So my wife and I just bought a fairly decent "intro" or beginner DSLR to start doing some amateur/hobby photography. We also haven't had a working computer/laptop in our house for the last 4 or so years, but I suppose we're going to need to get one to do any photo editing.
Any TKPers out there fool around with hobby photography and got any suggestions on a laptop? I'm not trying to break the bank here, or do professional quality stuff, just something sufficient to play around with.
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Pretty much all my creative friends who are into photo/video shooting and editing (including a few professionals) use Apple products (iMac, MacBook, etc) coupled with Adobe creative suite for editing. Photoshop, lightroom, etc.
My girlfriend does all the retouching for a professional photographer and suggests the same. She uses a MacBook pro, Lightroom for downloading and Photoshop for editing.
MacBooks are always a good choice. I'd always take them over a PC for editing (whether photo or video). I'd look into past versions if you're looking to save some cash. If it's a once a month deal, a PC will be fine, but if it's something your serious about, go ahead for the MacBook. It'll be worth it in the long run.
Edit: That said, if you don't know the difference in Mac vs PC when editing, then you can go PC to play around with. However, as someone who started on a college Mac suite to edit on, and then switch over to PC on my personal laptop, it's night and day. Would never buy another PC again to edit with.
Well when my wife gets frustrated with editing on her Mac, I open the files on my PC and bang out the photo edits. I have yet to ever see a Mac do a better job at anything (except high price) than a PC.
This.
Adobe makes the same software for both platforms, pick what fits your preference and budget. A PC is going to be significantly less money for the same performance. You can get a Photoshop subscription for $9.99/mo and edit to your heart's content. A touch screen laptop or PCtab can be useful when applying Photoshop brushes with a stylus. I have heard good things about the latest Surface Pro but you are also getting back into the Macbook price range.
Uh oh....PC vs Mac debate upcoming....
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I currently have a 5 year-old HP laptop whose fan constantly runs and battery is shot. I use Lightroom for our family pictures that we capture with our DSLR. I will be watching this closely as I've been contemplating jumping over to Apple products. Editing pictures in Lightroom on Windows hasn't been a big deal, but the one little video edit I did with Adobe Premiere Elements took quite a bit of time to work on.
I'm sure this is way overkill, but I shoot all of our pictures in RAW format and Lightroom has some pretty cool features for changing white balance and just about everything else with the picture. Lightroom is definitely a must have. It has allowed me to correct some camera settings goof ups quite easily and saved some not as great looking pictures.
Plebs... Linux for the win!
Linux: for those who are more interested in tinkering to do whatever they want than actually doing what they wanted to do in the first place.
That is probably how Linux was made anyway.
cept linux can be run by macbooks id take a mac over a pc anyday for coding and data analysis purposes
Even less work - Mac OS X runs on Unix (that's one of the reasons why it's so stable). Almost everything you can do on Linux, you can do on Mac with minimal effort. Fire up Terminal and you have yourself a Unix shell.
But for the real computer geeks out there, ever since Mac switched from PowerPC to Intel, it's actually possible to set up a triple-boot system with Linux, OS X, and Windows on the same machine.
As if anything I've ever done or said previously would suggest otherwise.
totes agree but for grad students of the world reading this jank, get a mac theyre a loy easier
If youre you're running your own OS, why would you buy a mac? It's the same hardware, and no amount of shiny sleek cases make it worth twice the value of its components.
My biggest recommendation would be to not buy a Mac just because everyone says that's what all the creatives use. My wife is a professional wedding photographer and she uses PCs - one desktop as her main workstation and a Surface Pro 3 (i7) for something portable that can be used to edit when away from home.
If you guys like Macs, then you'd probably be happier sticking with them since they are familiar - and if you don't mind spending a little more for the Apple brand. Some people prefer them and there is nothing wrong with that, just like how some people prefer Canon and others Nikon. But if you're open to Windows then you will get more bang for your buck, and there should be something in your price range that will get the job done.
Sometimes my wife will use the Surface to edit some photos at the wedding reception and put up a same-day slideshow, or she'll use it if we are traveling. And even though she has a desktop that I built for her, she actually edits a lot on the Surface because she likes to work from the couch instead of at a desk, haha. I have been impressed with how well it handles Photoshop and Lightroom, despite the fact that it doesn't have a discrete graphics card. Or if you aren't interested in the Surface Pro (you may not like the keyboard), there are some newer 2-in-1s that are very competitive with Microsoft's Surfaces, like the HP Spectre and the Lenovo Yoga. Or if you're looking for something bigger and with a discrete graphics card there are always the standard-size laptops like the Dell XPS and ASUS ZenBook ("ultrabooks") or Dell Inspiron (more of a budget machine, but can still pack some great specs).
I guess the first questions to answer are:
1. Never used a Mac, and since we're picking this up as more of a hobby...I dont really care to learn a whole new OS
2. < $800...well under $800
3. Probably just laptap form
Some of the main things I've read are to look for at least 8 GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, and i5 or i7
I am pretty sure #2 eliminate all forms of Mac.
Here are some options to consider, all less than $800 and all with 8 GB memory and 1 TB HDD storage:
Pros: Inexpensive i7, 15-inch touch screen
Cons: ? (Not sure, maybe cheaper construction materials)
Pros: 15-inch screen, lower price than other options here
Cons: Non-touch / Not a 2-in-1 (although if you don't want a 2-in-1 maybe this isn't an issue for you)
Pros: i7, touch screen
Cons: 13-inch screen (but if you have a monitor you can use then this is not a big negative), More expensive than the other options here
I found all of these by applying the following filters on Dell and HP's websites:
i5 or i7, $800 or less
Check out the filtered results to look at all the other options/configuration in between the ones above:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/category/laptops?appliedRefinements=1352,...
http://store.hp.com/us/en/vwa/Laptops/proc=Intel-Core-i7,Intel-Core-i5;f...
I focused on Dell and HP because they are great budget machines. I've owned a Dell Inspiron as a personal laptop and even though has a lower build quality than a Dell XPS ultrabook, I took care of it and it held up just fine. I've also used HPs that were given to me by work and they are decent laptops too, never had any issues with them. From the quick searching and links above it looks like HP is overall cheaper than Dell. There are many other laptop brands but I don't have first-hand experience with them, which is why I stuck with these. I was a little surprised to see 2-in-1s being the less expensive options but I guess they are more light-weight spec-wise and cramming everything into that small form factor is less of an issue now.
Also some other things to consider:
I/O
How many USB ports does it have? (And how many of them are USB 3.0?)
Does it have a card reader? (And is it compatible with the cards your camera uses?)
What king of port is used for video output? (Most should be HDMI nowadays, but depending on what you're looking at you might see the older VGA or the newer Mini DisplayPort.)
Battery Life
You can compare with what the manufacturer says "8 hours of video playback" or you can compare battery capacity in WHr, but more WHr doesn't necessarily mean longer life, this primarily depends on the screen and if the keyboard is backlit.
Touchpad/Keyboard
Get something which is comfortable and feels good to you.
Ah, just realized you laid out some criteria.
In that price range there are a ton of options, but they're all going to be limited in some way. I like Dells but HP makes some good stuff as well. Whichever vendor you choose, I would recommend going for an SSD rather than settling for a regular HDD in order to fit an i7 in the budget. Unless it's a quad-core i7 you won't see much real-world difference in those CPUs while the SSD will make everything load faster.
Are we talking strictly photography? No video editing? Then my advice is go with a Windows 10 system. Mac has earned the reputation of being the editing system, and with video editing that is mostly accurate. But Mac's reputation as being a superior photo editing system is unfounded. Photoshop and Lightroom on a good Windows 10 system is equivalent to the same programs on Mac. (Source: my wife, who runs a photography business on a side project.)
I'd advise going no lower than an Intel Core i5 processor, and if it's in your budget, a Core i7. And if your budget allows (and most people's don't), I cannot stress this enough, get a Microsoft Surface Pro. It is an amazing system, and the pen is fantastic for editing.
Yes, most likely strictly photography
Article on laptops for photography
Yeah I've read that, and many other lists and articles, just thought I'd reach out on here for some first hand experience
Honestly I built my own. I do wedding photography and finished in the top 5 in Lynchburg last year and I have 18 images in the Central Virginia Bridal Magazine this spring/summer issue. Been doing it for 4 years. Building my own allowed me to put exactly what I wanted in it and I am too OCD and afraid the different angles of the laptop screen could effect the editing I was doing. I have my software on a ssd and my operating system on the hard drive. Everything else is on external hard drives. Thing runs like the wind.
That's awesome...I, on the other hand, would not have a clue where to begin trying to build my own!
YouTube helped me step by step. There are a ton of places to order quality hardware options. Like newegg and other sites similar
Mac vs. OS is a debate over operating system. Unless you want to do your editing in MS Paint, you'll be using independent software to actually do the editing, and almost all of the good ones have a version for both Mac and PC. So strictly in terms of video editing, the Mac vs. PC debate matters zilch.
Now in terms of your personal comfort level using a computer (and your budget), there's where the debate comes in.
I have a Dell Laptop, but after seeing my wife's Surface Pro 3, I am now using Surface Pro 4's for work. We are a design firm, so we use Adobe CS, ACAD, etc, and works like a charm. The other nice thing about it, it's pretty light and easy to carry in just about any bag.
If you have the budget for a Surface Pro but want more screen or just a more traditional format, the Dell XPS 15 is a fantastic platform.
Available with either a 1080p or 4k touch screen
Here's an example XPS 15 with: i7 quad - 8GB RAM - GTX 1050 - 256GB SSD - 4k
I moonlight as a wedding photographer and I've edited on PCs and Macs and I'll never buy a PC again. It's all personal preference really. I love OS X and the syncing across my iPad, iPhone, and MBP. I've had my MBP for over two years now and it's still lightning fast.
From a business perspective I've grown to hate icloud and apples syncing. Seems to dig too deep.
I can't really speak to that since they are my personal devices but I enjoy the imessage, calendar, notes, etc syncing for personal use.
On a side note, if you are just getting into photography it is easy to get overwhelmed by it all. I've been in and out of photography as a hobby for ~8 years and have seen people get really discouraged really quickly even though some of the most basic DSLRs today are really great cameras. I'd recommend you pick up "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It's a great book for people just learning how to control a camera and for <$20 its a great buy and really easy to read. Amazon Link
I have a new beefy i7 desktop with lots of ram and a nice graphics card, I feel it is necessary with my current DLSR that shoots at 50+ MB RAW files. If your body sensor is 24MB or smaller a budget laptop had worked fine for me in the past.
Don't stress it, at a minimum start out with Lightroom and possibly Photoshop and master your workflow :)
Anyone have an opinion on the Huawei MateBook? Cheap surface knockoff or is it just a surface without paying for the brand name?
It's mostly a clone. There are some OS operational issues and I don't like some of the interface. But it does pretty much everything you need at less cost. Personally I would still want a Surface though unless cost is definitive factor.
I wont recommend either a Mac or PC to you as I use each everyday for work and trading side job. I will tell you if you're looking for an affordable Mac go over to ebay and purchase an older MacBook Pro. I acquired a MacBook Air with all the specs I needed for $400 and I lucked out as the seller was just over the Bridge in Annapolis.