Mac vs PC for photography (AKA Silly money vs bargain)

Putting aside the fairly offensive comments on this thread about photographers. There are a few points to note.

It may be that if other people are planning on using the machine (which appears to be the case) that those peeople would prefer utilising OSX over Windows - whether due to familiarity, preference, or for some other reason then it makes sense.

The asthetic point seems to have been ignored, the machine will look good and is designed to fit in an environment where this is an issue, particularly if this is an operation designed to make money.

The Mac and PC versions of Adobe Photoshop have the same features but not everything has the same shortcuts etc (certainly in the past at least) as a result if the user is more familiar with the Mac layout then it makes sense to have a Mac.

The Mac has access to Aperture 3 which is a very powerful portfolio management tool and editor which shares many similar features with Lightroom 3. These products go about things in different ways and some people prefer Aperture to Lightroom. Aperture is only available on the Mac and therefore it makes sense to have the Mac.

Also, over time there is usually a lower TCO with Macs. In addition, the manufacturing process is relatively envirnmentally friendly in comparison with some other products, which is a relevant, albeit small consideration to be included in the mix.

There is nothing wrong about the functionality of the Mac for this purpose, and no reason other than cost which should be brought to bear against the purchase of a Mac for a studio.
 
Yeah agree with the above poster to be honest. Although I prefer PC's myself, can't argue that macs look amazing, I've seen some studio setups that appear beautiful to clients and to work in. Can't exactly get the same atmosphere with a Antec 300 rumming on the floor lol :D
 
AtticusFinch said:
The asthetic point seems to have been ignored, the machine will look good and is designed to fit in an environment where this is an issue, particularly if this is an operation designed to make money.
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'Cause no PC looks good/professional... :rolleyes:

AtticusFinch said:
Also, over time there is usually a lower TCO with Macs.
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In what way? Care to substantiate? What's the standard warranty with a Mac?

AtticusFinch said:
In addition, the manufacturing process is relatively envirnmentally friendly in comparison with some other products, which is a relevant, albeit small consideration to be included in the mix.
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With the Foxconn-produced motherboards that basically employ slave labour, culminating with a suicide-cult? Yeah, nice.

AtticusFinch said:
There is nothing wrong about the functionality of the Mac for this purpose, and no reason other than cost which should be brought to bear against the purchase of a Mac for a studio.
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Agreed.
 
franco_22 said:
You could still save about £300-£400 by going PC but if his being stubborn just let him :P
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No you can't, unless you really sacrifice certain areas like using a bargain basement PSU or case. Then you might save £100 or so, whilst looking a lot worse. The 27" iMac really is a good deal, even if some poeple choose not to see that.

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Same base spec, used good but cheapish components. As nice as the Lian Li it it won't look as good as the iMac. It's about £9 less than the iMac.
 
Raikiri said:
No you can't, unless you really sacrifice certain areas like using a bargain basement PSU or case. Then you might save £100 or so, whilst looking a lot worse. The 27" iMac really is a good deal, even if some poeple choose not to see that.

2chsxe8.png


Same base spec, used good but cheapish components. As nice as the Lian Li it it won't look as good as the iMac. It's about £9 less than the iMac.
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I forgot to factor in Windows , mouse, keyboard, etc prices. By the way, I think you forgot to add a motherboard :(

If I had £1500 maybe I'd buy it, my student discount gives me 14% off, :D
 
coldfused said:
I have a Mac at work which I use all day. And a PC at home.
I have no idea why Mac are *thought* to be better than a PC especially for the price you pay because it uses similar PC components
PC's are cheaper to build and are more powerful than the mac by far...
A 27 inch is run on a i5 processor - why not build an i7 and pay less?

Or hackintosh (Install Mac OS) a PC? if your're worried about program compatability...
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My dad's an aeronautical engineer, and at his place of work they mostly use windows PCs, but in some construction drawings they produce on the computer, they use Apple Macs because of the significant performance differences- when loading an 8GB, highly complicated thousand-layered image file, the load times are several minutes in Windows and just a few seconds on a Mac.

However, for general graphic design and photography work, the difference is mostly in familiarity, and the software- i.e. Aperture, as mentioned previously. Discussion of installing OSX on non-Apple hardware is verboten on these forums for obvious reasons, and it's not something we'd typically recommend anyway.

Realistically the reasons for the anti-Apple hatred are the massive price premium and the purported false claim that macs are somehow "better" than PCs, when all they really have extra is a different interface and a vomit-white colour scheme.
 
If he thinks his studio can make money its not a bad idea at all to throw in a mac pro and a couple of Eizo screens. As long as his studio is being pitched at those who will appreciate them. If he's pitching it at the public the Eizos are a waste of time, but if he's going for professionals they will appreciate not having to organise (or the digi op will) tethering kit they can rely on. He will obviously have to factor covering this cost through rental price though, and justify to the client why they're paying more over just a space with an cyclorama.

He also has to cover the cost of Capture 1, and now Lightroom for the few who use it for tethering. If its just a studio computer there's no point worrying about the cataloging benefits of Aperture, as none will be using it for that.
 
coldfused said:
I have no idea why Mac are *thought* to be better than a PC especially for the price you pay because it uses similar PC components
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i thinks its the monitor(ips) that "separates" the macs from the pc's. its what makes the mac cost a lot more.look at raikiri's build the monitor itself costs £850. you can build a more powerful pc but when you add the same kind of monitor macs have, the cost will just rocket up.
 
Is the U2711 a realistic comparison with the iMac 27" screen? I would've thought the iMac would be equivalent to a monitor in the £300-400 range.
 
franco_22 said:
I forgot to factor in Windows , mouse, keyboard, etc prices. By the way, I think you forgot to add a motherboard :(

If I had £1500 maybe I'd buy it, my student discount gives me 14% off, :D
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Weird, I added the budget Asrock 1156 but seemingly it didn't go in there!

hybrid572 said:
Is the U2711 a realistic comparison with the iMac 27" screen? I would've thought the iMac would be equivalent to a monitor in the £300-400 range.
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Both the iMacs and Dell use the exact same LG panel.
 
Raikiri said:
No you can't, unless you really sacrifice certain areas like using a bargain basement PSU or case. Then you might save £100 or so, whilst looking a lot worse. The 27" iMac really is a good deal, even if some poeple choose not to see that.

2chsxe8.png


Same base spec, used good but cheapish components. As nice as the Lian Li it it won't look as good as the iMac. It's about £9 less than the iMac.
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I might be missing something but the imac with the core i5 and HD5750 starts at £1649 not £1400. The i3 model with a HD5670 is £1,399.00.

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac

I have only taken Apple's own prices for this so I might be looking at a different price list to you.
 
tbh i really like macs and would love to own one. however, im not going near them untill ive won the lottery.

Nont too sure i like the way ipods are going lately though...
 
To the OP - the problem you have here is that, while most of the users of the forum would agree that a Windows box would be just as good as a Mac, and usually at a better price, we are not your brother's target market segment. The fact that Macs are so common within the media industries means that using them to give familiarity to customers may well justify the price. Just my 2p.
 
Thanks for all your adivce. As a few of you suggested its his clients that are important and will problably like the Macs more and feel more at home rather than use a PC. He has a warehouse with a photography studio when they can come and shoot pictures and then work on them too.

He needs EIZOs or prof grade monitors for them to use and also for his own use. He wants them so that they can be calibrated so that they can match the printer or something like that. What you see on screen is what you get on print I think.

Someone sugessted the Mac pro min pacakge and then upgrade the RAM and SSD himself as this will be much cheaper and it doesnt void the warranty. I will suggest the imac route as strictly he said he only needs one EIZO as the second screen and a second monitor to do all the regular stuff.

Thanks all
 
Sorry one more question - if he goes iMac can you overclock them and if so whats the ideal processor (looking at cost too) to do this?
 
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