What computer and software do you use?

[dseltzer]

Just curious and *not* wanting to start a debate, I'm curious to know whether

folks us Windows PCs or Macs, and what PP software do you like. I'm assuming

Photoshop in one iteration or another is a given on either platform, so what do

folks use for organizing and editing pics aside from, or along with Photoshop?

 

I use both platforms, but my primary is a Mac, using Aperture and CS3.

[acbeddoe]

No Photoshop here.<p>

Nikon CaptureNX, ViewNX, & Transfer on IBM G41, 3GHz, 2Gb, lots of disks.

[maddox]

I use Macs and CS2. I occasionally use Canon's DPP also, because I like the simplicity of its' monochrome tools.

[Matt Laur]

Nikon Capture NX on various Windows platforms - laptops, desktop machines. And, believe it or not, Corel X3 for vector art and bitmap editing. So, don't always assume that Photoshop - in any version - is always present, since it ain't!

[iancoxleigh]

Windows based PC -- Athlon 64 X2 core.

 

Lightroom for databasing, tagging, organizing, RAW converting, B&W conversions, and also capture sharpening. CS3 for noise, local contrast, other. Back to Lightroom.

 

Export to CS3 for out-put sharpening, framing. Or export to CS3 for soft-proofing and then back to Lightroom for final printing.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Here I have over 2 dozen PC's and a lone imac 20". A recent PC bought off of ebay was an older unused dual core 950D 3.4Ghz box with 2 gigs of ram for less than 500 bucks; complete with windows XP x64 64 bit OS. I got 8 gigs of ECC ram for 235 bucks recently; what the box will hold.

[dseltzer]

Thanks to all for responding. Hey Matt, thanks for the reality check. ;-)) Obviously, I was in the narrowed rut of, "I use Photoshop, doesn't everyone?"

 

Kelly, sounds like you got a helluva deal on the box and the RAM - always a good thing, eh?!

 

From the relatively small sample of folks who've commented here so far, it appears more use Windows systems than Macs, yet in most discussions I've had about computers, I usually get told that Macs are the choice of graphics professionals. So, I wonder if that's another invalid assumption (Matt?), and a y'all using the platform you are because you just happened to start with it, it's what was supplied in your circumstance, you chose between platforms for some reasons, and if so, what were they. I still not trying (seriously, I'm not) to spark a debate. I'm really just curious.

[don_cooper]

Windows XP, Nikon Capture NX, Corel Paint Shop Pro.

[yoni_perlmutter]

Dell workstation, XP,EyeMatch, Eye-One, Picture Windows Pro, Capture NX,

Bibble, Noise Ninja and others . . . but no Photoshop.

[pmj]

Apple Power Mac G5, Aperture and Photoshop CS2.

[savagesax]

I build my own PC's; Systems engineer.Have a quad core, 4 gbs of ram, and 5 hard drives each at least 250 gbs, some are 400gbs. I use CS2 more then CS3. Most hard drives are 7200 RPMs. My start up drive is 10,000 RPMs. Everything loads real fast! Then I save the work to slower drives, which are 7200 RPMs. I only use Western Digitals right now. I also use dual SLI video 512 mb cards, which adds speed and another gig of memory, without the need to enter the x64 world; as most of you know a lot of sortware still doesn't support X64.

 

If anyone is interested I build these for others. Just email me for GREAT prices, if you are interested.

[mr. sullen]

I know you didnt want to start a debate but I just bought nx and I don't know about the other Capture NX users but the download time of batch processing is horribly slow, for nef, I don't shoot jpeg so I'm sure it might be faster with that, also the interface is horrible. But I noticed something when using nx compared to the Adobe PS, which is much faster. The file sizes are actualy smaller in ps by 4MB! Which might explain the faster. Maybe there is some setting I'm missing in ps that is reducing the file sizes I'm getting off the card. So, anyway I use win xp, ps elements 6, and nx.

[petemillis]

I use an old(ish) Compaq Presario S5200UK Win XP PC - 80GB HDD and 1.8GHz processor - but upgraded RAM to 1GB, which has made a massive improvement, and added a second internal DVD rewriter and a Seagate Freeagent external HDD.

 

Software - Canon DPP for post processing, and I use something called PhotoStudio5 that came bundled with my Canon scanner if I need to straighten a wonkey horizon!

 

That's it!

[aginbyte]

Dual processor Mac with 4 gb RAM, Adobe Lightroom, PS CS3, 23" cinema display; laptop is

17" Mac Powerbook with same software, 2gb RAM.

[gordonjb]

I had one of the tech guys at my wifes work build my PC. Athlon 64 X 2 dual core with 4 gig of ram .Three hard drives for back up two 250 g and one 500 g

Running window XP Pro. I use CS2 for processing but have hopes of getting Lightroom in the near future.

[ronald_moravec1]

One just gets tired of getting beat up, but I ditched windows after I found how screwed

up they get over time and require a clean install and then it happens again. Even if you

defrag and all the other stuff.

 

So I have two intel Apples, an iMac and a Macbook ,small one, for travel. Cs3 on both

because I am allowed two installations. I learned on a free copy of elements that came

with my scanner, so it seemed like a natural progression. Nx is nice if you don`t need all

that PS has to offer and it is much cheaper. There are other nice programs to. I am just

wedded to Apple.

[erik_smith1]

I use Macs and Photoshop 7. I will, eventually, upgrade to CS3. I mostly just use curves and

unsharp mask, so I'm not particularly motivated to spend all that money right now.

[john v.]

2000 Vintage G4 Mac (Sawtooth), upgraded to 1.5GHz processor, 1.38GB RAM. 120 Mb and

80 Mb internal drives, cloned to a partitioned 200 Mb external drive (for back-up of the

internals). Photoshop Elements 3.0 and two CRT displays (one calibrated). Yeah, it's old, but

it still handles any task that I throw at it.

[iancoxleigh]

"I usually get told that Macs are the choice of graphics professionals."

 

Brooks Jensen -- the editor of Lenswork -- uses PCs and has some amusing lines he uses when the PC vs. Mac stuff gets thrown up in his face:

 

"Maybe some day when I get myself a Mac I'll finally be able to publish a quality fine art photography periodical."

 

Anyways, I don't really care which system anyone else uses. Whichever works for you and gets out of your way day to day.

 

I chose PCs for the following reasons:

 

Cost: I simply found the premium I paid for a Mac too much. Now, to be fair, the costs of a high-spec quality component PC built by (for example) HP, and a Mac, are about the same. But, I was willing to purchase my recent PC by component and then have it assembled locally -- at about a 20-30% discount.

 

Familiarity: I have used PCs for a while now. I find many of the interface issues of Macs to be very foreign, obnoxious, and non-intuitive (e.g. ejecting a CD by dragging the desktop icon over the trash?! Or, no dual-button mouse/menu interfaces).

 

Future proofing: I know that I am the sort of person who will canabilize my current machine when it is time to upgrade. In fact, I have been slowly upgrading all the time (a component or two every 6-8 months) -- extra memory, additional hard drives, new cooling fan, extra case fan, etc . . . I install of these things myself and I don't know whether any of this is easily possible with a Mac or not. But, I certainly don't hear of any of my friends with macs who do their own hardware upgrading. Nor do I find Mac components as readily available on the computer shop strip in Toronto.

 

Well, those are my reasons. Since the cost issue and the upgrading issues don't apply to laptops, I seriously considered Macs when I was in the market for a laptop. In the end it was the necessity of buying new software that made the decision there.

[dseltzer]

This is really interesting... from this extremely casual survey, it looks to me more people (at least of those who've participated in this thread) us Windows PCs. I've never had any doubt one can do the same work on either platform, and I shun debate about it because I still can't decide which is better, a Toyota or a Honda, a Chevy or a Ford!

 

As for upgrading, I've not yet had a machine I haven't upgraded and worked on. I actually like doing that kind of stuff. My last Mac was a dual 1 GHz G4 that I upgraded to 1.83 GHz, maxed on memory, and I replaced all the fans since that particular model was known as "The Wind Tunnel" for it's obnoxious noise level. It was a great machine that's still sitting here waiting for me to ready it for eBay. I upgraded mainly because I got a fantastic deal I couldn't pass up on a Mac Pro, dual 2.66 Xeons, 4 GB, and 750 GB between two HDs. From the look of the inside (quite sleek, modern and industrial) I'm a bit intimidated and not sure there's much one can do other than add RAM and PCI cards, but neither will be considerations for a long while. The monitor I use is an Apple 23" CD that's just beautiful to my eye.

 

Now, here's the biggest problem of all: none of this great equipment causes me to be any more skillful or creative in my creation of photos! But it does make working with whatever I do shoot fun and easy. I think there's a similar problem with camera gear not conferring photographic ability... sigh.

[jo7hs2]

A homebuilt PC, ready to die, Windows XP, most of my photo stuff is done in GIMP and, believe it or not, some is in Paint!

[myrjola]

I'm mostly using a Linux machine for my photography-related things. On the software side, I mostly use Bibble for RAW-related processing and GIMP for the general photo retouching, although there are of course other applications that I occasionally use (Hugin for panorama creation etc).

 

(Yes, there's more to choose for image processing on Windows/Mac, but so far, the tools available for Linux have been good enough for an amateur like me.)

[tri-x1]

Homebuilt computer with 1.8 gigahertz Athlon, 2 gig memory, four internal and one external drives totally about 500 gigs. Windows XP with all the latest service packs. Photoshop 7.0, Capture NX, Microsoft office Professional 2002. Adobe Indesign CS

 

Used to have a Mac at work but got tired of them changing OS and software incomparability whenever they came out with new model. Now I'm entirely PC.