Help: Choosing Computer Photo/Video Editing

[undercoverbrother]

Hi Everyone,

What does everyone use for post.

I am considering either macbook pro (similar specs to dell however with retina) or Dell XPS 15 (i7, 16gb RAM, 2gb dedicated, 512 SSD, 4K screen). The dell is almost 1000-1200 AUD cheaper, depending on promotion at the time.

Another option is the surface book by microsoft however 13-14inch screen may be too small, I am not sure.

Any help or recomendations will be great.

A friend of mine who is in I.T told me neither of the above are required and I could get away with a much cheaper model unless I am editing star wars lol.

 

[Bill16]

I'm using a Asus, and it works pretty good. I just recommend getting something with a pretty good sized screen so it will be easier to see as your post processing photos.

I also highly recommend a good post processing app, and the creative cloud would be my suggestion I would highly recommend.

Welcome to our nikonites family.

 

[Whiskeyman]

Hi Everyone,

What does everyone use for post.

I am considering either macbook pro (similar specs to dell however with retina) or Dell XPS 15 (i7, 16gb RAM, 2gb dedicated, 512 SSD, 4K screen). The dell is almost 1000-1200 AUD cheaper, depending on promotion at the time.

Another option is the surface book by microsoft however 13-14inch screen may be too small, I am not sure.

Any help or recomendations will be great.

A friend of mine who is in I.T told me neither of the above are required and I could get away with a much cheaper model unless I am editing star wars lol.

I use an 3.3 GHZ 27" iMac for most of my photo post processing. I have a 21" that I used before , and a 13" Macbook Pro, that frankly , is just too small for my eyes. My requirements for processing are, in order of precedence, larger display size, faster processor, more RAM.

As far as a touch screen, the fingerprints that my screens attract drive me nuts, and I clean them frequently. I don't want to edit photos through finger smudges, so I keep my fingers off of my display screen!!

WM

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

Hi Everyone,

What does everyone use for post.

I am considering either macbook pro (similar specs to dell however with retina) or Dell XPS 15 (i7, 16gb RAM, 2gb dedicated, 512 SSD, 4K screen). The dell is almost 1000-1200 AUD cheaper, depending on promotion at the time.

Another option is the surface book by microsoft however 13-14inch screen may be too small, I am not sure.

Any help or recomendations will be great.

A friend of mine who is in I.T told me neither of the above are required and I could get away with a much cheaper model unless I am editing star wars lol.

PC over Mac and day of the week. A lot depends on what camera you have. An old D80 is not going to take near as much computer as a D800 will. But from my experience you can never have to much computer when it comes to post processing and video generally demands a little more.

 

[PapaST]

As far as PC vs Mac, I use both. They both have their merits and it's really up to the person to figure out what aspects they value more. Your IT buddy is mostly right. You can process pics with less stout machines, for the most part it will just take a little longer as the computer crunches on your inputs.

I agree with Whiskeyman about touch screens. There is plenty of potential there. Smartphones and tablets have propelled the capacitive screen and efforts to make them mainstream with computers is at a teetering point IMO. 3 or 4 years ago it was the "sexy" thing to have but I just don't think Windows has leveraged the capabilities. I think OSX has all but said they don't need it. Like Whiskeyman, I would hate to have fingerprints on my screen. Come to think of it, the Wacom tablet I use is likely a better alternative to touch screens. Some people don't work with their computer screen within arm's length.

I will say a larger screen does help in a lot of ways. I'm working from a 24" now and sometimes wish I had more. It's not so much that I need my picture to take up the entire screen. But when you think of your editing software, you have a ton of menus and side panes and stuff occupying precious space and so your picture that you're editing might be smaller than you would like. Or the preview window for applying a certain filter is too small. There are a lot of uses for having a large screen.

 

[aroy]

With 24MP+ sensors you will need good horse power in a computer. I use an assembled Dual Xeon PC. After 7 years it is still going strong and competes with modern single CPU versions. You also need a lot of screen space. It is either a 4K screen or as in my case I use 3 screens - 2 x 24" 1920x1200 and one 1280x1024. One fro image, one for the tool windows and one for text. Lots of disk and lots of RAM helps. My MB has 16 RAM Slots so I can have unto 128GB, I have 8. With 6 HDD supported on most MB, you have a lot of disk space options. Use 4TB drives and you have 24 TB!

For software I use Nikon Capture NX-D, which is all I need. If you need catalog then it is Lightroom, if advanced Image manipulation the Photoshop, otherwise NX-D does and excellent job.

For Video there is the Nikon Video Editor which comes with View NX. It is basic but does the job of editing and stitching segments as well as adding text. For more advanced formatting options there is free Handbrake and after that a host of professional Video editing stuff.

Here is my system



And my screen layout with using NX-D

 

[J-see]

I'm using a Macbook Pro and advise it over a PC. It took me more than a year to adjust to Mac but now I have, I'll never go back.

Yes it's more expensive and you'll need a 15 screen, or second monitor, to comfortably process but it's worth the money.

 

[RocketCowboy]

I'm using a Macbook Pro and advise it over a PC. It took me more than a year to adjust to Mac but now I have, I'll never go back.

I never expected to hear you go all in on Apple!

I'm an  person too. I travel with a 15" Retina MacBook Pro, or edit at home on a Mac Pro with dual 27" thunderbolt displays. I prefer the Apple hardware over the other options, be it build quality, battery life, display quality, etc. Using the typical LR/PS Creative Cloud offering that @Bill16 mentioned, you can easily go Mac or PC, so it's all about personal preference and what gets it done for you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[J-see]

I never expected to hear you go all in on Apple!

I'm surprised myself. I've been using PC for eternity and never expected to change. I had some issues in the beginning but now that I am used to Apple and have fine-tuned my stuff, it works, keeps working and keeps working smoothly.

It's like with cars; about all get you from A to B but the ride is quite different whether you're driving a Renault Twingo or a BMW 5-series.