View Full Version : SI-2K Mini laptop choice


Andronico Gonzalez
May 3rd, 2009, 08:34 PM
A few weeks ago I rent my SI-2K cameras for the new wolverine videogame commercial.
The DoP selected 5 cameras to work, one 416, two Eyemo's and my cameras. The Director refuse to work all the SI-2K planned shots because I have the full camera and not only the Mini with a laptop in a backpack like in Slumdog Millionaire. I prepare a backpack with the camera inside and put the Mini sensor in various rigs:
A motorcycle Helmets, a skateboard helmet, a vest with two shoulder mounts, a vest with a chest multi position arm, and a 10 feet pole.
With these rigs the camera movements were really impressive, all the hardware worked great, but at last the Director refuses to use them, he wanted a light laptop.

I start this topic because I want to buy a laptop that can be my second weapon of choice. I want to know the experiences of other SI-2K Mini users with different brands and models of laptops.

My only laptop experience was with a Macbook Pro with bootcamp, it was powerful enough to work but the temperature sometimes corrupts the data, some files had frames with bad pixels. And someone told me that the new models had changed the Gigabit Ethernet card.

All suggestions accepted.

Thomas Barthle Jr.
May 4th, 2009, 08:57 PM
I would check out sager laptops. They have a 12" and a 13" laptop with good specs. I just ordered the 8662 because it is upgradable. They are mainly sold to gamers, but us video editors do well with the big video cards. They are like asus in that they build all their own laptops and are not farmed out to some other company.

Andronico Gonzalez
May 5th, 2009, 09:49 PM
Hi Thomas,
I check Sager website and have some pretty impressive laptops, I would love to put my hands on one. I'm still looking for other options, like alienware or HP, but this seems like a very good one.

Thanks.

Thomas Barthle Jr.
May 6th, 2009, 01:15 PM
From my understanding, alienware is made from the Clevo barebones kits, which is what the Sagers are made from, at a fraction of the price.

Jay Morrissette
May 22nd, 2009, 06:24 PM
Would a Panasonic Toughbook make sense? After reading about the trouble keeping the Macbooks cool on Slumdog Millionaire I wonder if a Toughbook would stay cool in India?

~Jay

Kaspar Kallas
June 1st, 2009, 07:40 AM
Hi

Has anybody tried the Macbooks unibody, they seem to have up to spec NIC - but would like to know for sure.

Thank You
-Kaspar

Justin Lovell
August 7th, 2009, 09:16 PM
I'm using a portege toshiba m750 12" touch tablet. Internal Solid State Drive.
Works great. Only one buggy thing with the graphics card - it doesn't operate in Bilinear mode unless running in 800 x 600 res. Which is what it has to default to when duplicating the desktop to my 7" touchscreen monitor.

Hex mode works perfect. Edge detect requires bilinear mode or will freeze the preview monitor from any keyboard controls.

Purchased 4 spare batteries, and gives 1.5-3 hours depending on how you're using the laptop.

FrameDiscreet.com transfers // cinematography (http://www.framediscreet.blogspot.com)

Justin

Alex Raskin
September 24th, 2009, 01:29 PM
Hi Thomas,
I check Sager website and have some pretty impressive laptops, I would love to put my hands on one. I'm still looking for other options, like alienware or HP, but this seems like a very good one.

Thanks.

Hi Andronico, have you had a chance to check Sager or any other powerful laptops?

Look here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/silicon-imaging-si-2k/434021-3ghz-laptop-intel-pro-nic.html