good laptop for dedicated digital imaging

[brent chadwell]

I already have a desktop PC for this purpose, but I will be traveling a lot and

need a laptop. I would prefer something around $1,500, because the primary

editing will be done on the desktop PC. The laptop will mainly be used to dump

images, see which ones I like, and delete the crap so I can re-format my cf

cards. However, when I am gone for several weeks, I would like to have decent

image editing capabilities. I already have a 100GB external HD and plenty of

DVD's, so a ton of internal memory isn't necessary. I was thinking of going

with a mac, but that would present problems when buying image editing software.

I don't want to have to purchase both a PC and a mac version of everything.

Therefore, I am stuck with PC's. A 17" would be nice, but money would be better

spent on more processing power than a bigger screen. Can anybody steer me in

the right direction? Thanks for your help.

[rcoder]

I actually do most of my initial transfer and adjustment work on a Thinkpad X40 which I picked up used for less than $1000. It certainly doesn't have anything close to a 15" display, but it weighs less than my standard DSLR and lens combo, so it's rediculously easy to throw in the bag along with the camera gear whenever I go out.

 

It's also a very solid little piece of kit -- the lid is made of titanium, and the whole thing feels as well put-together as any electronic device I've owned. With the long battery life (~5 hrs.) I'm easily set for 5K exposures or more in an outing.

 

Back at home, I have the docking station and a larger desktop monitor waiting for more detailed retouching and manipulation, and I'm getting ready to build a cheap home SAN to make up for the limited hard drive space in the Thinkpad.

 

Then again, I don't do much editing on my shots, and the limited manipulations I do work fine in the GIMP, rather than Photoshop, making the 1.2 Ghz Celeron in the X40 more than enough for my needs. If you do a lot of full-res filtering, and especially if you shoot in RAW, and faster machine may be of more use.

[ralph_jensen]

"Therefore I am stuck with PC's."

 

Brent, are you aware of Boot Camp?

 

I'm a PC user -- have tons of money in XP software -- but I've always been impressed by the solidity of Mac laptops. My next travel laptop will be the new (Intel chip) 13" MacBook running Windows using Apple's new built-in setup ("Boot camp") for doing just that(http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/ ).

 

Every indication is that when booted up in Windows, the Mac with Boot Camp works flawlessly (well, as flawless as Windows can be!), with none of the speed penalty there used to be when running Windows in "emulation mode."

 

Price is right for your budget, too.

 

For more on the hardware aspects of the MacBook, see http://www.macworld.com/2006/05/firstlooks/macbookfaq/index.php

 

and http://www.apple.com has plenty of promotional pics of the MacBook, of course.

 

For more on the software issues, just Google for "Mac boot camp" to read articles on how well the Intel Macs now work running Windows.

 

 

 

You'll hear from others who will say, "Why not go all the way and run Mac software," but as you said, that's an expensive change to make and not always necessary or desirable.

[glenbarrington]

I'm very fond of my Toshiba A75-S211. A tad heavy, but built like a tank and a great display. Personally, I disagree with your statement where you say you'd be willing to sacrifice screen size for processing power.

 

My experience is that photo editing is not much of a resource hog, even a modest PC can be a successful photo platform as long as it has enough RAM. BUT, with a laptop, you are stuck with the display you originally bought. Make sure that the laptop you buy has a screen that meets your needs.

[yuri_sopko]

As this is somewhat of a recurring topic on this and other forums.

 

And that is the screen! Not all are created equal and quite a few do not display 24 bit color. Although the graphics chip might the LCD might not. There are 3 varities that I have found: 16 bit, 18 bit, and 24 bit. And, 18 bit that can be manipulated to reproduce more colors (close to 24 bit). I believe the hold-up was making them energy effecient, thinner, and lighter in weight for laptop use.

 

I could go one on the different platforms but a search of Mac versus PC will yield enough results. My best suggestion is to take some pictures, throw them on a DVD, and load them onto a laptop at a store and play around with it. See what you like and what you determine to be "decent image editing capabilities."

 

Also, you might want to check with Adobe and see if you can transfer the license over for Mac use. Maybe the EULA (end user license agreement) will allow you to have multiple copies so long as you only use one at a time. Which, in your case, you would. It's a longshot but that'd be worth it.

 

Oh, are you a student? You can buy student versions of MANY titles of software at a great discount.

[andrew robertson]

You should get the Macbook Pro. It's an Intel machine and runs Windows XP just fine, as

mentioned above. Bear in mind that this machine may well be faster than your PC, and you

can plug your PC's monitor, printer, etc. into it and presto it's a desktop with two screens.

This is my setup now. My PC is basically doing file server duties and running the TV.

 

The Mac is much nicer. You won't regret it.

[andrew robertson]

Sorry. My setup is actually an older Ti Powerbook 867 with external Cinema Display. It runs

Photoshop CS2 nicely, but the Macbook Pro is about ten times as fast.

[ralph_jensen]

"Also, you might want to check with Adobe and see if you can transfer the license over for Mac use."

 

Just for the record, in my experience this is not possible; I've tried it in both directions (Mac<>PC). I was unable to buy even an expensive upgrade if switching platforms, for example, a $500 upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite. Adobe told me they consider Mac and PC licenses completely separately, and when switching platforms I had to "start over" from the EULA/licensing perspective.

[digitmstr]

>>13" MacBook running Windows using Apple's new built-in setup<<

 

There are many issues which have not been totally resolved, and they probably won't be for a while. IT's not as cut and dry as the ads make you believe.

 

Having said that, because the Mac is becoming more like a PC as time goes by, do yourself a favor and get the real thing. There are several PC laptops available with dual core chips for less than the Mac counterpart, and they offer more RAM and extras.

 

But, whatever laptop you endup buying keep in mind that you DO need RAM if you want to do image editing at a decent pace. Which means at least 1gb since the OS (either WIN-XP or OSX) will require a good chunck of RAM to begin with to run smoothly and efficiently. 512mb is too little.