# Anyone using an MS Surface for photography processing



## Khristo (Oct 14, 2016)

My PC has died and I ned a new one.  I've seen the IT guys at work using their Surfaces with 3 external monitors hooked up (so they can't be too bad graphics-wise) - they say they're pretty capable machines compared to the average laptop. Would give some tablet flexibility vs just another desktop/laptop.

Any experiences?


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## CSD (Oct 15, 2016)

For on the go editing, tethering and for even controlling my studio lights there's nothing that can replace my Surface Pro. Whilst there was bugs when the SP 4 first came out (mostly due to Intel's rubbish drivers and immature hardware) it's been improved incrementally since last year and Ps Cs 6 works decently on it and Adobe has apparently optimised Photoshop/Lightroom CC for tablet experience.

It's a also a great on-the-go portfolio/presentation device as I can do a Miracast presentation from it and I have a receiver in the back of the monitor for doing this.

The market has expanded since the SP first launched 3 years ago and there's a lot of choice at the high end of the market now. Main advice is get the spec you want upfront as they are non-upgradeable apart from the SD card slot, I use a 128Gb card in there to give me a bit more storage and/or store RAW files as back up storage to the camera's cards.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 15, 2016)

While I have not used it, I have read comments from many users I respect, and would not hesitate to get one if I needed a laptop. There are some sales going on now, its about time for announcement of the next version, but rumors say its delayed. Don't wait for it, the pro 4 is fine.

http://www.gsmarena.com/microsoft_surface_pro_5_to_launch_in_spring_2017_with_intel_kaby_lake_processors-blog-18675.php


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## candyman (Oct 15, 2016)

I do own a Surface Pro 4 with i5 processor and 8 GB memory.
Though I do most processing of my photos on my desktop computer, I did some of it on the SP4
It is a great tool for travelling. It is light and easy to use. Fits well in a photobag.
Though it is a tablet, I don't use finger actions for photo processing. And, one can use the pen but I use that seldom. The SP4 has a USB connection so you can download your photos direct from your camera when connected.
The diskspace is somewhat limited but for travelling can be enough. I use an external drive as well. But for that I connected a USB-hub since the tablet has only one usb-port. 


The processing speed with lightroom is not bad. It can be a little bit slow when using multiple copies of the photo.
The real downside of this tablet is the graphical card. It is not up to those cards that you can choose when you decide to assemble a desktop computer. You have a lot of choice there.


So great for travelling but I would not make it my main processing device.


Edit: the surface Pro 5 looks interesting but again, the graphical performance is crucial.


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## Old Sarge (Oct 15, 2016)

I am a big fan of my Surface Pro 3. I got it as a laptop replacement in 2014 (about June I think). Did a great job and I gave one to my son when he (finally) graduated from college. He uses his, primarily, as a tablet using OneNote for both work and college (working on a Masters degree). My desktop was getting a little long in the tooth (still running Vista) and my son convinced me to get a docking station and make the Surface Pro my main computer. It has been my desktop/laptop/tablet for the last 18+ months. It has worked pretty well. I use it with a docking station and two monitors.

In my case, it is a little under powered (4gb memory/256gb SSD) so if I did heavy photo processing I would get the most memory and storage my budget would allow. (For storage of data I use a NAS and when I'm away from home I VPN to the NAS). There are some minor annoyances. It seems that every time MS does an update to Windows 10 some glitch will pop up. Currently my iTunes doesn't load properly (I found an odd work around for that). And certain features on the system will fail to work until the next update....which comes on a regular basis. That may just be an issue with Windows 10 but the combination of Win10 and Surface seems to be more vulnerable to such issues.

I like this system but am seriously considering moving to a more powerful laptop (looking at some gaming machines because of their power/graphics/etc.) which will be my desktop replacement. The Surface Pro is workable but it is a compromise, IMHO. YMMV.


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## LDS (Oct 15, 2016)

You can also give a look to the Surface Book. When docked to its keyboard, it adds an nVidia GeForce, more battery power, and IIRC some additional ports.


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## lion rock (Oct 16, 2016)

I used a i7(2.2gHz)/16gB 64 bit Surface to render an 8 shot pano with the Microsoft ICE program and it was spiffy. Seems like it worked speedier than my office i7 desktop with similar configuration.
-r


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## Geek (Oct 17, 2016)

The Surface Pro 4, i7, 16GB model is not too bad for on the go editing. I have used Lightroom, Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements. It was a little disappointing rendering with Premier, but no issues with Lightroom or Photoshop Elements.

Be sure to get as much storage as possible. 512GB is the smallest I would recommend and 1TB would be better.


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