laptop

[Shooter Tiff]

I am thinking about buying a laptop. price not really being to big an issue, (maybe no more than $2000 cdn) I would like something that works well with ps and if possible comes with a very accurate monitor that doesn't need to be calibrated. I think that the monitor is my biggest concern. I have seen some really bad washed out laptop screens.
thank you in advance for you help
Tiff

[mjs1973]

I don't have anything specific to recommend, but do you plan on traveling with the laptop? If so, I would go with a 14" or 15". I have a 17" Toshiba that I loved, until the monitor crapped out on me. It was great for working at home, but it was big and heavy for taking on the road. If I were to get another laptop, I would go with a smaller, lighter version for traveling, and then do my post work on my desktop when I got home.

[Anbesol]

MacBook Pro, can't get better then that any way you look at it, color accuracy, much faster with photoshop, professional grade specs... It even won PC Magazines editors choice, as the best windows machine :thumbsup:

[Medley]

I would tend to agree with Anbesol. The biggest drawback to the MacBook Pro is the price, so if cost isn't an object, it's a machine you should consider. mjs makes a good point about the size, but I've got a 17' MacBook Pro, and while I've found it to be a bit inconvenient at times, I don't think I'd be happy going smaller. Mind you, I take a lot of trips where I'm gone for 2 weeks to a month, so having a larger screen for my PP outweighs the inconvenience. You have to choose whatever is best for your circumstances.

All monitors will be very near spot-on calibration straight out of the box. And all monitors will lose their calibration over time. I would venture to say that any monitor that's six months old is out of calibration, at least somewhat.

The larger issue with using a laptop monitor for your photography though is the changes in ambient lighting. Ambient lighting will change the way you perceive your monitor's color the same way that white balance changes the colors in your images. The top-end colorimeters (calibration hardware) compensate for ambient lighting, but I find that large shifts in lighting still throw the calibration off.

In the end, I think that laptop calibration is one of those things you either become anal-retentive about, or decide to forget. Myself, I'm in the former category- my colorimeter travels with me. When I get to where I'm going, the monitor gets re-calibrated for the lighting conditions. After all, I bought my notebook to do post-production work in the field.

For what it's worth.

- Joe U.

[drg]

Tiff,

Monitors are going to need to be calibrated if you want any continuing degree of accuracy. There is a new generation of laptops just around the corner, the latest of which this is one example. This Lenovo machine is built for photographers. Comes with calibration tools and has one of the widest gamut of RGB representation that is currently available. Wide gamut as defined for this purpose means what percentage of the colorspace it accurately displays with out 'tricks'.

Lenovo 'W' series including the W700 workstation.

The difference between various WinMac machines at the top end has become virtually indistinguishable, unless there is one particular application that you 'must' run that just works better on one platform (Apple v Windows) over the other.

There are pluses and minuses to both environments. I've used Toshiba tablets as well with great success for some time. I don't edit a great deal on any LCD with regularity.

Best wishes.

[dumpy]

Monitors need to be calibrated, there is no getting around that fact. It is a relatively painless process once you get used to it.

As far as your laptop is concerned, I'm typically a die hard PC guy, I've always thought that Macs are not worth the extra price. However Mac hardware (including their screens) are typically top notch. Laptop displays vary greatly and for photo editing you want a really good display which most laptops don't have. In your situation I would suggest a Mac laptop as a possibility, there may be other laptops out there with similar/better displays, but mac displays are mostly really nice.

That Lenovo that DRG pointed out looks really nice too, but Lenovos are usually very expensive (even worse than Macs). Most of their previous machines have been built with business users in mind so I can't really comment on their monitors or color management, but every Lenovo I've seen has been incredibly well built and light. Very road worthy. The internal components are usually pretty good too. I have an old IBM (before they branded them Lenovo) Thinkpad that I rescued from the trash and loaded with a lighter flavor of Linux, it's around 8 years old and still kicking.

Lenovos do come loaded with a lot bloatware though. Not the typical trialware stuff, but computer management/security software, that honestly is more of a detriment than an advantage. If I bought one I'd wipe most of this stuff off, but the quick recovery feature is pretty nice.

Good luck with your search!!