Which macbook is best for editing photos

Kaskade

Hi,

I need to buy a macbook for editing photos but I have absolutely no idea which one to get. I think 13" is the right size for me but just wondering what people use or what they would recommend. I would love the air as it is so slim but is it any use or do I need the pro. What's the difference between the air the pro and the standard for photo editing, other than the casing?

Thanks

GhostInTheRuins

I'd say you'd find the 13 inch screen a bit small. 15 or 17 inch is a must for photo editing. Whatever you do don't get the glossy screen, matte screen all the way. Don't know about the air or slim models, I have a 17 inch macbook pro and it's brilliant for photo editing.

swingking

Using a 13 inch macbook white which I've had for the last 3 years. It's working perfect with photoshop. I would recommend you upgrade the ram to 4 or 8 gb though.

Hugh_C

Im using a 17" MacBook pro, glossy. Matte gives me inaccurate colour despite advice above. In fact most of my photo editing happens on an external 24" LCD cinema display which I really like. The reason I have the 2 display set up is that it fulfils my needs as a film editor too (FCP yadda yadda)

I agree with other advice above, 13" is too tight, 15 would be ok and 17 is great but portable would not be an adjective which springs to mind. it weighs a ton.

melekalikimaka

i have a 13inch and when at home hook it up to a big screen for editing, best of both worlds. 4gb is the minimum it comes with now so thats loads, i wouldnt bother upgrading from apple you can get the ram for nothing online seperatly. The 13 is perfect for moving about weigh and size wise, the 15 and 17 i find a bit too much hassle. the only downfall is lack of dedicated gfx on the 13inch but tbh, do you really need it for photo editing - no not really.

BrendanRyan

I have a 13 inch MacBook with 4gig ram and 80gig drive... It's a pain! When I upgraded my camera to a 5d mk11, my laptops performance went way down due to the large files, to sum up I'd much prefer if id bought a desktop, if you don't need to be portable that much you get much more bang for your buck with an iMac.

melekalikimaka

BrendanRyan wrote: »

I have a 13 inch MacBook with 4gig ram and 80gig drive... It's a pain! When I upgraded my camera to a 5d mk11, my laptops performance went way down due to the large files, to sum up I'd much prefer if id bought a desktop, if you don't need to be portable that much you get much more bang for your buck with an iMac.

how old is saif laptop, shouldnt really be a slowdown, i have 4gb and it handles d3x/d700 files easy enough. I suspect from the 80gb hd its a macbook and not the pro and its what 5years old? Its still out performing any windows lappy i'm sure but its been around a few years, cant expect miricles, the op is looking for a new laptop not one from 2006

5uspect

I have a late 2010 13" MBP. I find it grand for editing. I've also a 22" Windows PC but I'm happy to use either. The 13" screen isn't restrictive. The new 2011 13" finally got a long awaited upgrade as the whole MBP line moved to Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs. However how Intel's on board graphics compares to nVidia's.

You can add a better spec 2.4GHz Core2Duo CPU to the 13" Air along with a SSD but it'll cost you. The standard 13" MBP will perform a good bit better with it's shiny new CPU.

Also a 15% discount an be had if you are eligible to purchase from their educational store.

Dublin_Gunner

melekalikimaka wrote: »

how old is saif laptop, shouldnt really be a slowdown, i have 4gb and it handles d3x/d700 files easy enough. I suspect from the 80gb hd its a macbook and not the pro and its what 5years old? Its still out performing any windows lappy i'm sure but its been around a few years, cant expect miricles, the op is looking for a new laptop not one from 2006

I cant see a 5 y/o macbook out performing any modern windows lappy tbh. They both now use the same hardware anyway.

Personally, for portability, I'd get a windows lappy with a good 17" screen and save the few €€€ Even a new Dell with 4gb ram and a Core i3 would be more than enough for mobile image editing.

If a macbook is a must, (and assuming the OP uses CS5) I'd have to say go Pro, the dedicated gfx can be used for GPU rendering effects, making a lot of editing a lot faster.

melekalikimaka

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

If a macbook is a must, (and assuming the OP uses CS5) I'd have to say go Pro, the dedicated gfx can be used for GPU rendering effects, making a lot of editing a lot faster.

the speed increase is nominal at best and only works in ps, not lightroom.

sorry i didnt ,ean it would out perform any modern lappy, i dont even know what i was trying to say there tbh

honestly, borrow a mac for a few days, and just get an idea before you make a decision, I assure you, after a few days...it wont be hard

Dublin_Gunner

melekalikimaka wrote: »

the speed increase is nominal at best and only works in ps, not lightroom.

sorry i didnt ,ean it would out perform any modern lappy, i dont even know what i was trying to say there tbh

honestly, borrow a mac for a few days, and just get an idea before you make a decision, I assure you, after a few days...it wont be hard

I personally work on both - an 8 core Mac Pro, and my Quad core home PC.

My PC is faster at a hell of a lot of things, the mac at some (and I love using my mighty mouse ) but I think it's really down to which OS you're more comfortable with.

Performance of high end Mac is comparable to a PC about 2/3 the price. So if cost is of any issue, I'd say go PC (or PC based laptop) as you do get more grunt for your Euro.

If not, chose whichever platform a) you're used to your peers use (so you can get help if required for trouble shooting, software compatibility etc) C) you NEED for whatever reason.

adrianshanahan

Kaskade wrote: »

Hi,

I need to buy a macbook for editing photos

Why would you NEED a macbook for editing photos, I use PC does that mean I'm doing it wrong?

*confused*


Adrian

Ricky91t

I have to I don't think 8GB of ram is needed... I've got a late 2009 White macbook with 4GB of ram which is plenty, I just did a test there and re-sized an images for 3000px wide to nearly 40000px(805 megapixels), It did use about 2.5gb of ram, but who's gonna be using pictures of that size...

Also who wants to pay the apple price for 8GB of DDR3 ram?! I think buy one if you feel you need it, upgrade it yourself and you'll save a bit. If you don't need it then happy days.

Just for the record, I don't think you need a mac, you could get a great spec'd windows PC for a lot less, But they do have a lot of advantages, Mines bullet proof( and not even a pro ) I upgraded to a hybrid HDD and it's seriously quick.

adrianshanahan

Ricky91t wrote: »

they do have a lot of advantages,

Such as?

Ricky91t

adrianshanahan wrote: »

Such as?

Firstly the build quality, Mines been dropped/knocked bumped and yes it has cracks and scratches but If I tried the same thing with my old dell it would be in pieces. Even the cheaper Macbook has an aluminum chassis which makes them very sturdy. For photography sometimes the photographer might bring the laptop to the place they're shooting. It's much better to have peace of mind that's it's gonna' be fine.

Next the battery life, This is the main reason I picked a mac over a windows laptop, It was ( still is maybe ) hard to find a laptop with a real processor(not a crappy ULV thing ) and a decent battery life, Mines still getting 5 hours max after need 400 charges/discharges. My dell got 2.5hours max.

The OS, some hate it some love it, I find it brilliant, a lot of people work on open source stuff ( like window snapping seen in win 7 ) it means you get the stability of the mac os but possibly the features you might miss from windows. I rarely had my windows PC crash but even still my mac never has, As well as that my mac hasn't got slower over time even though I have a lot of programs/date on it. I also have windows 7 dual-booting on it, And although it's only got the basics it's already noticeably slower on boot up.

The trackpad is also brilliant, It makes doing photo editing really easy without the need of an external mouse, A lot of scenarios mean I can't use an external mouse but I don't need to.

With this HDD the performance of my machine is amazing, It's quicker to boot that Macbook pro 15"(top spec'd) and at the moment I can boot my laptop and have Photoshop open in about 30 seconds.

5uspect

The battery life thing is a known problem with Windows. Even dual booting Windows on a Mac sees the battery life drop significantly. Windows 7 is much less power hungry than previous versions of Windows but it's still a bit of a hog.

EDIT: Oh and this sums up the whole Mac vs PC thing for me.

Ricky91t

Also just to add, You could get nearly the same on a windows laptop, for a similar price to a mac, I've no issues with windows, I use it probably everyday. But battery life plays a big part for me and as 5uspect says it's a windows issue which really needed to be resolved.