Laptop for initial editing

[MDaniels80]

Thinking of purchasing a laptop for when I go on some trips this year.  Plan to use to do editing with CS3 and Lightroom- but I understand that laptops don't have the best of monitors and that color accuracy can be a problem.  I would plan to only output on my desktop and do any final color corr. then.  Wanted to know if it is even worth purchasing one with the downside of laptop LCDs/calibration....  I also only plan on spending about $1k since it is not really a necessity for me.  Any tips or recommendations would be greatly valued.
Thanks!

[Ken Rahaim]

Although its out of your price range, Rob Galbraith has some pretty good things to say about Apple's LED laptop screen:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_p...cid=7-8741-9027

[MDaniels80]

Thanks for the link.  I would like an Apple as I know their LCDs are highly recommeneded, unfortunately I am looking for a PC Laptop as my desktop is PC and my software's will be compatible.   Thank you though for the repsonse.

[AlanS]

I use a 12" mac powerbook on the road. The screen is somewhat close to my main work screen.You will get an idea how close the monitor is to your main editing screen and can make judgements based on experience.

I use it to review images taken that day, getting an idea of how to work the image when i get home.  For myself i have not used any files worked on my powerbook in the field; I prefer to start fresh at home.

It also is used to backup my image files, i use an ipod to store a duplicate back up of my pictures as well. You can also burn DVDs to back up files as well. It doubles as an entertainment device as well, watching movies on planes and such.

All in all a great addition to take along

[Ken Rahaim]

I would like an Apple as I know their LCDs are highly recommended...

Just to be clear, I personally wouldn't go so far as to recommend Apple's LCD displays in general... particularly on a laptop. I'm only specifically referring to the new LED laptop screen.

For what its worth, there was a time when I used to bring a DELL laptop with me to do initial selects and rough edits (ie; rotating, cropping). That stopped after one particular trip to Prague when I found myself in the hotel room geeking around for a few hours a day with my photos. I should've been out enjoying one of my most favorite cities in the world instead.

[mcbroomf]

I just bought a refurbished Lenovo X61 from ebay.  12" 4:3 screen, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB ram.  Very happy with it so far.  Although I have CS3 on it I really just do quick and dirty jpg conversions with DPP or C1

Mike

[Mark D Segal]

Thinking of purchasing a laptop for when I go on some trips this year.  Plan to use to do editing with CS3 and Lightroom- but I understand that laptops don't have the best of monitors and that color accuracy can be a problem.  I would plan to only output on my desktop and do any final color corr. then.  Wanted to know if it is even worth purchasing one with the downside of laptop LCDs/calibration....  I also only plan on spending about $1k since it is not really a necessity for me.  Any tips or recommendations would be greatly valued.
Thanks!
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There are so many laptops on the market it is hard to know where to start - except perhaps to suggest that for $1000 the display won't allow you to do accurate image editing - but from what you say you aren't expecting that anyhow - which is good - your expectations are consistent with your budget. Whatever you buy, regardless of the display quality, the angle of view is a determinative variable - as are the lighting conditions in which you use it. To help get around this problem, download and install a test image of known reference colours and luminosity under the surrounding lighting conditions in which you expect to use the laptop, so you can position your head and the screen to see the reference image as accurately as possible. I bought an el-cheapo Toshiba with a dual core processor just to be able to download/backup the stuff quickly and do a "first impressions" overview of the results with quick first-cut adjustments in Lightroom.

[MDaniels80]

Well I decided to go to a few stores just to see some in person, and I have to say I was very surprised to find that every single store I went to all had glossy screens.  I am not the biggest fan of there- sure they look great when you first see them, but two seconds viewing and you can see reflections all over.  Do they even still make matte screens???  Or is there something to put on them that would prevent the glare?  I don't understand why all of them are now this way.  I would think there would be plent of people who would prefer the other.  Also, while viewing, I noticed how much the viewing angle has an effect on the colors.  Again, I am not going to use this for final editing, but I still was surprised about it.  Anyways, I thinking of narrowing down the brands to Dell or HP- the Sony's are nice, but it seems if the display is not that much better, why spend the extra money.  Unfortunately the stores seem to have limited selections (and I am talking about the Best Buy etc's- as all the other local stores no longer exist), and you cant customize as you do online.  Can anyone recommend any models, or possibly display types (they all seem to have their own abbrevations) to look for,  within my budget?  I would really like to see it in person before purchasing but it looks like that may not be feasible.  Thanks for any advice.

[Kumar]

If the reflections bother you, and you can't get a matte screen laptop locally, consider a laptop hood. In any case, a hood would be a good thing.

Cheers,
Kumar

[nemophoto]

The sad state of affairs is that almost all the screens are going to lower res glossy. I use to use a couple of Sager notebooks with 15.4" WUXGA resolution, wide angle of view and matte screens. This past purchase, I was lucky to find a "semi-glossy" (read, not super glare) WSXGA+. That said, my Asus V1s is fast and sharp and calibrates very well with my Spyder3 software.

My advise is go with a higher res screen with the lowest gloss you can find. Usually, those will have the greatest chance of accurate calibration. My notebook allows me to do final edit and retouching on location, if my schedle dictates it.