Smallest computer for image capture ?

[Capricorn]

Never done any imaging but one day I will probaly do some.

If I go down the initial path of a web cam to get a ,avi file what is the smallest computer I could realistically expect to use.

Idea would be plug in the web cam, hit the Go button, capture an .avi, transfer the .avi to a memory stick and transfer to a bigger PC indoors. So not processing on the same machine as performing the capture.

Ask as I saw a used notebook but all it had was 1Gb and not sure if that would be fast enough, it would however be nice and small.

I assume that if I later moved to a ccd that the capture machine need not be that fast as the camera takes one long exposure at a time not a multi frame .avi file.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

I use small EeePC 701sd really really small 7 inch

i usb installed linux on it and stellarium for star maps and imaging astrocapture record avi's probably be more other softwares i could use also on linux

easy attach cams no drivers needed i also record to usb flash drive which i then transfer to bigger pc later on.

they quite few mini laptops around mines probably old now but does job.

[JamesF]

For planetary imaging then a notebook would probably be fine. I've used my Aspire 1 for capturing webcam images (using Linux and wxastrocapture) before now. Windows tends to be somewhat more memory-hungry though I believe. Outright processor speed isn't paramount for this sort of application as most of what you're doing is shunting data around.

If you're talking about DSO imaging then there's a lot of other stuff you'd probably have going on at the same time for guiding etc., so I'm really not sure there.

James

[Stephen]

My Lenovo S10 netbook runs DSO imaging and all the associated software just fine

[WayBig]

I use a cheapish netbook, 1gb ram and an atom n570 chip for planetary imaging with no problems. (You can save time by setting sharp cap to write directly to the memory card)

[Capricorn]

Thanks, seems like I could get a netbook and do the basics then.

Simplt didn't want to get a laptop that was more costly, physically larger and ultimately unnecesary.