Mac Laptops - Photographers Love or Hate?

cbay · Jan 3, 2006

Hey!

Well I was intially thinking of gettin a Tablet Laptop, but im now considering getting a lightweight, high spec laptop and someone reccomend a Mac Laptop as they perform better than windows with photoshop. Is this true, if so any experience would be much appreciated, please share...

celery · Jan 3, 2006

I've been a mac supporter my whole life and I currently have an ibook. It's great. And yeah, macs are better with imaging and such (plus they don't crash . . . ever).

digital flower · Jan 3, 2006

I'm not sure about running PS better than Windows but I have a 15" Ti Powerbook that runs CS2 really well (512MB ram). I have taken this computer on about 80,000 miles of trips and it has performed flawlessly. I have had to buy a new battery and I just got a 80GB hard drive installed. The battery can run PS for hours. I also have the auto/air power adapter. This is an older model but I was lucky it was a G4 and can run all the new stuff, like Tiger and CS2. I really wish I had got the wireless internet card installed, that will probably be next. I like the fact that I can download pictures in the field or away from home. At the time the Mac Lap top was a lot more $$ than the some of the windows machines. This may or may not figure into your plans.

jcharcalla · Jan 3, 2006

You know I hear this one alot. Mainly from graphic designers at work who don't know how to use computers and insist macs are better at graphics. Sure back in the day when windows only supported 256 colors a pretty mac with thousands of colors was better yet today not one of them can tell me why. Just thats what they were told in school. Don't get me wrong here I would totally buy a mac if I had the spare cash laying around. I think the decision between mac or PC should be more of a personal preferance thing. If you like OSX go for it.

cbay · Jan 3, 2006

Well I'm certainly thinking about it, but i think it will have to be a 2nd hand mac if i do as ill be selling my two windows laptops and keeping my windows desktop and buying a Mac Laptop, but im not quite sure it seems a big step and something ill have to learn, but im young nd a quick learner. I think im going to read some reviews...

Dave_D · Jan 3, 2006

Macs are much better with graphics then PC's. It was explained to me in tech terms once a while back and if I try to requote I'm sure my memory will not be friendly. One of the reasons I do know is that the hardware is more specific for it in general terms. A friend of mine recently got a powermac g5 and I druled all over his floor seeing how fast photoshop loaded when he started the program not to mention how fast processing time is on complex filters of large image sizes. For the five grand he paid for it, I could probably put together a Windows box that would come close. When it comes to macs it's all about the benjimans.

Azuth · Jan 3, 2006

Macs are much better with graphics then PC's. It was explained to me in tech terms once a while back and if I try to requote I'm sure my memory will not be friendly. One of the reasons I do know is that the hardware is more specific for it in general terms.

For those that truly believe it's all about the technology, ask yourself why all Mac's will be based on an Intel chip by 2007.

Don't get me wrong I actually quite like a lot of Apple's designs and in general they are good units out of the box for graphics, but a PC spec'd right can perform just as well (in fact by most benchmarks, including real world PS use) a PC in the same price point will perform better assuming it uses the right components.

The big problem with PC's is that too many shops are run by people without a clue, they'd sell you a graphics card with 256 MB of texture memory to improve PS performance.

jcharcalla really has it right here, personal preference should probably be your guide. Macs are good, they're just not the 1000 X better or even the 1.3 X better that the Apple shop will tell you they are.

kelox · Jan 3, 2006

Buy the Mac, you won't be sorry.

Unimaxium · Jan 3, 2006

Powerbooks are soooooo nice. I love my 15 incher. But you might want to wait a few months before getting any Apple product... Apple announced several months ago that they would be dumping their current G4 and G5 processors and transitioning their lineup to Intel processors. This may mean (many people speculate) that future macs will be capable of running Windows natively and at full speed, in addition to Mac OS. Apple has said they will not officially support windows running on their macs, all signs today point to the possibility that it will be possible to load windows onto a mac in the future.
Apple has said their transition to the new processors will start in early 2006 and they will have their entire line of macs transitioned over by mid-2007 (if memory serves me). This means they will be upgrading something of theirs very soon.

So I would highly recommend going with a mac, but it would be best to wait a little while until the new Intel processor Powerbooks come out. That way there will be no need to decide between which OS you like better, because you'll be able to run both! (hopefully). So that's my 2¢.

mgold · Jan 3, 2006

I'm a Mac owner (3 at home, 3 at work) and love them. My only regret is getting a 12" PowerBook. Don't get me wrong, its light and fast, but its not great for photographic work (although it gets by in a pinch). As a photographer and experienced Mac user I would recommend the following: Get a PowerBook 15 with 1 or 2GB RAM and the 100GB 7200 RPM hard drive (spend the extra money and have it built that way instead of adding RAM later). If you get one, don't forget to get the AppleCare Protection Plan!

stingray · Jan 3, 2006

You've always been able to run windows inside of mac as an emulator but only the fasstest, newest computers even now can run it properly... choosing the OS you want as the base would be far too kind to users vs. companies. OSX runs a different architecture than Windows so they're not compatible. If that were the case the new macs would just use pentium (probably more souped up) chips.
If you're used to a PC's interface there's no use going for a MAC... and for the money pc's are far better. yeah, ok the top g5 is real nice but you can get something so much better spec'd for less money (in a pc)! For laptops check out Alienware and Boxxtech... that's if you're not comfortable with all the technobabble.. both of those companies, particularaly boxxtech have computers available designed specifically for a certain field. call me biased, but I reallly do not like macs.

Edit: Woops, Boxxtech don't do laptops...

fukkdizzle · Jan 4, 2006

mac or die. you won't regret it. i think the things people are looking for in terms of the tech are the chips. Apples used a diffrent kind of chip then pcs it was very efficent, and that's why macs were better, recently intel made the switch (damn, i cannont remeber the name of it) so that's why apple chose the new intel chips. really apple is still the best for imaging.

Dweller · Jan 4, 2006

fukkdizzle said:
really apple is still the best for imaging.

I keep hearing people make those comments but never hear why.

I went looking for some benchmarks and it seems Apple does not really have an edge at all.

The overall times recorded to complete our six Photoshop tests favored the Mac G4 by a slim three percent. If we ignored the RGB to CMYK conversion test results, the Pentium 4 would have swept this competition and left the G4 behind by a healthy 34 percent.

http://www.g4tv.com/techtvvault/features/31952/Benchmark_Showdown__Mac_vs_PC.html

I'm often accused of choosing applications that favor the Mac. My only criteria is that the applications run on both platforms. That charge falls flat when you see the fastest Power Mac G5 was fastest in only 2 out of 5 tests on this page.

http://www.barefeats.com/macvpc.html

Rob · Jan 4, 2006

I find it very funny the level of almost religious fervour Mac users get worked up to when someone disses their little toys.

JOAT · Jan 4, 2006

I'm not going to debate the whole issue here, but give my 2cents. I've owned PC's in the past and currently run a Powermac g4 Dual 867mhz. Since i've owned it i've had no major problems and it is kicking strong.

The whole thing about software being better on macs are a myth nowadays, but yes the majority of the industry uses macs. Personally i find programs like photoshop, illusrator, premiere..any graphic or video related software work well on Dual processors, but nowadays for the same price you can get a PC stacked for multimedia purposes. The plus side of having a mac is the longevity of it and in my experience macs require less maintenance, and they are more protected against viruses. In my 4 years of owning this comupter i've have yet encountered a virus.

What it really comes down to is personal preference.
Both have their uses in graphic design/multimedia. While Macs have traditionally been considered "THE" tool for graphic design, either system is acceptable in the industry these days. It’s not which system you use, so much as how you use it. The quality of our work is NOT defined by our hardware.