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laptop recommendation for digital photographer on the road

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veeco5150

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Hi,

I'm going to be heading out to Europe and Australia to live and photograph with a canon 10D digital set up and need a notebook computer to accompany it. I am very much in the poor department, especially after purchasing the incredibally affordable 10d and need to find the best priced laptop that will suit my needs. I will need it for downloading my images from the card, cd burning capabilities obviousally, modem connection obviousally as I will most likley be shooting and immediatly sending images from my computer to an agency, and also some minor touch up's through adobe photoshop. I don't think that I need something for huge digital reproductions, but want a processor that will be adequate to handle my needs. As far as processer and processor speed, what would you recommend as acceptable for such uses?

Thanks for any advice you can offer. It will be my first laptop and am not sure what is needed for the digital photographer on the road.
Cheers,
Micah
 
For your intended use and inevitable abuse, I would recommend a 14" Apple iBook as the most capable and cost-effective solution. Obviously, load it with as much RAM as you can. This laptop is rugged (built for schools!) and can probably better handle the bouncing of traveling better than the G4 laptops. OS X is fully capable of connecting to Windows computers but without the hassles of anti-virus maintenance. OS X is extremely reliable, logical and easy to learn, and Photoshop (as well as most other applications) is largely identical once inside the application. Networking is awesome too, especially when your network seems to be in a different city each week.

Oh yeah, get AppleCare too. This should help to expedite any possible problems you might encounter in your travels. Even though the warranty covers a lot, AC does seem to speed up getting any necessary support.

--
Rory Ivers
Ivers Photo & Imaging
http://www.iversimaging.com
 
instead of Photoshop to save some badly needed money. I believe that GC even comes pre-installed on the iBooks. Come to think of it, the iBook is loaded with a pretty good software suite, saving you the expense of buying a word processor, spreadsheet and database suite. Fundamentally the same as Office, except no additional cost.

--

Rory
 
I'm a Mac user, but have no problems with Windows machines. I am very impressed with the IBM Think Pad X series, which have built in Wi-fi and CF card readers. They are small, powerful and light and they can be serviced anywhere in the world.

I have the 14" iBook, and I wish that I had the smaller 12". The extra screen size does not equal extra resolution and the added size and weight are a pain. I would suggest that you invest in as much RAM as you can get at the expense of processor speeds and make sure that you get the best sleeve and case that you can.

There is a great international power adapter kit for Apple equipment and a set of worldwide telephone adapters would also be a must. An Airport (Wi-Fi) card built in will be very useful as more and more of the world is getting wired up for open access DSL (some free, most reasonably priced). A firewire card reader is also a must have item and Rob Galbraith has a test of the best on his site at the moment.

As far as software goes, I would go for Photo Mechanic as a very capable browser, bulk captioning/file naming tool. Photoshop Elements 2 will save you a lot of money and has everything that you will need for this kind of work.

Don't bother lugging hundreds of CDs with you, they are cheap to buy right accross Europe and Australia. Mke at least two copies and freight one back to home ahead of you so that if all of your kit gets stolen, at least the images are safe. Otherwise laptop ownership is a great way to go when you are on the move.

Neil.
--
http://www.dg28.com
 
If I was buying a Mac laptop for travel right now, it would be the 12" G4 w/ DVD burner. Apple has just lowered the price on these by a couple of hundred USD. I'm waiting for the new 15" models, since they take more RAM & can power a ACD when needed.

Regards,
Bern Caughey
 
...but IBM makes an ultralight laptop, the X series. I have an x22, an older model. It has a CF slot in the side, so no adapter required, and the speed of download beats even the USB2 download speeds on my desktop. The core machine weights a bit over 3lbs. It is very compact, leaving tons of space in the Stealth Reporter camera bag's laptop space. They have a base unit (docking station, effectively) that can support a CD or DVD writer, but that is NOT permanently connected to the machine. They have WiFi built in to the computer, and it's much stronger than any external wifi I've used.

I use mine a lot - it's been everywhere from Cambodia and Bhutan to New Orleans and Saskatchewan. I pack the docking station in my suitcase, keep the laptop in my camera bag. I can download cards during breaks using the CF slot, and the screen is decently bright on battery power for editing. Good battery life. And each night I add the docking station and burn CDs of the day's shooting. I've even logged into unsecured wifi networks found here and there in cities and uploaded images to my servers at home. I have 512Mb of ram. You can go up to 1mb. More ram the better, but 512 is fine if you're doing only one or two images at a time, and even on my older processor, speed is fine. I've been able to reasonably profile the monitor, too, and have had good success printing on "borrowed" printers without too many test prints.

The IBM laptops are pretty durable, laptop support is global, and you'll find walk-in IBM repair stations in most major cities. You can find the "last generation" X models on a lot of discount sites. I don't think that having a 1.3ghz machine (the latest) will be significantly better than having an 800mhz machine, given 512mb of ram.
veeco5150 said:
Hi,
I'm going to be heading out to Europe and Australia to live and
photograph with a canon 10D digital set up and need a notebook
computer to accompany it. I am very much in the poor department,
especially after purchasing the incredibally affordable 10d and
need to find the best priced laptop that will suit my needs. I will
need it for downloading my images from the card, cd burning
capabilities obviousally, modem connection obviousally as I will
most likley be shooting and immediatly sending images from my
computer to an agency, and also some minor touch up's through adobe
photoshop. I don't think that I need something for huge digital
reproductions, but want a processor that will be adequate to handle
my needs. As far as processer and processor speed, what would you
recommend as acceptable for such uses?
Thanks for any advice you can offer. It will be my first laptop and
am not sure what is needed for the digital photographer on the road.
Cheers,
Micah
Click to expand...
--
Ed

Make pictures, don't take them - it leaves more for others.

http://www.onemountainphoto.com
 
Whatever you do, get a Powerbook with a PC card slot. The PC card slot allows you to use a $10 adapter and slap your CF card right into the notebook, rather than carrying a card reader and messing with cables. It's a must, trust me. :)

This disqualifies the 12" model (no slot), which is a shame, and Apple should be punished for this grevious error.

If you're looking to save money, look for a used PowerBook on eBay. You can find some really pristine models with all of the original equipment and packaging for good prices.

I have a PowerBook G3 Pismo edition. It used to be my main computer. Now I use a 17" G4 iMac, and the PowerBook is part of my portable studio. Works great. You can get one for around $700 on eBay.
 
why does everyone prefer Apple's to IBM"s and such. I actually found an in to Dell and can get many of their laptops at a discounted price, which is such an amazing blessing. But it seems every photographer who has answered my response has always recommended apple's laptop's. Is this because price, or graphics, or color management?
thanks again
Jason said:
Whatever you do, get a Powerbook with a PC card slot. The PC card
slot allows you to use a $10 adapter and slap your CF card right
into the notebook, rather than carrying a card reader and messing
with cables. It's a must, trust me. :)

This disqualifies the 12" model (no slot), which is a shame, and
Apple should be punished for this grevious error.

If you're looking to save money, look for a used PowerBook on eBay.
You can find some really pristine models with all of the original
equipment and packaging for good prices.

I have a PowerBook G3 Pismo edition. It used to be my main
computer. Now I use a 17" G4 iMac, and the PowerBook is part of my
portable studio. Works great. You can get one for around $700 on
eBay.
Click to expand...
 
I recommended IBMs because, in 10 years of working in professional services and consulting firms, many of which began as dell laptop oriented organizations, every one of them ended up with IBMs because they are tough. Less than half the breakage and rework rate, as we found in one firm. You can get IBMs from IBMs online store, just like dells, and you can get refurbished, which in IBMs case means pretty much completely rebuilt.

IBMs are the only laptops that can survive over a year with the torture my wife dishes out, also...

some people swear by dell, so it's your choice. i just know that our IT teams swore at them.
veeco5150 said:
Jason said:
Whatever you do, get a Powerbook with a PC card slot. The PC card
slot allows you to use a $10 adapter and slap your CF card right
into the notebook, rather than carrying a card reader and messing
with cables. It's a must, trust me. :)

This disqualifies the 12" model (no slot), which is a shame, and
Apple should be punished for this grevious error.

If you're looking to save money, look for a used PowerBook on eBay.
You can find some really pristine models with all of the original
equipment and packaging for good prices.

I have a PowerBook G3 Pismo edition. It used to be my main
computer. Now I use a 17" G4 iMac, and the PowerBook is part of my
portable studio. Works great. You can get one for around $700 on
eBay.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Ed

Make pictures, don't take them - it leaves more for others.

http://www.onemountainphoto.com
 
Micah,

I live in Australia and lug my laptop all over this wide brown land. I have purchased a Tripper 20Gb portable hard drive. This saves me taking the laptop to every shoot. I simple download strainght to the HDD and copy them to the laptop via USB2 that night. I'd go for the best laptop you can afford but make sure you get 512Mb of RAM. I own a Dell 2.0Ghz with 40GB HDD and 512Mb. It is quiet a heavy laptop but I don't need to carry it to every shot so I don't care. The Tripper only weights the same weight as a laptop hard drive (500grams maybe).

You will love Australia. Heaps of oppotunities for photos. Checkout my webpage gallery for some examples.

Simon Woolley
Darwin Australia
http://www.digitalinaflash.com.au
 
I'm a consistent reader of "Studio Photography & Design" magazine, which is aimed solely at professional photographers. In each magazine they highlight four or five professional photographers in various fileds (Commercial, portrait, wedding, etc.). In recent years I've been paying attention to the computers they use. Virtually all, i.e. more than 80% use Macintosh computers.

Why?

For the last 20 years or so, the Mac was THE computer for creative professionals. It's only in the last couple of years that the PC has begun to really catch on with creative professionals.

But you still rarely see the highest end professionals using PCs. I've had recent workshops with several nationally known photographers in Photoshop. There was only one who didn't use a Mac, and he used one at home, but used a PC laptop on tour. The rest have ALL used Macs.

The book "Macintosh... The Naked Truth" is not only very humorous, but an excellent book on why niche markets exist.

Remember, Windows was "invented/stolen" because of the Mac, it was not an independent invention or purchase by Gates.

This is NOT meant to be the start of a flame war, but an answer to what I assume was a serious question. I, personally, own two Macs and a PC.

Oh yeah, and I bought my Powerbook G4 as an accessory for my Nikon D1x. I'm not kidding, I rarely use it except for downloading and archiving photos (or giving demos of Photoshop).
veeco5150 said:
why does everyone prefer Apple's to IBM"s and such. I actually
found an in to Dell and can get many of their laptops at a
discounted price, which is such an amazing blessing. But it seems
every photographer who has answered my response has always
recommended apple's laptop's. Is this because price, or graphics,
or color management?
Click to expand...
 
veeco5150 said:
why does everyone prefer Apple's to IBM"s and such. I actually
found an in to Dell and can get many of their laptops at a
discounted price, which is such an amazing blessing. But it seems
every photographer who has answered my response has always
recommended apple's laptop's. Is this because price, or graphics,
or color management?
thanks again
Click to expand...
I'll tell you why (in a nutshell).

OS X is rock-solid. The only time I shut my Macs down is for system updates. It never quits. I have a gig of RAM in my iMac, and I can run a ton of stuff all at the same time. I always leave Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Canvas, Watson, Word, Entourage, and Safari running. ALWAYS. I never have to wait for my Mac to boot, or any of my most commonly-used apps to boot. It's that solid. Not to mention, I can batch process 100 images in PS, burn a DVD, check my email, monitor a dozen threads on DPReview, stream high quality MP3s over the network and upload hundreds of megs of images via FTP all at the same time (with a little help from my friend the cable modem :) ). Oh, I forgot to mention that while I'm doing all of that, I can run Windows XP in a separate window, too. There's no beating OS X.

Pick up almost any digital camera and plug it into a Mac. The Mac will immediately ask you what you'd like to do with the images. No driver installation. No conflicts. No hassles. Try it with Windows. XP is a huge improvement, I'll admit. I'm blown away with the steps MS has taken to make XP the great OS it is. But it's not on the level of Mac OS X yet.

So, back to the title of this message: If you want to get serious photography work done, use a Mac. You'll love (almost) every minute of it. It will give you more time shooting photos, and less time troubleshooting.
 
Hello Simon,

That sounds like one of the laptop's that was offered to me at a very low price- around that memory, HD space and pricessor. How well does it work. No lag times, systems crashing, ability to operate a few programs at a time?

Thanks to everyone for the advice on the laptops. I agree that an apple is the best way to go. I really would like one for it's amazing graphics, but it is still a bit costly for me. I can get a really good deal on the Dell stuff I find out, so I've gotta go with that and I'm sure it will do the job well. I do all of my work at home on a pc and it works great. I'm comfortable with the setup.

I also wasn't sure how well the ibook's or g4's communicated with pc's. Not sure if everything I"d have downloaded onto a ibook would be able to easily be transferred to a pc.
Simon Woolley said:
Micah,

I live in Australia and lug my laptop all over this wide brown
land. I have purchased a Tripper 20Gb portable hard drive. This
saves me taking the laptop to every shoot. I simple download
strainght to the HDD and copy them to the laptop via USB2 that
night. I'd go for the best laptop you can afford but make sure you
get 512Mb of RAM. I own a Dell 2.0Ghz with 40GB HDD and 512Mb. It
is quiet a heavy laptop but I don't need to carry it to every shot
so I don't care. The Tripper only weights the same weight as a
laptop hard drive (500grams maybe).

You will love Australia. Heaps of oppotunities for photos.
Checkout my webpage gallery for some examples.

Simon Woolley
Darwin Australia
http://www.digitalinaflash.com.au
Click to expand...
 
I'm a Mac user, but there is nothing wrong with PCs & there are several advantages. Since photographers have been primarily using Macs in the past, & do not want to learn a new OS or replace their existing software, they are reluctant to change. There are numerous pros on these boards who are debating adding PC to their inventory & I've seriously considered doing so myself.

I love OS X, at least in comparison to Mac OS 9, but I do on occasion suffer crashes on the several computers that I use, including my desktop G4 which has 1.5 GB of RAM.

Regards,
Bern Caughey
 
Yah, the 12" Powerbook is now priced the same as the 14" iBook - $1,499. No contest. The DVD burner will be handy because you won't have to carry around as many blank disks. It is $200 more, though. For a tight budget, I'd recommend a refurbished 12" iBook. Not the last word in speed, but then it sounds like you want it more for storage and internet access than pixel crunching. And, the size and weight just can't be beat. The Apple Store now has refurbished 800MHz iBooks with CD-RW drives for $1,049. New ones are $1,299. Personally, I'd scrape together the extra $300 for a 12" PB G4.
Bern Caughey said:
If I was buying a Mac laptop for travel right now, it would be the
12" G4 w/ DVD burner. Apple has just lowered the price on these by
a couple of hundred USD. I'm waiting for the new 15" models, since
they take more RAM & can power a ACD when needed.

Regards,
Bern Caughey
Click to expand...
--
'May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.' -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
I agree with everything Jason wrote. OS X is incredible. Even on my ancient 400MHz desktop G4, it's almost always more than fast enough, even when doing a dozen things at once. Only exception - Canon File Viewer Utility. But, most everybody seems to agree that's too slow on any machine, Mac or PC. I haven't owned a PC since the days of DOS, so I can't comment on Windows machines. But, one thing I've noticed is that everyone I know who has a Mac loves it. On the other hand, even PC magazines frequently complain about some new failure or underhanded scheme by Microsoft. Mac users just seem happier.
Jason said:
veeco5150 said:
why does everyone prefer Apple's to IBM"s and such. I actually
found an in to Dell and can get many of their laptops at a
discounted price, which is such an amazing blessing. But it seems
every photographer who has answered my response has always
recommended apple's laptop's. Is this because price, or graphics,
or color management?
thanks again
Click to expand...
I'll tell you why (in a nutshell).

OS X is rock-solid. The only time I shut my Macs down is for system
updates. It never quits. I have a gig of RAM in my iMac, and I can
run a ton of stuff all at the same time. I always leave Photoshop,
Dreamweaver, Canvas, Watson, Word, Entourage, and Safari running.
ALWAYS. I never have to wait for my Mac to boot, or any of my most
commonly-used apps to boot. It's that solid. Not to mention, I can
batch process 100 images in PS, burn a DVD, check my email, monitor
a dozen threads on DPReview, stream high quality MP3s over the
network and upload hundreds of megs of images via FTP all at the
same time (with a little help from my friend the cable modem :) ).
Oh, I forgot to mention that while I'm doing all of that, I can run
Windows XP in a separate window, too. There's no beating OS X.

Pick up almost any digital camera and plug it into a Mac. The Mac
will immediately ask you what you'd like to do with the images. No
driver installation. No conflicts. No hassles. Try it with Windows.
XP is a huge improvement, I'll admit. I'm blown away with the steps
MS has taken to make XP the great OS it is. But it's not on the
level of Mac OS X yet.

So, back to the title of this message: If you want to get serious
photography work done, use a Mac. You'll love (almost) every minute
of it. It will give you more time shooting photos, and less time
troubleshooting.
Click to expand...
--
'May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.' -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
veeco5150 said:
I also wasn't sure how well the ibook's or g4's communicated with
pc's. Not sure if everything I"d have downloaded onto a ibook would
be able to easily be transferred to a pc.
Click to expand...
Haven't tried it, but it seems to be a cinch. Apple's gone to great lengths with OS X to make it work seamlessly with PC networks. Apple has lots of info on this at:

http://www.apple.com/switch/questions/

--
'May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.' -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
Bern Caughey said:
I love OS X, at least in comparison to Mac OS 9, but I do on
occasion suffer crashes on the several computers that I use,
including my desktop G4 which has 1.5 GB of RAM.
Click to expand...
Are those system crashes, or just application crashes? I've heard of OS X system crashes, but never seen one.

My Microsoft apps crash occasionally, but I just relaunch them. Everything else is bulletproof.

--
'May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.' -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
I have owned a number of laptops and my opinion is that following your parameters almost any laptop with a CD burner, which is almost any laptop, will meet your needs. I would get as much RAM as possible. I do not consider an LCD screen to be an appropriate display for much serious color work. Cropping, levels, fine but save the color work till you get home on a calibrated CRT.

I've owned IBMs and couldn't be happier with their warranty work but then I've owned Toshibas and never needed warranty work. You might hit some smaller shops and see if you can get a deal on demo models.
 
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