Mac / Pc

lr1811lr1811 Registered Users Posts: 363 Major grins
edited February 5, 2005 in Digital Darkroom
I am a lifelong PC user - currently with 2 PC's side by side (with 2-19" LCD's which is nice). Yesterday, I purchased a PowerBook G4 15-inch. I know these are being upgraded soon - that's part of the reason I got it... the last one=several hundred dollars off.

And yes - I can admit that MAC is a better graphics computer. There, I said it publicly.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone uses both systems in regards to photos and how easy they are to play with each other. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Brian

Comments

  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited February 2, 2005
    lr1811 wrote:
    I am a lifelong PC user - currently with 2 PC's side by side (with 2-19" LCD's which is nice). Yesterday, I purchased a PowerBook G4 15-inch. I know these are being upgraded soon - that's part of the reason I got it... the last one=several hundred dollars off.

    And yes - I can admit that MAC is a better graphics computer. There, I said it publicly.

    Anyway, I was wondering if anyone uses both systems in regards to photos and how easy they are to play with each other. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

    Brian

    Macs can net work with PCs pretty easily - They'll find shared hard drives and copy their files to your mac easily through your network hub or router.

    PC's seem to have alot more problems finding MAC drives and reading them. Not sure why - mostly the MAC people say MACS innately are lots better at networking.

    Welcome to MAC land. I bought two last fall and have not looked back. My wife installed Office on hers - she is a University faculty member and felt the need for OFFICE, but I just will use iWorks and Keynote for that kind of stuff. Phootshop rocks on the MAC.
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • fishfish Registered Users Posts: 2,950 Major grins
    edited February 2, 2005
    lr1811 wrote:
    Anyway, I was wondering if anyone uses both systems in regards to photos and how easy they are to play with each other. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

    Brian

    DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!

    _39912100_lost_in_space_pa.jpg


    I was going to do the same thing. Now, here I sit with four macs in the house and four PCs. Difference? None of the PCs have been turned on in months.
    "Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk." - Edward Weston
    "The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."-Hunter S.Thompson
  • JohnRJohnR Registered Users Posts: 732 Major grins
    edited February 2, 2005
    4 macs?! :O

    I thought I was bad with 3 heheh
  • fishfish Registered Users Posts: 2,950 Major grins
    edited February 2, 2005
    JohnR wrote:
    4 macs?! :O

    I thought I was bad with 3 heheh


    it was ugly, man. it's worse than L-glass lust. and now I'm waiting for the next big powermac bump, so I can go BIG. I'm already planning to hand my 20" G5 imac down to fishwife, the 17" G5 imac to the kids, and donate the emac to the school (they're 100% mac). I have no plans to upgrade my G4 15" Albook tho...it rocks for what I need it to do.
    "Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk." - Edward Weston
    "The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."-Hunter S.Thompson
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited February 2, 2005
    fish wrote:
    it was ugly, man. it's worse than L-glass lust. and now I'm waiting for the next big powermac bump, so I can go BIG. I'm already planning to hand my 20" G5 imac down to fishwife, the 17" G5 imac to the kids, and donate the emac to the school (they're 100% mac). I have no plans to upgrade my G4 15" Albook tho...it rocks for what I need it to do.


    Your a sick man, Fish!! :D:Drolleyes1.gifrolleyes1.gif:D:D
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • mercphotomercphoto Registered Users Posts: 4,550 Major grins
    edited February 2, 2005
    pathfinder wrote:
    PC's seem to have alot more problems finding MAC drives and reading them. Not sure why - mostly the MAC people say MACS innately are lots better at networking.

    Windows has problems playing with anything other than Windows. Period. Microsoft has little regards to their boxes playing with the variety of other platforms in the world. For most people its no big deal. But at my last three employers the engineering staff were always on unix boxes (HP, Sun/Solaris, IBM/AIX, Linux). Its a pain, because Microsoft doesn't bother to make it any better. And they don't bother, because customers continue to buy the stuff anyway (so why should they change?).
    Bill Jurasz - Mercury Photography - Cedar Park, TX
    A former sports shooter
    Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
    My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
  • lr1811lr1811 Registered Users Posts: 363 Major grins
    edited February 2, 2005
    photos...
    Are iWorks files something that I can save for someone on PC to read? Is it free or part of .Mac by chance? Sorry - I am very MAC ignorant.

    As far as photos, etc... I realize photoshop is #1 but what are your experiences with iPhoto? I can't afford CS for my MAC yet but I have it for my PC. I also don't want to turn off my PC's because I know how to use them (and again I have CS there). Until I get more familiar with the MAC, I will continue to use the PCs. For RAW, jpgs, tiffs, etc. - can I move those around in both platforms ok?

    Is there any of you MAC people that haven't turned the PC power off!?!

    Brian
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited February 2, 2005
    lr1811 wrote:
    Are iWorks files something that I can save for someone on PC to read? Is it free or part of .Mac by chance? Sorry - I am very MAC ignorant.

    As far as photos, etc... I realize photoshop is #1 but what are your experiences with iPhoto? I can't afford CS for my MAC yet but I have it for my PC. I also don't want to turn off my PC's because I know how to use them (and again I have CS there). Until I get more familiar with the MAC, I will continue to use the PCs. For RAW, jpgs, tiffs, etc. - can I move those around in both platforms ok?

    Is there any of you MAC people that haven't turned the PC power off!?!

    Brian


    I still run my PC once in awhile. I still haven't found a replacement for MSft Streets and Trips yet, I'm sorry to say.
    I doubt iWorks files can be read by another program since it allows sophisticated graphics usage - very professional looking documents.

    Correction!!! The Manual for iWorks says it CAN save files as pdf, word docs, html, RTF, or plain text. SO it should be possible to share files with PCs if they can read these formats - and most PCs can.

    I don't use iPhoto - I have thousands of images and I don't want to try to reedit those in iPhoto - I use the browser in Photoshop. If you own PS CS for XP, Adobe will allow you to swap it for a MAC version

    Once my Mac was up and running on my network, I set up file sharing on the data drive in my XP box, and copied >100Gb of images - jpgs, pngs, tiffs, and RAW files to the hard drive in my MAC. They now reside on 3 different hard drives on 2 different computers and the edited images are also on CDRs or DVDs. I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy. thumb.gif
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • mercphotomercphoto Registered Users Posts: 4,550 Major grins
    edited February 2, 2005
    lr1811 wrote:
    As far as photos, etc... I realize photoshop is #1 but what are your experiences with iPhoto? I can't afford CS for my MAC yet but I have it for my PC. I also don't want to turn off my PC's because I know how to use them (and again I have CS there).

    Pathfinder is right that iWorks can save as PDF. Actually, ANY Mac app can save as PDF. It is a print feature. In all Print dialog boxes is the option to print to PDF.

    iPhoto, for me, is a very un-Apple application. It has issues, though version 4 was much better than version 3. I don't know about 5 yet, but what I've heard is good. I use iPhoto for very particular things. I bring in all images into a film roll, then do a slide show on those images. I can easily rate a photo during the slide show with a two-key combination. I then create a smart album for the 3-stars and better photos. Smart albums rock! I then re-rate those photos. I do this until I've purged to only 5-star photos. I haven't found Photoshop's File Browser to be as good as this at ranking and organizing photos.

    I also use iPhoto for uploading to Smugmug. Very convenient.

    I don't use iPhoto for long-term organization. I keep the total number of photos low. The only exception is it can be nice to burn a CD-ROM or DVD with your albums. Then, slip it back in the drive, and iPhoto now has those photos again, arranged into your albums, with your rankings, you get the idea.

    If i-view media pro did photo ranking and smart albums I'd use it instead.
    Bill Jurasz - Mercury Photography - Cedar Park, TX
    A former sports shooter
    Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
    My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
  • LiquidOpsLiquidOps Registered Users Posts: 835 Major grins
    edited February 3, 2005
    I'd be happy with a Big Mac!!!


    ok ok ok... sorry... OT i know... but it's past lunch time and I'm stuck at my desk!!!

    grrrrrrrrrrr
    Wandering Through Life Photography
    MM Portfolio

    Canon 30D | Canon 50mm f/1.8 | Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 | Canon Speedlite 580ex
  • lr1811lr1811 Registered Users Posts: 363 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    returnded by PowerBook
    Today I returnded my PowerBook G4 15-inch. :cry

    Basically it came down to very lousy customer service by CompUSA. Very bad service. But in all fairness, the manager tried to make it right so I have to give them credit for that.

    After talking to some people and reading the popular "apple powerbook discussion" thread, I think I made the right decision.

    So now I am working again with 2 PCs.

    Anyway, even though it was short - very short - I still learned some things about Apple and want to thank those of you that replied/sent me info.

    Now that I am back to PC - can I redact my statement about Mac being better then PC?! :D

    Brian
  • dkappdkapp Registered Users Posts: 985 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    pathfinder wrote:
    I still run my PC once in awhile. I still haven't found a replacement for MSft Streets and Trips yet, I'm sorry to say.

    Try Route 66. This is what I use on my PowerBook. I used to run Streets & Trips & Delorme on my Windows laptop.

    This is good software :D

    Dave
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    Welcome back, Brian!:-)
    lr1811 wrote:
    Today I returnded my PowerBook G4 15-inch. :cry
    ...
    Now that I am back to PC - can I redact my statement about Mac being better then PC?! :D

    Brian
    'nuf said:-)
    Cheers!1drink.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    lr1811 wrote:
    Today I returnded my PowerBook G4 15-inch. :cry

    Basically it came down to very lousy customer service by CompUSA. Very bad service. But in all fairness, the manager tried to make it right so I have to give them credit for that.

    After talking to some people and reading the popular "apple powerbook discussion" thread, I think I made the right decision.

    So now I am working again with 2 PCs.

    Anyway, even though it was short - very short - I still learned some things about Apple and want to thank those of you that replied/sent me info.

    Now that I am back to PC - can I redact my statement about Mac being better then PC?! :D

    Brian

    Shame that you bought from CompUSA. Poor choice to go to a PC-centric company for Mac support. Especially when their prices probably don't differ a whole heck of a lot from Apple's.

    I'm curious what in the Apple Powerbook Discussion (which seems to me to illustrate how easy and enjoyable it is to upgrade to the Macintosh platform) turned you back towards your PC? Not in the least trying to say that you made the right/wrong decision, just curious.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • lr1811lr1811 Registered Users Posts: 363 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    mac attack
    DavidTO wrote:
    Shame that you bought from CompUSA. Poor choice to go to a PC-centric company for Mac support. Especially when their prices probably don't differ a whole heck of a lot from Apple's.

    I'm curious what in the Apple Powerbook Discussion (which seems to me to illustrate how easy and enjoyable it is to upgrade to the Macintosh platform) turned you back towards your PC? Not in the least trying to say that you made the right/wrong decision, just curious.

    I did want to upgrade to the Mac platform. I guess what I meant to say was I had no idea some of the changes MAC was making (because I don't have a MAC or follow MAC news).

    Bringing the machine back had a lot to do with poor service but after reading that thread, I felt like it was a good decision because of the changes MAC is making. I'd rather wait and get the right machine.

    I thought I was getting a good deal at Comp USA. And all my sales support was from an Apple employee contracted there. But def. not compeitive in prices or ethical sales practices.

    If/when I do it again, I'll def. explore my options.

    Brian
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    lr1811 wrote:
    I did want to upgrade to the Mac platform. I guess what I meant to say was I had no idea some of the changes MAC was making (because I don't have a MAC or follow MAC news).

    Bringing the machine back had a lot to do with poor service but after reading that thread, I felt like it was a good decision because of the changes MAC is making. I'd rather wait and get the right machine.

    I thought I was getting a good deal at Comp USA. And all my sales support was from an Apple employee contracted there. But def. not compeitive in prices or ethical sales practices.

    If/when I do it again, I'll def. explore my options.

    Brian

    OOOOOhhhhh, I get it! You're talking about the whole G4/G5 thing. Personally not something that I would have worried about, but hey...

    Well, if/when you do it again, feel free to use your Mac friends here as resources.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • JohnRJohnR Registered Users Posts: 732 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    And next time you feel the urge to buy from Chump..I mean CompUSA, post here first so we can steer you straight! Whether it's Apple or Windows products, friends don't let friends buy from CompUSA :D

    Sorry to hear that your experience wasn't the best.

    As far as "MAC making changes" (That's Apple, not MAC, by the way), what changes are you talking about?

    If it's waiting around for the G5 Powerbook, you could be waiting for a long time. I say get what works for you and be happy with it. :)
Sign In or Register to comment.