Camera Labs

Hi all,

Having drooled over a macbook pro for a couple of weeks and deciding it was exactly what i wanted i cannot justify the £1,000 it was going to cost.

So using a budget of around half of that i think i will be able to get a very capable laptop.

Will i be able to buy one 'out of the box' or should i go for something custom?

Im thinking i need at least 4gb ram and a dedicated graphics card and a large HD.

Can anyone recommend something good for me?

My current laptop takes about half an hour to process an image in the dedicated sony software i got with my camera and it does my head in.

Dont even get me started on the time it takes when using Photomatix Pro.....!

Thanks,

Woza.

If you are looking for an equivalent to the hardware side of the MacBook Pro, you probably won't find it for 500.

Do you really need the dedicated graphics card? If photo editing is your main concern I would suggest that you go for a basic model like the Dell Studio 15 (or equivalent) and pick a processor and ram upgrade over the GPU options to help max out the processing power within budget.

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Graham
Flickr

The reason the Macbook Pro costs so much is because it's fairly light weight. While you can get laptops for half that price which offer the same processor power, they weigh an absolute ton and have terrible battery life. If you're saying that portability isn't important to you and neither is battery life, you're probably better off buying a desktop as you can get some really powerful machines for £500.

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PhilipGoh.com

Maybe you could find a used MBP in your budget?

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Canon 40D + 70-200mm f/2.8L IS + 50mm f/1.8
Manfrotto 055CX3 + 496RC2
www.thomaslowe.com

Get a bigger budget.

Get a Desktop.

Get a lesser powered laptop with rubbish battery life <2 hours..

Cry.

It's about all you can do mate =/ short of a miricle.

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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!

you could rob Daniel. He' probably never notice that one of his computers was missing.

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Jake O'Connell, 40D Crew
Canon EOS 40D | 28-135mm IS | 50mm f/1.8 |Vivitar DF 383 | Vivitar 285hv
My Flickr
my Blog
"Photography isn't so much about the results as it is the collective experience, your interactions with people and with the world"

He wouldn't want my laptop. Its rubbish.

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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!

Get a Dell Inspiron or a Studio. Dell often has great deals on them. My inspiron is pretty much identically specced as the macbook pro, yet I saved 900 euros.

Get a 9 cell battery (mine gets 7 hours during college)
Go for a P processor (like the P8600)
Depending on your needs, you want a decent graphics card (HD4330 was in mine, runs COD4 fine on medium)
Get an Wled screen, it's just nicer, and costs only 20 bucks more I believe.

(I'm kind of assuming you'd use it for college, so go for a 15.6 inch screen. You really don't want to lug around a 17 inch all day. Also, the inspirons 16:9 screen is great for movie watching)

With the current dell discounts, I configured one specced like that, but with a 2 ghz P processor, for 600 pounds, including VAT and shipping. a 2.4 GHz proc adds 110 pounds.

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

1440x900 minimum resolution too. 1366x768 and 1280x800 are HORRID

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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!

Can agree with citruspers here.
DELL is a great deal. I have a studio 1555 and its running great. You can choose 9 cell battery and a lot of processors. Including a great graphics cards for everyday use it will not disappoint you.
But even if a apple mac book pro is expensive, it has state of the art built quality and operating system that really goes well with the hardware. Dell, hp, acer or any other manufacturer cant follow apple here...

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Nikon D90 | Nikkor 18-105 AF-S f/3.5-5.6 VR | Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8D | Nikon MB - D80 battery grip | Lowepro Flipside 200

Nokia 6220 5mp - Carl Zeiss optics



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1366*768 is actually fine, I have it. Never noticed anything bad about it. Never tried pixel peeping on it though.

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

whatever your choice do not concider buying the Macbook ( plastic whitebook) as a cheap alternative the screen resolution is absolutely terrible you cant edit images on one . the resolution is really that bad. go to a big box store and checkout all of the displays side by side and buy the best one. if you are a serious photographer who looks at thousands of photos per month its all about the display

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Nikon D700+Nikon D-80 + Nikon SB 900 Flashgun+Lumiquest Ultrasoft softbox + Nikon 50mm F 1.8 + Tamron 28-75mm F 2.8 + Sigma 12-24mm F 4.5-5.6 + Sigma 70-200mm F 2.8 + Sigma 150-500 F 5-6.3 Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod+Manfrotto 3265 Joystick Head+Gorillapod SLR-Zoom+Crumpler 7 million dollar home bag+ Crumpler Karachi Outpost Backpack
http://www.kristymacleodphotography.com/

How about elaborating on that by not buying a laptop for serious color corrected photo editing, ever?

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

I think the MacBook screen is oversaturated and as with all glossy screens it is not ideal for editing but resolution and image quality in general are level with most other 13" laptops. Anybody buying a 13" laptop can expect to get something of similar quality because it doesn't get much better than that although the HP Envy 13" seems to have recently broken the trend.

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Graham
Flickr

Just keep on scrolling baby :p