[PLUG-AV] Spending the Grant: Mumble session, tomorrow, 7:30pm.

[Jason Nicholls]

*Laptops*
> We've been looking at Laptops with both ExpressCard and USB3, and that's
> lead us to the Dell Vostro 3550. I've had a slew of issues with Dell's I've
> used before, and other comments about ExpressCards "popping out"
> unexpectedly may be an issue. DO we want to keep the USB3 requirement for
> future expansion, or do we want to drop back to a laptop with on-board
> firewire? What about another vendor?
>

Interesting the 3450 (my original suggestion) includes an ExpressCard again
in the list of specs. It did, then didn't and has it again now... USB3 is
becoming less of a restriction as pretty much anything recent has it now,
however FW is the killer and ExpressCard tends to only be on the larger
laptops.

Carl's suggestion of the Lenovo T400 series is good except the current T420
has an optional FW connector as AFAIK none of the models on offer in
Australia have it. However it does have USB3 + ExpressCard - starting at
just over $1050. However, the 15" model - the T520 - seems to have FW as
standard and it starts from $1200.

My preference is for FW built-in but that really limits the options and
tends to only be expensive models... Maybe someone else can find something.



*Cameras*
> We had looked at the Canon HV40 HD at $888 from Camerapro.com.au. These
> had firewire, and were also full HD capable. I think one of the core items
> we need to look at is low light capability - looking at the Moodle talk the
> image quality is rather low on the cameras we had. The cameras we used at
> PyCon US 2012 were Panasonic AG-DVX100 (NTSC, 3CCD); a current model
> Panasonic AG-AC120EN is around $2,999, so that's a bit out of our budget.
> Jason - were you mentioning an alternate?
>

No alternative. I was talking about 2nd hand ones that come up for sale on
Gumtree - unfortunately not something we can use the grant money on.




Jason Nicholls
jason at mindsocket.com.au
0430 314 857
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