Hardware ??

[Walter.fr]

Hi all

I am a new user in this forum, and want to say hello to everybody.

I am changing my NIKON F5 equipment to the Canon EOS D1s, and my question is more hardware related. Which kind of computer Hardware would be necessary to edit, browse the taken pics. I know that there are many differnt formats ( RAW, jpeg a.s.o) which are quite huge in terms of size.

Currently I am using a Sony Vaio notebook, Centrino 1,5 Mhz, 1 gb RAM in my office network. As well a old Mac G3 is available and some other P4 workstations.

I am thinking as well to use the HP color laserjet 4600 for printouts on coated paper - is this a good solution or should I go for a inkjet printer ?

All your advises / recommendations will be highly appreciated

Nice regards from France

Walter

[stduc]

The fastest biggest system you can afford is the only answer.

Pictures don't eat too much disk space in .jpg format but if you have any plans to start editing videos you will need lots. I have consumed 100 GB just editing a 1 and 1/2 hour video. It will only consume about 1Gb when completed - but on the way! Wow!

For pictures you still don't want to be waiting while an operation completes or a picture saves/loads. So...

The bigger the screen the better.

1Gb of RAM should be considered a minimum.

You also need fast hard disks and a fast CPU. 6 months ago I build myself an Athlon 2000 with 1GB of RAM 490Gb of disk in a raid array - it's only just enough. I wish I had specced for 2Gb of RAM and waited until I could afford a fater CPU. But then - I never thought prices would fall so far or so fast.

[PaulB]

Sorry stduc but Walter asked about equipment for use with the 1Ds, not for videao editing.

However the notebook should handle the image processing if it has enough Hard Disk space - you could add an external drive of (say) 120Gb to store your images and swop between computers, USB2/Firewire connection (Sony should have Firewire?)

As for the printer, I would budget for a photo inkjet - I use an Epson 1290 (for A3) but the A4 versions may suit you better. There again the Canon printers are very good too - and faster.

Post back if you need more information.

[Walter.fr]

@ Paul

Thank you very much for your reply and assistance. You're right the Sony Z1 has a fire wire - and Harddisk space is about 60 GB, remaining space is available on one of the servers. (as well, my plan is to store the RAW files on CDR's).

What is the advantage of a photo ink jet printer against a laser? printout quality ?

kind regards from France

Walter

[PaulB]

Hi from Yorkshire Walter.

Seems you have the hardware then.
As for inkjet Vs Laser; well a laser printer works differently in that it coats a drum with coloured/black toner and then fuses this onto the paper by heating.
An inkjet squirts tiny droplets of ink from a series of nozzles to build up the image as the printhead passes over the paper.
A laser normally has a limited resolution compared to and inkjet - especially a proper photo inkjet - and thus does not really resolve very fine detail as well. A laser also cannot use glossy photo paper as the heat needed tends to fuse the glossy coating onto the drum - very expensive.........you are limited to normal office type papers.
A photo inkjet can therefore resolve photographic detail on glossy paper and gives a subtlty of tne tone that even the best lasers can only hint at. And you can use lots of fine art papers in an inkjet - rag, satin, matt, canvas etc.
For photos the laser is OK for quick volume proofing but you need a photo inkjst to get the quality which the 10D is capable of.

Hope this helps. Glad your English is better than my French!

All the best.