Digital BW, The Print

W,

I take issue with you on several points.

I am a Mac User - had one of the first generation G4 Titanium 
Powerbooks - used daily - read: everywhere - had it for 3 years before 
selling it to a friend and buying a new Powerbook. The money was very 
well spent - never broke down, never crashed.

So - I could work whereever I was - it was color calibrated - 
everything I did on it I could trust to be color correct just as well 
as on my desktop G4 - made me much more efficient off the studio. In 
addition it also held - as the new one holds - my business software - 
my websites, email, ability to print anywhere - my portfolio - in short 
- a copy of everything I had or could do on my desktop

As for 1) - I treat my Powerbook as I treat my cameras - they are all 
highly desirable - so your point about thieves is as far as I am 
concerned - moot.

2) - I simply do not understand what your point is here at all - moot

3) - see point 1 - moot.

Your statement about memory modules is not correct - I recently bought 
a 512 mb dimm  for the powerbook for less than $80.

A cheap - read: old - PC laptop is a worthless investment - you will 
never be able to color calibrate that LCD and if you buy a PC it will 
very quickly be obsolete and may not even from the time you buy it be 
able to be incorporated in your business flow.

The statement about prices regarding LCD's versus a "standard" monitor 
is correct - I work with 19" LaCie's  - unbeatable for the price.

Your statement:

> With a desktop you can control the lighting direction, type and
> colour, something you can't do in the field.

- I simply do not understand at all..

Christer

			Christer, AKA Christer Rosewell
"It's the artist's job to accomplish two things-to stir the emotions of 
the viewer
	  and to lay bare the soul of his subject." Jousuf Karsh
      Member EP (Editorial Photographers) - 4,000+ professionals 
worldwide.
			  http://www.ChristerArt.com
		  	   3.3 million visitors to date..


On Oct 6, 2004, at 8:36 PM, 
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> It really depends on your workflow.  If you tend to do a lot of image 
> reviewing, and
> manipulation in the field, then a powerful notebook is a good idea.  
> There are some
> issues though:
>
> 1) Thieves, have radar for high-end laptops the chance of your laptop 
> disappearing
> are quite high.
> 2) Lighting, you can't control lighting in the field, so colour 
> balancing for field lighting
> conditions, can mean when you get home, the colour balance is off.
> 3) Fragility, laptops are fragile beasts, dropping a $5,000 laptop and 
> killing it, is as
> bad as dropping a $5,000 camera and killing it.  Tripping over 
> something and
> dropping both at the same time, would make some people go to the 
> nearest cliff,
> and throw themselves over.
>
> However if you want a quick review of the days shooting, to decide 
> what worked and
> what didn't.  A cheap laptop can be a good investment, even if the 
> only image
> program you have is the one that came with your camera.  A used laptop 
> can be
> had for under $300 you want one with CD burning capability, where the 
> burner
> actually works.  Download your cards and review in the field, then 
> leave the images
> alone.
>
> Laptops and  upgrades are expensive, the cost of a 128MB module for a 
> laptop will
> typically buy you 1GB for a desktop.  You can get a big monitor, like 
> a 19 inch,
> much cheaper then trying to get a 18inch LCD panel.  I have tried 
> laptops, the goofy
> keyboards and mice are much harder to work with then on the desktop 
> where you
> can spread out.  With a desktop you can control the lighting 
> direction, type and
> colour, something you can't do in the field.
>
> W

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Christer,

Could you elaborate on why it is possible to color calibrate the LCD on a
PowerBooks but not the LCD on a PC ? In theory with the Spyder and software
you should be able to calibrate the LCD's on  both OS systems.

How well it work ie your head placement relative to LCD screen ect is well
relative. I hear from Mac users that if you want power on the road the
entery level iBook is not a good way to go only the top end PowerBooks will
be able to do it.

Would you be able to work with only the PowerBook  as the only computer as
opposed to 1 for out of the office and another for the office ?

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Christer Rosewelll [mailto:christerart@...]
  Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 11:20 AM
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
  Subject: [Digital BW] Re: desktop-replacement notebooks (was Re:
QTR/OSX/7600 -- upgrade report)


  W,

  So - I could work whereever I was - it was color calibrated -
  everything I did on it I could trust to be color correct just as well
  as on my desktop G4 - made me much more efficient off the studio. In
  addition it also held - as the new one holds - my business software -
  my websites, email, ability to print anywhere - my portfolio - in short
  - a copy of everything I had or could do on my desktop


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On 6 Oct 2004 at 22:19, Christer Rosewelll wrote:

> 
> W,
> 
> I take issue with you on several points.
> 
> I am a Mac User - had one of the first generation G4 Titanium 
> Powerbooks - used daily - read: everywhere - had it for 3 years before 
> selling it to a friend and buying a new Powerbook. The money was very 
> well spent - never broke down, never crashed.
> 
> So - I could work whereever I was - it was color calibrated - 
> everything I did on it I could trust to be color correct just as well 
> as on my desktop G4 - made me much more efficient off the studio. In 
> addition it also held - as the new one holds - my business software - 
> my websites, email, ability to print anywhere - my portfolio - in short 
> - a copy of everything I had or could do on my desktop

Here is what I mean, the colour of the light on screen, is affected by the lighting in 
the room, the computer is sitting in, so a room with oddball lighting like the pinky-
orange of sodum-vapour, or the odd colour of some florescents, can influence the 
colour balance of your work.  You can control this, at home, you can't always control 
the lighting in the field.  Mind you a good old fashioned Kodak grey card can do 
more for white-balance then anything else.  Simply flip the card over (the back is 
white), and tell the camera that the card is white, and let it's white balance figure it 
out.

Better keep a backup of your data, if it does get stolen, your not sunk.

> 
> As for 1) - I treat my Powerbook as I treat my cameras - they are all 
> highly desirable - so your point about thieves is as far as I am 
> concerned - moot.
> 
> 2) - I simply do not understand what your point is here at all - moot
> 
> 3) - see point 1 - moot.
> 
> Your statement about memory modules is not correct - I recently bought 
> a 512 mb dimm  for the powerbook for less than $80.

It uses standard memory, most laptops do not, then again you pay more for a Mac 
in the first place.  
 
> A cheap - read: old - PC laptop is a worthless investment - you will 
> never be able to color calibrate that LCD and if you buy a PC it will 
> very quickly be obsolete and may not even from the time you buy it be 
> able to be incorporated in your business flow.

I wouldn't colour balance in the field, so the laptop is just to review the shooting and 
store the image.  This isn't to say, you always need two computers, some people do 
carry a laptop, and then use the same computer to do everything else as well.  A 
good feature then is the ability to plug in a standard monitor, keyboard and mouse, 
to make working at home easier.

W

ellery,

what was recommended in the previous post was "a used, cheap" PC 
notebook - they are definitely not the thing to buy if you want to be 
able to work and get a consistent result  -and - PC's have never been 
the choice for graphics work - they are not designed for graphics work 
and PC operating systems are well known for their inconsistencies and 
problems. If you want to be able to work - instead of spending lots of 
time trying to get the stuff to work - you should get a mac. note this 
previous post:

Message: 6
    Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 20:33:31 -0000

    From: "Peter Nelson" <pnweb@...>
Subject: Wintel Junk - (was desktop-replacement notebooks)


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Joe Dempsey"
<jdempsey@c...> wrote:
> If you shop around, you can get a good deal. I got the
> Toshiba for 1,800 at BestBuy and financed for 12 months
> with no interest.

After our experience withu Toshiba we have no interest in it either.

In July we bought a Toshiba Satellite which hangs at random while any
USB device is attached to it.  We've wiped the disk and reinstalled
from the CD-ROM; we sent it back to Toshiba where they upgraded the
BIOS at the factory, but still no luck, and Toshiba has no clue what
to do next.  Since it only happens at random, several times a day,
it's hard to reproduce.    On top of that, after installing XP SP2 we
now get occasional BSD's, something we didn't have before.

This is my first experience with Toshiba, and it certainly gives me
the impression it's a piece of $#!+.   On the other hand, as a
software engineer who writes C++ for Win32, I could tell you horror
stories about what's inside the Windows OS.    Frankly I'm amazed it
works at all!

If I had it to do all over again I would get an Apple notebook.
Wintel is just too flakey and unreliable.




As for Macs being more expensive than PC's that's a myth - if you 
compare apples to apples you'll find that in many cases you pay more 
for PC's - and that's not figuring in resale and obsoleteness - the 
average PC is obsolete after two years - - Macs after seven...

The entry level iBook is not the choice for pros - true - it has a 
lower res screen as well but they can certainly do the job. However, 
for me - and most photogs, the choice is the 15.2" G4 model - the 17" 
is lovely but too big to fit any of my bags so when I replaced my 
Titanium I got another 15'2" - perfect and plenty fast.

As for working with it - I've never had any problems to get perfectly 
balanced images/prints from my Powerbooks - what I see is what i get - 
and the screens have/do match my desktop monitors.

I never go anywhere without my powerbook...=*^)

And, yes, you can certainly use the Powerbook as your main unit - I was 
on the road for a year and used the Titanium only for that time.... 
Just be sure to calibrate the screen and you'll be good to go -  I have 
friends who do magazine work using only an older Titanium Powerbook and 
the work is stunning....=*^)

best,

Christer


			Christer, AKA Christer Rosewell
"It's the artist's job to accomplish two things-to stir the emotions of 
the viewer
	  and to lay bare the soul of his subject." Jousuf Karsh
      Member EP (Editorial Photographers) - 4,000+ professionals 
worldwide.
			  http://www.ChristerArt.com
		  	   3.3 million visitors to date..


On Oct 7, 2004, at 10:58 AM, 
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Message: 12
>    Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 14:21:53 +0800
>    From: "ellery" <ellery@...>
> Subject: RE: Re: desktop-replacement notebooks (was Re: QTR/OSX/7600 
> -- upgrade report)
>
> Christer,
>
> Could you elaborate on why it is possible to color calibrate the LCD 
> on a
> PowerBooks but not the LCD on a PC ? In theory with the Spyder and 
> software
> you should be able to calibrate the LCD's on  both OS systems.
>
> How well it work ie your head placement relative to LCD screen ect is 
> well
> relative. I hear from Mac users that if you want power on the road the
> entery level iBook is not a good way to go only the top end PowerBooks 
> will
> be able to do it.
>
> Would you be able to work with only the PowerBook  as the only 
> computer as
> opposed to 1 for out of the office and another for the office ?

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]