Thinking about a Macbook

LRussoPhoto · August 9, 2012

Have an iMac (which i love) and a pc laptop. One of the things that really bothers me about the pc laptop is depending on what angle you are looking at the screen it affects the color of the image you are viewing. The color on the iMac is far supireior. Are the Macbooks affected by this issue I am having with the pc laptop? Depending on the anlgle of the screen the color is greatly affected, making it very difficult to edit because when viewed on the iMac later that same image looks different.
Also another question, What is really the difference between a Macbook and a macbook air, thickness? From what I can see in the specs the Macbooks have more memory and hd space and cost less then the macbook air.
What are the pros and cons of buying a Mac from say B&H as opposed to an Apple store?

Test-Pilot · August 9, 2012

I believe B&H is (or was) offering a discount on Mac laptops recently. However, if you are or know a student of teacher, you can get up to $200 off and a free $100 gift card for iTunes from the Apple online store. Their brick & mortar store? Well, there's their genius bar, but don't expect any discount.
As for support, Apple will support the laptop no matter where you buy it from.

cmason · August 9, 2012

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

Have an iMac (which i love) and a pc laptop. One of the things that really bothers me about the pc laptop is depending on what angle you are looking at the screen it affects the color of the image you are viewing. The color on the iMac is far supireior. Are the Macbooks affected by this issue I am having with the pc laptop?

The iMac sports an IPS display, which makes it superior for photography for exactly the reasons you mention. Unfortunately, the Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs do NOT have IPS screens. The new Macbook Pro 15" Retina does have an IPS screen, so that would be your only choice for Mac laptop with IPS.

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

Also another question, What is really the difference between a Macbook and a macbook air, thickness? From what I can see in the specs the Macbooks have more memory and hd space and cost less then the macbook air.
What are the pros and cons of buying a Mac from say B&H as opposed to an Apple store?

Thin and light are the primary differences, and with anything there are tradeoffs. You get SSD only, with the drawback being relatively limited storage. The thinness limits ports, so no Ethernet Firewire and no SD slot. the Pros offer more options in CPU, Harddrives. But the newer Airs offer i7 processors, so are not suffering in the performance area. The Airs have only the Intel built in graphics, which is fine if you use Lightroom. If you use Photoshop and use many of the sophisticated filters, you might wish for dedicated graphics available in the 15" Macbook Pro.

Doesn't matter where you purchase it. Apple will support it either way. I will, however, recommend checking the refurb store online at the Apple Store.

brianb · August 9, 2012

The new Retina Macbook Pros have an IPS LCD display, so they have a much wide viewing angle (similar to the display in recent iMacs). I believe no other Mac laptops have such a display. The retina screen is amazing, glossy but almost no reflections, up to 2880x1800 resolution. Worth every penny, IMO.

cmason · August 11, 2012

One other consideration:

A laptop, even with an IPS screen, is quite difficult to maintain consistant color calibration. This is mostly due to the variation of light in different locations, etc. Of course, the nice thing about a laptop is that you can angle the screen so that it is always dead center: your head will not often be off to the side of a laptop screen, where a non-IPS screen suffers from color shift.

I would recommend purchasing the laptop you like, regardless of screen, and then attach it to a nice IPS screen for photo editing. This way you have the best of both worlds: a finely calibrated and consistant monitor for critical photo editing, and a portable machine for casual photo work when not at your main monitor.

digismile · August 11, 2012

A lot can depend on how you will use the laptop. I have the 27" iMac as my main editing machine and I chose a Macbook Air for my laptop.

Only about .1% of the time do I wish I had more ram or more speed. I absolutely love its size and weight for travel. I use mine mostly for previewing images onsite as well as providing a method for offloading and backing up my CF cards.

Although I have both LR and PS loaded, I mostly just use LR. The MBP with retina display is a sweet machine, but the added weight (and price) just would't be worth it for me.

LRussoPhoto · August 13, 2012

Wow, great info. Still lots to think about.

mcdmusic · August 17, 2012

Regardless of what monitor or laptop it is IPS or not i recommend calibrating. I personally use a Spyder 3 pro. My 13" Macbook Air was terrible color out of the box, but great after a quick calibration.

http://www.amazon.com/Datacolor-S4P100-Spyder4Pro/dp/B006TF37H8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1345216378&sr=8-3&keywords=spyder

Rufus280 · August 18, 2012

Apple dictates their prices to resellers, so discounts will be meager at best. If you see larger discounts, this usually means an impending model upgrade so it's usually better to wait for the new model. I've bought computers from local distributors, online Apple Store, as well as B&H, and have not found any pros/cons. I would suggest buying AppleCare for any laptop or iMac since neither is easy to work on yourself.
Of course your needs/requirements will dictate what model of MBP you choose. Personally, I find the "Air" useless without an optical drive and the "Retina" is simply way over priced. A basic 13 or 15 MBP is your best bet. Your computer dollar is way better spent on a desktop computer, getting more speed, capacity, and expansion for your buck. A basic laptop (non Air or Retina) works well for daily travel backup/media burning and previewing. Take the $1000-1500 you save and put it towards other needed computer hardware (HDs, arrays, etc).

Quincy T · August 19, 2012

Quad,

I highly recommend you check out http://www.macofalltrades.com.

It's a site with refurbished and b-grade (cosmetically damaged) Apple gear. They have a wide variety of MBPs and MBAs.

I personally have the glossy type screen on my MBP, and it's not really affected much by the angle from which I view it. It is affected by sunlight a great deal. I think that will be the primary trade off between a matte screen and glossy screen. Matte: little to no glare, but changing at angles; Glossy: glare all the time (but MBPs are incredibly bright and vibrant, so it's not a huge impact), but all angles are the same.

Sam · August 19, 2012

I have a 15" Mac Book Pro with the anti-glare screen and I gota say for me I would never go back to a high gloss screen.

Sam

martinjp2 · August 20, 2012

I have a Mac Book Pro with Retina display for work. On a recent car trip on a bright sunny day I worked on it for a couple of hours (spreadsheets, e-mail, etc.) with no problem at all seeing the screen. When I took over driving my wife got out her 12" Toshiba laptop and couldn't see the screen well enough to work on it. The MBP has also allowed me to process pictures in the family room with my wife at night instead of alone in my office on my desktop.

pickerbw · August 20, 2012

I have a Macbook Air and absolutely love it. Between the SSD and the i7 processor, it lacks nothing in performance for what I do (I use Aperture 3). There are a few times I have wanted a bit of a larger screen and once in the last 9 months I have wanted an optical drive, but for the performance and portability, it can't be beat so those are tradeoffs I'm willing to live with. Plus, if I really need that optical drive, Apple sells an external superdrive. Keep in mind I am simply an enthusiast (a.k.a. the "family photographer"), but I wouldn't replace it for anything (except maybe a newer Macbook Air).

Thinking about a Macbook

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