Lens VS Laptop

purpleroan · Jan 9, 2016

Hello all! I've been preparing the past couple of months to make a fairly large purchase, and now that the time has come I've hit a dilemma. I am currently a college student and I work as a student photographer for my university. This entails being assigned to shoots and events, taking photos, editing them, and then sending them to the college for newsletters, the website, advertising purposes, etc. I recently upgraded my camera body to a 70d, and I've been saving up to buy a 70-200 f2.8 lens. I hope to eventually run a small photography business, so I consider the lens to be a reasonable investment. I am working with a cheap toshiba laptop; its only a couple years old and works fine, but of course the resolution is poor compared to many laptops, and I find it clunky to bring to classes. I've also heard how important a good computer is when it comes to editing/organizing/storing photos and working with future clients. Basically, my question is: would it likely be more beneficial for me to invest in a high quality laptop (better picture viewing/editing/school use) or the L glass? Which is likely to better my photography at the current moment in time? The laptop I am interested in is the Macbook Pro and the lens is the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II USM. Thanks everybody!!

sparelink · Jan 9, 2016

I think I would say lens. For a long term investment, lens last longer. Laptops have to be replaced every few years when the technology changes. In 3 years a current laptop will be obsolete technology wise. A lens will last a life time.

cherylynne1 · Jan 10, 2016

It depends on which is causing more problems...are you running out of storage on your laptop? Are your editing programs running slowly? Do you have a slower lens in that focal range already? Do you have an immediate need for that lens?

I would guess that a new laptop would probably get more use, since it's not only for photography. But I'm not sure that it would improve your pictures much, unless it's so much faster that it significantly cuts down on your editing time and thus allows you to take more pictures or do more in-depth editing. The lens would improve your pictures immediately (assuming your skills have outgrown your current lens) but won't do you much good if you can't get them on to the computer to edit, or if a ten-minute edit takes an hour because it's running so slowly.

I think I would go for a laptop. It sounds like you're already having photos published, so you really need a high resolution calibrated monitor to make sure you're sending out the best version you can.

Overread · Jan 10, 2016

LENS
The lens is likely the harder purchase because its got 1 specific use however it lets you take photographs which you can then work with. The laptop won't let you go back and retake those photos with the L lens when you get it.

Also as a student you've got access to college/uni computers and their systems so you can make full use of them for your editing and data storage in the short term (a simple 1TB external harddrive would solve your storage needs for a long while too).