[LeChefRouge]

So I have a limited budget for a laptop and PP software. I've been eyeing an old Toughbook cf-52 with i5 @ 2.53GHz and 8gb RAM. I was wondering if this setup would be capable of running Darktable without serious lag during processing. Any other suggestions for a budget of $600?

[SpecialK]

So I have a limited budget for a laptop and PP software. I've been eyeing an old Toughbook cf-52 with i5 @ 2.53GHz and 8gb RAM. I was wondering if this setup would be capable of running Darktable without serious lag during processing. Any other suggestions for a budget of $600?

If it meets the minimum software requirements it should work. Normally you want to have more than the minimum RAM, and a step up on processor, which is what this setup sounds like.

[kiwi_jono]

Thats probably enough (RAM is particularly important so more would be better). If you are processing K-1 RAW files that takes more RAM than K-5, and K-3 RAW files - I have found loading K-1 files longer (and I have a i7 with 16Gb) but still very manageable.

BTW have you had a looks at Rawtherapee RawTherapee Features ? I used to use Darktable but changed to Rawtherapee and found it to be much better for doing NR and also apparently it now supports K-1 PixelShift files (have not tried it PixelShift files yet). UI is just as easy - in fact a bit easier I think.

[LeChefRouge]

Thats probably enough (RAM is particularly important so more would be better). If you are processing K-1 RAW files that takes more RAM than K-5, and K-3 RAW files - I have found loading K-1 files longer (and I have a i7 with 16Gb) but still very manageable.

BTW have you had a looks at Rawtherapee RawTherapee Features ? I used to use Darktable but changed to Rawtherapee and found it to be much better for doing NR and also apparently it now supports K-1 PixelShift files (have not tried it PixelShift files yet). UI is just as easy - in fact a bit easier I think.

I'm still very new to digital photography and have been out of film photography for about 10 years. I'm shooting with a K-s2 so it sounds like that should be more than enough. I will also read up on Rawtherapee too! The only software I've really seen mentioned on the forums is Lightroom and Darktable. So thanks for the heads up!

[The Squirrel Mafia]

I take it that you plan on running some form of Linux distro on your laptop to run Darktable? That laptop sounds decent for now.

[LeChefRouge]

I take it that you plan on running some form of Linux distro on your laptop to run Darktable? That laptop sounds decent for now.

I'll probably go with Debian since it's what I'm familiar with and looks to still be one of the most stable.

[tduell]

BTW have you had a looks at Rawtherapee RawTherapee Features ? I used to use Darktable but changed to Rawtherapee and found it to be much better for doing NR

Are you saying that you see better NR in RT than the profiled-denoise that dt provides?

Cheers,
Terry

[Culture]

So I have a limited budget for a laptop and PP software. I've been eyeing an old Toughbook cf-52 with i5 @ 2.53GHz and 8gb RAM. I was wondering if this setup would be capable of running Darktable without serious lag during processing. Any other suggestions for a budget of $600?

I have an i5 processor and 8RAM. I dont get troubles at all.

Just go ahead.

[kiwi_jono]

Are you saying that you see better NR in RT than the profiled-denoise that dt provides?

Cheers,
Terry

Yes, I have had not that much luck with the Darktable profiled denoise (but others seem think its fine) but quickly got better results with NR in Rawtherapee. While it could still be a learning curve thing, I tried a lot of different combinations of settings in Darkroom (which I otherwise liked and used regularly) but consistently could not get results I liked. Your millage may vary.

[JensE]

I'll probably go with Debian since it's what I'm familiar with and looks to still be one of the most stable.

My default choice, but I've lately run into problems compiling/running the current Rawtherapee versions (e.g. development versions with pixelshift support), because even with the backports repository, the library versions on Debian stable (Jessie) are just too old. I'd reconsider. Current Darktable works fine on though Jessie. Both will be fully OK on the above hardware configuration, depending on the algorithms/features used.

[tduell]

Yes, I have had not that much luck with the Darktable profiled denoise (but others seem think its fine) but quickly got better results with NR in Rawtherapee.

My mileage does vary!
I have tried both and have not been able to get anywhere near the good results I get from DT, so was naturally interested in your experience.
I have prepared my own noise profiles for DT for the K-1, which do seem to give better results than the K-1 profiles packaged with DT, and am now preparing to do the same for the K-3 II.
I would like to give RT a fair go, and have tried it a few times, but do find it almost inscrutable for NR...perhaps that's where my problem lies :-)

Cheers,
Terry

[newmikey]

Maybe a lame suggestion but I've found that the NR of Darktable improves when you use the profiled settings but change to "wavelet" processing - to me at least on the K-5 IIs as well as on a few K-70 testfiles, the results are top-notch!

[LeChefRouge]

My default choice, but I've lately run into problems compiling/running the current Rawtherapee versions (e.g. development versions with pixelshift support), because even with the backports repository, the library versions on Debian stable (Jessie) are just too old. I'd reconsider. Current Darktable works fine on though Jessie. Both will be fully OK on the above hardware configuration, depending on the algorithms/features used.

Reconsider to which distro? Fedora or Ubuntu? I haven't been a Linux user in close to 6 years since I was gifted a macbook pro as a graduation gift. I got home from work a few weeks ago and my dog had managed knock my MacBook off the counter and was doing his happy dance on it when I walked through the door. Since I'd rather invest in my camera at this point it seemed like a great opportunity to go back to using Linux with a laptop my dog dance on if he ever gets the urge. I'm open to trying any combination of OS and PP software.

On a side note I found a better deal on toughbook with a slightly better i5 with less ram and an 128gb SSD. I was able to purchase an additional 240gb SSD and 16gb of RAM all for around $750. Now all I need to find a Voigtlander Nokton 58mm SLII to complete my setup.

[JensE]

Reconsider to which distro? Fedora or Ubuntu?

Ubuntu, being Debian-package based, will feel more familiar than Fedora. It is also usually well supported via application specific repositories or packages for media applications - my current photography-focused triple boot system in Debian/Windows 10/Ubuntu for that reason (out of not wanting to migrate some Geo-spacial stuff off Debian yet).

Congrats, that package for $750 sounds like a good deal.

[The Squirrel Mafia]

Reconsider to which distro? Fedora or Ubuntu?

I'm a very big Debian fan. Been using it for the longest. However, with recent advancements in Darktable & RawTherapee, I have decided to use Fedora a bit more now. Debian is too far behind in those release. Being far behind is what makes Debian super stable, though.

So far Fedora 25 has been great. The Wayland version of Gnome has a few minor quirks with permissions & other minor things like that. Like when using RawTherapee, I can initially select one of my processing profiles from the menu, but after that, I can't select any through the menu. I have to manually load them. I also can't set some default keyboard shortcuts when using the Wayland version of Gnome. More than likely the Fedora engineers will resolve them. To avoid all those issues, I run the "Gnome on Xorg" version when starting Fedora. It seems to run a lot faster too. I run dnf -y update --refresh once a week & all is good.

Linux Mint & Ubuntu are also really good Debian based distros. I prefer Linux Mint out of those 2. It's more "complete" out of the box. It's probably the most user friendly distro out there, followed by Ubuntu,