Laptop for Photoediting

[Joerg Rockenberger]

One aspect which has kept me so far from spending more time on PP is an inadequate laptop (13in, 60GB HD, AMD 800MHz, 1 GB Memory). But I am planning to learn more about and practice PP over the winter and hence I am looking into an upgraded system.

I am tempted by the 17in Macbook Pro given the general unanimous positive feedback regarding its display quality and utility for photoediting. I've also seen someone using one on a flight and the image quality was absolutely stunning even when viewed from an angle.

But being a lifelong Wintel user I am hesitant with regard to the learning curve and worried that this will present a major hurdle and barrier given my limited time. And then there is of course the price close to $3000 which arguably would improve my photos much more if invested in lenses (now only the 400F5.6) and/or workshops.

An announcement which caught my attention was the Lenovo ThinkPad W700 which is designed and being marketed for photoediting work. But again the price is around $3000 and ironically it is said to be equipped with a so-so TN panel display (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4632).

Hence, I'd appreciate recommendations regarding Wintel laptop models with good displays and price of less than $2000. Is there a website which reviews computers/laptops from the perspective of photoediting? Plenty of that can be found for gaming which is not of interest to me.

Thanks in advance. JR

[Amy DeStefanis]

John,

I was a lifelong Microsoft user, until Vista pushed me over the edge. I have the 17" Mac Book Pro (I think it's the 17"....), and I LOVE it. I have the Time Capsule Wireless Router/500G backup drive, and now I'm doing more because I can sit anywhere and work on photos and learn new things on BPN. Not stuck in the office anymore.

I'm not sure if it means anything, but I did the color IQ test on my Mac (never calibrated the monitor), and scored a 4 (out of 100 - 0 is best).... The test is in another thread in this forum, if you haven't seen it.

One mistake I made with a previous Dell Laptop was to get the super-sharp GLOSSY screen. Oh - it was terrible. Whatever you do, don't get a glossy monitor. Seems like a no-brainer, but I got sold on the hype about the sharpness (as long as you're in a dim room with no reflection).

The Apple store, if you have one nearby, really does have people available who will walk you thru the features that will be new to you. They also have tutorials on their site just for people switching from PC.

I have a Dell Flat Screen 21" monitor in the office, and keep meaning to hook this up to it, but just haven't found a real need....

Good luck with the decision.

Amy D.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Amy, thanks for the quick response. Yes, I found your postings earlier this year when I searched the forum today and thought it encouraging. What hickups did you encounter in the transition?

Stupid question: are Apple machines compatible with generic Linksys 802.11g wireless DSL routers or do you need to change to their wireless routers?

JR

[Amy DeStefanis]

I believe that they are compatible - in fact, my wireless HP printer is 802.11g, and I can print directly to it over air, or through the router... (if that tells you anything). Also, I have an XP machine and Vista laptop using it as well.... I also have a 2nd 500G backup (Freeagent) on it. I don't think you would have a problem.

At first, I had a problem seeing the Freeagent drive. I had to do 2 things: 1, turn on the ability to see shared network drives. (Utilities thing - something I had to get a "Genius" to show me how to find.) 2nd, I had to hook the Freeagent up to the Mac directly (USB), and use Mac's Disk Utilities so that it uses its file structure. After that, it was able to see it through the network.

I also had a glitch with the backup "Time Machine" performs the backups. After a patch was installed for Time Capsule, suddenly, it was crashing (the Mac) whenever it tried to back up - or when I tried to go into the Time Machine software. I finally deleted the backup file, and performed a whole new backup, and this fixed it, and it has been fine ever since.

Other than those - just learning keyboard shortcuts, etc.... I'm kind of glad I don't really know how to troubleshoot it, though - because I will go to the Apple store instead of spending my weekends troubleshooting problems.

There doesn't appear to be a supported version of Nikon Capture NX for the Mac. I use Lightroom and CS3. But I really liked Capture NX. That might have changed since I looked. So, if you use that, check out whether or not it's supported. I can install and use it on my Mac (there is a downloadable version on Nikon's site), but it is not possible to update in-camera settings on it.

When looking for some other fun things (like Actions), I have found a few roadblocks because they are only available for PC.... I can't recall any specifically that really annoyed me, though.

I realize I didn't say anything about Wintel or Lenovo - because I don't have experience with either.

Hope this helps.

Amy

[allanrube]

There doesn't appear to be a supported version of Nikon Capture NX for the Mac. I use Lightroom and CS3. But I really liked Capture NX. That might have changed since I looked. So, if you use that, check out whether or not it's supported. I can install and use it on my Mac (there is a downloadable version on Nikon's site), but it is not possible to update in-camera settings on it.
Amy

There has been versions of NX for the Mac since its inception. Both Mac and Windows are version 2.

[Doug Brown]

Another vote for the MacBook Pro laptop. I own the 15" and run both CS3 and Lightroom 2 on it without a problem.

[Amy DeStefanis]

There has been versions of NX for the Mac since its inception. Both Mac and Windows are version 2.

Interesting. I have an email from Michael H, at Nikon Technical Support from 5/13/08 that reads:

The Nikon Capture NX software is not supported on Mac OS 10.5 Leopard at this time

He directed me to a link on their bulletin boards where I could download a copy of it, but continued to say that it was not supported.

I was having problems downloading it (their servers were very slow), and I asked about that, and got this response from Jason M. on 5/18....

Thank you for updating us. When you click on the link provided for our software you are downloading a trial / full version that can be unlocked with the keycode you already purchased. Even though it is not listed as fully compatible we can still try to get it to work. At this time we only have one place to download it from.

I guess there's a difference between having it, and supporting it....

Amy D.

[Amy DeStefanis]

I went into Capture NX this morning to see if there are any updates (the updater was not working in the past), and it managed to download the utility for updating correctly. SO, I checked for a new version, which, it said was 1.3.4 - so I told it to install it. After 2 hours (!!!) downloading 55M, it hung up. I waited for a half hour more to see if it would finish, but the downloader was frozen. I killed it, and tried to restart the download, but instead of starting where it had left off, it started all over. Forget it! :(:confused:

This was the same kind of problem I had downloading version 1.3.1 - their servers are unbelievably slow (download rates lower than 50K/sec). For any other source, I've been able to pull down 100M in just a minute or so.

I'm going to look for version 2.0, as allanrube suggested. We'll see how it goes.

Not sure if this is helpful to you in your decision about Mac, but here it is: A Day In the Life of a Mac User.....

:)

Amy


UPDATE: I found Capture NX 2 on Nikon's website, and downloaded it. (68Megs only took about 45 seconds - unlike the 55Megs from whatever server the older version was on). I installed it, and when I tried to put in the product key from my prior version of the software, it would not take it. So, even though I purchased this last year, I will have to buy it again for the Mac, I guess, or just continue using the "unsupported" version....

[allanrube]

I had no trouble downloading NX2 or updating the 1.3x on my Mac. It did not ask for my old serial number, but I have heard it does in many instances. I have no idea why (my 1.x version came with the D300.)

If you know what is unsupported in Leopard please tell me. It must be a feature I do not use as I have had problems on my Mac Pro.
10.5.5 with NX 2.1.0

[Amy DeStefanis]

I had no trouble downloading NX2 or updating the 1.3x on my Mac.

Do you mean that you downloaded 2.1 as an upgrade from 1.3x? Do you know where you found that download? I could not find something like that - only the retail download. When I installed the NX2 version, it did not find the 1.3x version - it installed beside it - didn't upgrade it.

If you know what is unsupported in Leopard please tell me.

In Capture NX on my XP machine, when I look at the Camera Settings pull-out I can edit them.
I could not do this in Capture NX 1.3x. It appears that I can in NX2.0 . But now I have really gotten used to Lightroom. I had given up on Capture NX at some point, but I might look at it again now.

John, we've hijacked your Thread!!! :eek: I hope you're getting SOMETHING out of it! :)

Amy D.

[Rene A]

John,

If you want to buy "wintel" this is the only route I would go today..forget HP DELL


www.PowerNotebooks.com

check them out here:


www.resellerratings.com

[Joerg Rockenberger]

John, we've hijacked your Thread!!! :eek: I hope you're getting SOMETHING out of it! :)

Amy D.

Well, I've asked if you had encountered hiccups. You did. :o

I find it actually remarkable how many reports there are about problems with MACs. I guess I had bought into Apple's marketing hype of superior and infallible machines. :confused: Just the general recommendation to purchase Apple Care suggests that there are indeed systematic problems.

Ironically, I've used and/or owned 4 or 5 Fujitsu laptops since 2000. And the only serious problems I've encountered occurred upon me spilling wine or coffee over them...:eek:

JR

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Renate, what kind of system did you purchase from them? Why do you advise against HP or Dell?

JR

[Joerg Rockenberger]

I visited an Apple store today and took a look at the 15in Macbook Pro. Overall I have to admit I was underwhelmed by the display quality. Especially, the strong dependence of the colors on the vertical viewing angle surprised me. If I am sitting in front of my laptop at home and move my head up and down I don't see any changes. But I most surely did at the Apple store. I may go back and bring my own laptop to compare side-by-side.

Then, I found it also somewhat annoying that most often when I tried to grab the horizontal scroll bar in Safari the application launcher at the bottom of the screen would pop up and make it difficult/impossible to do so. But that's most likely just user conditioning. The vertical scrolling with the two finger swipe on the touchpad is surely cool.

To the converts: why do you feel the Apples to be superior?

Thanks, JR

[Rene A]

Renate, what kind of system did you purchase from them? Why do you advise against HP or Dell?

JR

HP Pavillion d9500 Intel with 2 HD's & Vista Ultimate 64 & 4 GB ram I have been using Vista Ultimate for 2 years it's very stable.

When HP & Dell laptops work they are great BUT when you need service..is like road to ****.

I recently bought a custom HP after only 2 months the screen turned black (it was the inverter) when I got it back the pc was so dirty greasy and had metal pieces stuck on the LCD & only 1 latch would lock when it closed. Sent it back the HD fell out latch was broken the srews where stripped.

Dell is not any better the service is outsourced.

My son recently bought a notebook from the above URL it's a little bit more money BUTTTTT The service is unbeatable!

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

John -
I had a 17" MacBook Pro - found it too heavy to take along as carry-on with all the other camera gear. Also some WIndows based software wasn't fully compatible on Mac. You have to ask yourself how much actual Photoshop editing you're going to do on your laptop. I leave it for the desltop back home.
I've been using the LeNovo X 61S for about a year. Very light (under 2 lbs) , sturdy, compact and no problems so far. Although screen is smaller - more than adequate adequate for basic viewing, sorting and storing images while on the road. You would quickly find the W700 too heavy. For what it cost, figure I will upgrade to a newer faster , lighter machine in another year.
With LeNovo - if you ever need it, servicing can become an issue.
I'd vote for a fast light laptop - leave your PS editing for your desktop.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Renate, thanks providing feedback re your experience with HP customer service. I'll look into the website you recommended.

Peter, thanks for sharing your experience with the Lenovo. All my laptops in the past years were in the ultraslim (<13in) range and I totally agree with you that the 17in MBP is challenging the concept of portability. But I prefer to have only one (portable) system and and want to be able to do photoediting on it. The small screen size and memory limitations (both HD and RAM) of my current system make this difficult.

Actually, what battery lifetime do people get from their 15in and 17in MBPs? Both, photoediting and watching DVD?

Thanks, JR

[Amy DeStefanis]

Hi John,

Well, I have to admit that I've had fewer problems with the Mac than I had switching from XP to Vista..... I've never had an application crash for no apparent reason (Time Machine was an anomaly). If I had never encountered Vista, I probably would still have a PC. What infuriated me the most about Dell was that at the time I purchased my Vista machine, XP was not an option for the OS. Then, as soon as I realized my mistake, consumer complaints had forced Dell to offer XP as an option, but Microsoft would not supply a copy of XP to "downgrade" to.

My husband is still using the Vista machine - he doesn't do photo processing, etc.... But it takes forever to boot up and shut down, compared to the Mac. I've never had to think "when in doubt, reboot" since I've had my Mac.

Sounds like you're doing some good research. I'm sure whatever you choose, you'll be well informed.

Amy D.

[Maurice Allen]

I have just recently got an iMac 24" and love it, am running CS4 without an issue! I'm forced to use a PC at work but for home MAC all the way!!!