Move from windows to mbp for photography

[wolfpuppies3]

You'll love it Chiffs

I use my 15 MBP with a 27" Apple monitor as a stationary tool and carry my much lighter 13" MBA with me on the road for field work and storage.

 

[ChrisA]

Hi everyone, first post in this neck of the woods so a little extra info.

I currently have a canon 500d with kit lens, nifty fifty and a 70-200 f4 L and a hp 2.1ghz dual core hp laptop with Lightroom and cs5.

Have had an iPhone now for 2 years and I think I've become an apple fan just because of the way it works so I'm now seriously thinking about getting a base mbp with the hi res screen upgrade.

Speaking to a couple of friends who have had macs they have also pointed me towards MacBooks although neither are really into photography.

I'm guessing the 15" mbp with a high res screen will be well up to the job?

Do the screens need much of a calibration? And which is the better to go for, anti glare or glossy. ( not had chance to check them both out yet)



Thinking I could run with the stock setup for quite a while and then upgrade at a later the ram and maybe a ssd. Does that sounds like a good plan?

What you don't say what what SOFTWARE you will use.

Get the glossy screen if you like over saturasted color that does not match the printed image very well (unless you always print on ultra-gloss paper) The anti-glare coating gives a more realistic approximation of a printed image and also allows work in sunlight. But most consummers like the glossy surface for games and video.

Get as much RAM is will fit in the computer. Buy it from OWC. They will buy back your Apple supplied RAM so at least it does not end up in the trash.

Hard to say about calibration. The screens are "close" but it you need prints to match the screen you need a colorimeter to read both the screen and your printer. THey are cheap now. Maybe yo have one already? My iMac came out pretty close to one to one but that is just luck

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Thanks all for your replies.

How much should I spend on a calibrator?

Can you guys point me towards some calibrators that are good and value for money?

Also if I'm running the laptop display and say another monitor/screen can you set up two separate profiles so both stay in calibration.

Yes. The Mac keep a set of color profiles, one for each device. But some of the colorimeter makers cripple their software and force you to pay extra to enable features like multi monitor support. You can work around it by manually moving files and such.

You can even do the entire process manually by eye. There is a preference setup that leads you through a process. It works well enough.

 

[Chiffs]

Purchased a base non retina 15 mbp yesterday with hi res AG screen.

Will be adding 16gb of ram shortly after it turns up.

Will be using elements 10 with either LR or aperture.

Never used aperture due to this being my first mac.

Have been looking at adding a spyder 4 elite for calibration unless anyone can recommend something better for around the £150 mark that will also do two monitors.

Apple thunderbolt to be added a few months down the line.

 

[Chiffs]

Snberk your post did make me smile, I know the feeling as I can't wait tbh.

Yesterday was my birthday and my lonely wife got me a magic mouse ( very nice of her ) amongst other things.

Tonight I ordered myself ps elements 10 and a spyder 4 elite.

Still don't know if I want aperture ( never used it) or lightroom!!!?????

 

[MCAsan]

As I remember you can download Aperture for $79. LR will cost $150. So you can start with Aperture, which can share libraries with iPhoto. If you don't like it, you can move on to LR without losing too much of an investment.

 

[snberk103]

Snberk your post did make me smile, I know the feeling as I can't wait tbh.

Yesterday was my birthday and my lonely wife got me a magic mouse ( very nice of her ) amongst other things.

Tonight I ordered myself ps elements 10 and a spyder 4 elite.

Still don't know if I want aperture ( never used it) or lightroom!!!?????

Happy Birthday! Hope you did something special, at least a bit more special than just getting a some computer stuff!

The learning curve can be steep, but there are lots of good resources out there. It is worth learning how to do things properly. I'm a Lightroom person myself, but that's just me.... both have their positive and negative points.

The most important thing to learn about Lr or AP3 is that they are digital asset managers. They are a database system, and if you can "Trust the Force" (i.e. understand why you need to think about how your images organization differently) you will be able to unleash the power of these two applications.

Good Luck. And post back often, eh?