Southpole Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 Hi I am looking for a new laptop mainly for lightroom when I am away from home any suggestions please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Beastall Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 This is my setup when away. MacBook Pro 13inch. 2Ghz Intel Core i5, 8GM ram and 251 GB flash storage. Small, light weight and well built. Run a 27in mac in the office but have no problem post processing images on the 13in screen. Runs LR 6.13 as smooth as silk even when processing large files from the D850. When out doing Live News with no wifi I seamless connect the mac to the iphone to upload images to Alamy. A bit expensive but very reliable. Push the boat out Southpole you only live once and Christmas is around the corner. Alan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 Yes I will second that. The 13" MacBookPro is excellent but do max out the RAM when you buy to 16GB. It makes a big difference and Lightroom is becoming more demanding all the time. I have a similar setup to Alan except 16GB of RAM and no problem doing raw conversions from 45MB files but it does tend to get the processor a bit excited doing the previews if there are a large number of files. However be careful as there have been problems recently with some 13" MacBookPros although I assume that Apple will have corrected this by now. This is about SSD failure and they are repairing the faulty machines but still a pita if one was to get one. Ask Ed Rooney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpole Posted December 11, 2018 Author Share Posted December 11, 2018 Cheers Alan Thanks for reply your set up looks impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starsphinx Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 Whatever you decide on I recommend trying it out in a shop first if you can - a couple of years back I ordered a laptop mailorder that looked perfect setup wise according to its list of bits etc. When it arrived I found the screen tended to display like JPEG edited and saved multiple times (shading was in lines). I had one hell of a fight to get refunded as for any ordinary use the screen was not an issue - and 4k video was OK - but I could not use it to edit photos. In the end, I had to take it to the ombudsman to get it sorted. An ordinary user would probably not have noticed - so see if you can try something out before purchasing so you know it will do what you need it to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 9 minutes ago, Starsphinx said: Whatever you decide on I recommend trying it out in a shop first if you can - a couple of years back I ordered a laptop mailorder that looked perfect setup wise according to its list of bits etc. When it arrived I found the screen tended to display like JPEG edited and saved multiple times (shading was in lines). I had one hell of a fight to get refunded as for any ordinary use the screen was not an issue - and 4k video was OK - but I could not use it to edit photos. In the end, I had to take it to the ombudsman to get it sorted. An ordinary user would probably not have noticed - so see if you can try something out before purchasing so you know it will do what you need it to. There is no harm in trying it out but Macs are Macs and, aside from the recent problems with the SSDs, these 13" MacBookPros are superb machines and he can trust very experienced photographers like Alan and myself as well as many thousands of others that we are not sending him in the wrong direction. That is the thing with Macs. The downside is the cost. Anyway there are lots of Apple Stores and John Lewis around to have a play. The advantage of the latter is the extended guarantee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinS Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 Maybe not a popular strategy, but I buy lightly used macs retired from schools. There are companies on the big auction site that do this. Been very happy with 13" MBP w/SSD for <$450. 11" MBA for even less is in daily use with no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Kyhn Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 If you're getting a MacBook Pro, I'd strongly advise you to get the latest model with the newest generation keyboard; earlier keyboards are prone to failure – see this article and this, for instance. I've had the keyboard replaced twice in my 2016 15" MBP; the first time when it was two months old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 I've got a small Dell 2-1 computer for my "field" uploads. 12" screen. i7 processor. 16gb ram. 256gb SSD. High resolution 2560 touch screen. It fits nicely into my camera bag if needed, works fine with lightroom. Biggest drawback is the lack of SD slot as it only has USB-C connector, however an adapter was around £7 from Amazon. Also got a 12v car to USB-C power adapter, so I don't have to worry about the charge running out on it. I did have a lower spec one before with a standard screen resolution, which I really struggled with for editing as the resolution / colour just wasnt good enough, so I would say get something with a decent resolution display. SSD disk is essential nowadays. This retailed for > £1000 originally, but being in the IT trade one of our suppliers has some occasional stock clearance offers, so I got this for £400 with a 3 year on-site warranty !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 I refuse to pay inflated prices for Macs, so I use a 15" HP i5, 8gb ram 1tb hdd. It's nice and fast and absolutely does the job in the field and at my desk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 1 hour ago, Simon said: Also got a 12v car to USB-C power adapter, so I don't have to worry about the charge running out on it. Ooh, I need one of those - any link? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 On 12/15/2018 at 10:11, Colblimp said: Ooh, I need one of those - any link? Hi I actually got the Dell original one from Amazon. Search for Dell 65 W USB-C Auto Air Adapter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 4 hours ago, Simon said: Hi I actually got the Dell original one from Amazon. Search for Dell 65 W USB-C Auto Air Adapter Great, thanks very much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 I got my MacBook Pro 13” back with the Apple fix yesterday. I’ve had no editing issues with the smaller screen this past year. But so far I’ve not been able to reinstall my apps and files with Time Machine. ??? Edo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 7 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said: I got my MacBook Pro 13” back with the Apple fix yesterday. I’ve had no editing issues with the smaller screen this past year. But so far I’ve not been able to reinstall my apps and files with Time Machine. ??? Edo Great stuff Ed getting the machine back. I don't know why Time Machine is not working but do you have to reinstall that way? I always do a clean reinstall as if it is a brand new machine. You can re-download your Adobe apps directly (assuming you have a decent internet connection. I presume you have backups of your images and documents outside of Timne Machine,. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 I have no internet at all at the moment. ☹️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 You will need an internet connection to reactivate the Adobe CC package even if you get Time Machine working (the lack of a connection might be the problem). Have you actually gor a working computer without the apps and files? Maybe go to an internet cafe and see if you can get it to reinstall (I assume your backup is on an external drive) or failing that a trip to the Apple authorised repairers. As long as you have a working machine and have saved your files separately, things should work out fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Lewis Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 On 12/11/2018 at 11:54, MDM said: Yes I will second that. The 13" MacBookPro is excellent but do max out the RAM when you buy to 16GB. It makes a big difference and Lightroom is becoming more demanding all the time. I have a similar setup to Alan except 16GB of RAM and no problem doing raw conversions from 45MB files but it does tend to get the processor a bit excited doing the previews if there are a large number of files. Can't stress "max out the RAM" enough. You will not regret it. The problem with the new MacBooks, for me anyway, is that you can't add RAM to it yourself. You order the model you want with the amount of RAM you want. My older MacBook 15" lasted 7 years and I was able to double the RAM myself, which is much cheaper. On my new iMac I have 40MB of RAM. It makes a difference as it seems every new version of software eats more and more RAM. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.