New Macbook [Archive] - Rangefinderforum.com

JeremyLangford

04-20-2009, 19:29

I am soon getting a Macbook Laptop (Aluminum) for a high school graduation gift and I want to use it for photography a lot. I'm hoping to also get a Coolscan 9000 in the future. I have some questions about this.

1) The new Aluminum Macbooks have two USB ports but no Firewire ports. How can I use a Coolscan 9000 which works with Firewire?

2) I'm expecting to need an external hard-drive to hold my Coolscan 9000 scans in order to not fill up the 160 gigs the laptop will come with. Is there anything important I need to know about buying an external hard-drive? Do they all work with USB 2.0? Are they much slower than my internal hard-drive?

3) I will probably be using the laptop like a desktop a lot with an external keyboard/mouse/speakers/monitor. Right now I'm using this monitor with my Mac Mini desktop computer:

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-730B-Syncmaster-LCD-Monitor/dp/B0009CEL18

Would a new monitor be better fit for photography than my current external monitor or my laptop monitor?

jmarcus

04-20-2009, 19:32

Make sure you get a 7200RPM hard drive for the Mac Book Pro

JeremyLangford

04-20-2009, 19:39

Make sure you get a 7200RPM hard drive for the Mac Book Pro

I can't afford a Mac Book Pro. Only a Mac Book which only come with 5400RPM drives.

topazbullet

04-20-2009, 19:41

A few thoughts - the super glossy screen on the MB makes photo work kind of annoying, and it is less powerful than I'd like for imaging work (especially high resolution film scans!)

If you really want computing power, buy a cheaper notebook and allocate about $1000 to building a wicked fast desktop for imaging work.

MarkoKovacevic

04-20-2009, 19:55

You gotta either get the older plastic macbooks if you want Firewire, or move onto the Macbook Pro. Maybe a used MBP would be a good decision?

jke

04-20-2009, 20:10

I've done image work on a tiny iBook (cheapest bottom of the line model with upgraded RAM to 1.5GB) for years and never had any problems. I scanned 35mm to 4x5 with it. Occasionally I could choke it, but once I figured out what would choke it, I didn't do that. It is still alive and runs the most current version of OS X, Lightroom, and CS3 (okay, not more current on the last one) just fine. I run it with a bus-powered external drive from LaCie and haven't noticed any lag time that exceeds any normal lag time from a 5 year old computer.

Firewire is potentially a problem. The MacBooks don't have any firewire. The Nikon uses firewire. Not sure you can get around that logjam. Means you either have to get an Epson V700 or buy a MacBook Pro to get firewire 800 that can be adapted to firewire 400.

I have gone through a lot of hard drives, but now I have two excellent LaCie D2 Quadra drives. They seem to be champs. Temperature is your enemy, specifically repeated changes or extremes. I keep both drives cool with a Thermaltake fan. They are hooked up to my brand new IMac now. I can't say that I notice any lag time.

I think the Apple monitors are terrific. Not many better. The MacBook has a proprietary display port connection for the new Apple 24" monitor. Expensive but great.

On the other hand, unless you absolutely need a laptop, get a 24" IMac and an iPod Touch or iPhone and be done with it. I am betting that Apple will run their annual "buy a computer get a free iPod Touch" offer for students in the fall again this year.

urban_alchemist

04-20-2009, 21:29

Sorry to say, but I really think you should save up a bit more and get a MacBook Pro.

Reasons:

1. Firewire. Not only will this be necessary for the Coolscan 9000 (I have one) and any other non-flatbed, it is also a much under-used and underrated protocol. For making continuous backups, Firewire is also necessary as it allows you to make bootable backups of your entire system - something not possible with USB. HardDrives SHOULD be bought with Firewire 800 and then daisy-chained to the scanner (another pro of Firewire).

2. Express Card. This makes your laptop (relatively) future-proof. If some new data connection standard comes out (for instance eSATA), the Express Card slot is pretty much your only way of upgrading.

3. Graphics Card: I assume you're going to be using Vuescan. And Aperture (or Lightroom). And Photoshop. At the same time. My MacBook Pro with the 9600M active struggles with this. A MacBook wouldn't have a chance.

If you can't afford the MacBook Pro, I'd steer you away from a laptop altogether. A desktop will be less convenient, but you get much more bang for your buck and it'll let your programs run as you intend.

gavinlg

04-21-2009, 00:31

Why not grab a little HP or Asus netbook for cheap and use it as a portable computer, and put the rest toward a good imac. If you don't strictly need the portability of a powerful laptop, the imac is the best value of the apple line. Mine is 2.5 years old and runs brilliant.

Socke

04-21-2009, 01:13

On a tight budget, the white Macbook is still available but has been upgraded to the NVidia Chipset but kept the firewire port.

The screen isn't as glossy as the alu Macbooks, i.E. my older white Macbook doesn't bother me too much in this regard. To be true, I never understood the complains over the glossy screens until I tried an alu Macbook outside in the sun :)

I have the "ancient" version, will be two years old in November, with the GMA950 graphics and this chip is fine for picture editing, even with an external 24" monitor.

IMHO the white Macbook maxed up to 4GB RAM and any external HD is fine for your purposes, add a reasonable Monitor, a Wacom Bamboo or Intuos Tablet and a keyboard, I have a Logitec, and you're all set.
Oh! Get an active USB hub for the HD, Tablet and Keyboard, they do need some VA and the externaly powered USB hub provides that.
When I come home I just attach the display and one USB cable, easy enough for a lazy guy like me :)

And try to get the extended warranty, there are students rebates on that, too. It's a bit like Leicas Passport, might be helpful one time or the other. I had a display and two topcases replaced under warranty with no questions asked, only the first topcase was under warranty without any doubt. The display had dust inside, which is probably due to my smoking habits, and the second topcase was because of a broken keyboard, probably because of excessive amounts of water when I tried to clean it :)

Edit:
don't expect too much from the Macbook display, either new or old. the colours are flat even when calibrated with a Spyder III.

historicist

04-21-2009, 01:32

1) You can't. You need a computer with Firewire or a scanner with USB.

2) Any USB 2.0 hard drive will work. Firewire hard drives are faster, but see point 1. And/or you can upgrade your internal hard drive yourself, which is cheap and very very easy. Then you can have a 7200rpm internal drive.

Although there are good reasons to go for a Mac Book Pro if you can afford it, like a bigger screen and firewire, I'm not sure if the better graphics card makes a difference. As far as I know Photoshop doesn't really use the graphics acceleration much, and with scanning the main thing that makes it slow is moving 150Mb files around, which is a hard disk throughput issue - my MBP is slow doing this, its just life.

I use a PC more than a mac now and don't really see any big difference between Vista and OS X, in your position I would consider a PC as well but maybe that's just me. The new Macbooks are really nice, my girlfriend's just got one.

kipkeston

04-21-2009, 02:28

save for the MBP

Larky

04-21-2009, 02:37

Hello.

OK, if you are going to use Lightroom (which I suggest you do) HDD speed can make a fair bit of difference when you don't have too much RAM (which is the first thing to max out). The only external drives I suggest are G-Tech, they are faster than anything else external you can get and built like tanks. They are also cheaper than they should be. I have used almost every make of external over the years, G-Tech are so far beyond anything else.

As for firewire, you can get a firewire to USB 2.0 adaptor, so don't worry about that.

For now do not worry about monitors etc, the one that it comes with will be ok for colour for now. Spend the money on the G-Tech and the RAM and Lightroom. Buy the monitor later as a treat for taking you 100th great photo. :)

If you need any Mac help or tech help in general let me know, it's what I do.

buzzardkid

04-21-2009, 03:04

...
1. Firewire. Not only will this be necessary for the Coolscan 9000 (I have one) and any other non-flatbed, it is also a much under-used and underrated protocol. For making continuous backups, Firewire is also necessary as it allows you to make bootable backups of your entire system - something not possible with USB. HardDrives SHOULD be bought with Firewire 800 and then daisy-chained to the scanner (another pro of Firewire). No argument there, I should use FireWire more myself, actually

2. Express Card. This makes your laptop (relatively) future-proof. If some new data connection standard comes out (for instance eSATA), the Express Card slot is pretty much your only way of upgrading. No experience on this, so cannot comment.

3. Graphics Card: I assume you're going to be using Vuescan. And Aperture (or Lightroom). And Photoshop. At the same time. My MacBook Pro with the 9600M active struggles with this. A MacBook wouldn't have a chance. Strongly disagree here! Use VueScan and PhotoShop for your film workflow, use LightRoom for the digital workflow. When editing a film and digital project, handle the film files first, import them in LR and then edit the digital files to match color, light etc. Then export the whole bunch. No need to run all programs at the same time if you keep the process tidy.

If you can't afford the MacBook Pro, I'd steer you away from a laptop altogether. A desktop will be less convenient, but you get much more bang for your buck and it'll let your programs run as you intend.I have been running a 13" MacBook with Lightroom, Photoshop and Minolta ScanDual software for over a year, just clean up files regularly and have 2Gbs of memory installed and you will do just fine. Mine is still spinning a 5400RPM drive and I have no trouble when using the above approach to film and digital files. Just make sure you save the PSD files from your scans as TIFF before importing them in LR, the PSD files have layers and these slow the whole thing down a lot...

arturo

04-21-2009, 03:29

Hello. I bought a macbook last Christmas, initially not for photography but I am gradually using it for everything. I am very pleased with it.

For you the lack of Firewire is an unsolvable problem. Either you get another computer (white macbook+external screen, macbook pro or imac 24) or you get another scanner. I have a Minolta 5400 which has dual wire USB and firewire, but it is a 35mm scanner.

Aside the wirefire, I personally think the macbook pro is not worth the price gap. The different graphic card is not that important, RAM and hard drive space are more important. People swear that the screen of the macbook pro is so much better, but I'd rather save for a external screen. With the money you save not buying the macbook pro you can buy aftermarket 4Gb RAM and a 7200 hard drive (I'd say 320Gb or 500Gb) and a external screen. I have a 19" Eizo monitor bought years ago, if I had to buy now I'd go for a 24" Dell.

As other poster said, normally you would need Vuescan + photoshop for film workflow and lightroom for digital workflow, not everything at the same time. At least this is the way I work.

Something I miss miseably in mac is a powerful photomanager like ACDsee. iPhoto is like a toy to me, perhaps I did not fully grasp its potential.

If you are in a tight budget you could go for a 2nd hand model, possibly not the most recent mac.

Good luck.

Arturo

Ronald M

04-21-2009, 03:38

Having both an iMac 24 matt screen and a small Macbook glossy, I will tell you a portable is poor in comparison for photo work, for viewing reasons. Functionally it is fine as a computer, but a notebooks have screens that change as the angle of view changes.
Ergonomicaly they are are pain with a small keyboard. Matt/vs glossy has nothing to do with problems.

I love having the portable to take around to show finished pictures and for vacation, but working on one is a pain.

My little MacBook has CS3 and NX installed on it.

dfoo

04-21-2009, 04:00

I have a macbook. Its pretty slow. The pro is much better. Or if you don't need to portability, go for an imac. If you have the technical know-how and can deal with annoyances of updating you could also go for a hackintosh, which is probably illegal, however, if you at least purchase your copy of Mac OS X, then I don't think it is immoral.

historicist

04-21-2009, 04:23

Some folks don't see a difference, and in fact if you are simply printing to a desktop printer only a PC might do.In my case I need a small and light laptop, and Apple don't make one, at least not one with a slot for a lock, which is absolutely essential for anyone who works a lot in national libraries. Thus I have a Thinkpad X61, which I would in no way recommend for photo work as the screen is dismal - I just use it for Word.

I was pretty surprised how good Vista was - it's not as well thought out in the details as OS X, but it's not that bad and most photo software (Lightroom, Photoshop etc.) is available for PC and Mac. It might be at least worth looking to see if a PC is available that has the right specs, given that the OP wants firewire but can't afford a MBP.

About the only thing about PCs that really annoys me is that they don't ever seem to sleep properly when you close the lid, or at least not nearly as quickly and elegantly as a Mac.

Eric T

04-21-2009, 04:24

The MacBook will be fine.
You can get a cheap adaptor from the Apple store that will allow you to connect firewire devices (such as your scanner) to your MacBook. This is NOT an issue.
I suggest that you use a fast external hard drive for your photos. Then you won't be filling your internal hard drive so quickly. They are cheap these days.
In any case, a 5400 rpm hard drive will work well.
You MacBook monitor will work well provided that you don't intend to edit more than one photo at a time.
So don't worry - you will be fine with the MacBook - no need to save for the MacBook Pro. If you save your money, use it for an external hard drive or a larger monitor, not a MacBook Pro.

Larky

04-21-2009, 04:25

By the way, you can boot from USB with the latest Macs.

Matt(1pt4)

04-21-2009, 04:43

The macbook has plenty of power to do image editing, and you can always upgrade the hard drive and RAM later. The macbook I use at work is the previous generation (white, 2GHZ, firewire) that's been upgraded to 4GB of RAM and a 7200 RPM drive. It drives a 24 inch monitor for Photopshop work fine.

You can get a usb to firewire hub to use with your 9000: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=199941

Or you can just buy an external hard drive that does both USB and firewire and use it as a hub.

rogue_designer

04-21-2009, 04:57

You can get a usb to firewire hub to use with your 9000: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=199941

I think that requires a firewire connection to the computer to use the firewire ports.

historicist

04-21-2009, 05:09

I had to laugh when I read that... No wire cutters in your part of the world? Or it's just not done? :DIt's true! The libraries I use are tightly access controlled, so leaving a computer locked up even for a few hours is no problem. At the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin you get given a pass when you go in with a computer and have to present it when you leave, at the British Library there's cameras all over the place and you get searched on leaving the reading rooms - and at both getting a readers card involves bringing lots of ID, having a proper ground for using the library etc. It'd probably be OK leaving a computer without a lock, but I don't want to tempt fate. And those all so essential trips to the cafe for yet more coffee are really annoying if you have to carry a laptop - you can't take bags inside so you have the laptop in one hand, a cup of hot liquid in the other, maybe a crossaint balanced somewhere.... If only Apple had thought of this when they made the Macbook Air ;)

At my normal university library, or indeed anywhere else, on the other hand, I'd never leave my computer unattended locked or unlocked..

Anyway, on topic, I would be wary about using a USB to firewire adaptor for a Coolscan. They are notoriously tricky about the connections - usually daisy chaining them will cause them not to work, and even connected directly to an internal firewire card they can be fussy about the chipset. You would want to at least check it works before you buy an expensive computer and expensive scanner and an adaptor you can't really use for anything else and then find out none of it works together.

JeremyLangford

04-21-2009, 05:17

JeremyLangford

04-21-2009, 05:21

historicist

04-21-2009, 05:33

There's one here:

http://www.usbfirewire.com/uadapters.html

though it kind of suggests its designed for camcorders. I guess there must be others. But seriously, don't go for it unless someone who actually owns this combination tells you it works or you can try it yourself. I have no idea myself, but I do own a Coolscan 8000 and I can say that Nikon specifically say that it should be connected directly to the computer (i.e. no hubs, not daisy chained) and that even when it is connected exactly as they suggest it still sometimes doesn't work.

There is a Yahoo group for owners of the 8000/9000 here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coolscan8000-9000/summary

it is probably worth asking about the USB-firwire converter there to see if anyone has experience of it.

jke

04-21-2009, 05:54

1. Firewire. Not only will this be necessary for the Coolscan 9000 (I have one) and any other non-flatbed, it is also a much under-used and underrated protocol. For making continuous backups, Firewire is also necessary as it allows you to make bootable backups of your entire system - something not possible with USB. HardDrives SHOULD be bought with Firewire 800 and then daisy-chained to the scanner (another pro of Firewire).

3. Graphics Card: I assume you're going to be using Vuescan. And Aperture (or Lightroom). And Photoshop. At the same time. My MacBook Pro with the 9600M active struggles with this. A MacBook wouldn't have a chance.

Intel Macs can boot from USB drives now. I use SuperDuper to create bootable backups for my iMac, and I can use either a USB or FW drive. I use FW because that is what I have.

My iBook can run my Nikon 9000 & Nikon Scan with Adobe Bridge and Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom at the same time. I am not doing a lot of batch processing, but with scanning, I don't think a lot of batch processing is necessary as it might be in a digital photoshoot where exposure and lighting are going to be consistent enough to allow it.

The dual graphics cards on the newer MacBook Pros are largely for video and are overkill for dealing with static photos. Most graphics cards can handle static photos fairly easily.

As far as I can tell, the firewire issue is the only real sticking point. Damn you, Apple and your cranky port affliction!

digitalintrigue

04-21-2009, 06:05

I use an iMac and a white MacBook. The MacBook is plenty fast for most photo related tasks, but I wouldn't want to use it with Final Cut or anything that needs serious horsepower.

I suggest getting a used white or black MacBook with firewire. Mine was free...it was dead, someone spilled water on it. But I sent it to a shop in Brooklyn who charges zero if they can't fix it or $200 if they can. So I now have a $200 MacBook. :)

rover

04-21-2009, 06:12

The only upgrade I was planning on getting with the Macbook is 4 gigs of RAM. I am fine with using external hard-drives because when I'm at home, I planned on having the laptop closed and using it like a desktop with an external monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers.

J, that is more or less what I am running on. I am not a high power user, but have a new Macbook, 4g RAM, with an external Monitor and speakers for when it is parked at home. I am using Photoshop Elements as my editing software, it works well having the bridge open on one screen and editor open on the other. Get a decent monitor if you are going to do editing on it. I can't get the colors correct on the one I bought.

As a student you may need more power than what I am using, but for what I do the Macbook is fine.

digitalintrigue

04-21-2009, 06:25

I agree, those adapters tend to be dodgy.

Just get an earlier MacBook, it will work fine. And a nice big monitor to go with it.

historicist

04-21-2009, 08:58

Interesting, I've never seen one of those before. I guess you have to attach the lock bracket permanently to a desk? Unfortunately for me no lock is a deal breaker, though I'm sure it doesn't bother 99% of people.

BillBingham2

04-21-2009, 18:14

Jeremy,

My 2cents, worth all you've paid.

Adapters work some times and then other times do not. It's the same in the Windows world as it is in the Mac world. SCSI, USB, FW, it all depends very much upon a level of magic that can some times even vary depending upon versions of mother boards. I've used many different cards and adapters over the years and once I get something that works I try to not change ANYTHING. Avoid them, avoid them, avoid them. Or if you need to be very careful about making changes, something very hard to do these days with automatic OS updates.

MacBook, MBP, iMac, MacMini, MAB, so many choices, all of them good. A LOT of deciding which computer is best is dependent upon what you are doing with it, and where. I changed from a MacMini to a new PowerBook for the fact that I want to compute in bed, at the table, when I travel. I did not get a very powerful system as I do not do any processing with what I shot at the present time. While I know I have enough to power to work I know I will need to add more memory (max it out when ever you can). I wanted a robust body so I did not need to worry, so I actually got a slower processor. My wife and my kids have a firewire on their two macs so we are covered there.

From what you say I read what you really need is a KICK A55 desktop. While a laptop would be fun, what you want to do is serious image crunching stuff. For that I would look into which has the faster graphics processing chip set (memory is a big part here) between the Mini and the iMac. My gut says the iMac will win. Another part of the picture is the ease of adding a second monitor. I say this because I would use one monitor for the image and another for controls, browsers windows and all. I've love the Mac from the Mac II days because it's so easy to add second monitors. With the mini you can get an adapter to fake it out, but I think the nod goes to the iMac. I remember when I looked for a Mac for a group I was supporting about a year ago the iMac rocked for their graphics needs.

Perhaps the larger iMac would not need a second monitor it has a lot of room on that screen. I'd get a track-ball and perhaps look for a continuous feed ink system printer.

Now about buying a notebook for taking with you to show and basic work (not high end image processing, say word processing) I would hold off for a few months. Apple just released the beta version of the iTouch/iPhone OS 3.0. It looks very interesting if they were to come out with say a somewhat larger pad. Say the size you see the crew of the NCC-1701-D walking around with. I just have a feeling that Apple might do to the NetBook what they did to the MP-3 players a few years back. There are already a lot of applications out there and even more on the way. It might be this summer some time, just in time for the incoming class for next years college students. While the price will be higher than the other NetBooks (my guess is around $550 USD) the application prices and volume will slam the door shut on another market. Now this is not based upon any inside information, just a guess. Somewhat tea leave reading based upon a few years inside and lots of years watching. I'd be happy with a larger screen for showing my shots on and in a perfect world an attachment to a VGA output to attach to a projector.

Beware, your mileage will vary.

B2 (;->

JeremyLangford

04-21-2009, 18:22

After researching the Firewire-only Coolscan 9000 and USB-only Aluminum Macbook problem, I am pretty sure that it is completely impossible to use them together. I'm also pretty sure that I don't want to switch to another film scanner so that leaves me with either a worse Whitle/Black Macbook, or a more expensive Macbook Pro.

I am also starting to consider a desktop because I found out that I could get an iMac with 24-inch display and a mouse/keyboard that absolutely blows away the Aluminum Macbook for $100 more which is extremely tempting. I'm just not sure how necessary the portability of a laptop will be in college for me.

I don't understand a lot about Firewire or USB and the only thing I'm wondering about is why Apple left out Firewire in their Aluminum Macbooks. Is Firewire going to become obsolete as USB advances? Eventually will all Macs come without Firewire causing me to throw away my Coolscan 9000?

benmacphoto

04-21-2009, 18:37

http://www.macofalltrades.com/Apple_Intel_Core_2_Duo_2_33GHz_15_4_MacBook_Pro_p/ic2d233mbp151.htm

Pretty much the same price for a macbook, but has the non glossy screen, and has firewire.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/53IM2DDR4GBK/

^$50 for 4gb of ram.

Trius

04-21-2009, 19:13

What an interesting thread. As many opposing opinions as a joint Democrat/Republican convention.

BillBingham2

04-21-2009, 19:23

Apple needed to cut back somewhere for size and cost. USB 2.0 is just about everywhere these days and while not as functional as FireWire (IEEE 1394) it works well for the majority of the folks out there. Notebooks are not really focused on power graphics users. The high end chips pull too much power and put out too much heat for your lap. That is unless you want to over heat your .......... parts.

Depending upon what software your college uses, pick up the same and if need be a PC VM system (fusion is my favorite) and bring your stuff around on a iPod or flash drive.

I think you will be much better served to hang loose on the notebook. I really think netbooks will be a better choice for the vast majority of folks in a year or two. While I love my MacBook, if you added in the ability to remote control a Mac from a NetBook I would be fat dumb and a lot lighter walking down the street.

B2 (;->

BillBingham2

04-21-2009, 19:29

Don't forget those Libertarians and perhaps the Brother John Bearch Society......

While I used to think that a few of the Republicans in Greece did some funky stuff, the Democrats in Cook County make them look like a bunch of 3 year olds on the play ground.

B2 (;->

benkelley

04-21-2009, 20:12

Jeremy–

Look into refurbished laptops...
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB470LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw
And if you buy new, make sure to shop through the education store, as you'll save $100 or so, depending on the model.

Anyway, never buy memory from apple. Get the computer with the base configuration and buy from crucial or owc (http://eshop.macsales.com/). You'll save a bunch.

I think you'll appreciate the laptop in college, for sure... but if you can get a lot more mileage out of an imac, then go for that. I use a desktop and my old 12" g4 powerbook (which they will have to pry out of my cold, dead hands...) in tandem.

By the way... Doesn't your mac mini have firewire? So couldn't you just use that with the Nikon, and then move the scans over to the MacBook? I don't expect you'll be carting that 9000 around with you most places...!

And... maybe your college will have a good scanner and computer lab.

benkelley

04-21-2009, 20:14

amateriat

04-21-2009, 21:36

Firewire is becoming obsolete, it has always been very problematic, depending on the chip used in the firewire enclosures. eSATA and SATA are replacing firewire for hard drives, and there are not many film scanners left, now that Nikon has begun to leave the market. Apple backup has now moved to wireless.
Actually, SATA/eSATA might not be too long-lived itself, with the advent of USB 3.0 (http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/58765).

FireWire is a big deal for me, so, between that and a crazy-tight budget, I opted to replace my nine-year-old(!), armed-to-the-teeth PowerBook G3 "Pismo" with a last-generation (1.67GHz) PowerBook G4, also loaded for bear (2GB RAM, 320GB HD). It happens that all the software I'm using, including PS CS2 (the rest of my Adobe Suite is first-gen CS), going MacIntel would do little to nothing in terms of performance over a late G4. This gave me, on the cheap, a machine that was a rough match for my FW800 Power Mac G4 tower (dual 1.25GHz, 2GB RAM). Since, in addition to my photography, I'm a freelance Mac tech, a laptop, in addition to a desktop machine, isn't exactly a luxury.

If you're going for a new machine, I say hang the laptop for now and go for the big iMac: FireWire will be there, and much more bang-for-the-buck in terms of performance.

This (http://www.barefeats.com/im09b.html) and this (http://lowendmac.com/ed/moore/09cwm/macbook-for-production.html) might help clear up a few matters in terms of which Mac might do the most for you.

- Barrett

palec

04-21-2009, 21:45

I have been standing in front of similar decision and choosed new white MacBook (because it's more portable than Pro). BUT if you consider using any portable for serious photo editing, you need good large screen. My choice was driven by the fact that I'd already owned a 20" Cinema Display. I used PowerBook 12" previously, now MacBook 13" with Firewire and updated video card, and I was not able to calibrate those small displays to the closer range of Cinema Display. As far the glossy screen, I was advised to try 3M Vikuiti anti-glare foil and it works quite good (not as good as non-glossy screen, but still helpful).

urban_alchemist

04-21-2009, 22:41

If you're going for a new machine, I say hang the laptop for now and go for the big iMac: FireWire will be there, and much more bang-for-the-buck in terms of performance.

Completely agree. For Price/Performance/Spec, you still can't beat an iMac.

I have been standing in front of similar decision and choosed new white MacBook (because it's more portable than Pro).

Don't confuse size and weight: my girlfriend has always had MacBooks (well, now she's got a MacBook Air), while I've always had the Pro. While her white MacBook was smaller than my (old, non-unibody) MacBook Pro
it was at least as heavy...

JeremyLangford

04-22-2009, 04:04

The only difference between the white Macbook and Aluminum Macbook in terms of performance is that the White would come with 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM and the Aluminum comes with 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM.

benkelley

04-22-2009, 04:17

You can boot an intel mac from a flash drive.

My point exactly-that ain't no target disk mode!

ali_baba

04-22-2009, 09:24

get an imac, you wont regret it.
or buy a used mbp or even a desktop.
i have a g5 tower that's just sitting since i got a new mac pro over the winter.

lets strike a deal.

benkelley

04-22-2009, 11:00

True but on the mac books you can pull the drive in seconds. On the air, not so much.

Which means your boot drive will have to have tools on it. If I repaired macs for a living, I guess I would have to change my systems, but you are right they should work out a USB alternative.

Yeah, if I was a mac tech I'd go around with a 2.5" usb external enclosure... still more complicated than target disk, for sure, but it would get the job done on the macbooks.

Anyway, back to Jeremy... As I said before, if you're keeping the mini, use it's firewire to run the scanner and get the macbook.

Another idea would be to get an imac AND an ipod touch/iphone–there's your 'netbook'!

JeremyLangford

04-22-2009, 16:48

The only difference between the white Macbook and Aluminum Macbook in terms of performance is that the White would come with 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM and the Aluminum comes with 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM.

Also, the Aluminum Macbook has an LED-backlit screen unlike the White Macbook, and the Aluminum's battery lasts 30 minutes longer. Are any of these things a big deal?

Having a desktop and no laptop might be a pain during college. But the iMac would knock out the need for an external hard-drive and an external monitor.

And it seems like getting an Aluminum Macbook and scanning pictures to my mac-mini would be a pain as well. I'd rather scan to the laptop and then put the huge scans on an external hard-drive that I could take with me whenever I need to.

Trius

04-22-2009, 18:49

I'm no Mac expert -- the only Apple products I own are an 8GB Touch and an Airport Extreme. While I love my iTouch and it is good for storing/displaying photos, there are some areas where it is very much an unfinished product. I suspect that Jeremy would want to use the Touch for tasks better suited to a "real" computer. And if showing photos is a primary objective, would the small screen be adequate? There ARE Touch apps for VNC and file transfer/sync from a Mac (or PC/Linux box), but I haven't tried them so don't know how useful or clunky that would be.

But all-in-all I love the flexibility and weightlessness of the Touch -- not to mention having a VoIP app (Fring) that is very cool.

JeremyLangford

04-23-2009, 18:26

If I got a White Macbook instead of an Aluminum to achieve a firewire port I would upgrade the White Macbook to have the same size RAM (4gigs) and also the same size hard-drive (160gigs) as the Aluminum.

After that, the only difference between the white Macbook and Aluminum Macbook in terms of performance is that the White would come with 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM and the Aluminum would come with 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM. Also, the Aluminum Macbook has an LED-backlit screen unlike the White Macbook, and the Aluminum's battery lasts 30 minutes longer.

Are any of these things a big deal?

elshaneo

04-23-2009, 19:41

Well my friend, honestly it's not really a big deal. The main thing that I found to be the big deal is the Hard Drive.

I used to have the white Macbook but at the beginning of this year, I got the latest Aluminium Macbook with the upgrades to 4Gb RAM DDR3 and 320Gb 7200rpm Hard drive at first. The performance was around 10 to 20 percent faster compared to the white Macbook.

But nowadays, I have a 256Gb Solid State Drive as Hard Drive, and it's now freaking fast, my Macbook is super fast and almost instant, the performance difference is now around 50 to 80 percent. I would say that putting a Solid State Drive in your PC, Mac or whatever, will surprise you how fast your computer could be ;-)