Any photographers here using a MBP?

Hi,

I am thinking about buying a Macbook Pro for mainly photo editing, video work and playing etc. Are there any other photographers here who use one? What screen size are you using? Do you use it on photoshoots? I'm thinking about the 17" for editing and to use on photoshoots but am worried it'll just be too big. Do you find the matt screen better for your work?

 

17" is fine for mobile work.

 

I'm not a "professional" photographer but I do take a lot of photos. I think 15" is fine for mobile work but to be honest I stopped bringing the MBP with me and take the iPad instead. I do my editing at home on the MBP now.

 

Photographers use laptops on-location generally only for checking focus.

Any semi-professional photo editing will be done at a workstation computer or an MBP hooked up to an external IPS monitor.

The MBP screen, along with 98% of laptop screens, are TN panels and not reliable for proper color management. Some laptops like HP elitebooks have IPS panels.

You will most likely also need to invest in a sun hood for your MBP if you are shooting outdoors.

So, no, 17" is not exactly required for mobile work, but I don't see why you would get any less. It will also have a bit more power if you do not have a workstation computer at home, and want to hook it up to an external. It fits nicely into most camera backpacks.

This was the backpack I chose when beginning, and it fits the 17" MBP quite nicely and is much more affordable than other companies.

Tenba - Shootout: Large Backpack

 

Thanks for the link, but I already have a Fastpack 350 that fits a 17". I think i'll be getting the 17inch MPB.

 

Hi there,

I'm a photographer, I shoot a Canon 7D and I use the 13" MBP mainly because I wanted something portable with a decent screen.

I would go with the 15" MBP if I were you ... If you need a bigger screen, get an external monitor. The 17" MBP is overpriced in my opinion.

I recommend the 15" over the 13" because when I stitch panoramas from RAW files, CS4 takes a while due to the large file size. Of course this can be alleviated by replacing the hard disk with an SSD.

Anyway, the colors are exceptional even without calibrating the screen. I would recommend the 15" MBP with an i5 at least.

I have not used my MBP to tether on location via Lightroom 3 but I have done it at home ... It's a damn pleasure. Very easy and pain free to set up.

 

If you have not already done so, check out this site which contains alot of articles for Mac users into professional photography

Macintosh Performance Guide By Topic

Also, do you see the need for having fast external storage? The 17" is the ONLY way you can have fast external storage (backups, scratch drive, etc...) in a Macbook Pro.

Macintosh Performance Guide: Recommended Hardware

Here is his multip-page review of the 2010 i7 MBP 17

http://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-MacBookProCore_i7.html

taken from that review:
- The 17" model is the only model with ExpressCard/34 slot for eSATA support and/or a 3G wireless card.
- There are 3 USB ports on the 17" model, but only two on the 15" model, which might save the hassle of a USB hub. Since I use a mouse even when traveling, those two extra ports are a nice plus.
- The 15" model has an SD card slot, the 17" does not. But I shoot cameras that use CompactFlash, so it’s useless.
- The anti-glare screen is mandatory for anyone working in any kind of non-perfect lighting. It is also better for photographers trying to match a print to the screen.

 

15" i7... my friend the car photographer uses it. mainly does night shots but prefer matte screen. external monitor at home.

edit: also 8gb of ram

 

If you are worried about the glossy screen being hard to see, I would be more worried about the sun reflecting off the aluminum body. When I use my MBP out side, I can usually see the screen fine, but the sun reflecting off the body into my eyes hurts, so I wear sun glasses, which then makes the screen harder to see.

Also, If you want to see how the Pro's do it check this video out.
YouTube - Chase Jarvis TECH: Complete Workflow for Photo and Video

 

As a photographer I use a netbook or on the go to preview pictures and archive, I can easily see if its a keep/toss and save them to the HDD to free up memory cards for the camera.

The netbook has outstanding battery life (8+ hours) and fits right in the camera bag so its not an additional bag to carry in the field and no need to backtrack to base where I have a laptop setup.

Then for the editing part I use the desktop because not any laptops have screens good enough for me to do pro editing on and the desktop is mutli monitor and faster than the laptop.

So rather than have one thing like a laptop that can do "ok" in everything I find its best to specialize here and have a netbook that is great for the field part and a desktop that is great for the editing part.

Net cost for a netbook and good desktop is about the same as a higher tier MBP too.

 

only Laptops I can think of coming close is the 10 bit IPS screened HP elitebooks. but yes I would have to agree here as well, I am not a photographer at all but do wind up supplying alot of equipment to a few and most seem to use the laptop / desktop combo