OT - Macbook Experience

Fellow Mac users/lovers,

I work in a Mac Pro workstation at home and I'd like to have a laptop for remote photo editing, photo shoot support, etc. I'm looking at Macbooks and I'd like to hear your experience/advice related to photo work.

I think I'm settling on the 15" Macbook Pro. The new quad-core I7 models are sweet but I may opt for an older model to save some $$. I think the 13" models may be too small for what I want to do and the 17" (while sweet) is probably more than I need size wise, for portability.

What has your experience with color accuracy been? Would you do critical adjustments on your laptop?

What options/accessories do you rely on? I know that CPU power and RAM should be maximized if possible with a large hard drive.

For the windows users, I have windows machines too and I know there are some excellent, less expensive, windows laptop options, but my Photo software (LR) is Mac so I can only install another copy on a Mac. Besides, I like the Macs.

Thanks!

Kalin,

I have the little 13"Macbook and I love it. It has the intel dual core processor and I ramped up the RAM to 4Gb. I have it calibrated with my colormunki and I use LR3 and PS5 with Nik plugins. This little laptop can knock out these apps without a whole lot of delay or freezes. I love the backlit screen and I feel my image output is pretty decent. I wish I had a 15" screen but I can manage with what I have. I take it on all my trips and can't say enough about how well it has performed! Good luck.

If you are traveling, go light and small. My 15 in is fine, and my work habits are not at a desk. It is a couple years old, so it runs way to slow now that camera files are getting larger. For the expense of a top-line macbook, I'd rather buy a fast, maxed-out desk-top, and carry just an iPod or perhaps a netbook.

Invoking the high priest, Ken Rockwell just posted a very sensible article on traveling light. Hard for me to follow, as my computer let's me run my business, but his point is well-taken.

I have a Mac Pro desktop with an Apple monitor and a 4 year old MacbookPro 17" laptop. To my eye there is no difference in color between the two. I regularly use it for photo editing with Photoshop and it performs very well. As far as accessories I have an Iomega 500G external hard that is about 15% larger than a iPhone that I carry with me to have as a backup. My newest "accessory" is a remote desktop application called GoToMyPC that I can access my desktop with from the laptop. You can run any program thats on your desktop and transfer files between the two.

Dang, I forgot about GoToMyPC...gotta download that. I use a 640GB external for backups...a good idea so you don't crowd the Mac hard drive.

Thanks for the info, guys. I went in to a Mac store and checked out the new units. I really like the High-Res anti-glare screen available on the 15" models. I think the 13" is probably fine size wise, but the higher res screen and anti-glare are important to me. TechRestore has a $199 option for swapping out glossy for anti-glare monitors but I don't know if I want to mess with that.

I'm watching craigslist for a deal.

Kalin, I also use a 17" Macbook pro. I went with the i5 instead to save a few bucks so I could get a larger screen and it has plenty of power to run everything I use for processing without any delays...especially since I upgraded to 8GB of RAM. You might also want to check the refurbished MACs on the Apple store....it;s a great way to save dollars and most of them are just open box returns and are basically brand new.

Thanks for the refurbished reminder, Kurt!