Help :(

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Jazzo1111

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Jason
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Hey everyone,

Hope you are all well. I’m new to this photography and purchased a canon t7/ 2000d which I am constantly landed about. However I been advised I need a laptop for photo editing and don’t know what to get… would a MacBook m1 be suitable for this? Or if anyone can suggest a suitable laptop my budge is around 700 to 950.

Any help will be most appreciated and can’t wait to start sharing pictures on here with you all soon especially with spring and summer coming up.

Jason.
 
An M1 Mac will be fine, thou you may start to run out of storage space quickly with a 256gb version.

If not set on Apple, I recently bought a Lenovo Flex 5 16" which offers a 100% sRGB screen (good for editing if you have to use a laptop) at a cost of £650. Has a 512gb SSD as std, though I changed mine to 2TB.
 
I’m wondering if you need to decide what you are editing and what software you’ll be using to edit before deciding what laptop you’ll need. Some software (actually all) editing software will have the minimum recommended specification.
 
Well mainly photos I don’t want to edit videos or anything I prefer apple but not set I do like the battery life on the m1 Mac and I have a iPhone so I’m guessing it will work well together.
 
Jazzo1111 said:
Well mainly photos I don’t want to edit videos or anything I prefer apple but not set I do like the battery life on the m1 Mac and I have a iPhone so I’m guessing it will work well together.
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Hi and welcome. A Macbook with any M1 chip will work well with most photo editing software, just consider the capacity of the disk. Maybe budget for an external disk as well? Certainly a good idea to keep with a single-make infrastructure like you suggest.
 
Jazzo1111 said:
Well mainly photos I don’t want to edit videos or anything I prefer apple but not set I do like the battery life on the m1 Mac and I have a iPhone so I’m guessing it will work well together.
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You will need some editing software - Canon may well supply something basic but usable with the camera. Most of us use paid for software like Adobe lightroom or DXO photo lab. Probably best to try the Canon software first.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Probably best to try the Canon software first.
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I never really got on with it TBH and ditched it years ago in favour of PS.
FastStone albeit basic, it does enough of what the OP probably needs, it quite easy to use, and the best bit its free.
It's quite a small programme too. 7Mb for the full programme

https://www.faststone.org/download.htm
 
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Yeah I’m looking for a good deal on a MacBook Air M1 “8 core” 512 gb and 8g ram I think these specs are important to handle any editing I do.
 
Cobra said:
I never really got on with it TBH and ditched it years ago in favour of PS.
FastStone albeit basic, it does enough of what the OP probably needs, it quite easy to use, and the best bit its free.
It's quite a small programme too. 7Mb for the full programme

https://www.faststone.org/download.htm
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If the OP is looking to go Apple, Faststone is only for Windows.
 
Stephen L said:
If the OP is looking to go Apple, Faststone is only for Windows.
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I didn't know that. Its still a good programme, maybe they should consider a proper operating system :D
 
You will need to consider what you are going to be shooting, RAW, or JPEG. Because that will determine which software you need and how much memory you consume.
 
Cobra said:
I didn't know that. Its still a good programme, maybe they should consider a proper operating system :D
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It is a good program. I used it myself, before I saw the light :exit:
 
ancient_mariner said:
Maybe under Wine?

Irfanview is also very small, fast and effective, but Windows only.

DigiKam has a Mac version, and that used to be good (haven't used it for 10 years now!) https://www.digikam.org/download/
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It was just a joke, but yes, I understand it will run under Wine. I don't use Linux anymore (for various reasons) but when I was running Widows, Mac and Linux boxes, Linux was my preferred OS.
 
Jazzo1111 said:
Yeah I’m looking for a good deal on a MacBook Air M1 “8 core” 512 gb and 8g ram I think these specs are important to handle any editing I do.
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I'd personally suggest 16gb minimum RAM, I know software such as lightroom have a minimum spec of 8GB they do recommend 16GB. From my experience of a 16GB intel Macbook Pro it could bog down too, but the new M1/M2 chip is supposed to be better so you should be OK with 16GB on one of the M1/M2 machines. It all depends on budget, but if you can go to 32GB then it should (in theory) future proof you.

In terms of storage then you'll likely need external drives to offload your raws too once they're edited. I have a 2TB drive with just over 1TB used for permanent stuff, leaving just under 1TB left for raws and I'm constantly offloading onto external drives.
 
snerkler said:
I'd personally suggest 16gb minimum RAM, I know software such as lightroom have a minimum spec of 8GB they do recommend 16GB. From my experience of a 16GB intel Macbook Pro it could bog down too, but the new M1/M2 chip is supposed to be better so you should be OK with 16GB on one of the M1/M2 machines. It all depends on budget, but if you can go to 32GB then it should (in theory) future proof you.

In terms of storage then you'll likely need external drives to offload your raws too once they're edited. I have a 2TB drive with just over 1TB used for permanent stuff, leaving just under 1TB left for raws and I'm constantly offloading onto external drives.
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I think you just trebled the budget.

myotis said:
It was just a joke, but yes, I understand it will run under Wine. I don't use Linux anymore (for various reasons) but when I was running Widows, Mac and Linux boxes, Linux was my preferred OS.
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I know. In the same situation Linux (Pear, at the time, no longer available) was my favourite, followed by windows and then OSX. I still have the odd dual boot machine, but Mint is the distro of choice, however we're a Windows household pretty much now.
 
Hmm maybe I should over spend just to future proof it then I can forget about it and keep it for 5 plus years and not worry… I’m a bit of a overthinking so thought I’d ask on here but seems to have complicated things even more
 
Jazzo1111 said:
Hmm maybe I should over spend just to future proof it then I can forget about it and keep it for 5 plus years and not worry… I’m a bit of a overthinking so thought I’d ask on here but seems to have complicated things even more
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You could always look at official refurbished to save some money.
 
I'd be inclined to moderate the cash burn until you decide if this is really something you want to do seriously. You're looking at spending 2-3X the value of your camera just to process the pictures. And that's only if you choose the cheap option.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
I'd be inclined to moderate the cash burn until you decide if this is really something you want to do seriously. You're looking at spending 2-3X the value of your camera just to process the pictures.
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Good point (y)
 
Jazzo1111 said:
Hmm maybe I should over spend just to future proof it then I can forget about it and keep it for 5 plus years and not worry…
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Don’t buy to future proof, buy what you need to achieve what you want. Who knows what is going to happen next but you can guarantee that whatever brand of computer will bring out something better next year. Whatever editing software you buy will bring out something later and greater next year. You’ll probably replace your camera at some point - the files it produces will be bigger. And anyway you may decide to take up gardening / gambling / wildlife photography and have an expensive pile tech you no longer need. Buy for today with a jaundiced eye to the future.
 
That new camera you’ve bought? It’ll either be one of the most important purchases of your life, and in 6 months time you’ll have upgraded it. Or it’ll end up in the back of a closet in a years time never to be seen again.

Don’t invest thousands in a laptop you have no other need for. Buy something refurb you’re not gonna lose a load of money on if photography turns out to not be your thing. And if photography does turn out to be your thing, you’re gonna need the cash for lenses, your next camera, lighting, travel, tripods, bags (there’s no way of knowing which - but it’ll be something)
 
Apple comes with PHOTOS as standard and while not the best it’s adequate for basic editing even of RAW files
 
Tulipone said:
Don’t buy to future proof, buy what you need to achieve what you want. Who knows what is going to happen next but you can guarantee that whatever brand of computer will bring out something better next year. Whatever editing software you buy will bring out something later and greater next year. You’ll probably replace your camera at some point - the files it produces will be bigger. And anyway you may decide to take up gardening / gambling / wildlife photography and have an expensive pile tech you no longer need. Buy for today with a jaundiced eye to the future.
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I disagree with this, as you say something better will come along, software will change, files will get bigger usually requiring more processing power. If you just buy 'adequate' now you'll likely end up needing to upgrade every few years. Buy wisely now and it could last 10 years and actually be cheaper in the long run.
 
snerkler said:
I disagree with this, as you say something better will come along, software will change, files will get bigger usually requiring more processing power. If you just buy 'adequate' now you'll likely end up needing to upgrade every few years. Buy wisely now and it could last 10 years and actually be cheaper in the long run.
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So you spend more on a camera / laptop / software to 'future proof' in the hope that it last longer. I wonder how often in the past I have bought a new camera to find that I needed to buy more memory / larger hard drive or a new computer to deal with the larger files (albeit less so in these modern times) or run the latest software. I think these things need generational upgrades - they all go out of date at the same time and often, especially with Apple, you cannot just replace and upgrade memory or processing power. Buy for today and enjoy it because tomorrow the manufacturer will bring out a new faster, slimmer, better one that also makes chocolate milk and gold coins version. Actually maybe not tomorrow, possibly this afternoon.

You'll be aware that I am currently struggling with a decision to buy an expensive (for me) lens for a body that is not as appropriate as it could be. The smart thing to do is change the lot. Redundancy of tech is unfortunately the modern world and I am a dinosaur.
 
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Tulipone said:
So you spend more on a camera / laptop / software to 'future proof' in the hope that it last longer. I wonder how often in the past I have bought a new camera to find that I needed to buy more memory / larger hard drive or a new computer to deal with the larger files (albeit less so in these modern times) or run the latest software. I think these things need generational upgrades - they all go out of date at the same time and often, especially with Apple, you cannot just replace and upgrade memory or processing power. Buy for today and enjoy it because tomorrow the manufacturer will bring out a new faster, slimmer, better one that also makes chocolate milk and gold coins version. Actually maybe not tomorrow, possibly this afternoon.

You'll be aware that I am currently struggling with a decision to buy an expensive (for me) lens for a body that is not as appropriate as it could be. The smart thing to do is change the lot. Redundancy of tech is unfortunately the modern world and I am a dinosaur.
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Exactly, had you bought more wisely initially you wouldn't have had to do this and spend even more money. Of course, I appreciate that we are restricted by budget and it's not always possible to go out and buy the latest and greatest but if you can afford to buy better then imo it's always better to do so as it will last you longer. I've made the mistake in the past of not future proofing, burning through computers every couple of years. My current system should last 10 years minimum saving me thousands over that period (y)

8GB is already the minimum requirement for Adobe, and they recommend 16GB so that would be the minimum I would suggest getting. If you buy an 8GB system not all of that RAM will be free to run Adobe, and therefore it will be running below the minimum requirement. Now I know that the Apple M1/M2's run a bit differently and I don't profess to understand how they work, but I personally wouldn't buy the absolute minimum spec requirements. YMMV.

In terms of large hard drives that's not so much of an issue as external drives are relatively cheap these days, imo you don't want to be clogging the hard drives up with raw files that you've finished with, best to offload them but keep them in case you ever want to go back.

Of course, this is all just my opinion and experience, I can only speak about this and appreciate that not everyone will share this opinion (y)
 
snerkler said:
I disagree with this, as you say something better will come along, software will change, files will get bigger usually requiring more processing power. If you just buy 'adequate' now you'll likely end up needing to upgrade every few years. Buy wisely now and it could last 10 years and actually be cheaper in the long run.
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Yup. Check the prices first but when I bought my last computer the difference between rather ordinary and a better spec wasn't all that great so I went for the better spec.

As you may know I'm more likely to buy a lens than a camera :D but for some photography which pushes the boundaries of AF and general speed a high end camera is needed but for lots of photography almost anything vaguely modern will do. I'd always advise people to start at the end product, the picture, and work back from there to decide the settings, the camera kit and the computing power needed.
 
I don't believe I said buy adequate - I thought I said appropriate for the task at hand but if I didn't then my apologies. The point was that as we have little idea what the future will bring - it is difficult to anticipate it. In my current instance, I bought wisely for the task I wanted it for, just the scope of the task changed faster than I realised.
 
Tulipone said:
I don't believe I said buy adequate - I thought I said appropriate for the task at hand but if I didn't then my apologies. The point was that as we have little idea what the future will bring - it is difficult to anticipate it. In my current instance, I bought wisely for the task I wanted it for, just the scope of the task changed faster than I realised.
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I don’t think it’s that difficult to anticipate if I’m honest, pretty much all computers now have SSD’s so that’s covered, the only other variable in terms of performance (assuming you don’t fill your hard drive) are the processor, graphics card and RAM. If you buy 8GB ram you know it’s not going to last long, if you buy 32GB or even 64GB ram you know it’s going to see you through a lot of years (y)
 
You will likely be fine with an 8GB MacBook Air, I am using the 16GB version and it barely brakes a sweat. 16GB memory and 512GB storage would be ideal, but that does bump up the price somewhat. There can be good deals on the Apple refurb store: https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/refurbished/mac/2020-macbook-air-16gb-8gb

Don't be tempted by deals on the older Intel Macs, the Apple silicon is a big jump in performance and battery life.
 
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snerkler said:
I disagree with this, as you say something better will come along, software will change, files will get bigger usually requiring more processing power. If you just buy 'adequate' now you'll likely end up needing to upgrade every few years. Buy expensive now and it could have had virtually no use at all for the price of an all inclusive 5* holiday.
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Fixed that for you.
There’s many alternative scenarios that your narrow world view ignores.

I don’t know how long you’ve hung around with ‘photographers’, but in my experience for every 10 entry level cameras sold an actual photographer is born. So it’s kinda presumptuous to think the OP will be that 1 in 10.
 
Phil V said:
There’s many alternative scenarios that your narrow world view ignores.

So the OP should ignore everyone else's opinion and advice and just listen to me.
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Fixed that for you.

:D

Only kidding. You are often right, but other opinions and other advice is sometimes worthy of at least momentary consideration.
 
Phil V said:
Fixed that for you.
There’s many alternative scenarios that your narrow world view ignores.

I don’t know how long you’ve hung around with ‘photographers’, but in my experience for every 10 entry level cameras sold an actual photographer is born. So it’s kinda presumptuous to think the OP will be that 1 in 10.
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Wow :(

Not sure how I have narrow minded views when I stated that what I said was just my opinion and that others may not agree with it, suggests I'm pretty open to other ideas imo but of course you're entitled to interpret it whichever way you like.

I have not discussed whether or not the OP will take up photography long term or not, just discussed computer options as per the topic of the thread. I'm happy that the OP is capable themselves of deciding whether this is a good option, and/or whether it's a long term investment for them (y)
 
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