MacBook for Travel?

I switched from PC to Macbook about 6 months ago. There is no comparison between the Apple line of computers and PCs. Apples are in every way superior because their logic is intuitive, and you won't be getting updates every day- or viruses. It's extraordinarily difficult to get a virus on a MacBook.

As for photo programs, it depends on what level you are operating at. The built in programs like iPhoto are fine for "amateur" use but you won't find advanced features there. My personal choice would be Photoshop over Aperture for "advanced" users. Photoshop elements 4.0 for Mac has a lot of what Photoshop CS3 has at a fraction of the price and is much-much less expensive than Aperture. Lightroom may be an option for you.

But beward of one thing: conversion from PC to Mac requires a mental sea-change, and I am not just talking about vocabulary. You really don't want to learn Mac while you are on your trip, any more than you would want to learn a new camera on a trip. Practice beforehand. MacOS X Tiger Edition by David Pogue is a useful way to learn a Mac.

G
good Luck,
--
Svirchev, CIH

Laurence Svirchev said:

It's extraordinarily difficult to get a virus on a MacBook.

Click to expand...

There are no recorded cases of "getting a virus" on OS X that I know of. Ages ago, some folks were fooled into running a pirated program that didn't do what it said it would. That's it.

Laurence Svirchev said:

My personal choice
would be Photoshop over Aperture for "advanced" users.

Click to expand...

This is misleading, as Photoshop and Aperture are not competitors- they don't do the same thing.

Photoshop is a heavy-duty image editor; Aperture is an image database & image management program with some light image editing features.

Photoshop is overkill for most hobbyist photographers, including myself; but Aperture has been amazing.

Adobe Lightroom provides lighter image database features and heavier image editing than Aperture, and performs faster. If you're willing to spend $200-$300 on image management software, I'd recommend downloading the free trials of Aperture and Lightroom and giving both a try, one at a time.

I would heartily agree with the advice that Photoshop Elements is a worthy replacement for Photoshop for most people.

--

'The camera can photograph thought. It's better than a paragraph of sweet polemic.' Dirk Bogarde
-adrian charles-
barbados.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/guttaperk/

Thank you both very, very much for your informative replies. Your comments and suggestions are very helpfull. I just got the MacBook and the learning curve is steeper than I thought but the staff at the Apple Store have been excellent in answering my many questions. I have only had it a short while but I am already getting a feel for why all who switch never go back and wish they had done it years ago.
Cheers,
Adam

Can you highlight the key differences between the MAC and PC versions of Elements?

I'm thinking (gulp! There, I've said it!) moving to MAC. I own CS2, but have heard of some horror stories getting conversions through Adobe. If I made the move, and couldn't get CS3 worked out, I might consider Elements. I'm a hobbiest, so I use only parts of CS2 ... Bridge, Smart Sharpening, Curves mostly. I had Elements many years ago, and Windows version seemed to be more about simple editing and managing images.

You will not be able to use PE4 (or 5) on Intel based Macs (it will be very, very slow). CS3 (and Lightroom) are only Universal Binary (made for Intel based Macs) versions of Adobe photo editing softwares.

My new MacBook has 1GB of RAM. Will this be enough to use Aperture if I decide to get it at some point in the future?
Adam

That's what I'm using now.

It was unusable with Aperture 1.0, and slow-but-useable with Aperture 1.5.
--

'The camera can photograph thought. It's better than a paragraph of sweet polemic.' Dirk Bogarde
-adrian charles-
barbados.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/guttaperk/

Thanks Adrian.That's a relief to know!
Adam

I'm upgrading shortly to 2 or 3 gig, though.
--

'The camera can photograph thought. It's better than a paragraph of sweet polemic.' Dirk Bogarde
-adrian charles-
barbados.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/guttaperk/