Photographers! What platform &/or system do you use?

[UltraNEO*]

Coming from a design background, I'm kinda curious what the majority of semi-professionals and professionals prefer to use as their digital travel companion and studio friend.

I know when your travelling the bulk of your weight would be quality glass plus the all essential tripod but tucked away, in your bag or sak there must be a mobile computer of some variety right? What is it? MacBookPro 15 or it's larger brother?

Please vote, thanks a bunch.

 

[jbernie]

shhhh i'm a pc!

Trading in my old HP Compaq nx9010 w/15.4" screen and bought.. well ordered an HP dv3500t w/13.1" LED today. Taking the old laptop at some 7.x lbs wasnt desirable, even more so given the thickness of the machine made it difficult to find a reasonable camera/laptop bag. The new one is 1" thinner and 3 lbs lighter so I expect it will go many more places.

Yes I was curious about a Mac but not tempted enough, partly due to the trade in going through HP itself. Should be receiving it in mid November, no rush as I have no travel plans for right now. Keep in mind I travel to Australia so the weight drop was a big factor in my decision. A large screen is nice, but a lighter device will travel a lot more.

 

[UltraNEO*]

shhhh i'm a pc!

Trading in my old HP Compaq nx9010 w/15.4" screen and bought.. well ordered an HP dv3500t w/13.1" LED today. Taking the old laptop at some 7.x lbs wasnt desirable, even more so given the thickness of the machine made it difficult to find a reasonable camera/laptop bag. The new one is 1" thinner and 3 lbs lighter so I expect it will go many more places.

Yes I was curious about a Mac but not tempted enough, partly due to the trade in going through HP itself. Should be receiving it in mid November, no rush as I have no travel plans for right now. Keep in mind I travel to Australia so the weight drop was a big factor in my decision. A large screen is nice, but a lighter device will travel a lot more.

Don't worry, I don't think anyone really minds what platform we use to do our job, so long as we get good results. I kinda learned that Apple fanboys and trolls rant about Windows, guess they're just bad users. ;-)

I'm a Macuser, thinking about upgrading my MacBookPro only i'm not sure should i jump to the 17" version for more real-estate or stay with the 15" cause it's more mobile.

 

[mtfield]

I'm a Macuser, thinking about upgrading my MacBookPro only i'm not sure should i jump to the 17" version for more real-estate or stay with the 15" cause it's more mobile.

I'm in the exact same position.. I have a year and a half old 15" and I plan to upgrade next fall after Nehalem makes it's appearance... i'm very tempted to go with the 17," but I am constantly on the move with my computer so i'm worried that the 17" is just too much to carry all the time... thoughts?

 

[UltraNEO*]

I'm in the exact same position.. I have a year and a half old 15" and I plan to upgrade next fall after Nehalem makes it's appearance... i'm very tempted to go with the 17," but I am constantly on the move with my computer so i'm worried that the 17" is just too much to carry all the time... thoughts?

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing... though i already ordered the 17" but I'm STILL lookin through the refurbs, cause my MBP2.2 just a bit battered. Sometimes it feels like it might be on it's last legs, so thinking about picking one up as a spare!! But I'm not sure.. lol

HELP!

 

[taylorwilsdon]

Used to be a 15" Matte MBP. Now its a "Mac Pro" with a 23" Apple cinema display. If I'm going to be doing an extraction from a background, I load the image onto my tablet (X61 with Wacom 12" screen)

 

[Kebabselector]

I use a MacMini and Matte screen at home, if I need to use anything onsite it'll be my MacBook.

 

[jbernie]

I'm in the exact same position.. I have a year and a half old 15" and I plan to upgrade next fall after Nehalem makes it's appearance... i'm very tempted to go with the 17," but I am constantly on the move with my computer so i'm worried that the 17" is just too much to carry all the time... thoughts?

Looks like the question for you is: What is more important, screen size or weight? What can't you live with(out)?

I have a 22" Dell for my tower, the notebook can sacrifice the screen because the lower weight/smaller size is what I must have. If need be, when at home I can have both devices connected to the 22" monitor as it supports multiple connections.

 

[pinback pro]

well, we took our imac on a photoshoot for a wedding once. the main reason was that we were going straight to vacation afterwards. that was a lot of imac to haul around. but it was worth it for that week. i just got my wife a good deal macbook pro 15"...so that is what we'll be takin next time.

we got the 15" cause that was cost effective...screen size on the road wasn't so important.

 

[ajpl]

I have an 8 core MacPro at home, but use a Sony Vaio for location work. Why? Apple make such a pathetic range of laptops with awful, compromised keypads, and I see no point in buying something that is so unsuited to my needs - which are light, small and powerful - with a high res screen.
Note for the self obsessed and blinkered Jobs + Ives, one size does not fit all.
They make nothing like this
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644570897
or this
http://www.productwiki.com/lenovo-thinkpad-w700/
or this
http://eeepc.asus.com/global/products.html?n=0
All of the above would be the ideal laptop for many users.

 

[Kirbdog]

I still pack around a 12" PowerBook when I go on vacation. I only use I to view and offload photos at the end of the day as well as copy images to discs so I can make a back up immediately. I don't bother editing until I get home and in front of a large desktop screen.

When I travel I usually do not take along anything i can't afford to loose. That is why I travel with an old PowerBook, and a Nikon D2h body and a selection of lenses suited to that trip. I can fit it all in one pack and carry it on the plane. It is not the latest and greatest but handily does the job.

 

[anubis]

iMac 24" 3.06GHz

 

[Westside guy]

Where's the DEC PDP-11/70 option?

 

[FX120]

I run a custom built tower running, zomg, Vista of all things, complete with Dell 2407 and 2007 displays off of a 8800GTX, 1.5TB of RAID 0+1, 4GB of DDR2 and an OC'd Intel Q6600.

I just couldn't justify spending $3500 on a Mac Pro just to get the base features I needed, not including displays. With this setup including displays I still haven't hit the $2000 mark, excluding my Black Magic Intensity pro.

 

[keltorsori]

15in matte and Aperture for on-site gigs. A Mac Pro with the same for the bigger stuff.

 

[Digital Skunk]

The 17" was the best choice I made for my freelance gigs. It's great to present, it's lighter than any other 17" PC on the market and it's only a pound heavier.

Not to mention it has fully clocked GPU and better cooling. I did get a 15" MBP when I did have a choice and regretted it.

The only benefit I can think of to having a 15" book is being able to fit it in more camera bags, but meh.

All of the above would be the ideal laptop for many users.

I would get all three of them. Maybe skip the Eeepc in favor of that slick as hell Sony, but would die for a 17" powerhouse to do the heavy lifting while away from the tower.

 

[ajpl]

I would get all three of them. Maybe skip the Eeepc in favor of that slick as hell Sony, but would die for a 17" powerhouse to do the heavy lifting while away from the tower.

Now that it the ideal, you take the machine approriate for the job in hand. Sadly Apple give you no hardware choice to speak of.
I have numerous camera bags of varying sizes and configurations. I take the one that's best for the occasion and the gear I need. Only one will fit the 17" in though as it is way too big. Annoyingly my bigger airline sized bag cannot accomodate it.

Have you seen a Sony TZ, they are so small and yet still very usable?

 

[Digital Skunk]

Have you seen a Sony TZ, they are so small and yet still very usable?

Not only have I seen it and used it, but all while out of the store. It was a friend's of mine and he pulled it out of his jacket pocket.

By far one of the best laptops I have used since this new MacBook. From the specs I read on Sony's site the thing has an optical drive that they can swap out for a SECOND HDD drive.

It's extremely versatile, and is the second machine in existence pushing me away from Apple, the first being the HP Blackbird 002

 

[seenew]

iMac 24" 3.06GHz

^ + 4GB RAM

 

[pixelpunch]

i've just started getting into photography.

i'll be using my MBP 17". 2GB RAM.
i want to upgrade to the new MBP though for more RAM.

 

[-hh]

I still pack around a 12" PowerBook when I go on vacation. I only use I to view and offload photos at the end of the day as well as copy images to discs so I can make a back up immediately. I don't bother editing until I get home and in front of a large desktop screen.

For on the road, I've varied between a 12" G4 PowerBook and dual Hyperdrive HD80's (60GB).

In general, the PB typically goes along when I:

• don't have severe weight limitations
• expect to want to use the system for something other than pure storage
• don't expect to shoot enough images to need to use it for storage

As such, the PB is mostly for stuff 'other than photo', although it is present in case I need or want to do something with new images before heading home.

I bought the dual Hyperdrives to be 'digital wallet' storage devices for when storage capacity and total weight limits are an issue. I'm going back to Tanzania later this year and have a 15kg (33lb) total baggage weight limit, so I'll be taking them (and not any laptop) with me again.

(Sony)...By far one of the best laptops I have used since this new MacBook. From the specs I read on Sony's site the thing has an optical drive that they can swap out for a SECOND HDD drive.

It's extremely versatile, and is the second machine in existence pushing me away from Apple, the first being the HP Blackbird 002

With dual HDD, if the Sony also has a Firewire port ... preferably FW800 ... for my FW800 Delkin Compact Flash card reader, I'd be very tempted.


At home, I have an old G5 PowerMac, which is starting to get long in the tooth performance-wise versus my cameras and consumption. I expect to upgun it to a Mac Pro tower, but since it has been 10 months since it was last refreshed, I'll at least wait for the next hardware bump from Apple before deciding if its going to be the 2009 refresh, although there's also the timing of the release of Snow Leopard to consider too, as well as considering what Adobe's scheduling plans are for 64 bit Photoshop/Mac (CS5, I think?).


-hh

 

[ajpl]

With dual HDD, if the Sony also has a Firewire port ... preferably FW800 ... for my FW800 Delkin Compact Flash card reader, I'd be very tempted.

It has firewire!

 

[UltraNEO*]

WOW!! Thanks for the many responses, sorry for my lateness in replying.

I notice there's a pattern, many people don't have a system when they're on the road while others are still using a older PowerBook 12. Seems very few are using the MBP17, is this due to it's weight? or size? My thinking a dSLR with some quality glass will be fairly weighty.. for me, i have four L glass lenses and one of them comes to about 1.5kg, and a couple of standard EF lenses..

The alternative would be the Canon M80 Storage but does anyone know does it support RAW files??? 80gb still a little small!!! Maybe a 200Gb HD would be nice! I currently have a 32Gb CF card and I'm constantly worry about it's reliability.. so I'm always looking for a backup method - cause anything is better than nothing, right?

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

My Macbook on locations

 

[costabunny]

I have my MBA when mobile, but I do 99% on the Mac Pro with the 30" - I love to work with large screens.