best laptop for photography? [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

MagikTrik

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 11:25

You need to post some more specifics. For example do you need it primarily for image editing when away from home base or will you just need it to download memory cards, review images & do some tagging/keywording/etc?
If it will always be with you, like mine is, I suggest getting a 13" or 15" screen but if you need to do image editing very often than I would suggest something with a 17".

Your best bet is go to NewEgg's website http://www.newegg.com & look at laptops, from there you can narrow things done by price, CPU, size, etc.

*Edit:*
As for the Mac's I would make sure your comfortable with them if you've been a long time PC user. I bought a MacBook for school & photography, used it for 2 days & then it sat under my bed for almost 2 months before I tried using it again & then I gave it to my brother so he would give my Dad his old laptop. I'm sure their amazing but if your a "set in your ways" kinda person like I am then I'd reccomend a PC for sure..... change is evil.

By the way I use a Gateway MX6455 in the field. It's not exactly a processing animal but it's a nice size (15.2" or whatever 15" widescreens are), light & was able to be well calibrated. For simple Lightroom 2 work it's beautiful but when I start opening big images in Photoshop & adding layers it can bog down some.

**Edit:** By the way I would kill for that new ThinkPad, I've been dreaming about it since I saw the first preview awhile back...

xenxen

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 11:26

I would prefer to buy an IBM Thinkpad if you not like Mac. What's the display size you want?

Logan2010

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 13:01

okay, sorry for not being specific guys... i've never owned a laptop before and i'm not the biggest computer guru. anyway. i would like a fairly large high def screen. around a 15". i've seen talk of the processor has to be very good.. and the video card i think? .. i will be using it for storage and photoshop primarily. along with some school things. so far i really like the sony vaio. but there may be things that i dont know about it and i've never personally had experience with it.

xenxen

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 13:37

The video card doesn't matter so much. It should be a good cart, but not a high-end card. Yes, the processor should be a fast one. By the way, what do you want to pay? The W700 is the best to use with photoshop but i think its oversized. I know only Thinkpads. With 15" screens you can take the R or the T series. The T's are better. They have more stability better devices and are for rough use. The R's are consumer notebooks for everyone.

Logan2010

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 13:44

i've heard alot about the intel core 2 duo is the best for photography. i dont know the truth of this though. i have a sony vaio i'm looking at . its full hd, core 2 duo, 15' screen. .. its around 1200

xr_oc_kx

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 13:49

+1 for ThinkPad T series. They're the best when it comes to performance vs. portabilty. I own a T43 (old model) and I use CS3 on it with no trouble whatsoever. (Eventho, I think I have a very high configuration).

Another thing you want to consider is the screen. The ThinkPads sadly are not the best. The colors seem off from time to time, and probably not bright enough. The best ones I think are from Sony and Toshiba, with their Xbrite or TruBrite or wahtever.

I've had experiences with both and IMHO the Sony's are the best of breed if you can cope with the price, and Toshiba's are among the worst, especially concerning build quality and softwares.

Also getting a used laptop isn't too bad (mine was used). Get an older high-end model of Sony VAIO or ThinkPad T and you should still be OK ;)

Phillyguy

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 16:37

personally i have a macbook from about two years ago and it is awesome. i also use a passport external drive for storage and easily run programs off of it, like aperture or lightroom. i like mac for the simplicity of them plus it is very compact and again simple to use. they can be alittle expensive but you can def. get a previous gen. macbook for about 1k. i know that the new notebooks are gonna be awesome but i am not switching anytime soon as mine is fine and is 2 years old and works fine. another plus is that all the canon software works with mac as well as pc.

If you aren't familiar with Mac, then my vote would be for the Lenovo Laptops. they are quality comps and are durable beyond all get out. So my vote is for a macbook.

Phillyguy

hurley1718

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 17:03

Here's my 2 cents.

I like both PC and Macs (strange huh) but here is what I would do (and did). I like the compactness of a smaller laptop for portability but its not the best thing for viewing your images on. If your on a budget and don't need crystal clear screens or color calibrated monitors then here is my suggestion.

Pick up a 13" - 14" laptop from Apple, Dell, HP or Sony. At this point in technology even the cheapest laptop is pretty quick, add at least 2GB of RAM , buy a nice 21"-23" widescreen display and then get a full size keyboard and mouse. You might even have enough left over to pick up an external HD for more storage space.

When your at home just plug in your nice big monitor, keyboard and mouse to your laptop and you now have a full size editing station.

After doing a quick search on costco.com I paired an HP Pavilion laptop (15.4" display, 2.0GHz with 2GB of RAM) at $659 and a Samsung 22" widescreen display at $259. Your just over $1000 so you can pickup your keyboard and mouse and external storage. This is just an example of what you can put together and you will have to decide what you want/need. But if you need any help shoot me an email and we can talk about it some more if you like.

Good luck in your search.

Mystwalker

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 17:26

Not sure W700 is that good of a deal. The "Quadro" graphic cards are designed primarily for CAD type stuff. Photoshop is more mainstream. PLUS I could not tell what CPU/RAM is in W700.
< just reread that W700 write-up :) That 8MB RAM is nice, but no mention of CPU. If you are interested in W700, look into Quadro series card. I will not be surprised if for price of W700, you can put together a top of the line Dell - probably not with 8MB RAM though. Also, you will not have all the extra monitor thingies offered by W700. >

When you say "photography use", I'm assuming you want to use Lightroom II and CS3 (CS4?). I know Photoshop will take as much memory as you can give it and demand more. To date, I have not seen a laptop allow more then 4MB - you will need Vista 64 to recognize 4MB. This is a "waste" because you pay extra for Vista 64 just to get that one extra MB - 32 bit OS will recognize 3MB RAM. I recently returned an HP with Vista 64 and 4MB RAM because I did not see much of a speed increase between that and 3MB 32-bit OS.

The graphics card is also important. Some laptops come with integrated graphic card that uses onboard RAM. Others (more expensive) have graphic cards that only use RAM on card itself. Since PS likes memory, you do not want your graphic card to share RAM with it - at least I do not :)

I find Lenovo laptops (was IBM) to be quite good and pricing is very competitive. If you want more configuration control, go for Dell - I think they are a bit more expensive. If you want something right off shelf, I think HP has many many (too many) different configurations. Of course, there are other brands (Acer, Toshiba) which I've not mentioned because I am not familiar with them.

A system I've been playing around on Lenovo's config use T9400 (CPU), Vista Home Premium (did not have Vista 64 offered), 15.4 WSXGA screen, NVidia GeForce 9300M, 3MB RAM, 160GB (5400rpm) HD (no 7200rpm offered), DVD Recordable drive ... total $1258. You can get a faster system from Dell because they offer better graphic cards, but you will be paying much more also.

Logan2010

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 23:04

Eaton Photos

20th of October 2008 (Mon), 23:45

I would recommend going for a Refurbished Macbook Pro. I am a Windows & Mac user. For running CS3, & overall ease of use, I would buy a Mac. I use them at school, and that helped influence my decision. This is the model (http://store.apple.com/us-hed/product/FB133LL/A), I would recommend. For editing on a mobile computer, a non-glossy option, is going to better serve you, than the glossy options.

Roy Webber

21st of October 2008 (Tue), 01:17

If I could suggest: Dell XPS M1330 and/or m1530. I have a D830 (latitude) with the wuxga 15.4" screen.. It's great but its a bit heavy to be carrying around with you very often.
I have the XPS 1330 and very impressed.

Big WIll

21st of October 2008 (Tue), 11:09

I use a Macbook Pro 2.5Ghz and use it for all the CS3 package. However sometimes wish I had the 4GB Ram inserted and not 2GB.

tin.risky

21st of October 2008 (Tue), 16:05

I've been using a PC since I was 10 and I just bought a Mac about a year ago. I'll never go back to a PC if I can help it. I have a black Macbook and it runs CS3 pretty well. The screen is amazing for viewing photos. iPhoto is also a very useful/easy to use app that's included with the Macbooks for photo viewing/organizing and for minor editing. The new ones have just come out and you can pick one up for under $1500. I'll be upgrading to the new ones as soon as I have some extra cash available.

edit: I have the 2.2GHz version with 2gb of RAM. Never had a problem running CS3 (photoshop and indesign).

ben_r_

21st of October 2008 (Tue), 16:54

+3 on the Thinkpad T series. I have been wanting to get one of those for a long time now. Just dont use a laptop enough to justify the cost.

xMClass

21st of October 2008 (Tue), 20:32

I use a IBM/Lenovo T41 Thinkpad, it does the job.

daveuns

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 15:16

I've got a Dell Studio 15 that I use for multiple purposes including editing RAW, JPG and TIFF images in CS3 and it flies. It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4Gb of RAM and a 250GB hard disk. Screen does 1280 x 800 (could be better) but it does the job.

Oh and after 6 mths of lurking I've finally posted something!

rovers_Andy

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 15:20

macbook pro

HSK

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 15:24

The screen on Sony's are usually very good.

tolive

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 15:50

Well, I think "if you could afford" thing might be Macbook Pro

if you could afford it, you should consider looking at the lenovo Thinkpad W700

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0808/08081204thinkpad.asp

snails

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 15:54

I would encourage you to pursue a MacBook Pro, or a Dell or Lenovo.
I would discourage you from looking at Sonys. For reasons not entirely objective, I don't like them.

ALT1MATE

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 15:56

I'm actually going to pose this question to the folks of the Indecent Exposure podcast. Specifically, I'm concerned about the monitor calibration of the stock laptop screen. I have an entry-level Toshiba Satellite and the colors are way off. So much so that I have the desktop extended to my 22" Acer monitor. This way I can I find the median color correctness of my photos.

The new LED screen on the new Macbook looks like it fits the bill so that's my first choice. Can anyone chime in on the monitor calibration of laptops?

MagikTrik

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 17:18

I would encourage you to pursue a MacBook Pro, or a Dell or Lenovo.
I would discourage you from looking at Sonys. For reasons not entirely objective, I don't like them.

I would just like to second that. With the exception of professional video cameras & televisions I would never buy another Sony "anything" in my life. I owned a Sony laptop & desktop & not only is EVERYTHING proprietary but service is horrible (tech support starts by assuming 2 things. 1) You did something wrong & 2) You have the intelligence of a 6 year old) & everything with the Sony name is just more expensive (kinda like Canon & Nikon but waaaaay worse, think Alienware without the actual quality).

Quad

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 21:35

I hate laptops for photography but when I travel I use a Thinkpad X series tablet. I have a X41 usually, but will grab the wife's X61 for a short trip when we are travelling together. At least I get to use a pen.

I put a SSD in the X61 recently and that helps it along a bit but the X41 uses a 1.8 inch drive.

Calibration. I use they eye one display2. I have done the X41 and a sony VIAO I used once. I don't like Sony stuff but it had a profile already that was as good as I got. The X41 was also very close already but had no profile predone.

Bob_A

22nd of October 2008 (Wed), 22:05

I use a Dell Inspiron 1720 with 2.5 GHz Core2Duo and 4 GB RAM (believe it only uses 3). It has an excellent 17" screen that gives accurate colours after calibrating with a Spyder3Pro. I've been using it for several months and I'm very happy with it.

Not sure if it's still possible, but if you have a choice I wouldn't bother with Vista if Dell will supply with XP Pro. I have Vista Ultimate and it works perfectly, but I have to tell you it was a pain tweaking the system to my satisfaction. XP Pro just seems to have a lot less "bloat" to me.

mikeassk

23rd of October 2008 (Thu), 00:51

Whatever you get just get something with a fair amount of precessing power and ram.

New is better than used.

I hate PC's. Personal preferences.

Roadrunnr

23rd of October 2008 (Thu), 11:05

I also recommend the MacBook Pro (refurb one are far cheaper)... go for the previous generation one, not the one that was just released - to save money.

khanhfat

23rd of October 2008 (Thu), 21:09

I'm not a big fan of mac hardware but their screen quality is top notch for photography.

xhack

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 05:40

I use an old Mac PowerBook - G4 1.67Gh 17" screen with an 'adequate' 1.5Gb of RAM. It's slimline (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.67_17.html)and has plenty of screen real estate.

But it is bitch-heavy and unwieldy to carry around.

The screen is really excellent and impresses clients who want to see their images at reasonable size. I have no experience of the more modern Intel processor machines, but they do seem to have a decent rep. I'll use my present machine until it breaks.

René Damkot

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 08:17

The screen is really excellent and impresses clients who want to see their images at reasonable size.

The screen is big, I'll give you that. But it's nowhere near "excellent" IMO. "Usable": yes. Only just.
I have a 12" PB G4 (one generation before yours), a friend of mine has the 15" (same generation as yours), a few photographers I work for have older and newer 17" PB G4 and MBP's.

MBP is better, but still; any decent desktop screen blows them away. (All laptops are calibrated by the way).

canonnoob

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 08:31

I have a Gateway M series and personally I love it... It works well for me...

freebird

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 08:53

I have a Sony FZ180E laptop. Its a very bright screen with plenty of ram and a good graphic card.

I would have bought a desktop PC , but I needed something to take on location.

I am happy with the Sony except I find the battery life in not good at all, 1 hour.

xhack

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 10:15

The screen is big, I'll give you that. But it's nowhere near "excellent" IMO. "Usable": yes. Only just.
I have a 12" PB G4 (one generation before yours), a friend of mine has the 15" (same generation as yours), a few photographers I work for have older and newer 17" PB G4 and MBP's.

MBP is better, but still; any decent desktop screen blows them away. (All laptops are calibrated by the way).
It is subjective; I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree (what's not to like about a non-glossy 1440x900 native resolution?). But I will agree about a decent desktop screen - I have the Cinema 23"

Tony-S

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 10:28

The best laptop for photography is the one that allows you to do your work and also be able to drive a 24" (or larger) external display at its native resolution in dual-monitor mode.

samanan

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 10:55

Make sure that you get as much RAM as possible, a minimum of 2GB. Also, if you are going with a PC, make sure that you get an Intel Core 2 Duo. It makes a difference. Another thing to keep in mind is matching the processor speed with the speed of the RAM will improve your PC performance. E.g. if the processor speed is 667 MHz, then make sure that your RAM is 667 MHz too.

It is important to pick a mid level to higher end video card and a WUXGA screen. It may run you an additional $200 more, but it is worth it.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1501 with the above mentioned features. It is fairly reliable and solid, and most importantly reasonably priced (about $700). You can go to the Dell website and find some good deals there. One minor quibble about Dells, they tend to be heavier than the competition.

Tony-S

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 11:00

Another thing to keep in mind is matching the processor speed with the speed of the RAM will improve your PC performance. E.g. if the processor speed is 667 MHz, then make sure that your RAM is 667 MHz too.

This doesn't make sense. Are you talking about the bus speed?

It is important to pick a mid level to higher end video card and a WUXGA screen. It may run you an additional $200 more, but it is worth it.

Most photo apps don't require a high-dollar video card since most of their functions use the cpu, not the gpu. There are a few routines in CS4 that leverage the gpu for acceleration, but spending that much more probably won't get you much more performance. What's more important is the ability to drive an external display since virtually all laptop displays are 6-bit TN panels (and more often glossy these days).

MaxxuM

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 13:33

Another vote for a MacBook Pro... Not the newest ones, but the previous gen with a 2.5Ghz CPU at Amazon and Macmall. Otherwise, PC or Mac, get the fastest CPU and the most RAM you can afford. The faster/larger you get will extend the life of the laptop.

OdiN1701

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 14:49

I'm not a big fan of mac hardware but their screen quality is top notch for photography.

Not different than any other quality LCD. There are only a few manufacturers of LCD panels - Apple doesn't make their own they get them from other companies just like ever other company that sells an LCD monitor.

I have a Dell that has the same panel as one of the 30" Cinema Displays. It will look just as good because it's the same panel. It was just something like $800 cheaper.

Mystwalker

24th of October 2008 (Fri), 14:53

what do you guys think of this..
its the cheapest of the 15" with 1680 x 1050 res. and not 1280 x 800. it has the core 2 duo cpu. like i said i'm not a computer guru.. so how would this work with CS3? i dont really know how ram works and all that. but should i try and go a little higher? and why?

thanks,

logan

edit...sorry forgot the link

also here's a vaio i'm looking at.

thinkpad
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146388

vaio
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117749

Sorry NVidia - I am not a "fan" of Quadro gfx card so first one is "out".

Sony looks like a good deal. It's an 8000 series chip (3MB internal cache), BUT it uses an integrated gfx card (4500NHD or something). This mean the gfx card will share RAM with your system. Photoshop being a memory hog, you should get "discrete card" (I think that's what they call it). The 4500NHD is the higher end integrated card though :)

Check lenovo.com. For less then $1500, you can get a 9000 series CPU, discrete gfx card, 4MB RAM.

"RAM question" - I know CS3 likes RAM, it wants any and all RAM you have. For this reason, on a desktop, Vista64 is recommended - Vista64 allows you to access more then 3MB of RAM. On a notebook, you will have a difficult time finding something that has more then 4MB RAM - meaning, the extra you pay for Vista64, plus extra you pay for 4MB RAM may not be worth the performance increase (if there is one). For this reason, 3MB RAM and normal Vista will probably work for you.

I'm debating whether to buy the Lenovo or built a high powered desktop. Component pricing always drop so I try not to do anythign until I absotely need it or can't hold off any longer.

DD974

10th of December 2008 (Wed), 05:40

I've been using a Dell XPS m1710, 3gb ram, 1920 x 1200 screen rez, 225gb HD and it works great....although it's geared more towards being a gaming PC.

I have on order a new Studio 17 from Dell, my son needed a new desktop replaceable...it has 4gb ram, 320 gb HD, but the screen rez is 1440x900....I'm thinking of maybe handing down my XPS and using this for my business.

Question: Will this lower screen rez make much difference as far as photo editing goes?

MagikTrik

10th of December 2008 (Wed), 16:39

is the <b>17</b> denoted in "Dell Studio 17" the size of the monitor? If it is a 17" laptop running at 1440x900 as opposed to 1920x1200 as with yours than I would say yes, it probably will make a noticeable (but not massive0 amount of difference. Not just because of the resolution itself but because if that's the max rez they can get out of it, it's probably because of a crappy video card or even onboard video which you don't really want for Photoshop & programs like it.

Kronie

10th of December 2008 (Wed), 17:00

DD974

10th of December 2008 (Wed), 21:14

is the <b>17</b> denoted in "Dell Studio 17" the size of the monitor?

Yes it is a 17"....I plan on shipping it back (TV shopping network) and spending a little more and customize one on the Dell site for $500 more. Not just for the screen rez..there were other upgrades, one being a larger HD & better graphics card. My Dell XPS (w/XP) has been great...this "17" will have Vista...I just hope the bugs are minimal with this OS, at least less issues than was the case when it was first unveiled. Thanks for the info.

rikaro

11th of December 2008 (Thu), 00:03

I just brought a new 15" MBP and loving every part of it!

Mark

11th of December 2008 (Thu), 01:28

I would go 15" old style macbook pro, or if you are a dead set PC guy a thinkpad.....

chaddyp

17th of November 2012 (Sat), 05:19

Can I get a 2012 update on this please... Prefer pc

tfd888

25th of November 2012 (Sun), 02:02

Can I get a 2012 update on this please... Prefer pc

Well I'm on a Dell XPS L502x with a quad-core i7 2630QM 2.0GHz, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 540M 2GB, 750GB 7200RPM hard-drive, and the 15in B+RGLED 1080 screen (which I have to say is gorgeous) which covers both the sRGB and Adobe color spectrums and have been pretty happy with it for photography. As a bonus, the speakers on it are the best speakers I've ever heard in a laptop and can fill a room with good quality sound. While it isn't super portable, I've found traveling with it hasn't been an issue for me and it's survived an international and national trip just fine along with my day to day lugging around. Only complaint would be battery life (2hrs max.) on the 6 cell battery, so I'm looking at picking up a 9 cell or an extra 6 cell.

Dell doesn't sell these beauties anymore it looks like, even through the Dell outlet (which is were I got mine) unless they get some more in stock or you can find them on eBay. The L502x's successor, the New XPS15 (L521x) while it looks great on paper, is a pretty big disappointment on a lot of fronts (especially the screen, same panel but different backlighting = MUCH lower color gamut that doesn't even cover sRGB) and has been fraught with problems that still months into it's release have not been fixed. Also the speakers are pretty disappointing vs the l502x which had a subwoofer in it which they sadly removed on the L521x.

Mark

25th of November 2012 (Sun), 04:46

I'm actually looking to upgrade now, and I'd say it has to be durable, small/thin/light, have a good quality screen, and I'm divided about wanting a stylus or not though, as well as having 6+hr battery life.

I would also say, don't worry about the speakers, graphics card (unless you want to game), or cpu that much. Integrated graphics and ULV processors are fast enough these days to handle Lightroom and Photoshop easily if you have enough RAM. (In fact my x201s' ULV first gen i7 is good enough)

At the moment I'm still using my old laptop and really really hoping that Panasonic AX series is updated with a higher res screen and stylus. That would be my ideal laptop in every way other than those two bits.

If you don't care about it being convertible (main draw for me is convergence so one less thing to take around) then the Lenovo X230 is a great laptop. Dell E6230 is the same category, but I'd put it behind the Lenovo. Or if your only draw to it being convertible is the stylus and you'll use it on a desk in tablet mode, the X230T is great.

I really don't care about screen size in a laptop, the smaller the better for me, I have a desktop at home, and anywhere else I use it regularly/for long periods of time I can get a screen to plug in.

Also, I never buy computers that aren't either business oriented (HP Elite/ProBook, Lenovo Thinkpad, Dell Latitude) or designed/tested to be durable in more than wear and tear situations (Panasonic).
It's always been my experience with consumer oriented laptops that they just start to have bits stop working after a while, the extra expense is worth it.