Laptop for editing?
Discussion
My current laptop is about 6 years old and starting to seize up and die, so its time to look for a new one. If I'm going to be using it to edit photos what should I be looking for when buying? I don't really do much post processing at the moment but I should really learn.
So any recomendations? What are the options for two budgets of either £500 or £1000? Also is windows8 good or bad, I'm still using XP.
So any recomendations? What are the options for two budgets of either £500 or £1000? Also is windows8 good or bad, I'm still using XP.
There is a tendency for photo and graphics editing systems to be demanding (sometimes insisting) on lots of power, lots of memory and as serious as you can get with a dedicated graphics card supporting (hopefully reliably) OpenCL. SSD drives are all the rage as well.
One has to assume that the future will hold more of the same.
Not sure about Win 8 yet - most of what is available will have been better developed and tested on Win 7 (or, more likely, Mac of course) than Win 8 simply due to timing, availability and, of course, the relative maturity of Win 7. All 64 bit obviously. Some products insist on 64bit.
It may be that your best choice will be driven by selection based on screen resolution. A good res will likely be supported by a good spec for image editing whereas one might not expcet a decent image editing spec. if a low res screen is offered.
If you only ever expect to work with jpgs the situation and needs may be different.
One has to assume that the future will hold more of the same.
Not sure about Win 8 yet - most of what is available will have been better developed and tested on Win 7 (or, more likely, Mac of course) than Win 8 simply due to timing, availability and, of course, the relative maturity of Win 7. All 64 bit obviously. Some products insist on 64bit.
It may be that your best choice will be driven by selection based on screen resolution. A good res will likely be supported by a good spec for image editing whereas one might not expcet a decent image editing spec. if a low res screen is offered.
If you only ever expect to work with jpgs the situation and needs may be different.
Personnally I would look at something with 6-8GB RAM, i5 processor and a seperate graphics card. An SSD would be nice as well with an external HD for storage but may be pushing it a bit with a £5-1000 budget.
I'm not sure about Win 8 yet (have 7 on my desktop and 8 on the laptop) so would probably stay clear of it if you are used to XP.
Any reason why you are picking a laptop over a desktop?
I have to say I hate using my latop for editing photos now I'm used to a 24 inch monitor on the desktop (hopefully soon to be a 27inch).
I'm not sure about Win 8 yet (have 7 on my desktop and 8 on the laptop) so would probably stay clear of it if you are used to XP.
Any reason why you are picking a laptop over a desktop?
I have to say I hate using my latop for editing photos now I'm used to a 24 inch monitor on the desktop (hopefully soon to be a 27inch).
Are you looking at laptops because you want to use it when out and about, or is it just for compactness at home?
My Asus Ultrabook has more than enough power for photo work and the screen is very good indeed although it is only 13.3". It is an ideal solution for portable use, but is at the top end of your budget.
If it is for use at home, weight and battery life are less of a factor - I'd be looking at a 17 or 18" screen size with an i5 processor miniumum, plenty of RAM (the more the better), and a decent size HDD.
My Asus Ultrabook has more than enough power for photo work and the screen is very good indeed although it is only 13.3". It is an ideal solution for portable use, but is at the top end of your budget.
If it is for use at home, weight and battery life are less of a factor - I'd be looking at a 17 or 18" screen size with an i5 processor miniumum, plenty of RAM (the more the better), and a decent size HDD.
The problem with most laptops when being considered for use for photo processing is that the monitor cannot be adjusted sufficiently to give true colours. Despite using a calibration tool on my laptop, it still produces images that look considerably warmer when viewed on my desktop. Now I only use my laptop for basic skin touching up like spot removal etc, before transferring the files over to my desktop for final editing.
I do quite a bit of editing in Photoshop using a Macbook Air 13". Not the most powerful spec on paper, but the SSD drive really makes a difference and it actually outperforms my much higher spec Windows Desktop.
The only issue I find is that the screen colours change slightly depending on the angle of the screen so you have to be careful when adjusting temperature/hue/tint/saturation etc, to make sure the screen is at 90 degrees to your eyes before you start otherwise you end up with the wrong tone.
The only issue I find is that the screen colours change slightly depending on the angle of the screen so you have to be careful when adjusting temperature/hue/tint/saturation etc, to make sure the screen is at 90 degrees to your eyes before you start otherwise you end up with the wrong tone.
I've taken to having a monitor available to plug in when editing, my laptop screen is rather bright and as a result I've made edits rather dark and dingy before, using the proper monitor allows for proper adjustment and doesn't have the screen angle issue.
I think I would go for something with an SSD if you can, my laptop is about the same age as the OPs, seems to get diskbound quite alot (i.e. its hammering away at the hard disk and wont do anything or lags until its done whatever it needs).
I'm running a trial of Capture One at the moment, poor laptop really struggles with that!
I think I would go for something with an SSD if you can, my laptop is about the same age as the OPs, seems to get diskbound quite alot (i.e. its hammering away at the hard disk and wont do anything or lags until its done whatever it needs).
I'm running a trial of Capture One at the moment, poor laptop really struggles with that!
A lot of dosh, but a 15" 1680x1050 display MBP running 8Gb RAM and a SSD drive is what I am using - copes well with LR4 chewing up D800 mega-sized files! (Plus use an external firewire drive for storage .....)
It is twice your budget OP, but spreading it over about 4-5 years of expected use (and *ahem* my business *needed* it so as a qualified, unpaid VAT collector I do have a slight advantage), and the MBP seems a bit more viable.
It is twice your budget OP, but spreading it over about 4-5 years of expected use (and *ahem* my business *needed* it so as a qualified, unpaid VAT collector I do have a slight advantage), and the MBP seems a bit more viable.
OP, after struggling along for years with Laptops and PC's that were cheap..... I pushed the boat out in the summer and bought a MacBook Pro Retina.
I know it's expensive, but I had looked at Dells with IPS screens and HP with Dreamcolor and decided that they were too big an bulky. and too expensive - even buying a refurbished machine. We use HP's at work and I have had four in 2012 for a variety of reasons - non of which were down to me abusing the machine.
Ended up with the base rMBP, the screen is very good and the viewing angles are excellent. It runs LR3 and PS right up to the full resolution of the screen - albeit it the icons are a bit small and it eats the 20MB+ RAW files from my 5DMkii.
I know it's way over budget (it was way over mine) but the pain has been worth it!
I know it's expensive, but I had looked at Dells with IPS screens and HP with Dreamcolor and decided that they were too big an bulky. and too expensive - even buying a refurbished machine. We use HP's at work and I have had four in 2012 for a variety of reasons - non of which were down to me abusing the machine.
Ended up with the base rMBP, the screen is very good and the viewing angles are excellent. It runs LR3 and PS right up to the full resolution of the screen - albeit it the icons are a bit small and it eats the 20MB+ RAW files from my 5DMkii.
I know it's way over budget (it was way over mine) but the pain has been worth it!
Another vote for a MacBook Pro, even if you have to go for a used one or a refurb. Great, powerful, good screen, very quick.
I do all my editing on one, I currently (until the 27th) do my editing between 3 houses so no room for a desktop and despite being a few years old now it copes admirably with Capture One v7, CS6, the full Nik suite etc.
I do all my editing on one, I currently (until the 27th) do my editing between 3 houses so no room for a desktop and despite being a few years old now it copes admirably with Capture One v7, CS6, the full Nik suite etc.
Just been looking around, what about this ?
http://h20386.www2.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.as...
3rd gen i7, 8gb RAM, dedicated 2gb for graphics, 1tb hard drive.
With the code from the computers section (15XMASOFF) its under £600 delivered, cheaper again with quidco apparently (I don't use it so I don't know how you sort that out).
It doesn't have the SSD I mentioned earlier, but there aren't many laptops that you can get large capacity in, let alone one with an SSD in. A 256gb SSD will get full in no time. I did find a Dell with a small SSD for the system drive an then a conventional disk for lots of storage but it was quite a bit of cash.
My laptop is a bit dog-eared and slow when running processing software, the trial of Capture One is almost unusable so I'm considering the above to speed things up a little.
http://h20386.www2.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.as...
3rd gen i7, 8gb RAM, dedicated 2gb for graphics, 1tb hard drive.
With the code from the computers section (15XMASOFF) its under £600 delivered, cheaper again with quidco apparently (I don't use it so I don't know how you sort that out).
It doesn't have the SSD I mentioned earlier, but there aren't many laptops that you can get large capacity in, let alone one with an SSD in. A 256gb SSD will get full in no time. I did find a Dell with a small SSD for the system drive an then a conventional disk for lots of storage but it was quite a bit of cash.
My laptop is a bit dog-eared and slow when running processing software, the trial of Capture One is almost unusable so I'm considering the above to speed things up a little.
Thanks Rob, I struggle to keep up with specs nowadays.
I agree on the MB stuff, things like this really put me off:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/06/opinion-app...
The battery dies (as they all do eventually) and I have to mail it out and pay a couple of hundred for a replacement ? not a chance. Ok it says in the article $200US, but even if you convert and add VAT its £150.
I agree on the MB stuff, things like this really put me off:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/06/opinion-app...
The battery dies (as they all do eventually) and I have to mail it out and pay a couple of hundred for a replacement ? not a chance. Ok it says in the article $200US, but even if you convert and add VAT its £150.
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