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Macbook pro for photography?

E

Eeden

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 7, 2008
45
8
When the new Macbooks are released I will buy my first Mac:D
Now the question is: macbook or macbook pro?

I will use the Mac for office applications (word, excel)
Parallels to run the windows excel version
Photoshop Lightroom 2
Photoshop Elements 2

I'm on a budget but I need a good machine to run these applications smoothly:)

Please some advice
 
I am in a similar situation as you are, only I'm deciding between the MBP and 24" iMac.

I've never owned a Mac but here goes, you may want to get the MBP because the screen wil be bigger unless the MB have 15" screens. Because the MBP is 'Pro' product you will be getting better graphics cards etc, but this will not be true until tomorrow.

Hopefully more people who are Photography enthusiasts will have a better input which is better MacBook Macbook Pro or iMac.


... you have come to the right place for help though, people on her arevery useful... especially to us Mac first timers :p

NStocks
 
NStocks said:
I am in a similar situation as you are, only I'm deciding between the MBP and 24" iMac.

I've never owned a Mac but here goes, you may want to get the MBP because the screen wil be bigger unless the MB have 15" screens. Because the MBP is 'Pro' product you will be getting better graphics cards etc, but this will not be true until tomorrow.

Hopefully more people who are Photography enthusiasts will have a better input which is better MacBook Macbook Pro or iMac.


... you have come to the right place for help though, people on her arevery useful... especially to us Mac first timers :p

NStocks
Click to expand...

Ok, for your situation, there's really only one answer. Get the iMac. It's what we use in my wife's photography business and it is GREAT! Unless you NEED the mobility (just buy more memory cards, though!), the 24" iMac could not be better. The screen is great, but even with it, you'll find you want more space soon!
 
I use a Macbook Pro for my Photography hobby. I use Apple's Aperture program to manage my photographs which can be taxing on the cpu and graphics card.

Althought Aperture supports the Macbook I think you will have better performance and sucess with the Macbook Pro. If your not using Aperture then you can probably get away with a a Macbook. IMHO it comes down the applications you will use for your Photography need. I use Photoshop and Aperture and I am very pleased with the performance of the Macbook Pro.

Another thing to consider is the display size. a 24" screen is much better for looking at photographs especially when zooming than a 13" or even a 15" screen. I actually use a 20" Apple Cinema display with my Macbook Pro.

So I think you need to base your decision on performance and screen size.

scott
 
sfwalter said:
I use a Macbook Pro for my Photography hobby. I use Apple's Aperture program to manage my photographs which can be taxing on the cpu and graphics card.

Althought Aperture supports the Macbook I think you will have better performance and sucess with the Macbook Pro. If your not using Aperture then you can probably get away with a a Macbook. IMHO it comes down the applications you will use for your Photography need. I use Photoshop and Aperture and I am very pleased with the performance of the Macbook Pro.

Another thing to consider is the display size. a 24" screen is much better for looking at photographs especially when zooming than a 13" or even a 15" screen. I actually use a 20" Apple Cinema display with my Macbook Pro.

So I think you need to base your decision on performance and screen size.

scott
Click to expand...

An excellent post.

I will say that the smaller screen on the MacBook becomes very tiresome to edit photos on. The current ones also will bog down with Photoshop, Lightroom and a couple of other apps open.

If you'll be doing a lot of photo work, the MacBook Pro is likely a better choice, but wait and see what tomorrow brings.
 
andrewdale said:
Ok, for your situation, there's really only one answer. Get the iMac. It's what we use in my wife's photography business and it is GREAT! Unless you NEED the mobility (just buy more memory cards, though!), the 24" iMac could not be better. The screen is great, but even with it, you'll find you want more space soon!
Click to expand...

I don't NEED the portability as of yet. I'm almost 18, and I will be going to University to study Architecture in 1 years time, I am unsure weather or not I will need a Laptop, therefore thought I would put £1,000 into something that I can use anywhere. BUT, I may not need a Laptop at all, therefore wished i got the iMac... could I just hook up a external monitor to the MBP. Still it would be nice to sit infront of the t.v instead of stuck in my room all the time, not to mention using it anywhere else, holida, garden etc.

... Like most threads this one all depends on tomorrow, and the main thing I will be concerned about is the Price, if there is no price drops, I 90% probablly won't be getting a Laptop, assuming the spec's are'nt that ground braking.

I should also add that I don't make any money from Photogrphy it's just a hobby, and I don't plan to until I have a career ( 8 years away )

NStocks
 
My 2 cents. I use my MBP, see my sig for specs, and I use LR2, CS3, and VMWare Fusion, so I use most of the stuff you will want to use. I do heavy photography work on my MBP and everything runs like butter. I would image the new ones will be more powerful, even the regular MBs so I think you will be okay with a higher end MB or the base MBP.
 
Well I am currently using a first gen Macbook for my photography. I use mostly aperture and photoshop cs3. Although i can get my work done it can sometimes be a choppy process. IMHO I would go with the MBP, thats what I am doing come tomarrow! But again the next MB will defiantly be better than my first gen....:rolleyes:
 
I have had no problems running my photo business using Apple Powerbooks and then MBP. Granted, it's not a maxed out MP with 30" Cinema Display but I always install maximum memory. I shoot tethered in the studio and on location with no issues.
 
I have an 22 inch Samsung monitor so that won't be a problem. I travel alot and that is why I need a notebook.

I hope a macbook will be sufficient. It's a 800 dollar difference... (can buy a great lense for that price...:D)
 
I'm in roughly the same boat, so here are my thoughts. After doing some research, I came to the same conclusion as most - MBP.

The MB can get the basics done, but it will be less efficient and more troublesome. Colour correction on a glossy 13" monitor will be a pain, and running more than one app will be very choppy. Depending on how serious you are about photography, I would avoid the iMac as well. Although I love the computer, the glossy screen is not conducive to photographic work because colour saturation is a major issue. Also, you should think of the MBP as an investment - it will hold up much longer than a MB as new (photography) apps are released.

A good friend of mine studied at a top-notch art school for advertising and graphic design... the MBP is still the mandatory notebook.
 
Photo major here, so maybe I can help you out.

As many said, it depends on the specs of the new MB/P. You want a good deal of power for Lightroom, if you're like me and have huge RAWs all over the place Lightroom is nice when it has a lot to work with - it's gotta render a lot of previews from a lot of large files.

If you don't have 1000s of images in TIFFs or RAWs you shouldn't have that bad a time with a MB.

PM me if you need to know anything specific.
 
Eeden said:
I have an 22 inch Samsung monitor so that won't be a problem. I travel alot and that is why I need a notebook.

I hope a macbook will be sufficient. It's a 800 dollar difference... (can buy a great lense for that price...:D)
Click to expand...

Well, if you already have a monitor, then I'd say go ahead and get a MB or MBP (whichever you can afford -- if you can afford the high-end MB OR the low-end MBP, I'd save a bit and get the high-end MB) and then save up for an iMac later.

azharc said:
If you don't have 1000s of images in TIFFs or RAWs you shouldn't have that bad a time with a MB.
Click to expand...

RIGHT on the money with that line. Doing 2500 RAW images per wedding, we need that nice iMac to keep up with everything. But for a general hobby -- no need ... yet. Keep in mind, it can be addictive!
 
nope7308 said:
I'm in roughly the same boat, so here are my thoughts. After doing some research, I came to the same conclusion as most - MBP.

The MB can get the basics done, but it will be less efficient and more troublesome. Colour correction on a glossy 13" monitor will be a pain, and running more than one app will be very choppy. Depending on how serious you are about photography, I would avoid the iMac as well. Although I love the computer, the glossy screen is not conducive to photographic work because colour saturation is a major issue. Also, you should think of the MBP as an investment - it will hold up much longer than a MB as new (photography) apps are released.

A good friend of mine studied at a top-notch art school for advertising and graphic design... the MBP is still the mandatory notebook.
Click to expand...

+ Photoshop CS4 will support GPU accellerated functions.
 
To mac or not to mac

I study photography. I use an iMac 24" :apple: , a macbook :apple: (intel core 1.8) I will be upgrading to a :apple: pro when they come out as my :apple: MacBook is starting to get old. If you do not need to be mobile I would go the 24" iMac :apple: , it is great when working with photo's. I would also scrap the idea of running windows on there because excel is better to use under office 2008 plus if you really have to save money and use the free boot camp to run windows on the machine (comes free on OSX) I have two PC's at home, one running Vista Ultimate and the other with XP and don't touch them at all anymore. I would also save using bootcamp and go for photoshop CS3 or CS4 rather than photoshop Elements. Lightroom is great on the mac:apple:.
Good luck with your decision :)
 
Believe it or not I run Lightroom 2 & Photoshop CS2 on a G4 PB!!!!

It actually works slightly better than you might imagine with jpg's but raw totally kills it.

Fortunately I also have an imac, otherwise I wouldn't have much hair left ;)

Really looking forward to new MBP's tomorrow :D
 
I use my MB for Aperture and RAW processing and while it does what it needs to do, it definitely challenges the system. Especially going to full screen editing, the system will slow down occasionally when doing various edits.

If you can afford it, I would go with the MBP and just get a nice external monitor in lieu of an iMac. Of course, your needs may vary but I like the portability option and when I am at home I just use my big 24" monitor and all is well.
 
If you plan to get CS4 in the future, you may want to consider getting a MacBook Pro oppose to a MacBook like people have suggested. Even if the MacBook has a dedicated GPU:
1) It won't be as powerful as the MBP's.
2) The screen is a tad small.
 
I used to have a MB alongside a MP before selling both and going with just a MBP. I can tell you first hand that the MB is painful for serious photo work. The first thing is that the screen is too small, and IMO glossy screen is a major pain as well. I gave up trying to use my blackbook(2.0 CD with 2GB RAM) for photo work because it was too slow. Maybe that is because my work was mostly done on a MP with 6GB RAM, I don't know for sure. My MBP is very good for photo work though, I would certainly go with that.
 
I don't know much about Lightroom or Elements, but I know Photoshop CS3 got a slightly higher benchmark on a MacBook than MacBook Pro in some tests that someone like Macworld ran a few months ago. They were really almost the same, but you're talking about a few hundred dollars cheaper. If Elements and Lightroom are scaled-down Photoshop portions, then you're probably better off with a MacBook.

Pay attention to the port offerings on the new notebooks. I doubt you would ever need a firewire port, but if you do, there are numerous rumors of the lower-end MacBooks not having them. With HDD camcorders taking over, the need for firewire is really diminishing.
 
Photoshop CS4 will be graphics accelerated and the next generation of applications from Adobe are likely to be as well so the Macbook Pro may be the more future proof machine.
 
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