Laptop to go with 20D.....

[McGinnis]

I just bought a 20D and am now looking into buying a laptop to go with it. Do any of y'all (okay, I'm from the south) have any idea of what I may need or what my best options would be?
My max budget would be around $1,200. Any info would be great! Thanks a lot!

McGinnis

“The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportional to the quantity of coffee that he drinks.”

–Sir James MacKintosh


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[Nightcrawler]

Would this laptop be used as a primary computer for Post-Processing or just as a storage device for outings, or a little of both?

[rolltide1661]

Whatever you do i do not suggest a laptop, i would get a desktop personally, there so much better and they can upgrade way more, laptops limit you to how much you can upgrade. I would get a pc, i iknow it is not portable, but it will be much cheaper, and better in the long one, why do you need a laptop anyway? Also, with 1200 dollars you are really going to get nothing thats worth trusting your photography with, i dont suggest printing yourself, unless you REALLY know what you are doing, but do all the editing yourself. If you get photoshop seven, which is what i recommend, you need a lot of virtual memory, and with 1200 you would be lucky to get 1g of virtual memory, im not going to tell you what to do but in my opinion, this will be your best bet.

[rolltide1661]

Need any more info or just want to talk photography, just send me an email at steven.moormann@knology.net

[cjtinkle]

We fulltime in an RV so laptops are a necessity for us. Yep, it's definately slower (not to mention costlier) than a desktop. However, if that's your only option, I'm quite thrilled with my new one.

I didn't want to spend a chunk on mine either. I have a Toshiba Satellite M45, it's got a 128 meg video card (albeit shared), and came with 512 megs of ram. I had to add another gig of ram to make it fast enough for me, but 1.5 gigs it works just fine with Photoshop CS.

The laptop was $1450 and I think the added ram was around $375, but you could add it a bit later.

[atch]

I'm pretty sure hes got a desktop already and just wants to buy a laptop for portability, I'd recommend a min. of 512mb memory and with a pentium 4 and not any of those mobile slowed down processor. Also try to get one with built in card readers.

[langer]

If you are using it to preview pics on-site, I'd say pick up a cheap secondhand iBook, simply because they are light to carry. Don't get the wrong Idea tho. I am not a Mac man.

[McGinnis]

Thanks for all the info!
In our house we have 2 desktops and 3 laptops already.:shock: (http://misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=21#)
The reason I was looking into buying a notebook is the fact that I travel all the time. Most of my shoots our done either out of state or away from home. And I need fast feed back. I need to be able to show the pictures as soon as the shoot is over so that I can come home and get them printed. I will not be storing them on the computer but on a disk. I found a refurbished Dell on the the Dell website that the total price once I've uped the memory and upgraded the screen will still be under 1200. When I'm home I will be using the desktop a lot more and for all of the tuch up jobs, this will be mostly for travel and on the road. As for the budget I'm willing to up on it if I need to. I'd rather not but hey, I need to have high quality.
Thanks again!!

McGinnis

[Avalonthas]

Well if all ur doing is using it to show the photographs on site then u dont really need to spend 1200.....u can get away with alot less. All u need is a good screen and a descent notebook video card and thats about it. A smart idea would be to get a middle man notebook but then get the best screen and video card upgrade you can, should be way below 1200 if thats ur only purpose.

[JBillings]

We, my better half and I use a 14" iBook both as a storage device and post-processing machine when we're on the road. And I use a Dual G5 for post-production of most of the images when we get home..she uses a Dell. It's certainly a great relief for both of us to transfer our images to a HD and to CD backup before we move on.

[pdrow]

I have the Dell inspiron 1150 with the celeron processor. It has a dvd burner which is a huge help. I use the small card reader that slips into a slot on the side. I run photoshop cs on it constantly. I am dilegent about not keeping a huge number of photos on it. It has a 30 plus gig harddrive and I think it runs better having at least 1/2 of the amount free, therefore I utilize the dvd burner. I have windows xp and use it as my main cumputer hooked up to a 21 inch CRT. I put the photoshop work space on the crt and my tools on the laptop screen.

[Jesper]

I would love to have a Dell Inspiron 700m (http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_notebook3?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs). It's small and light, powerful and not too expensive. Looks like a great travel laptop. Unfortunately they don't sell it here in the Netherlands.... (at least, it isn't listed on Dell's website for the Netherlands...).

[langer]

I have the Dell Inspiron 8100, yes the massive one with 15 inch monitor. and its heavy at 3.65kg. Not the ideal laptop. But I never use it for my photography. I just use it for me web work. Apples are great for presentation (I hate to say this) but Apple has much slicker design and their monitors tends to be better for colour matching.