind that I only want to capture the file, I will try zeroing out everything and see if that makes a difference to the laptop's ability to render the file. (apart from Sharpening and Noise Reduction, anything else I should disable?)

Failing that, if I were to buy a laptop, can I capture to a Mac and then process on Windows back at base? If so, what (cheap and second-hand!) Macs should I be considering?

Thanks again.

D.

[NickT]

Yes zeroing out/turning off corrections will definitely speed things up.

Oh and cheap and mac don't really go together...

[jerome_m]

You can capture to a Mac and then process on Windows back at base, but as NickT noted, a Mac may not be cheaper.