# Best Latop for Photography



## creative_one (Sep 10, 2010)

Hi EveryOne,

What is the best laptop for photography - editing & all???
Im kinda can't come to a decision on either a sony or Mac book Pro.

Thanks

UPDATE : Thanks for everyone that posted their advice! I went & got my laptop on Saturday!


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## Big Mike (Sep 10, 2010)

Laptops are not 'best' for photography.  They are certainly useful, but you really shouldn't edit photos on one...unless you use a separate monitor that can be properly calibrated.


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## Phranquey (Sep 10, 2010)

Big Mike said:


> Laptops are not 'best' for photography. They are certainly useful, but you really shouldn't edit photos on one...unless you use a separate monitor that can be properly calibrated.


 

:thumbup: 

There have been a couple of recent threads talking about this. I just picked up an Asus G73 a few weeks ago with the i7 processor and 8gb DDR3 ram, and this thing is a multitasking monster, but the monitor still very marginal for editing. It's OK for doing basics, but if anything is going to the printer, plugging in the external monitor is still a must.


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## newimage (Sep 10, 2010)

I own a full time studio and everything is done on laptops. The only exception is during the purchase viewing .. the viewings are done on a 50" HDTV .. while the print ordering itself is on a laptop. As far as image processing goes there's nothing wrong with a laptop provided you didn't run out and buy the dirt cheapest one they had at bestbuy. LOL


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## Big Mike (Sep 13, 2010)

newimage said:


> I own a full time studio and everything is done on laptops. The only exception is during the purchase viewing .. the viewings are done on a 50" HDTV .. while the print ordering itself is on a laptop. As far as image processing goes there's nothing wrong with a laptop provided you didn't run out and buy the dirt cheapest one they had at bestbuy. LOL


I haven't heard of any laptops that have screens good enough for 'proper' calibration.  I'm sure that many of them are 'good enough', just like many of the cheap TN flat panel monitor are 'good enough'.  

And if you are getting accurate prints, well then I won't tell you to change...but I'll respectfully disagree that "_there's nothing wrong with a laptop_"


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## ghache (Sep 13, 2010)

a good desktop with a 24 inch lcd screen is hard to beat for editing...


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## newimage (Sep 13, 2010)

Big Mike said:


> newimage said:
> 
> 
> > I own a full time studio and everything is done on laptops. The only exception is during the purchase viewing .. the viewings are done on a 50" HDTV .. while the print ordering itself is on a laptop. As far as image processing goes there's nothing wrong with a laptop provided you didn't run out and buy the dirt cheapest one they had at bestbuy. LOL
> ...



We have 4 laptops laying around here. The cheapest one I've edited on is a $600 Toshiba Satellite I grabbed at Best Buy on vacation because I was stupid and forgot to pack one. We order prints from Millers and it will get dead on accuracy without even calibrating the thing.
Now we do have 1 compaq laptop that if I was to edit on it I would need to calibrate because the colors are a tad washed. I simply choose not to because it's a $350 laptop that just sits there open to facebook all day long. LOL


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## Big Mike (Sep 14, 2010)

> We have 4 laptops laying around here. The cheapest one I've edited on is a $600 Toshiba Satellite I grabbed at Best Buy on vacation because I was stupid and forgot to pack one. We order prints from Millers and it will get dead on accuracy without even calibrating the thing.
> Now we do have 1 compaq laptop that if I was to edit on it I would need to calibrate because the colors are a tad washed. I simply choose not to because it's a $350 laptop that just sits there open to facebook all day long. LOL


It's not a matter of how much you paid for the laptop.  You could spend $3000 and it would still have a screen that is not capable of displaying a wide gamut and calibration is probably still done at the video card level.  
So while it may work for you, it's not ideal....that's all I'm saying.

And it must also be considered that most people get a laptop because of it's portability.  So it's likely that it would be used in different locations.  So one day you might be sitting in your kitchen in the morning, then maybe reclining on your couch in the evening.  The angle that you view the screen is likely to change and the ambient lighting is likely to change.  All of this means that how you see the colors & tones on the screen will change.  That's not good when it comes to editing photos.


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## usayit (Sep 14, 2010)

I'm a mac user but this laptop is very interesting W700DS:

http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas...s/ThinkPad/W-Series/W701-W701ds_datasheet.pdf

* Raid
* Wacom tablet
* Monitor calibration builtin
* Dual screen

Throw in a "real" monitor for real editing at home.


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## andrew99 (Sep 14, 2010)

Another thing with laptops is the screen resolution .. I have a 17" laptop, so it's pretty big, but the resolution is only 1280x720.  The 720 vertical drives me crazy when editing.  Even web surfing, a lot of times I can't view an entire image on a photography blog or website.

I have been lucky with calibration, though, my Spyder 3 did a pretty good job and my prints come back like I expect them too.  I have an HP Pavilion laptop.


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## user3977 (Sep 14, 2010)

not to sound to much like an apple fanboy but the macbook pro from what i understand is supposed to be getting the same display tech that is in the new imac. i read that they are trying to make the macbook pro towards photographers and video editors. i'll look for the link and post it soon.


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