Lightroom On A Macbook. Too Small?

HamezUK

HamezUK

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Daniel
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Evening all.

Quick question to put to you...

I am due a computer upgrade and because I still live at home but stay at my girlfriends parents place every other night and would also like to make the most of my work lunch breaks I am considering a high end laptop.

That said, I hate windows 8 with a passion. Everything about it is slow, clunky and backwards. So I am looking at the Mac alternatives. My worry is this, is a 15" Macbook Pro big enough to edit on when I don't have access to an external monitor (50% of the time).

I have edited on a 15" budget windows laptop and lightroom just gets squashed. Does anyone have any screen shots of how lightroom lays out on a 15" or even 13" MBPr?

Thanks in advance...
 
It depends on the resolution. I took a 13" Macbook away with me for backup and on the move editing while on holiday - screen res 1280:800 - and while it was usable, it was far from ideal. My Dell XPS has a 15" screen with 3200:1800 resolution, and that is much better, but is still a bit small for seeing detail clearly unless images are zoomed close. On a laptop it's not the screen res that becomes limiting, but the small size of the screen itself.

You mention a budget W8 laptop - if you're spending MBPr money then you will also get a MUCH better windows experience, and a machine at this level running windows gives nothing away to a Macbook. However if you especially like OSX and think you'll never need to upgrade then a MBPr is a pricey but nice option.
 
Most PC screens these days are around 1920*1080, unless you get into high end stuff. Most high end laptops are 1920*1080 or better too. It will fit, your eyes will define if it looks too small or not. My 13" laptop is good for most things, lightroom and photoshop are perfectly doable, if not as enjoyable as my 24" 1920*1200 screen at home.

IF you found windows 8.1 slow, clunky and backwards, I would question the HW you were running on. My laptop (i5, SSD, 6gb RAM) postively flies with win8.1
 
For what its worth - I use a 17" laptop for 99% of my Lightroom processing, but I did a couple if images on my 27" iMac the other day and spotted a couple of dust spots that I hadn't on the laptop. At the end of the day I think that 15" should be enough, but the bigger the better - however I prefer the laptop for the versatility & that I can work in the lounge & interact with the wife / watch tv too.

I spent good money on my laptop & use it solely for photography & gaming - how's about windows 7?
 
I use a Dell XPS 11 with 11.6" 2560x1440 display and Lightroom fits better on that than on my 17" 1920x1080 workstation class notebook due to the superior pixel count. At my usual working distance the 11.6" screen appears larger than my 40" TV just across the room. Due to the high pixel density the screen looks smoother/sharper and less granular than my big rig with its Lego sized pixels.

IMHO Windows 8.1 is fine if you ignore all the modern UI crap and use it from the desktop just as Windows 7. I certainly wouldn't switch to Mac simply in order to avoid Windows 8.1. There would have to be much better reasons than that.
 
resolution is nothing if the colour gamut is rubbish. I have a dell XPS that has an RGLED screen ( which i paid more for .
It has an adobe colour gamut thats actually higher than adobe RGB ( its around 105% of Adobe.
the Macbooks have around 95%. stanard LED screen on most laptops is around 65%.

so though resolution is important you need to have accurate colour screen too otherwise what you see on screen will be nothing like what you end up printing.

dell have an outlet where you can get there high end laptops at a much reduced price. i paid just over £400 for mine when it should have cost over £1300. all because it had a refurb battery replacement.
dell outel updates daily and they sell really quick . and you can always uninstall windoze 8 and put on 7 or just use the windoze 7 overlay.

http://www.dell.com/uk/dfh/p/laptops?~ck=anav


all come with full 1 year waranty too.
def worth consideration for a great bargain.


intersting article here on macbook colour gamut

http://cdtobie.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/retina-display-macbook-pro-for-calibration-and-photography/
 
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Currently using LR5 on a 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display. It's quite useable. There are options to scale the display. Currently running ay an effective resolution of 1440 x 900 but this can be upped to 1680 x 1050 is you want. Not sure what the 15" can do.

Very pleased with it so far. An external HDD is worth considering too - gives you the option of working with smart previews and saving some space. Or just backing up using Time Machine (my preferred choice at the moment).
 
I've a 15inch rMBP and it's fine for editing Lightroom files. Make sure you get the correct amount of memory as you can't upgrade this later. In fact you can't upgrade anything. However as you have both USB 3 and thunderbolt that shouldn't be a problem, as a good external hard drive will be fine if you need it.

But as I say to anyone thinking of getting a Mac, pop down to either an Apple store or an authorised reseller and check them out yourself. ( leave credit card at home :) )
 
See this recent thread discussing 13" rMBP and Lightroom: http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/is-13-enough-for-lightroom-mbp-retina.546788/#post-6322416

It would annoy the hell out of me now if all I had was a laptop screen, as I use a 27" desktop most of the time. That doesn't mean a laptop is unusable though.

For about 3 years I only had a 15"MBP (well before 'retina' was a thing) I managed OK, but that was probably because I didn't realise quite how much I was missing out on. Now I use a 13" retina, it's alright for quick jobs, but I wouldn't want to use it as my main/only screen. Retina 15" probably wouldn't be too bad though.

It's a very personal thing, you really need to get your eyes on one if you can and see how you feel.
 
I edit 99% of my work on a 15" macbook pro retina
I have a few nice external displays at home, but i'm usually on the road so editing on the laptop

personal opinion is that it's fine
 
Some awesome replies. Thank you all. Where I work we get a patnership discount with apple, 20% of one piece of hardware per year. So this has reduced the "expensive" aspect quite considerably.

I have played with a 15" MBPr in a store and like the display, just hadn't seen lightroom running on it.

I reckon I am going to take the plunge. 50% of the time I will be hooked up to my monitor anyway. The other 50% was time when I initially couldn't edit.

Might go and install a lightroom trial on one in a store. If I can get away with it. And see how I like it.
 
Often they have a machine with LR and PS on it in store already.

It sounds like you've decided on a MBP regardless, in which case, as already mentioned, make sure you get enough memory and storage because all current Macbook designs with the retina screen cannot be upgraded in any way. What you buy is what you live with until it's replaced.
 
Went into Local PC World today. They had lr on the 13" but not the 15", didn't have time to install it either as had to get to work. Looked pretty cramped on the 13" imo. Still going to have to go see the 15" before decide. Have also been looking at some 17" HP Envys. But no ssd, lower resolution, slower processor kind of negates the much cheaper price.
 
By visiting PC world you may have answered your own question. Could you use LR on the 13" comfortably ? From experience you can use a 13" but it is a bit small.as far as image area is concerned. However you may find it OK. The 15" is a much better option and one that I use for mobile and location work. The 13' is OK for cataloguing and choosing images , and yes you can edit on it, but the 15" is just so much better.

However I would wait if you can. We're into rumour time with hints of upgrades to the MBP range in or around September, when it"s rumoured the iPhone 6 is to be announced. Now what they will announce I'm not sure as it seems the next round of Intel chips won't be available 'til 2015. So it may only be a slight processor speed increase.
 
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