What Computer do you use?

Timbert said:

Curious as to which computer professionals are using and why. I
really like Mac, but compatibitily issues keep me on Winders. So
I'm wondering what the professionals do

Timbert

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....for MY needs.

That happens to be Windows XP Pro based custom built machines.

Had Macs at our studio, but had to bail them out 'cos:

• more expensive than a "home-built" one any day.

• platform. Whereas most pre-press & repro houses had macs up till 2-3 years ago, now they use PCs.

• Windows machines are easier to use. You could do the same operation with fewer mouse clicks with a PC.

• Speed. Those dual opterons are REALLY fast. No comparison here.

• Upgradeability. It's cheaper, easier to upgrade a PC.

• Compatibility (Programs, Shareware, etc...)

• calibration. Macs may be a BIT easier, but PCs are more accurate.

THAT SAID:

If you are a single user, ie a user at home, or using a computer on your own at your business, choose what platform works best for YOU.

However if computers are a major investment & get upgraded every 3 months or so, or you need ultimate speed, go for PCs.

In a business every penny counts (especially when there are thousands of pennies

While, I agree with some of your points, some of your other points I'm not so sure are accurate.

The biggest one being, PC's are more accurate color wise, can you explain that one to me?

Also:

Windows machines are easier to use? Depends on the user.

Compatibility? Again. Depends on what your using.

Optetrons? Okay, this is where it gets murky. Optetrons are designed for servers and are a bit pricey.

Also, you haven't addressed that the majority of photographers aren't going to be able to build a custom built PC with dual optetrons, not to mention tweaking it for optimum performance.

I agree with you though that Apple is a pain in the ass when it comes to buying their computers overcharging for so many items.

Classic Man said:

Timbert said:

Curious as to which computer professionals are using and why. I
really like Mac, but compatibitily issues keep me on Winders. So
I'm wondering what the professionals do

Timbert

Click to expand...

....for MY needs.

That happens to be Windows XP Pro based custom built machines.

Had Macs at our studio, but had to bail them out 'cos:

• more expensive than a "home-built" one any day.

• platform. Whereas most pre-press & repro houses had macs up till

2-3 years ago, now they use PCs.

• Windows machines are easier to use. You could do the same

operation with fewer mouse clicks with a PC.

• Speed. Those dual opterons are REALLY fast. No comparison here.

• Upgradeability. It's cheaper, easier to upgrade a PC.

• Compatibility (Programs, Shareware, etc...)

• calibration. Macs may be a BIT easier, but PCs are more accurate.

THAT SAID:

If you are a single user, ie a user at home, or using a computer on
your own at your business, choose what platform works best for YOU.

However if computers are a major investment & get upgraded every 3
months or so, or you need ultimate speed, go for PCs.

In a business every penny counts (especially when there are
thousands of pennies

Click to expand...

--
Just shoot! =)

stephenmelvin said:

I use film for 95% of my professional work. I specialize in black &
white, and film just works very well for that. Much moreso than
digital to this point.

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stephenmelvin said:

(Canon's notorious for blown-out highlights).
One huge advantage film has over digital is exposure lattitude,

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I really feel the lack of RGB histograms. I often find with flower shots (and other bold swatches of color) that I've blown the highlights and the flower looks flat, even though the histogram shows an appropriate average exposure.

It's why I completely ignore M. Reichman's 'expose to the right' advice.

stephenmelvin said:

I shoot mostly
medium format for that, though I also use my panorama camera for a
lot as well. As yet, there is no digital equivalent of the panorama
camera (taking a 120? view in a single shot), so I'm sure I'll be
using that for a long time.

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Have you tried stitching? Some people love the results with this because it lets them achieve any given quality level, simply by stitching more telephoto shots together.

Do you have a good high-res panorama you could post? I'd like to see a pro-quality one.

stephenmelvin said:

Printing in the darkroom is just more satisfying to me. Not certain
how to explain it entirely. I know I like the results better.

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Makes sense, it's something you're good at and it lets you get your hands dirty, so to speak. Even if the inkjet quality was there yet (and as I understand it, B&W inkjet is the furthest behind) pressing a button wouldn't have the same feeling.

I myself feel no attachment to the stinky process (the tiny bits of it I remember) but I do many manual things because I enjoy having absolute control over the process, so I guess I understand.

Custom built by myself as all my systems are...

Antec Sonata piano black case
Antec Quiet TruePower 450W
MSI 865PE Neo2-PFS (Platinum Edition)
P4 2.8 w/HT
2GB DDR400 RAM
2 x 120GB SATA Maxtor Drives Internal
80GB AcomData Firewire Drive External
Creative Soundblaster Audigy2 Platinum ZS sound
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB video
MSI CR52-M cd burner
LG 4081B DVD burner (DVD-RAM)
2 x 17" Samsung 710T LCD

Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS, InDesign CS, GoLive CS, Acrobat Pro 6, Office Pro 2003, Frontpage 2003, iMatch, Neat Image, more plug-ins than I could list...

I dont think Avid has anything to fear from Mac in the high end editng market. We just completed the largest digital production area in the world outside of BBC. 90% Avid. From Newscutters to Nitis DS suites, Unity network, xdecks for ingest and airspace for video servers.

There are Mac's but they feed to the Avids and pc based Pinnacle Deko/Thunders for graphics and animation clips. We had to put the Mac's on their own network since they do not interact well on a mixed network with pc's in a broadcast environment.
GT

stephenmelvin said:

Photoshop was originally a Mac program. Not Unix.

OS X is Unix. Actually Free BSD. And as for not having the balls
for heavy movie editing, perhaps you should talk to the guy who
edited "Cold Mountain."

http://www.apple.com/pro/film/murch/

Avid is hurting seriously because Apple is going after the high end
editing market. For instance:

http://www.apple.com/productionsuite/

These are THE STANDARDS on the very high end.

If Macs don't have balls, why are they building all of those
supercomputers with them?

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html

Get your facts straight.

W Fenn said:

Been my information that most movie studios use Unix or Linux on a
multi processor AMD/Intel platform. Macs and Windows just don't
have the balls for heavy movie editing. If we could get PS on Linux
we could finally drop all this Mac/PC bull. Remember that PS
started on Unix and that OSX is a derivative of Unix. Hopefully
Linux won't be far behind.

Regards,
W Fenn
http://www.fennfoto.com

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Windows XP home running on:

AMD XP 3200+ (400 Mhz FSB)
1 GB 3200 RAM (400 Mhz FSB)
Shuttle nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard (400 Mhz FSB)
To 250 GB HD's (one for backup)
DVD Burner (for archival backup)
Radeon 9800 128MB 256 bit video card
Mistubishi/NEC Diamondtron FE991SB 19 inch CRT monitor

Photoshop CS screams on this machine.

--
Jeff Laitila http://www.sushicam.com

Quoting Walter Murch, editor of such insignificant productions as Apocalypse Now, The English Patient, and Cold Mountain:

"But on “Cold Mountain,” we are able to have four Final Cut Pro stations, fully-equipped, for less than we would have had to spend for one Avid station. And to have four stations working on a feature film is a significant improvement over what you usually have, which is two."

I think they have everything to fear from Apple in motion picture production. "Shake," "Motion," "Logic Pro" and "Final Cut Pro" are rapidly becoming the standards by which all other software is compared.

George Thompson said:

stephenmelvin said:

Photoshop was originally a Mac program. Not Unix.

OS X is Unix. Actually Free BSD. And as for not having the balls
for heavy movie editing, perhaps you should talk to the guy who
edited "Cold Mountain."

http://www.apple.com/pro/film/murch/

Avid is hurting seriously because Apple is going after the high end
editing market. For instance:

http://www.apple.com/productionsuite/

These are THE STANDARDS on the very high end.

If Macs don't have balls, why are they building all of those
supercomputers with them?

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html

Get your facts straight.

W Fenn said:

Been my information that most movie studios use Unix or Linux on a
multi processor AMD/Intel platform. Macs and Windows just don't
have the balls for heavy movie editing. If we could get PS on Linux
we could finally drop all this Mac/PC bull. Remember that PS
started on Unix and that OSX is a derivative of Unix. Hopefully
Linux won't be far behind.

Regards,
W Fenn
http://www.fennfoto.com

Click to expand...

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http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=9439&Page=1&pagePos=2

Video: Digital Heaven dumps Avid for Apple

This in London as well.

George Thompson said:

stephenmelvin said:

Photoshop was originally a Mac program. Not Unix.

OS X is Unix. Actually Free BSD. And as for not having the balls
for heavy movie editing, perhaps you should talk to the guy who
edited "Cold Mountain."

http://www.apple.com/pro/film/murch/

Avid is hurting seriously because Apple is going after the high end
editing market. For instance:

http://www.apple.com/productionsuite/

These are THE STANDARDS on the very high end.

If Macs don't have balls, why are they building all of those
supercomputers with them?

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html

Get your facts straight.

W Fenn said:

Been my information that most movie studios use Unix or Linux on a
multi processor AMD/Intel platform. Macs and Windows just don't
have the balls for heavy movie editing. If we could get PS on Linux
we could finally drop all this Mac/PC bull. Remember that PS
started on Unix and that OSX is a derivative of Unix. Hopefully
Linux won't be far behind.

Regards,
W Fenn
http://www.fennfoto.com

Click to expand...

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I haven't tried stiching. Much of my photography is of people and fast moving events. I like taking a panorama in a single photo. Such as:







Sorry they aren't super high res. Just took them off my web site, that's all.

William Night said:

stephenmelvin said:

I use film for 95% of my professional work. I specialize in black &
white, and film just works very well for that. Much moreso than
digital to this point.

Click to expand...

William Night said:

(Canon's notorious for blown-out highlights).
One huge advantage film has over digital is exposure lattitude,

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I use a 733qs Mac running OS 10.3.5. Works for me. I have never cared much for Windows. Things just aren't where I expect them

I hope to get a G5 next year. Of course I just might have to get that new Nikon DSL that will come out about that time also. You know the one. The one that will leapfrong the current Canon 20D

dave

Heh, Heh,

Mac editing is only a small part of the overall picture of producton, editiing and distribution. We have a mixed environment of which Final Cut HD is a part of. If you look at the overall system Avid can not be dismissed as the overall choice of the vast majority of production houses, stations and networks. One story of Avid being replaced by Mac does not a trend make.

Mac has its place in post production and does a great job, I will not denigh that. And Avid has not dellivered on its promises for better HD integration. (We have an army of AVID developers and engineers on site to prove that) But it is still the best game in town.
GT

stephenmelvin said:

Video: Digital Heaven dumps Avid for Apple

This in London as well.

George Thompson said:

stephenmelvin said:

Photoshop was originally a Mac program. Not Unix.

OS X is Unix. Actually Free BSD. And as for not having the balls
for heavy movie editing, perhaps you should talk to the guy who
edited "Cold Mountain."

http://www.apple.com/pro/film/murch/

Avid is hurting seriously because Apple is going after the high end
editing market. For instance:

http://www.apple.com/productionsuite/

These are THE STANDARDS on the very high end.

If Macs don't have balls, why are they building all of those
supercomputers with them?

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html

Get your facts straight.

W Fenn said:

Been my information that most movie studios use Unix or Linux on a
multi processor AMD/Intel platform. Macs and Windows just don't
have the balls for heavy movie editing. If we could get PS on Linux
we could finally drop all this Mac/PC bull. Remember that PS
started on Unix and that OSX is a derivative of Unix. Hopefully
Linux won't be far behind.

Regards,
W Fenn
http://www.fennfoto.com

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Timbert said:

Curious as to which computer professionals are using and why. I
really like Mac, but compatibitily issues keep me on Winders. So
I'm wondering what the professionals do

Timbert

Click to expand...

--

I'm a semi-pro.

I've got a 4 year old desktop and an almost 3-year old laptop. Both are out of date but work well and OS 10.3 is awesome.

I've also got a 1-year old PC that's quite nice, but I still prefer Mac for my digital photos.

Timbert said:

Curious as to which computer professionals are using and why. I
really like Mac, but compatibitily issues keep me on Winders. So
I'm wondering what the professionals do

Timbert

Click to expand...

Jamie Benaud said:

(SNIP)>
Always had Macs, although I have plenty of experience with Windows
too.

I find the Macs give less problems, better colour accuracy and are
more reliable.

Click to expand...

...is our studios' expeience. We switched over to Windows PCs from macs 'cos PCs were giving us less problems, better colour accuracy, & are more reliable.

What's more, they're faster, & cheaper to upgrade to boot.

OTOH, I am of the opinion that at present both platforms offer viable options & should serve you well.

Quite nice.

Offers a neat view for the wedding.

I should try a cropped wide-angle shot for this feeling. My Sigma 12-24 is a 19-38 on my 300D and gives a pretty wide view. Not what it would be with full-frame though.

Dell and IBM get the top vote here for desktops and Toshiba for a laptop.

Walt

Timbert said:

Curious as to which computer professionals are using and why. I
really like Mac, but compatibitily issues keep me on Winders. So
I'm wondering what the professionals do

Timbert

Click to expand...

--
Have Camera Will Travel
Kodak Brownie, Speed Graphic, +

'...let us run with patience and perseverance the race that is set before us.' -- Hebrews 12:1