laptops versus desktops (also monitor Q)

Not sure if this is the best forum for this question...

Do most of you use desktops for your photography? Or are laptops just fine for what you do?

I have a nice laptop that is three years old. It is nearly full - but it also occurred to me that a three year old laptop is going to be slow compared to what is out there. It has 100 gigs on the HD.

I just bought a cheapie laptop solely for traveling. It uses Vista. Alas, it's almost full too! It has an 80 gig hard drive, that I didn't expect to use/store, but of course since it is my TRAVELING laptop, all my photos go there first and I rarely move them over to the main one afterwards. It's almost half full.

At any rate, a friend of mine just had a desktop built and bought a really razz monitor. See the monitor below. Her desktop holds something like 500 gigs.

When I bought my laptop, the big reason was to reduce clutter in my office/on my desk. I hated having a big desktop (AND UGLY MONITOR) taking up space. But these new ones are so sleek.

Thoughts? I'd especially like to know if the below monitor is high quality or not. It would be so nice to really see the photos, up large and personal!

http://www.costco.com …partial&Nty=1&t​opnav=&s=1

I would not survive without my laptop... period....

I use a laptop which works fine, but I also use external storage (which is probably what most people here use). I don't put any photos on the laptop hard drive, only the external drive and backed up to another drive.

skywalkerbeth wrote in post #5732071
Do most of you use desktops for your photography? Or are laptops just fine for what you do?

When I am out of the office for a complex shoot I might take a laptop... unfortunately they don't make laptops with S-IPS displays anymore so finding one is not easy. IBM T60p had one (2006 year model I think).

For serious image work (even after the above shoot) I do everything on a calibrated S-IPS LCD monitor.

The big reason I'd replace my laptop would be speed, and size. and that monitor. I saw it at a friend's home and wow, was it cool. I don't know if it is really good quality though - it looked great, but what do I know.

skywalkerbeth wrote in post #5732208
I don't know if it is really good quality though - it looked great, but what do I know.

From the specs it seems as though it is not S-IPS... fine for task switching but not for photography...

I use a MBP 17" w/glossy high-res display that's calibrated "in the field" when necessary, but I much prefer a proper desktop display. Even the best laptop LCDs don't compare to a good desktop LCD (though I have to say, the MBP comes awfully close!).

What you might want to consider is just picking up an external/desktop LCD for use with your laptop when at home. And by all means, a color calibration device (Pantone Huey, etc.).

Gentlemen

Thank you so much. If you have time, could you translate please? S-IPS? color calibration device - where do I find that, and how do I use it?

How do you laptop users cope with the problem of the screen brightness changing with viewing angle? With a desktop, the problem doesn't arise as you are always sitting in the same place relative to the screen. With a laptop, however, that may not always be possible (it may be on a table, on your lap etc) - so how do you make sure you are always seeing your photos in the same way?

skywalkerbeth wrote in post #5732297
Gentlemen

Thank you so much. If you have time, could you translate please? S-IPS? color calibration device - where do I find that, and how do I use it?

The short of it...

Buy this:
http://www.xrite.com/p​roduct_overview.aspx?I​D=788

and then this:
http://www.cdw.com …/default.aspx?e​dc=1132162

S-IPS is a technology used in LCDs. There are several types; another is TN. The difference is how the color is handled/displayed; the cheap displays don't actually display 16.7M colors - thus showing a greatly reduced "color gamut." In other words, not all colors are shown, some are "faked" and thus make for a cheap LCD. These cheap displays are NOT what you want to be color correcting on.

A calibration device or "colorimeter" basically look at various colors on your monitor and calibrate your display to show accurate colors. This way if someone else looks at your images (and assuming their display is reasonably configured) will see the images as you intended and are as they are supposed to be. Let's say your monitor is "cold" and you color correct your images to look right... To you. Someone else with a normal monitor looks at your images and they will look too "warm" since you had compensated for your own monitor's "color cast."

Make more sense?

Roy Mathers wrote in post #5732312
How do you laptop users cope with the problem of the screen brightness changing with viewing angle? With a desktop, the problem doesn't arise as you are always sitting in the same place relative to the screen. With a laptop, however, that may not always be possible (it may be on a table, on your lap etc) - so how do you make sure you are always seeing your photos in the same way?

On my MBP, for example, I turn off automatic display dimming. I set my brightness to a known setting, where I also calibrated it at. When looking at the screen, I ensure that it's set as a flat plane from my eyes (so that I'm always looking at it within a few degrees of "dead-on").

Color correcting and image editing on a laptop can be done, and done well. No, it's not ideal - but then, laptops are a compromise after all. If you take some basic precautions you'll be fine though. Still, for the most demanding work I'd take it to a real display.

No idea if my laptop has a S-IPS (doubt it) but it's what I use. Seems fine, but I don't know anything other than it's a lot less painful to use than my older single core desktop. Only has an 80GB hard drive, so I use that as a working drive for the current shoot then move everything to an external & burn DVD backups when finished.

You know, you can use your latop WITH a external monitor if you are worried about the monitor size. Just get a laptop with dockstation capabilities or plug it in all the time..

No way a laptop could handle storing and processing all my images from a wedding. Desktop is so much easier. I have enough cards to use until I'm able to get home.