MacBook Pro 13" - suitable for processing?

julianhj

julianhj

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I've always been a PC user, and have previously swayed away from Macs due to the cost and the fact my software was mainly Windows-based. My Dell Studio 15 is getting a bit old and I was speccing up a replacement. The prices were not far off a MBP 13". The key factor is the screen, I'm sure anything I do will not tax any reasonable new machine's CPU, but the screen is a different matter.

I have a lovely 1440x900 matte screen on the Dell, but the MBP 13" only comes with a glossy screen. The Apple Store employee I spoke to said that the glossy screen could make images look better/more vibrant than they would appear on other screens. I currently use an X-Rite i1 Display 2 calibrator on all my screens. My two questions are:

1) Will 13" be big enough for Lightroom etc?

2) Will I get a decent representation on a glossy screen?
 
I think it depends on how much PP work you do. If you're doing everything in LR, I think you'll find the smaller screen wont be an issue.

I use a glossy imac for most of my work, but also have a glossy 13" MBP. I'm quite happy doing what I need on either machine, though I think I would find the MBP a pain if I was doing a lot of PP.
 
I can't justify the cost of a 15" MBP. Much as I like the look of them, I can't really afford £1600. I did consider it, but the 50% increase doesn't seem worthwhile.

I have a decent desktop with a very good 24" monitor, my query is whether any editing I do on the MBP would need to be adjusted later.
 
Maybe go to a local apple store and have a look yourself. While they might not have lightroom on, but a few usually have aperture on (which is apples
Version of lightrroom)
 
Matte is better for editing on. Whether glossy bothers you is another matter (and depends on your editing environment). Clearly you can edit on glossy screens and whether any extra tweaking is necessary will depend on how a... you are.

IMHO, beyond screen quality (IPS vs other screen technologies) screen real estate is important. I paid extra for the 1920x1080 screen on our laptop as I couldn't imagine trying to edit on a 1366 x 768 screen. Ms arad85 has her login set to 150% so it still looks like a 1366 x 768 screen though....
 
I have a 13" MBP and I use it mainly for lightroom with my photography.

I find that generally it's ok for most situations, but the smaller screen size can be a problem if I'm editing something when zoomed in as I can't see much more of the photo.

As Treeman said, if there was a lot of pp that needed doing say in photoshop rather than lightroom, then the screen size would get very annoying very quickly!

But otherwise, it's not too big an issue.
 
Rather than start a new thread, I will add to this one.

My 2008 Macbook looks like it's finally buying the farm, so I need a replacement fairly quickly.

As much as I'd love the 15" quad core i5, the extra £500 just isn't going to happen and I cannot justify it even I was able to wait for it to be around.

My current macbook actually has a higher Mhz, 2.7irrc, than the base MBP which worries me a touch. Will I see a difference to the "faster" older Core Duo 2 processor. I know someone who says the top end Air (lower proc spec) handles his D800 files just fine, so I do suspect it's paranoia.

The MPB has a slightly smaller screen than my MB as I opted for the high res version. But in all honest 90% of stuff is fine and I can manage editing now using Lightroom. If it becomes an issue I do plan on eventually getting a 1080 screen for editing, so this would just be hurried up.

I guess is the 13MBP a "good buy", I'd rather not swap to windows as I just prefer OSX now, though I realise I could probably do better for my £999 else where.
 
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whats up with your 2008 MBP?

I have a mid 2009 and have found that lightroom plus silver fx pro 2 is slow (i use an external HD for the raw files and have approx 20,000 photos that lightroom has to process) However, im upgrading the ram from 2gb to 8 so will let you know. (35 quid from amazon and you tube has an idiot proof guide to changing RAM!!

13inch is fine for lightroom, however, it is much easier to edit when connected to a large dell screen.

I wouldnt fancy running light room plus photoshop.....
 
gpc1 said:
whats up with your 2008 MBP?

I have a mid 2009 and have found that lightroom plus silver fx pro 2 is slow (i use an external HD for the raw files and have approx 20,000 photos that lightroom has to process) However, im upgrading the ram from 2gb to 8 so will let you know. (35 quid from amazon and you tube has an idiot proof guide to changing RAM!!

13inch is fine for lightroom, however, it is much easier to edit when connected to a large dell screen.

I wouldnt fancy running light room plus photoshop.....
Click to expand...

It keeps locking up, I suspect I may have done a lousy job cleaning the thermal paste (which I shouldn't have done in hind sight as it wasn't the actual issue), I will re do this again when I have time.

Alternatively I suppose I could have a virus but the case has seen better days (base is cracked) and I think it's had a good innings.

As for power, the 2008 can run Lr and Ps fine, yes not the fastest but they run, I am running on 4Gb of ram however. My main concern is I will be upgrading to a D7000 soonish so that's another 11MP I need to process, hence my concern. But if a 2.0 i5 Mac Air can handle 36MP D800 files the 2.5 i5 Pro should handle 16MP just fine.....in thoery :shrug:

I guess I'm just worried that I'll pay a lot of money and see no improvement, though I can go to 16GB of ram in the Pro if needed, but it's the processor I'm worried about and the bit I can't afford to upgrade.
 
I edit with Lightroom on an 11" Macbook Air & a 15" Macbook pro (which is mainly plugged into a big monitor and for sale :))

If your eyesights good then go for it, plus the 1/1 zoom helps with any size screen.
 
Having done some more research the processor (intel page) can turbo to 3.1, and has hyper threading so that's certainly faster. Then factor in about 3 generations of improvements including the considerably better HD4000 graphics and I am much happier about the purchase.

Would still like the 2.9 i7 but I just can't justify a £1250 laptop.
 
When Sequoia is really firing on all cylinders, also sometime later this year, it will hit 20 petaflops per second. The way Livermore explains it, if every single person on earth worked nonstop on a calculator for an entire year, they could do the same number of calculations in 320 years that Sequoia cranks out in an hour.

20 Petaflops i tell ya!!! Phew.....for a minute i thought it was only 10!!
 
Chris

It's big chunk of money you are considering spending, so you need to make the right decision. You could try taking some image files to the nearest Apple store and run some tests there. I've done that a couple of times when considering upgrades and have always found them helpful, and do leave you alone to get on with things.

My 2008 15" MBP handles 5D MK3 files fine with 4 MB of RAM in both Lightroom and Photoshop. OK it not lightening fast but it works just fine in most cases, and that's with just a two core processor

John C
 
My macbook failed to boot (again) on Sunday so I went out to a local premium reseller and picked up the 13" MPB. Like it so far but not had any time to install most of my apps or copy data yet.
 
Would your current monitor work with a Macbook pro, so if you wanted some more space occasionally you could just plug it in and use it?
 
The MBP 13" is fine providing you dont mind zooming in and / or you have another screen.

Its usefull for on the go editing but i wouldnt rely solely on it.

Also, for £35 you can upgrade the ram to 8gb, and it makes a hige difference when swapping between lightroom, silver efex etc. I have just done it with mne and wish i had done it ages ago.

Its a good machine....
 
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