Film Shooters Computer setup, ideas?

[Jao]

I thought I would post this in the F&C section although I know there is a specific tech thread area on TP. I am keen to know what other film shooters have as their computer setup. I know that this won't be relevant to purists who shoot film and wet print. I guess I am really a hybrid filmy, using film as the capture medium but then scanning, storing and sometimes posting and sharing. I had considered a change of computer earlier in the year but a new car intervened! I am now ready to purchase though.

My current desktop PC is a few years old, Just to give people a Sunday morning laugh the spec of the machine is an AMD Phenom 2.5mhz Quad Core, 4mb RAM, running Vista Home Premium. I do also own and use a 2013 Mac Book Pro too. I use both mac and PC at work so firmly have a foot in both camps. both systems have strengths and limitations in my view, so I'm not in the one is better than the other camp for either. ultimately it is about personal choice. Like with cars!

I have two scanners hooked up to the current PC, an Epson V500 and a Plustek 7600i. I also have a couple of printers, and two 2Tb external hard drives attached. I mainly use Silverfast 8 and Epson scanning software and LR4 for tweaking. I have Photoshop Elements 9 which is solely used for final dust removal. I do some word processing and spreadsheet work. I don't play games or any of that mullarky.

I am considering an Imac 27" 3.4 mhz i5, with 8mb of RAM, I know I want a bigger screen than the 13" MBP, but I have been happy with the 22" on my PC so might consider the Imac 21.5. I know processor and memory are the key considerations. Whilst I can run to a top end machine, that Pentax 6x7 outfit is calling me in 2015 too!!! I am not ruling a PC out either, but on balance I do prefer the mac interface. So with this in mind I'd welcome thoughts about:

a.) What set up other film shooters use?

b.) Recommendations/advice on a new system?

All advice gratefully received.

 

[freecom2]

What is causing you a problem or limitation in your current systems, aside from the screen size?

If you are happy with a Mac system, the 2013 MBP is a very capable laptop - the one with the retina display makes for a superb machine, and you already own it! If you need a bigger screen, just plug the 22" screen into the MBP via HDMI - and voila, you have a dual screen setup, and you already have all the components to do this. I run a 24" monitor off my 13" Mac, and it gives me a great dual screen setup for editing, with the flexibility of unplugging the screen and having a great portable laptop.

 

[Yv]

Just a small comment about the macs and screen size... I had a 21inch and upgraded a couple of years ago to a 27 inch and it is a huge amount of screen real estate, following the mouse can be like watching a tennis match. The big advantage on the big screen though is the ability to have more than a single window open, set side by side and still have them at a good viewing size. I don't know whether this will be of any assistance to you if needing to have a scanning and cataloguing program or similar open at the same time, but just thought I would mention it. Like you, I prefer the Mac interface over Windows, inspite of the hugely inflated hardware prices, but in terms of a set up for a filmie, I doubt the requirements vary that much from a digital shooter, so as I would say to those people to, go with the best you can afford AND justify to yourself

 

[steveo_mcg]

The only thing I'd look for is more RAM. Hi res scans from mf film get pretty memory hungry pretty quickly so anything beyond light room edits are going to be slow.

 

[freecom2]

The big advantage on the big screen though is the ability to have more than a single window open, set side by side and still have them at a good viewing size.

I can't emphasise this enough. With my setup, I can have 2 A4 documents side by side on the large screen, and another document/file open on the 13" screen. The increase in productivity is absolutely fantastic, and good quality large monitors are now very good value.

RAM is definitely your friend, although to be honest if you are dealing with mostly 2400-4800dpi scans, especially of 35mm, you probably aren't taxing a system with 8GB too much. I scan 6x6 MF at 2400dpi, which gives me files which are 5500 x 5500 pixels - which is about 30 megapixels. Any digi system which can cope with a DSLR spitting out equivalent files will be just fine.

 

[Strapps]

I have a self-built PC, bought a refurbished Intel i7 Dell workstation PC from SAM Ltd. (their website looks incredibly basic but you sign up for the stock list and it's emailed daily - wait for the kit you want to turn up). The initial unit was quite reasonably priced but I've since spent more than a new i7 machine would probably cost upgrading everything, partly because I rediscovered the joy of PC gaming.

If you decide to stick with a PC, I'd recommend getting as big a screen as you can, install your operating system and programs on a SSD and inflate your memory as far as it'll go. I've got a 120GB SSD and 16GB of RAM and the machine boots to the login prompt inside 10 seconds and everything pretty much flies. I've got a Dell P2414H 24" widescreen monitor, looks gorgeous with the IPS panel but only displays 1920x1080 native, which limits the options for running multiple windows side-by-side.

Software-wise, I use LR5 for cataloguing and editing, scanning with VueScan from a CanoScan 9000F. I bought a copy of PSE12 from John Lewis a few months ago when they were running a half-price promotion and that does the (very few) bits that I can't do with LR.

I'm not a Mac-man but I think the big monitor, SSD and pimped RAM can be applied to whatever image editing system you decide on

 

[abbandon]

I gave up buying new computer equipment ages ago when I discovered the joys of SAM in 2007. I wouldn't laugh at your current set up as it should be capable enough however if you do buy more toys keep it around as a headless box to run the scanners and control it via VNC.

A few years ago I brought a Dell Precision 670 from SAM to use as a photoshop machine (two 3ghz Zeons and 4gb RAM) a couple of years later I found it was a bit limited when playing with the 1.25GB 10x8 scans so looked at upgrading the RAM to 16Gb this would have cost over 200 seconhand and while perusing SAM's then current list I saw they had Dell Precision 7400 3GHZ dual quad core Zeon 16gb RAM some fancy Quadra video card so it was a bit of a no brainer to pay 141 + vat for that instead still mostly using this with a pair of hp LP2065 20" non wide screen IPS panels (ebay about 45 each).

A week before the dreaded C word I was looking at their list and gave into temptation and grabbed a Dell Precision 690 with a dual core Zeon and 4GB for 20 + vat an older but very usable machine its got dual quaddra cards so four DVI outputs currently just using it with a 24" hp LP2465 brought from them for 60 +vat (1920x1200) a few days later they had 4gb of new server ram for 4 +vat so now it has 8gb (maximum possible is 128) then they had some big drives ......

I would say get a second machine and use your current one to run the scanners via VNC or the like secondhand workstations can have great specs and huge expandability for very little secondhand and virtually every machine produced in the last decade will support multiple monitors go for a two monitor setup.

Current goodies on their stock list include hp 2265 monitors 50 + vat and a selection of chunky drives

I could list half a dozen or more boxes I use but they are mostly related to single use applications as in lots of older drum scanners only want to talk to the OS from hell ie MAC OS9 or older workstation PC's brought cheap as they have inbuilt scci that lots of other older scanners that can run on xp require mostly its cheaper to buy the box than it is to buy individual adaptec cards.

 

[XA2inmypocket]

Sheesh, I use a beat up thing loaded with Ubuntu, some cheap monitor, Gimp 2.8, and UFRaw. I sometimes even edit using a netbook, Lubuntu and Gimp. I'm such a meanie.

 

[ChrisR]

If your MacBook Pro has at least 8 GB memory, then I would second the suggestion to attach the current large screen to it. I'd suggest using DVI rather than HDMI but that's only because that's the way I did it for years, rather than because I know it's better!

More memory is better for photography. SSD disks are better for photography. A big screen is better, a good screen is better. Faster processors I could care less about, although newer software does tend to eat older processors...

Use what you've got, buy the camera!

 

[freecom2]

I'd suggest using DVI rather than HDMI but that's only because that's the way I did it for years, rather than because I know it's better!

Absolutely no difference. If it's a few years old, it's more likely to have a DVI than HDMI port, but either one would work.

 

[Jao]

Many thanks everybody this feedback is exactly what I needed and has given me much to think about during the course of the day. It also dawned on me that part of my issue is that I have my image processing spread across two platforms.

So my immediate plan is to follow @freecom2 's advice and use my MBP with a separate monitor, it's spec is much higher than my ageing PC. I will wire my two scanners and one of the two External Hardrives (reformatted for the mac) to the MBP and consolidate all my photo work on this setup. Running this and my PC will allow me some time to migrate mt photo stuff to the mac platform. Taking @Yv Yvonne's and @ChrisR 's point about the value of monitors size I will get a larger display.

Dean @Strappy and @abbandon many thanks for the heads up on SAM ltd, I will definitely keep a look at there for bits of kit. I do need to keep a foot in the PC camp as another of my interests involves using some software that is best run on a PC, SAM seems a great source of self build and recycled kit.

@XA2inmypocket, your budget approach demonstrates it's the photographer and not the kit given your steam of top notch shots!

Again many thanks all for your input.

 

[freecom2]

I will wire my two scanners and one of the two External Hardrives (reformatted for the mac) to the MBP and consolidate all my photo work on this setup.

I would recommend formatting the drive in exFAT - it offers the best of both worlds in terms of compatibility between your Mac and Windows machines, without the disadvantages of the FAT32 system which is otherwise the most compatible format between the two systems.

 

[ChrisR]

One of the things about a two-monitor setup is, probably, that it will make clear how much monitors vary, and push you towards some form of calibration. When I was using an extra monitor on my earlier MacBook Pro, I did try manual adjustment to try to get colours etc the same, without much luck. I wasn't in a position to get a proper calibration tool at that time, and eventually had to get rid of the second monitor anyway, for space reasons.

 

[Steve Smith]

Sheesh, I use a beat up thing loaded with Ubuntu, some cheap monitor, Gimp 2.8...

Me too. I have an old e-machines PC which my son found for me which has Ubuntu loaded as I use it to run Linux only CNC router software.

I have Xsane software loaded to run my Epson 4870 scanner and this does a much better job than the Epson software did when I had Windows installed.

But I prefer to make wet prints.


Steve.