Mac Purchasing Help

DJT

have a co-worker that is also a photographer buff, just getting into digital. Has a Nikon of some sort and tons upon tons of filmed stuff.

Anyhow, he's looking to go the Mac way and I being a PC user have no idea how to help him.

He visited Best Buy and well... they tried to sell him a laptop for about $6,000 and didn't know if the laptop had a DVD Burner.

Question for DGrin members.

What should JM look for in a Mac laptop as far as specs? and any other things he should get to help him on his way: external hd, photoediting software (I'm Thinking Photoshop correct?)

Thanks!

Most of my time spent on the computer at home is done gaming. COD4, BF2, RTCW, AoE III, thus I'm Macless.

rsirota

DJT wrote:

have a co-worker that is also a photographer buff, just getting into digital. Has a Nikon of some sort and tons upon tons of filmed stuff.

Anyhow, he's looking to go the Mac way and I being a PC user have no idea how to help him.

He visited Best Buy and well... they tried to sell him a laptop for about $6,000 and didn't know if the laptop had a DVD Burner.

Question for DGrin members.

What should JM look for in a Mac laptop as far as specs? and any other things he should get to help him on his way: external hd, photoediting software (I'm Thinking Photoshop correct?)

Thanks!

Most of my time spent on the computer at home is done gaming. COD4, BF2, RTCW, AoE III, thus I'm Macless.

I would suggest going directlty to an apple store. If he is serious an needs the power go with the MacBook Pro otherwise a MacBook is good. Desktop I would suggest an iMac 20" min.

I have a MacBook Pro 17" HD and love it. I have been with macs since 1984 and worked for apple too...

darkdragon

Yep, if there is an Apple store close, he should hit them up. They are very helpful and will be able to answer all his questions.

Desktop: 20" iMac, 2GB Ram
Laptop: Macbook Pro, 2GB Ram
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3

Well, the above is what I have and it runs all the Adobe stuff smooth as silk. The only issue I tend to have with the laptop is that the hard drive is too small (mine is 80GB), iMac has the 250GB HD but I store all my photos on an external connected via firewire.

rsirota

darkdragon wrote:

Yep, if there is an Apple store close, he should hit them up. They are very helpful and will be able to answer all his questions.

Desktop: 20" iMac, 2GB Ram
Laptop: Macbook Pro, 2GB Ram
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3

Well, the above is what I have and it runs all the Adobe stuff smooth as silk. The only issue I tend to have with the laptop is that the hard drive is too small (mine is 80GB), iMac has the 250GB HD but I store all my photos on an external connected via firewire.

Get the 2GB version and then upgrade to 4GB after market. It is cheaper...

Moogle Pepper

DJT wrote:

have a co-worker that is also a photographer buff, just getting into digital. Has a Nikon of some sort and tons upon tons of filmed stuff.

Anyhow, he's looking to go the Mac way and I being a PC user have no idea how to help him.

He visited Best Buy and well... they tried to sell him a laptop for about $6,000 and didn't know if the laptop had a DVD Burner.

Question for DGrin members.

What should JM look for in a Mac laptop as far as specs? and any other things he should get to help him on his way: external hd, photoediting software (I'm Thinking Photoshop correct?)

Thanks!

Most of my time spent on the computer at home is done gaming. COD4, BF2, RTCW, AoE III, thus I'm Macless.

$6000 for a laptop?!

You can point him out to apple.com or to an apple store!

Pupator

Most Best Buy's have mini-Apple stores in them and the employee who works at that section is an Apple employee, not a Best Buy one.

There is absolutely no laptop that Apple makes or that Best Buy sells that is $6,000.

T. Bombadil

DJT wrote:

. . . What should JM look for in a Mac laptop as far as specs? and any other things he should get to help him on his way: external hd, photoediting software (I'm Thinking Photoshop correct?)

This is as a hobby, yes? I would not recommend Photoshop to any enthusiast. Maybe Photoshop Elements, but personally I would (did) spend the money on Aperture instead (quite different programs in their purposes, just talking about where to spend money).

A MacBook would do nicely for the casual photographer (it comes with iLife suite free, which includes iPhoto - a very nice tool for organizing and 'enhancing' photos).

A MacBook Pro would be even nicer (faster, bigger screen, more ports) if he is going to be serious about his photography.

The Apple website can show you the specs for either of these (don't recommend a MacBook Air for your friend). I recommend getting the max RAM the machine will hold (and I prefer to buy RAM from Apple, even though more expensive. the only problems i have ever had with Apple computers were caused by 3rd party RAM and solved by replacing the RAM).

MacBook Pro is available with a faster hard drive (MacBook might also) - take a look (look at "Tech Specs" then click "Buy Now" and pretend to configure one for purchase - you can learn a lot in the "shopping cart").

I have a 15" MacBook Pro with 4 gig RAM and a 7200rpm hard drive and Superdrive (Apple speak for a drive that burns CDs and DVDs), on which I run Aperture. I am very happy with it. I spent about $3,500 a year ago (including Aperture). I can't see spending much more for a laptop. If your friend were a professional, he could spend $6,000 on a Mac Pro (desktop) and get his money's worth (it would be faster in ways that a professional would notice, but an amateur is not likely to get enough speed benefit to care. the incremental $2,500 would buy a couple nice lenses).

colourbox

I always buy my Macs with the minimum amount of RAM pre-installed, to avoid Apple's outrageous RAM prices. I always upgrade with 3rd party RAM. Sure, one or two have failed, but any reputable vendor will have a lifetime exchange, and after I get the replacement there's no longer any problem. And hundreds of dollars are saved. My favorites lately have been macsales.com and transintl.com, which are also good for hard drives.

A MacBook with 4GB RAM and a big hard disk is great for a hobbyist. 2GB seems borderline for high-megapixel editing in Leopard. Next level up is a refurbished MacBook Pro; any recent model will do, although the latest generation (Intel Penryn) has great battery life and performance. Next level up from there is a new MacBook Pro if you have US$1999. All the models up from there are only needed by demanding professionals or gamers with too much money.

RAM is easy to replace in either the MacBook or MacBook Pro, but self-service on the hard drive is easy (and without voiding the warranty) on the MacBook, and difficult (and voiding the warranty) on the MacBook Pro.

For software, once Lightroom 2.0 is released I am going to tell every enthusiast or even early pro to start there. With the new non-destructive local adjustments, you'll be able to do some pretty sophisticated edits without having to get lost inside Photoshop. And much farther than iPhoto will let you. I'd go so far as to tell any serious enthusiast to skip iPhoto altogether and go straight to Lightroom or Aperture, that way you'll never have to deal with the baffling, secretive way iPhoto manages your photos.

DJT

He is looking at a slightly used Macbook 15" 2.1ghz - 120hd - 1gb ram for $500.00.

It was purchased for a Doctor and he decided he didn't want it.

JM is a railroad photographer with a few weddings here and there. Hasn't done weddings yet with a digital camera. And he is saving up for a Nikon D3 or whatever.

He figures if he buys this one, he'll get the external HD, a mouse (he can't stand the touchpad), and an external DVD burner.

But yeah... lightroom would do the trick for him.

And with his step into the digital darkroom, he can clear out his Actual Darkroom and have some new storage space for collecting model trains.

Of course with him playing with this MacBook, I've questioned him on do you really want this one or do you want to wait and get what you really need.

T. Bombadil

DJT wrote:

Of course with him playing with this MacBook, I've questioned him on do you really want this one or do you want to wait and get what you really need.

You can't go too far wrong for $500. He could still buy "what he really needs" later and have an extra laptop around the house for email/websurfing/other-people-to-use-when-he-wants-his-'good machine'.

T. Bombadil

colourbox wrote:

I always buy my Macs with the minimum amount of RAM pre-installed, to avoid Apple's outrageous RAM prices. I always upgrade with 3rd party RAM. Sure, one or two have failed, but any reputable vendor will have a lifetime exchange, and after I get the replacement there's no longer any problem. And hundreds of dollars are saved.

Apple's prices on RAM _are_ outrageous. However, their RAM is tested. I only ever bought quality memory from good suppliers (and they honored their warranties), but it isn't worth the savings to me to risk data corruption when the machine hangs due to a memory fault. Installing/re-installing RAM is trivial, but possible data loss and waiting for new RAM to be shipped is a hassle.

You say "one or two have failed". What percentage failure rate is that? Personally, I prefer to pay extra for something I'm sure will work. YMMV.

DJT

T. Bombadil wrote:

You can't go too far wrong for $500. He could still buy "what he really needs" later and have an extra laptop around the house for email/websurfing/other-people-to-use-when-he-wants-his-'good machine'.

True...

Then his wife could get rid of the Gateway 266 they still have.

colourbox

T. Bombadil wrote:

You say "one or two have failed". What percentage failure rate is that? Personally, I prefer to pay extra for something I'm sure will work. YMMV.

Frankly, the last one that failed was a few years ago. Since then it's all been good. The problem with the statement "(Apple RAM) is tested" is that it implies other RAM is not tested, which I don't believe. It helps to order from known good Mac vendors with a reputation to uphold, and not bargain-basement unknown Web sites.

I'm not going to answer the percentage question because even though I own several Macs, my sample size is too small and coarse and could not be used to extrapolate for the market at large.

Moogle Pepper

I would guess that this would be a decent pair to upgrade the mac to:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148201

Shopping at Newegg.com is good, so you could try them as well.