Macbook Pro Vs. Laptop

Brookeroo

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Assuming this is where I post this...

I am in the process of building up my free lance photography business. I asked this question on Yahoo Answers photography board and got a resounding "no" on going towards Mac which is fine but it actually surprised me. I thought maybe redirecting my question somewhere a little more heavily pro photography influenced might give me a better gauge on what to consider. I went to school about 13 years ago for graphic design but that is the last that I've worked with Macintosh. Obviously Mac has improved significantly.

I have always had a love for photography but am only now looking to go pro. I'm having more people ask me to work for them since I upgraded my camera this year. Took classes in high school. Worked in a portrait studio for a couple of years.

I currently own an HP laptop that was top end when I bought it but it's about 5 years old now. I was looking at a Macbook Pro with Retina display. It does not have the DVD/CD Rom burner obviously but I found out that you can get them externally. I would obviously need that if I am going to sell my work. On yahoo answers they told me not to waste my money on the Mac that I can use to buy more camera equipment and just stick with Microsoft based equipment.

The other peice to this is that I have just recently upgraded my Photoshop to CS6 and Lightroom 5 however they are microsoft based so I will have to contact Adobe to allow me to switch over. Something I am willing to do if it is recommended to switch but I wasn't sure how much of a hassle that will be with Adobe. I have heard Adobe can be a pain in the rear with stuff like this.

What are your thoughts?
 
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Get a PC laptop and invest in a really nice monitor. The price of both wouldn't come close to a Mac, plus editing on even the biggest laptop is a pain.
 
^^^ That would all depend on what you call a 'really nice monitor'. You can very easily spend more on a monitor than on a Macbook.

Google Eizo for starters.

That said, the Macbook monitors are decent, and probably just as good as, if not better than, your typical $300 monitor. If you're planning on a $2500 Eizo, then maybe an inexpensive laptop might make more sense.

Another thing to consider is that MacOS upgrades run about $30, while windows upgrades will cost $100+.

As for which is 'better' that's totally a personal choice. I prefer MacOS. But that doesn't make it superior, clearly, an awful lot of people use windows without any problem.
 
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Oddly enough, I asked a professional photographer and he said get a Mac.

I probably wouldn't plan on doing extensive editing on any laptop unless it had a good-sized second monitor.

I use my iMac for photo editing and an quite happy with it.

Here again, you are starting from the wrong end of the telescope.

Start with what software you are going to use, including all software, and then look at the platform requirements for that (those) software(s).

That will tell you what computer. Could be that your current laptop is all you need.
 
Mac has had an early foot in the door with desktop publishing, and as a result photography followed. Apple has created a sort of symbiotic relationship with this industry, with the industry responding to apple's decisions and apple responding to the industry. But I don't know if that is so much the case any longer now that Apple has enjoyed a larger market presence.

As a result, I think the tendency for creative professionals to prefer Mac has more to do with tradition than it does any rational reasoning. MacOS has it's advantages, I'm not saying it doesn't, but I don't think that the argument that it's better for creative work is necessarily valid.
 
You can build a hackintosh.
 
Why even ask the question?

Mac is always going to win.

Never buy a PC, ever, ever again.
 
Hackintosh is more of a novelty, something to prove just because you can. It is not a realistic option for actual use.

Despite what people think, MacOS is optimized for the hardware Apple uses. Sure, if all the hardware involved has Mac native drivers, it should work well. But in practice, this just isn't the case. Anyone who has hacked together a mac will tell you this, or they are in such such PC fanboys that they just conclude that Mac sucks anyway.
 
I was going to switch to a Mac laptop and an iMac, but the sole reason I did not is because their laptops only go up to a 15" now. I have to have a 17" laptop. I won't budge on that.
 
You can build a hackintosh.

Yup. Just purchase Windows again, and split your Mac to run both platforms. Solves the problem of converting your Adobe software.
 
For versatility but a PC.

If you are mainly going to deal with graphics buy a Mac.

I bought a laptop instead of a MacBook because I play video games and Windows is the preferred platform for that, even though I had to sacrifice the Nice IPS screen.
 
why on earth would you have to sacrifice your monitor??
 
I went Mac and never looked back.

I even went as far as to get a job with them. :lol:

So. I'm just... gonna leave now, because whatever opinions I have will be accused of being colored biased. And they might be. Cause I just really, really love Apple. :lmao:

PLUS... I never did photo work when I had a Windows machine, so I don't know what it's like to edit on a Windows machine. Probably not any different depending on your internal parts and your monitor... ::shrugs::

But yeah... YAY APPLE! :biglaugh:
 
You can build a hackintosh.

Yup. Just purchase Windows again, and split your Mac to run both platforms. Solves the problem of converting your Adobe software.

While I think Windows runs better on Mac than MacOS runs on 3rd party hardware, this is not really a solution either. Windows tends to run hot on Mac hardware, especially on a laptop.

As far as buying photoshop, if you don't mind using Creative Cloud then that is one way to do it. Inevitably this will likely be your only option anyway.
 
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