Canon 5D M2, MacBook Pro and other Questions.

[NeelLFP]

Hi all,

I have been planning to buy a Mac specifically for editing photo and videos and would like your opinion.

Since I am planning to buy a Mac only for editing photos and videos,

1. What screen size would you suggest? 13 inch or 15 inch? And is it worth buying a MacBook Pro 13 inch 2.4 (@ $1100) versus 15inch core 5i (@ $1700)
2. How much would 2.4 and 2.66 differ in computing power?

I almost think that 13 inch and 15 inch won't make much difference but 15 inch 5i also comes with extra graphic card, so I am confused?

Right now I use a camera that has RAW images at 5MB or so. In future I plan to upgrade to a full frame DSLR 22 MP or so. That would mean bigger file sizes.

What would you do? Photo peeps with Mac advise.

[jdepould]

What are you planning to use for video editing? If you're going to use the 5D2 for video, you'll need as much power and memory as you can afford--especially if you want to use ProRes.

I'm running a 15-inch i7 w/ 8GB RAM and 7200 RPM drive (though I always work from an external drive).

[spencer28n]

*bump*
Anyone else have real world input?

[Murtasma]

I use a MacBook Pro with a 2.1 GHz i586 processor and 4 GB of RAM (one of last years models not sure which exact one since my work got it.) I think you will be very happy with the performance of both those laptops. I don't think you will notice any difference in photoshop between those two processors. The most important thing would be to have at least 4GB of RAM in the laptop. I edit 5D Mark II images and even stitching with no problem. If last years MacBook Pro can do I suspect both of these will perform just as well if not slightly better.

As for video editing I just starting getting into video and haven't tried editing any video yet. I suspect it will be average but not great. Having a fast disk will certainly help a lot as well as gobs of ram. Video editing takes lots of processing power as well. If your just going to tinker you will be fine doing video on the laptop. If you want to do some serious after effects editing don't waste your time with a laptop and instead opt for a desktop if you don't have a strong need to have something portable.

Lot's of people like to have laptops but they have their place and video editing really isn't one of them. Even with an external device you are still limited by the interface you use to connect to the device with like USB or Fire wire. The latest revision of fire wire (800) I believe should be plenty fast to do video editing with when your files are stored on an external high performance drive. Using a 10,000 RPM drive over a USB 2.0 interface will be a waste.

Seeing as how you don't have the 5D Mark II yet I suspect you just want to dabble with video. If that's the case I think either laptop would work well enough for video and be more them ample for editing photos with.

One suggestion I have is to purchase an external monitor when your doing serious photo editing and care about accuracy. I've played with several generations MacBook Pros (even a new matte screen) and I think the screens are terrible if you want something accurate when compared to a standalone mid range LCD screen or CRT monitor. It's not even a contest with high end pro level LCD's and CRTs.

Stay away from the glossy screens you will just frustrate yourself when working with deep colors and blacks even when you use a calibration tool like I did. I ended up getting a free 8 year old CRT monitor that blows the MacBook Pro Glossy screen out of the water in terms of accuracy.

Sure the Glossy screens are punchy and they look nice but they won't be accurate when it comes time to print.

[jdepould]

The old "laptops are no good for serious video work" isn't really such a thing any more. We have iMacs in most of our labs, and do major Final Cut and AfterEffects work with no problem, and my i7's been plenty quick. A lot of it is down to RAM and processor. Having a discrete graphics card with its own memory (which the system can hijack) helps too.

We have dual quad-core Mac Pros in the edit bays, and the only big difference I've noticed is in the time it takes to do the final compression.

The biggest limiting factor when it comes to video work is screen size. Having a 27" screen or two cinema displays makes a huge difference.