Best laptop for photo and video...please help!

hi,

I need some advice. I have researched this a little and I do not want to respark a Mac versus PC battle...but, I want to do video and photo work. Am familiar with both PC's and Macs. Already have a PC laptop (which needs an upgrade, hence the post). On trips I visualise using the PC laptop for the photo editing while my new laptop renders...at home it will be the new laptop all the way (I have a separate Samsung monitor to save craning over the laptop monitor). I use Photoshop CS3 for editing my photos, but also have lightroom. My software choice for video will be decided on depending on which laptop I choose (if I went Mac, I presume Final Cut is the no-brainer??). A lot of people just say Mac Book Pro... are they right? I read the earlier post about the better gamuts of some of the pc laptops...how crucial is this? I already have a glossy screen with my current laptop so I have gone through the transition from a matt screen already. Of course cost is important...I am running a business I do not want to spend money for the sake of it and I am aware that a cheaper PC would give me more money for good software...but then would you buy a cheaper model of camera to afford more expensive lenses (complete side issue, please ignore).

Any help, light, advice you can shed I would greatly appreciate. I know there are a whole host of other issues such as battery life, screen size, etc. But if anyone could point me towards what they believe, in their honest opinion, would be a good laptop for my needs, I would be very thankful.

I have a 15.4" laptop from powenotebooks.com. works great with photos.

the new mac book, fully loaded is very attractive for it's size and weight and power.

I would compare costs of both.

I personally would not go larger than 15.4 or smaller than 13" screens.

hope that helps.

The latest Lenovo W700 seems to be taylor made for travel photography. One of its flagship features is the embedded screen calibration

http://laptoplover.blogspot.com/2008/11/le...700-review.html

that being said I love the MacBookPro ...

I'm faced with the same dilemma, and keep wavering between a MacBook Pro and a Lenovo model.

I've heard and read good arguments for both (Macs being close to bulletproof, with great graphics, to the cost savings and software choices for a PC-based machine), but haven't pulled the trigger yet, as I fear leaving something out of the decision equation.

Perhaps we'll both find some inspiration soon -- I've got to pick a machine before starting a new class in February.

Good luck,

Mark

I've worked with Pc's for years for photo and video editing and rendering etc. I've recently been working with a Macbook pro and i will never go back. It is near impossible to crash the new macbook pro and for this reason alone it stands head and shoulders above the most comparible Pc. The new screen is fantastic also.

The w700 is a 17 inch laptop weighing almost 9 pounds.

a bit heavy to travel with.

small, light, big hard drive, lot of memory, and preferrably one named after a fruit.

hi,

 

I need some advice. I have researched this a little and I do not want to respark a Mac versus PC battle...but, I want to do video and photo work. Am familiar with both PC's and Macs. Already have a PC laptop (which needs an upgrade, hence the post). On trips I visualise using the PC laptop for the photo editing while my new laptop renders...at home it will be the new laptop all the way (I have a separate Samsung monitor to save craning over the laptop monitor). I use Photoshop CS3 for editing my photos, but also have lightroom. My software choice for video will be decided on depending on which laptop I choose (if I went Mac, I presume Final Cut is the no-brainer??). A lot of people just say Mac Book Pro... are they right? I read the earlier post about the better gamuts of some of the pc laptops...how crucial is this? I already have a glossy screen with my current laptop so I have gone through the transition from a matt screen already. Of course cost is important...I am running a business I do not want to spend money for the sake of it and I am aware that a cheaper PC would give me more money for good software...but then would you buy a cheaper model of camera to afford more expensive lenses (complete side issue, please ignore).

 

Any help, light, advice you can shed I would greatly appreciate. I know there are a whole host of other issues such as battery life, screen size, etc. But if anyone could point me towards what they believe, in their honest opinion, would be a good laptop for my needs, I would be very thankful.

I am a big Apple Fan and right now on a trip with a MacBook Pro 15" I picked up a couple of weeks ago (also have a 17" MacBook Pro, but wanted to shave a couple of pounds off for travel since I carry photo and video gear also.) The 17 inch was very good for both and so far the 15" is working fine. This is the last generation before the ones just recently released that I got refurbed. Loaded up with all the Apple Apps from the Final Cut Studio, all the Adobe CS4 Master collection and also Lightroom, plus some other things. Runs fine so far. FWIW I did alot of video editing on the 17" (2.16 Ghz model) in the past and it did fine. Not as good as the Octo core tower but it performed better than my older Mac Towers (Dual 2.0 ghz) which I still use.

You may want to look to see if the Apple Store has refurbs (and they also reduced the price of the last generation MacBook Pros by a good amoutn.) Last I looked the 15 inch model was $1650 or so (New not refreshed) ...

Not sure how much you have invested in PC software which could be an issue for you or what you are doing with the photos and video. The iApps come preinstalled and Aperture is a great program (similar to Lightroom) which could get you started and the entire Final Cut Studio is about $1,299. If you have alot of high end software for the PC maybe moving over is not worth it, but if the only major software is Photoshop CS3, could be worthwhile.

I work alongside a full time camera crew (TV) and when they are not using the full monty editing suite in the back of a lorry/ back at their studio they use the Macbook Pro and either final cut pro or an avid system, depending on their needs. I have just (This year) converted to Macbook Pro myself and will not get another non apple laptop. Having said that my work station when I am not on the road is a PC so I work with both.

Hope this helps.

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your replies... Tjsnapper - how do you find juggling between the PC and Mac? Are there lots of swear words involved or is it ok? The Lenovo looks great but BIG, although built in calibration sounds very nice. I have the CS2 suite and Lightroom plus use Dreamweaver and Jalbum for my website. Imovie HD should do for now, until work justifies Final Cut Pro. The photo processing I do is managing my RAW images and the odd bit of photoshop or indesign layout work for brochures / websites, etc. I just checked out the local Apple shop and now that the USA / AUD exchange rate has swung against us the Macbook Pro 15 inch is sitting at A$3,999

Im in the same boat as tjsnapper. My laptop is a Macbook Pro. As many others here I can highly recommend it. I use it at home as well, hooked up to a 24" display. But if I want to do photo/video editting at home, I have a Vista machine that is quite a bit faster than my MBP. I dont have any problems switching between the 2. Once in a while I try to use Quicksilver (a mac tool) on Vista and start swearing, but i'll live

I am using the Lenovo W500 and loving it.

Now that I've switched from Windoze to a Mac's, I can say with absolute 100% conviction, I hate both.

I can find negatives on either system, but I'm committed to Final Cut Pro, so the Mac is staying. My PC is still next to it, since my Mac won't receive and send e-mail for some reason no one can figure out. Plus I've still got PC software I insist on running. My desk is a mess.

Now that I've switched from Windoze to a Mac's, I can say with absolute 100% conviction, I hate both.

 

I can find negatives on either system, but I'm committed to Final Cut Pro, so the Mac is staying. My PC is still next to it, since my Mac won't receive and send e-mail for some reason no one can figure out. Plus I've still got PC software I insist on running. My desk is a mess.

i'd recommend if you really need windows stuff, get yourself a copy of vmware fusion that's what i have done and it works great!

i even converted my work windows notebook to my mbp with a vmware image of our standard desktop software (and we use some very strange stuff) and it works perfectly and even connects to our super duper secure wifi network.

as for your mail sending problem, can't really say, i have no real issues with mail.app, but if you are doing pop3 type stuff there should be a solution i would think.

Hi Everyone,

 

Thank you for your replies... Tjsnapper - how do you find juggling between the PC and Mac? Are there lots of swear words involved or is it ok?

Swearing? , not really, a few visits to google with questions like, Why is there a black box round parts of Safari?, but fortunately some poor soul has gone through the mill before me so the answer is there in cyberspace for most things. The basics are pretty much the same esp if you are using photoshop etc. I recon that there is a window of uselessness that lasts about a couple of days but the interface is great once you get used to it. Good luck with it.