laptop/netbook for the photographer?

[PirateMcGee]

if all else fails...http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?o...c=SendGiftCert

[ywen]

I would not recommend saving for $3000 on a high speed computer so you can process 20MegaPixel raw files.. Is your wife shooting in JPEG? Is she just looking to color correct and crop the JPEG files? a $350 laptop with (dual core CPU), proper software and adequate RAM (2GB+) is more than sufficient for what I described above.

If she process high resolution RAW, does multi-layer compositions in photoshop, than you need to budget for 4 figures if you want faster performance. The above setup can still work.

I've processed client's portrait images in RAW format using Photoshop on an MSI netbook with a slow 1.6GH Atom CPU and it was still usable. A $350 laptop will be sufficient.

[LR Max]

If you've got the space, I recommend a desktop. Years ago I bought a desktop computer and have under $1k in it (nice big monitor, added hard drives, upgraded RAM, upgraded video card) and it has been awesome. Its nice having an extra TB already in the computer for photos. Just save em to that hard drive, no externals, no worrying about slowing down the computer, it just works.

Nice 19" monitor is clutch as well.

Laptops, x-whatever on IBM products. They work very well and if taken care of, last a very long time. I've had good luck with HP, but apparently I'm the only person who has so take that into consideration.

I say, try to get as much RAM as possible, a fast, big hard drive and a good video card. When I was building computers, I noticed those two things make all the difference in the world. Unfortunately I am unable to advise you on these since I haven't looked into computers in years. My current fleet has been going great.

Photos, especially shooting in RAW, will eat through 200GB quick.

Lastly, with "older" computers, you gotta be reasonable with them when photo editing. My desktop which is of 07 vintage can handle 8 photos + pandora + gchat fairly well. It DOES NOT handle 12 photos + 12 videos off of youtube at 1080p at the same time. So if possible, remind her of this.

[hillbillyjake]

i know that her camera is an olympus (520i)? and i believe with 2 different lenses. she does not have a big zoom lense. i know that she has the photoshop program but hasn't installed it yet. i would like to get her a computer to install the program on. thte only thing that ihave seen her do now is crop pictures, choose black and white or color, cepia (sp). i would like to get her something adequate btu possibly grow into a little. i can probably go $500 but that is the top mark. absolutely. if i need to get soem more specifics on the camera, i can. thanks.

[nwoods]

Photoshop is intimidating to learn, but you can learn a LOT from one of Scott Kelby's excellent tutorial videos. So basically, it sounds like she shoots jpegs, and needs to simply process her images so that they can be shared. I think with those parameters, your budget is practical. Maybe I missed this, but why a laptop? You can get a LOT more horsepower for your dollar in a PC sized machine. Or, as an alternative, have you considered a MacMini? If you already have a monitor, this might be a decent solution for you. It comes with iPhoto which can do what she needs, and will run Photoshop quite well. Here is a fairly newly refurbished model: http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC815LL/A

[hillbillyjake]

[QUOTE why a laptop? [/QUOTE]

mobility around the house. kitchen table, living room couch, front porch. desktop is out. i'll sacrifice some versatilty for mobility.

[nwoods]

Amazon just posted up some pre-black friday deals for lapbooks
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...cId=1000733751

This one actually looks decent for the price, and with a Core i5 chip, should crank those photos pretty well, and a decent size Hard drive too:
http://www.amazon.com/A53E-XA2-15-6-...912BSRXD0VSXE6