Macbook or Macbook Air

[Michael_Jacobs]

I’m considering buying a Macbook or Macbook Air for traveling and using it mainly to work on my photos on Lightroom. If I do will take the better processor and if possible take 16 Gb of ram. Not interested in the Pro model as way to expensive...

 

I have checked the minimal requirements of Lightroom and puzzled by the video memory (1 to 2 Gb) as this information is not given by Apple... I suppose the video memory is shared with ram?

 

Anyway, what interests me more is the experience other (stock) photographers have with those computers...

 

thanks in advance

[Ed Rooney]

Michael, I recently bought the newest MacBook Air 13". It's great but it is expensive. Unfortunately, I am the last person to give anyone specific tech advice. 

[M.Chapman]

On 22/04/2019 at 15:59, Michael_Jacobs said:

I’m considering buying a Macbook or Macbook Air for traveling and using it mainly to work on my photos on Lightroom. If I do will take the better processor and if possible take 16 Gb of ram. Not interested in the Pro model as way to expensive...

 

I have checked the minimal requirements of Lightroom and puzzled by the video memory (1 to 2 Gb) as this information is not given by Apple... I suppose the video memory is shared with ram?

 

Anyway, what interests me more is the experience other (stock) photographers have with those computers...

 

thanks in advance

 

Have you thought about a secondhand Macbook Pro? See this thread https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/11417-need-a-second-hand-laptop/

 

Mark

 

[Marianne]

I just got a mega powerful MacBook Pro 15" with 32GB RAM blazing fast. I'm on the fence about selling my old MacBook Pro 13" (8GB RAM) but thinking of keeping it since the thought of taking this mega expensive laptop on the road scares me a bit ...so, not trying to highjack the thread but I am interested in what you decide.

 

Here's my take on the various models I've used.

The 13" does an okay job with LR and PS, even with 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD, even on my very large files, but with 42MP Sony files I found it was just filling up too fast and moving too slowly for me for everyday use (I shoot a lot of photos when I travel and then suddenly have a few thousand to upload and review at once). With the images from my old Nikons (D700 and D5100) and my Olympus (16MP) it was great. I used it with the Sony for a year, but as later versions of PS and LR came along, I noticed too much of a lag with the Sony files, though it is great with the Oly. My 13" MacBook is too new to be upgradable so I can't up the RAM. If I could I would have to 16GB and kept it as my min machine.

 

This new MacBook with 32GB RAM and the fastest processor is noticeably faster, but definitely is too expensive to consider as a second computer. I bought it to replace both my laptop and desktop, so I could use it as a processor attached to my iMac in target display mode. I'm just mentioning it for comparison. I now find myself with a very expensive machine for travel. I have a $1,000 deductible on my insurance, so really any machine I travel with, will cost me the same to replace, unless I keep the old MacBook, but it is a conundrum.  I do take the new laptop out a lot because there is construction next door so it's great for working at local coffee houses, but when I started  thinking about a cheaper alternative for travel, I realized that keeping my 13" MacBook Pro might be the answer. 

 

My daughter has a 13" MacBook Air and loves it. She uses it to compute high level math (she's getting her Ph. D. in some esoteric number theory) but she has a Nikon D3100 with PS5, and mostly uses her iPhone for baby pix. It's light as a feather. When I looked at even the new 13" MacBook Pros, they did not have much more to offer than the older model I already have, and the Airs not at all. I don't think that my old MacBook Pro uses 

the graphics card at all - but it still works fast. If I am working on images all day long, I'd restart it to clear the RAM. On the new laptop I processed tons of large files, made a bunch of large vector-based illustrations, and kept the machine on for several days before things slowed a bit, so that's the difference I've noticed. It's really a workhorse.

 

I'm in the states so if you are too and are interested in a used MacBook Pro, we could talk. But it only has 8GB RAM. I'm on the fence about keeping it. I went from a 15" MacBook Pro (my first MacBook) to the 13" because it was so much lighter and easier for travel and only moved back to the 15" now because of the power. It meets the minimum requirements and while I wanted something faster for everyday, for travel it's a nice little machine. 

 

I wish that there was decent power on an iPad to process photos for travel. That would be ideal. 

 

With the new MacBooks it's all thunderbolt 3/USB-C so you'll need a bunch of adapters. No SD card slot and of course no CD/DVD slot. I bought a cheap multi card reader when my CF card reader died ages ago, and with the adapter it goes as fast as the SD card can go. (I was going to buy a better one at B&H and when I discussed it with the sales associate, he told me to try it out since the reader is just a conduit). But all the new MacBooks use the T3/USB-C tech. I use a thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 to FireWire adapter to access my old hard drives. But it works. 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Marianne

[Michael_Jacobs]

Thanks for your replies!

[Ed Rooney]

"If I am working on images all day long, I'd restart it to clear the RAM,"  Marianne

 

Do I assume correctly, Marianne, that you are referring to the message I've been getting recently that my "scratch disks are full"?  Can I solve the problem simply by restarting my MacBook, or is there more to do? 

 

Thanks, Edo