DPR Forum

Welcome to the Friendly Aisles!
DPRF is a photography forum with people from all over the world freely sharing their knowledge and love of photography. Everybody is welcome, from beginners to the experienced professional. Whether it is Medium Format, fullframe, APS-C, MFT or smaller formats. Digital or film. DPRF is a forum for everybody and for every format.
Enjoy this modern, easy to use software. Look also at our Reviews & Gallery!

Which Computer configuration for digital Imaging

Yes, Mike's system is not budget from my standpoint. I already have the Minolta Scan Dual III, windows xp pro, photoshop 7. i am considering upgrading my printer to a epson 2200 and am undecided on the computer and monitor. for the computer and monitor combined total I wanted to find as cheap a system as would currently do the job. the main reason my current laptop (described above) doesn't cut it is that the screen goes dark or light depending on the angle of view (if someone could explain why this is and whether the newer LCDs have the same problem), and I need a little more power and hard drive space. Maybe i should get another monitor to plug into the laptop instead for a less expensive solution. hmmm.
 
Just realized that I forgot to mention something important. That "system" is purely hypothetical, because that's kind of what I would shoot for if I was planning on getting digital-workflow system. BUT, since I don't have that kind of money - I don't have that kind of system as well
happy.gif


Mike.
 
>

I believe that you might be pleasantly surprised by adding RAM to current laptop. With 128 Mb, you really have very little left over for image editing. If you spend the $100 or so to upgrade to 512 Mb, I think you might find what you have already acceptably fast.
 
>For Photo Shopping memory is more important than Processor speed. Photo Shop is a bitmapping program. So there are normally no complicated, processoreating vector calculations. Only with filters the processor has to do some real stuff. > Your Laptop is reasonable for P/S. Give it 512 Meg Ram, add a firewire hard drive (if you have the port), get a Sony 21 inch monitor. That whole thing costs you about 700 bucks.

My "digital darkroom" consists of an AMD 400/K6-2 (equivalent to a Pentium 2), with 320 Meg RAM (75% owned by Photo Shop), W2K, Photo Shop 6.0, a generic 17 inch monitor and a Canon S9000. Monitor calibrated with Adobe's Gamma tool. Not very professional, but I get what I need.

Printer: Give the Canon S9000 (or the newer model - S9100 or so, but the S9000 is a 100 bucks cheaper) a thought if you want 13x19. I like the colors better than the Epson's. I can use Ilford Galerie Classic paper ($.40 per 8x10 sheet, a beautifully textured paper) and for archival I don't car much from an ink jet. Sure, its black and white quality is not as good as Epson's, but my black and white comes from a real darkroom. And Epson pissed me off when I heard how much the exchange of their ever clogging heads would have cost me. With the Canon you can change the head yourself.
 
Scott,

I have an older iBook and two Window notebooks and a PC. Any notebooks including the iBook are not good for image editing due to the viewing angle. The image shade change as your eyes move around. It really degraded my eye sight. More importantly, except for the Apple and few other manufacturers, you cannot calibrate your LCD screen. I have just bought a new Sony notebook, very fast in PhotoShop 7 and Illustrator 10, but disappointing that I can not set ICC profile to the LCD screen, not even brightness and contrast. I am struggling with the color accuracy in window based notebooks even I have read ton of “how to” Photoshop books for the last few years.

I highly recommend Mac just for that reason. The color management in Apple is much more advanced. I was told the color management for PC has not been changed since Window 98.

If you really need a notebook, consider the iBook or PowerBook, add a external monitor for home use. Even the new cheap iMacs are very fast for Photoshop and good enough movie editing (for non pro).

If you are on a budget, as Claus indicated, add ram and an external monitor is the way to go.

For printer, generally Epson is better than HP since there are more third party papers for the Epson. It is very hard to change the print profile for the HPs for non HP papers. I have read some reviews regarding the glossy paper problem with the Epson 2200. But I have seen a huge number of glossy / matt prints from the 2200. They are beautiful. I was told the compliant about the quality of the glossy paper are due to user errors (usually double profiling).

For paper, Pictorico is exceptionally good for the 2200, especially the gallery grade glossy paper. The image really pops. Their web site show you how to setup the ICC profile for the Epson.
 
Yes, I added another 512MBs to my existing 512 on my PC and it transformed the performance. I can now use Photoshop without it seizing up even if I am also using other applications at the same time and it is quicker all round. Previously I had thought that 512MB would be more than sufficient.
John
 
Good news!!!
I was on my way to change my laptop because I thought PhotoShop needs a faster proc than pentium 3M..
I only need extra-memory !!
You are looking for an affordable printer.
Why don't you look at HP 7660 ?
Using the Grey Cartidge (#59) B&W prints are unbelievable.
And color photos are as good as well..

Bruno
 
Thanks for all your help. My laptop only holds 320 mb ram. and the chip is a 650 celeron processor (so the fan is working all the time and makes the laptop hot too). my biggest problem is not being able to see the image correctly on the laptop just as albert said, the images lightens or darkens depending on eye angle.

I have two issues with just getting a monitor and plugging it in: 1. I can't place the keyboard right in front of the monitor because the laptop screen will be in the way, and 2. my computer only has 1024 x 768 resolution and I don't think that would change if I got a nice monitor (I could be wrong on this).

Also, I do think the laptop has firewire but I have never used it. are external drives as good/better than those in the computer? are they almost as fast or would I be transferring images back and forth between the laptop hard drive and the external one?

I don't absolutely need a laptop either.

Thanks.
happy.gif
 
Scott,

320mb RAM won't cut it for efficient Photoshop. It's true that Mac really is superior for graphics (and no doubt PC is better for number crunching). It all depends on what your goal is in your printing. Are you looking for "pro lab" quality? Are you wanting to print large? Do you need archival quality? If so, there is no cheap solution. There's only less or more expensive.

A basic ibook with addtional RAM is not terribly expensive. Sony Trinitron or La Cie (mine's an Electron 19 Blue at $379) monitors are great and under $400. And for printing, if you don't need archival prints, go for the Epson 1280 at $399 or the R300M if you don't need big prints (even prints on CDs) for $249. You'll get prints that pop a little more than with the 2200, they just won't last as long. I love my 2200 but the prints off the 1280 are great too. In fact, many pros use a 1280 or even the R300M for their portfolios rather than 2200's, that's how good they are. By the way, on the 2200 glossy prints are not as good but try Premium Lustre, it's great!

A great advantage of going with a laptop is that you end up with a dual monitor system. Put all your tools on your laptop and then you'll have full screen images for editing on your primary monitor. A big plus!

For around $2,300 you can have a great setup. I know that's not cheap but quality costs.

Guy
 
Guy, you mentioned using both the laptop monitor and another one where you can put tools on the laptop and work on the picture on the other. Do all laptops do that? How do I set something like that up?=20
 
Back
Top