Camera Labs

Holy crap that thing's thin!!! *drool* $1800USD is heavy though...but less than an MBP, though. Hmmmm....

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John
Canon SX100 IS (hoping to upgrade soon)
My photos

Nice guided tour, im not blown away though. I like the idea of it being ultra portable and I like the track pad usage, but limited ports, no CD drive its not for me. its also the same speed as my current macbook which is not exactly big. Im also not so keen on the looks, its two thin and bowly looking.

can you imagin being in a public place and needing to use a CD... "excuse me sir, can I please borrow your computer to use its CD drive because my laptop does not have one"

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Tobywuk personal website || My Flickr
Gear: Sony a700! || CZ 16-80mm! || Sony 75-300 || bag: Crumpler PB xxxl / Lowepro slingshot 200

That is true...I have a fine wireless card built into my notebook, but I run wired for any photo editing even thought I'm 10' from my router, because I use a network drive and I don't want the wireless delay (not much, but I'm picky).

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John
Canon SX100 IS (hoping to upgrade soon)
My photos

Hi Toby,

Fair points all. I have to come clean and admit that I really only anticipate using the MacBook Air to run Canon's remote Live View and so control my EOS 40D during my astrophotography sessions. All I need is that USB port as far as connectivity is concerned and with the 5 hour battery life and a backlit keyboard it is the ideal machine in everything but price. Might be fun to dip a toe in the Mac world as well but I certainly don't plan to be an early adopter. Much better to let others sort any bugs out first and then consider a purchase next winter assuming my decrepit ThinkPad lasts that long.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

I get about 5 hours out of my macbook. I have to turn the screen brightness down and keep the programs running to a minimum but im sure this is the same with this macbook air.

I take my macbook to university with me every day and use it for typing notes replacing a pen and paper and I have never run out of battery during a day there.

Is the macbook air cheaper or more expensive than the macbook?

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Tobywuk personal website || My Flickr
Gear: Sony a700! || CZ 16-80mm! || Sony 75-300 || bag: Crumpler PB xxxl / Lowepro slingshot 200

More expensive...looks like $1799USD for the basic model and $3200 for the solid-state-drive version. Don't know what UK pricing is going to be (I'm looking at the US site).

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John
Canon SX100 IS (hoping to upgrade soon)
My photos

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According to bit-tech.net UK pricing will be from £1199 including VAT (or €1,699 across most of Europe). PC Pro have an interesting article comparing the MacBook Air with the Sony VAIO VGN-G11VN/TCwhich may be of interest if you don't need to run OS X.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

The air is aimed at the mobile surfer, with is 64gig solid state drive (lovely no moving parts) no optic drive, so the workhorse macbook / pro users have nothing to fear..

yup i like my white santa rosa macbook... maybe there'll be an macbook update sometime and then ill want to have it, but the macbook air is just tooo overpriced!

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FLICKR: http://tinyurl.com/388cldd
Rebel Xsi + Grip, Tamron 17-55mm 2.8, Sigma 70-200 2.8 (non II), Canon 18-55mm IS, 50mm I.8 II, Sigma 30mm 1.4, Cullmann 4500-c Flash, Canon Speedlite 430 exII, Nikon Speedlight SB-80dx , Lensbaby composer, Studio Strobe and Equipment

I picked up the macbook 13 with 2.2 ghz intel core duo, and 2 GB of ram. I like the macbook over the macbook pro because it is obviously more compact. I run Adobe LR on it without any issues at all. Plus ilife 08 comes with some pretty neat things to do.

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Canon 450D EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 50mm f/1.8

Very dissapointed that we didn't see a quad core macbookpro

MacBookAir is rubbish. Period.

Non replaceable battey no access to ram or hdd no ethernet only one usb stupid gloss screen poor CPU speeds.

I want me a good workstation with a good fast hard drive, fast quad core CPU, 4gb of max ram, non glossy colour corrected screen, And a 8800GT for good measure!

Ah well looks like I'll have to wait for that

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

I think the problem with quad core laptop is cooling the processor and the amount of power it uses.

And the macbook air is a sub notebook designed to compliment someone using a desktop computer or finding there macbook pro 17inch is too heavy for some reason. But for the type of use I think it costs way too much.

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Camera: Canon 40D, 17-85mm IS
Knowledge of Photography: Hours of reading and videos.
Computer: iMac 24inch 3.06Ghz 4gb ram 500gb HD Nvidia 8800 GS 512mb

This machine certainly seems to have polarised opinions so, at the least, Apple has got a lot of publicity from it! If you are thinking of the MacBook Air as a desktop replacement then "rubbish" is probably fair comment.

To pick up your comments, the battery can be replaced by service technicians. I have replaced batteries on old notebooks but I have never carried a spare fully charged battery with me. Is that what you want to do?

Non-upgradeable RAM and HDD may be an issue for some. Ethernet is available but you have to use a dongle via the USB port. As for USB ports, though I have multiple USB bits hanging off my desktop machines I have never needed to connect more than one USB device to a laptop. If it's an issue then there are workarounds.

AnandTech have quite a nice appraisal of the MacBook Air here. Personally I think 2GB of RAM would be plenty on an ultra-portable and the solid-state 64GB hard disk sounds ( ) perfect. I don't need more than one USB port though a dedicated Ethernet port would have been nice. As for the screen, I haven't seen it yet so I'll have to defer judgement.

The big issue is, of course, price but if it's the design icon it appears to be then sometimes value for money is less important. I'm not rushing out to buy just yet, though. Never buy version 1 of anything if you can help it and maybe a silently released "version 2" will have the forthcoming mobile Penryn CPU instead of the 20W TDP Merom currently used. Even if that doesn't happen it may be a good idea to let others sort out any bugs and, hopefully, wait for the price to drop a little.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

The most important aspect in a laptop for me is battery life, noise (the lack of it) and weight. That it doesn't compromise on performance too much would be very welcome.

Having an ultra powerful system in a laptop almost certainly means a compromise in most, if not all of those areas.

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My Flickr