New Lens or Laptop?

King_Boru

King_Boru

King_Boru

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Joined
9 Jan 2005
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2,356
Location
Canada
Hi guys,

Got £850 to spend but dont know what to do with it. I wouldnt mind a decent telephoto lens with a 2.8 aperture but then again I want a decent macbook with a glossy screen. Now, I want to pay it outright no finance so its one or the other. The lens needs to be atleast 200mm either prime or 24 - 200 with VR. But then again I wouldnt mind a decent laptop to actually organize my work and view them with a lovely screen. Help me decide!

I got the Sigma 70-300 already but it doesnt exactly say quality! Also got the 18-55 mm nikkor lens which has ED glass which produces some lovey shots. So I am happy with that.

mmmm,... lets see what yous thinks...

King.
 
I would say get the laptop, i've recently got about 2k so i decided to buy a Apple MacBook Pro (Here is what i'm getting) and i am going to pick it up tomorrow from cambridge. I've been told that they're great for photo editing, so i would get a MacBook Pro :)
 
well, i'd get the laptop i think, for that money there isn't a lot to get, you could go for the 18-200 AF-S VR (£500 or so) but its's good rather than great

the thing about buying a macbook is, if you ever want to get aperture (apple's pro photo tool) then you can't as it won't run. It seems remote but I'm seriously considering buying a mac solely for aperture, there's nothing approaching it on PC (i've tried the adobe lightroom beta and it's carp). I'd look carefully at aperture and make sure it doesn't appeal to you before you buy a mac.

for me, that it does raw conversion, basic adjustment, catalogueing, backups and much more in one program is very tempting...

just my thoughts
 
bigredshark said:
well, i'd get the laptop i think, for that money there isn't a lot to get, you could go for the 18-200 AF-S VR (£500 or so) but its's good rather than great

the thing about buying a macbook is, if you ever want to get aperture (apple's pro photo tool) then you can't as it won't run. It seems remote but I'm seriously considering buying a mac solely for aperture, there's nothing approaching it on PC (i've tried the adobe lightroom beta and it's carp). I'd look carefully at aperture and make sure it doesn't appeal to you before you buy a mac.

for me, that it does raw conversion, basic adjustment, catalogueing, backups and much more in one program is very tempting...

just my thoughts
Click to expand...

I agree with you there.
 
yak.h'cir said:
I'm after one of the apple macs, having to wait till they realise the new processor versions which is apparently any day now!!!
Click to expand...

I'm kind of hoping the powermac tower replacement will involve a price cut, then it'd make sense with my existign screen and an epson p2000 for out and about. but a macbook pro is tempting, and if i didn't need the p2000 as well then the price difference would be small....

Either way, I'm waiting for the next processor revisions (due any day as has been said...)
 
The macbooks do run Aperture.

The pro is going to be a stopgap until kentfield (if they even release a pro this year) It will be slower thant the Quad G5 and intel macs are woeful in rosetta apps such as photoshop.

Now dont get me wrong, i love my macs and aperture is great but the mac world is pretty rocky at the moment. i would happily get rid of my intel mac for my old dual g5 powermac.

Ohh and the screen is horrid on the macbook, once you get past the glossyness and high contrast it is a worse screen than the ibook - not as sharp and the colours are wrong. My Macbook went wrong and im not getting another - will stick with the ibook and imac.
 
I am currently using an iBook G3 900. Now, I have a buyer for it but I have already sold the PC for £500 which covers (just) the cost of the VR lens I want. However, I am a bit annoyed at slow processing power and overall speed this laptop produces. It is the highest spec version you can get with 640MB's Ram 900Mhz G3 and what not. The main problems I am having decision wise is;

Whats more important?

a) A fantastic portable laptop with a well reviewed anti refective glossy display, fast processing when manipulationg images, the option to use aperture (which i am still debating as i use the nikon raw editor and picture project).

b) A Fantastic lens with which I could capture fantastic images. And that sums it up.

Now, the problem I have is choosing what to do. Put up with the 1024x768 laptop slow processing and grunt and bear it with processing. Or put up with the entry level lenses while capturing good quality images bit knowing I could of had much better.

To me its a difficult choice. I enjoy fast processing however I enjoy my photography and kit.

Trying to weigh up the pro's and cons thats all...

King...
 
King_Boru if you will buy a laptop you will be viewing on it pictures you took with lens you not happy with.
Buy a lens ;)
 
Get the lens, it will probably last you for life. You wont get much more then 3 years out of the lappy :)

EDIT: OK, maybe not life but loads longer than 3 years :)
 
Last edited:
I just ordered the lens. Should be here (hopefully) end august!

I can make do with the laptop. It isnt all that bad, just need patience!

:D

Cheers for listening everyone.
 
anyone buying a new laptop right now isn't really thinking it through. Why don't you wait until Duo Core 2 machines are released :confused:

I have a Vaio M 1.73 machine which is starting to feel sluggish but I don't see the m point of ungrading until Vista/ Core 2 combos come out.

Obviously if you need one right now however that's fair enough! :)
 
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