Advice/Help Please - Laptop for Photography but not Mac

Kinobe

Kinobe

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Hi all.......

Looking for a laptop to mainly cope with my photography. I have thought about the Mac route but its just to dear and well out of my budget. I could stretch to a maximum of £1100. With this in mind I'm hoping will get me something that will do a nice resolution of 1680x1050 minimum or even higher and at least 2gb ram? I currently use a Viewsonic VP201s TFT and I can't fault the thing when it comes to my photography! So a good screen is required, I love working with photoshop spanned over the current 1600x1200 res on the viewsonic. They say photographers are better of with Matt finished TFT and not Xblack screens but weather I believe that I don't know. I do know you get immense reflection from Xblack screens which is where I can see them being a disadvantage.

Can anyone help me out? Just looking for some general advice on what people have or recommend of what £1100 can buy me?

Thanks if you can help.

Ed :)
 
I have only used a few laptops, mostly at the lower end of the spectrum, and personally I wouldnt want to use one for editing photos

A quick search would give

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1710?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

from delll for your price range.

I guess as with anythign it depends on what you want to do.

Personally I have been thinking about getting a lap top to take around with me so i can have a look at pics in the field as it were on a bigger screen, but from what you have said, I think you want a bit more than that

have a look on ebays offerings perhaps?

the core 2 cpu gives good performance in photoshop (I have an E6400 on my pc at home)

that one does 1900 x 1200 resolution
 
Bolerus said:
I have only used a few laptops, mostly at the lower end of the spectrum, and personally I wouldnt want to use one for editing photos

A quick search would give

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1710?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

from delll for your price range.

I guess as with anythign it depends on what you want to do.

Personally I have been thinking about getting a lap top to take around with me so i can have a look at pics in the field as it were on a bigger screen, but from what you have said, I think you want a bit more than that

have a look on ebays offerings perhaps?

the core 2 cpu gives good performance in photoshop (I have an E6400 on my pc at home)

that one does 1900 x 1200 resolution
Click to expand...

Thanks mate..... appreciated.

I've just been looking at these Dells..... But one thing I'm concerend about is these True Life Screens. There quite reflective apposed to The Matt finished TFT, which worries me but not to sure why? Dad just bought a Compaq laptop for himself and I honestly took a liking to the xblack screens but it seems that photographers recommend against them? Why is this? Its only going to be me using this laptop. There arn't going to be many people standing around the laptop which is where they become a problem.....

Ed :)
 
Just bought myself a new laptop & couldn't find any with matt screen, just glossy mirrors :thinking:

I bought an Acer 9301 with a 17" display but I'd say it's as good as the display on my phone for photo editing :lol:
 
mrgubby said:
I bought an Acer 9301 with a 17" display but I'd say it's as good as the display on my phone for photo editing :lol:
Click to expand...

How come if you don't mind me asking, what is it about it that you find so appauling?

Ed :)
 
Kinobe said:
How come if you don't mind me asking, what is it about it that you find so appauling?

Ed :)
Click to expand...

Colour seems to be out and the viewing angle is a bit narrow. I'm used to a 21" Samsung TFT which just outclasses it in every way.


The LCD on the Acer is good for doing Office stuff (which is its use) and at £499 for a 17" laptop I'm not complaining :)
 
Just get a MacBook Pro on Higher Education discount or from the refurb store :)
 
Hi, I use a HP pavilion laptop for editing my pictures, the screen has a narrowish viewing angle but the colours seem fine on it to me. Wolud recommend a HP.
 
If you want some performance (and you'll need it if you shoot RAW and wanna use Adobes bridge toi view) then I reckon any of the laptops you can get in Curry, PC World at the moment are good especially if thay have AMD Dual core too and can support up to 4GB of RAM which you can get from crucial-memory in most cases, probs cost you about 600.00 and you'll have to judge the screens as many still don't do 1600 res (favouring wide screen formats instead) and then spend the resty of your dosh on a decent monitor so you get the option of quick browse and stuff from your lappie but use a full decent monitor for PS when you have more time......but that just my opinion.
 
Just a post to say thanks for all your input and help!

I invested in a Dell M65 Mobile Workstation! Some of the specs include:

Intel Core Duo 2.16ghz
15.4" Widescreen Matt TFT 1920x1200 (tis lovely ;))
2gb Ram
120gb 5400rpm hd
Vista Business

Tis nice, fairly light and just what I was after. Need to get used to Vista but its growing on me like a rash atm hehee I recommend you ring Dell up if you want to buy a system I saved near on £300, so was best pleased.

My shuttle system will be up for sale next week ;)

Ed :)
 
nice! well done...might we learn how much? just for comparison's sake - the 15" macbook pros go for 1350 and 1700(!)...
 
shiato storm said:
nice! well done...might we learn how much? just for comparison's sake - the 15" macbook pros go for 1350 and 1700(!)...
Click to expand...

It set us back £1108.00 inc vat and delivery.

However Dell have picked it up today for a refund, colour reproduction is terrible, it only has a brightness up/down function so when it comes to calibrating the screeen to edit photographs its almost useless. Pictures were over also over saturated when viewed on other monitors/tfts even though it looked okay on The Dell. So the event I covered on Sat I had to process the whole set of 400+ photographs on my main pc instead which I'm glad I honestly didn't sell.

Its a shame because I liked the laptop but I couldn't justify keeping an 1100 laptop when it wasn't upto the job that I intended it for.

Once the refund is in my account, its time to purchase a Macbook pro then dual boot it with Vista! The 17" Mac Book pro is just a bit to big amongst quite pricey to warant my wallet. So I'll opt for the 15"4 2.16ghz version and upgrade the ram to 2gb.

Thanks again for all your help.......

Ed :)
 
thats a shame but I agree, if its not up to the task its built for then thats an awful lot of money for a flashy looking doorstop!

and hold off on that macbook purchase a week or two if you can. the updates are just around the corner.
 
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