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Laptop for serious pro photo work

post #1 of 14
8/29/05 at 1:38pm
Thread Starter 
I need new laptop for my work (pro photographer/film editor) I have a desktop and server but often need to work whilst on location and traveling. So, I need a notebook that is powerfull to work on large photoshop files (100 - 300Mb) and some 3d apps, and be able to do batch processing work. I need to have great screen quality in terms of resolution, contrast and color. A 15" is fine, any larger would be too big for travel.

I have read good reports on the Acer 4005 and Sager. The Acer seems to offer relatively good performance without being too heavy. What's the screen like? Any other suggestions? I am looking to buy sometime between September and late November.

Oh, and sometimes I may want to play Battlefield 2!!!
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post #2 of 14
8/29/05 at 4:14pm
As far as I know, most LCDs in laptops can only display a bit over 16-bit colors. Some of the better desktop LCDs and of course CRTs can do 32-bit color. You'll see the degradation mostly in gradiated colors and transitions between blurry and sharp parts of images.

I don't know as if I'd recommend a laptop for serious pro photo work, unless you're going to be going back to a color calibrated monitor later to retouch your work.

That said, any laptop with a good processor and lots of RAM (1 GB, at the very least for large PS files) will do you good. In the desktop world, I've heard of ATI graphic cards having better color reproduction than nVidia. That's probably become less of an issue in the past couple of years and for laptops each are probably pretty equal. I think nVidia has an edge over ATI when it comes to game rendering.
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post #3 of 14
8/29/05 at 4:40pm
I do amature photo work on my Dell I920. I have the ATI Radeon 9700 and 17" WUXGA screen.
The screen could be a bit crisper, but I would never go back to a lower resolution.
32 bit, btw.
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post #4 of 14
8/29/05 at 5:55pm
working on some serious FS files wont be possible due to limited battery life.
first- LOTS of ram
second- fast cpu
third- fast HD (besides the saving, there will be lots of page file usage while working on 300mb+ files)
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post #5 of 14
8/29/05 at 6:19pm
you will probably need to go all out for this get the 9880

2GB ram, fastest CPU you can find, dual HDD's in Raid 0
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post #6 of 14
8/30/05 at 12:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gold Beater
I do amature photo work on my Dell I920. I have the ATI Radeon 9700 and 17" WUXGA screen.
The screen could be a bit crisper, but I would never go back to a lower resolution.
32 bit, btw.
The Dells 9200, 9300 and XPS2s atually only display 262k colors. That's a bit between 16bit (65k colors) and 24bit (millions of colors). Windows may be set at 32bit, but you won't get those colors on those LCDs.
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post #7 of 14
8/30/05 at 9:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrbryner
The Dells 9200, 9300 and XPS2s atually only display 262k colors. That's a bit between 16bit (65k colors) and 24bit (millions of colors). Windows may be set at 32bit, but you won't get those colors on those LCDs.
If the LCD is actually limited like that, is there anything to gain performance wise (maybe for gaming) by setting the Color Quality to more closely match your screen?
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post #8 of 14
8/30/05 at 12:10pm
I'm not sure on that. It would make sense logically, but I've never read up on anything doing any tests on it.
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post #9 of 14
8/30/05 at 12:26pm
While NFSU isn't all that taxing, on the highest quality v-card settings in the game, my frame rates didn't change any while switching from 32bit to 16bit.
I also didn't notice much difference in appearance.
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post #10 of 14
8/30/05 at 1:35pm
jrbryner!!!!! WOW UR DA MAN!!!! I have had millions of posts on this forums about my I9300. the gradients look bad, that color degradation seems to be wrong. Everyone answered stuff like mine looks good, and you need glases.

I am a photographer, and graphic designer. I should of known this before buying the lappy.

U know of any laptop that has 32bit color?
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post #11 of 14
8/30/05 at 4:23pm
I didn't find out about this til all the hoopla about the 9200/9300/XPS2 screens, after I bought my 9300. I don't really do color critical work on my laptop so I wasn't toooo worried about it, but still kinda dissapointed on it.

Looking around abit, about the only article I found that helped was:
http://compreviews.about.com/od/mult...a/LCDColor.htm

It seems that the higher the amount of colors the LCD can display, the slower the LCD response time. If you can get the specs of the LCD on any laptop you're interested in, probably by Googling the LCD part/manufacturer #, see if it says 6-bit (262k colors) or 8-bit (16m colors). Of course you'll want to check the response time and get the lowest possible with the best color display.

I don't know of any resource to compare LCDs out in the market, or of any 32bit color capable LCDs.

And I totally agree about the gradients looking bad. It was one of the first things I noticed while making some wallpapers for my new 9300 (down in the Dell Photo Gallery). I design mostly stuff that going to be on the web or at least on other displays, and everyone's display is different enough that there's a significant margin of error. I figured the advantage of a laptop outweighed the problems of the screen.
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post #12 of 14
8/30/05 at 4:33pm
Something else, even though a LCD screen may only be 6-bit (262k colors), it can accomplish 16.2m (not the 16.7m evidently) through dithering. So if you're looking at specs on an LCD it may claim 16m colors and still be 6-bit. I imagine that's the compromise LCD manufactures make to accomplish good color reproduction, as well as a fast response time. Unfortunately, I don't think the 9200/9300/XPS2 LCDs do this, as both manufactures only claim 262k colors on those LCDs.
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post #13 of 14
8/30/05 at 8:55pm
How good is the LCD of the MSI 1029? I am going to buy it this friday.
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post #14 of 14
8/31/05 at 1:16am
You'll need to find the LCD manufacturer and part # to look it up. It's not on MSI's website, maybe if you call them. Or you'll have to wait and open up the laptop to check. But if you've already got the laptop, you'll already know how the LCD is.
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