New MacBook Air

[hoppyman]

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Lars a 13 is quite comfortable for Lightroom cataloging and simpler developing. Current ones tend to have high resolution screens and many natively support HD which is of course 1920x1080. Others might typically be say 1600 wide. Ultimately it is the number of pixels rather than the physical size that determines how much fits on there but the size of the objects must vary. You can of course minimise the LR menus/tools to each side/top/bottom when it suits you. The modern 16:9 proportions help anyway.

 

No laptop is great for image editing (for print), largely because you have little control over brughtness/contrast both are almost always much too high.

 

I tried LR on a netbook with a 10 inch screen and 2GB RAM. It would just run but was hopeless regarding the working area.

I think that a 13 is the best balance of size/weight/usability to actually carry when LR is something you plan to operate on there. Also a great home for your second copy of LR3 naturally.

If you don't care about weight/size (and many people have laptops as their home desktop) then bigger the better naturally

[Guest stnami]

1.86GHz Intel Core max plus glossy screen (colour correction etc is hit and miss), if battery stuffs up send the whole machine in.............one for he show pony photographer or serious I own it all tourist. But we have our fair share of that lot here so they shall love it ...........and it is shiny just like the beads colonialists gave to locals for their land and souls..............

[chrism]

I like portability. I have had a couple of 12" PowerBooks (and previously a PB100, PB520c, PB2400c, several iBooks etc etc). I don't mind small screens and trackpads. I'm currently using a 13" MBP with a home-installed SSD, which is as fast as I need, and it is about to be relegated to my desk in the office, as I believe I will not be able to upgrade to 10.7 at work, given the dreadful proprietary VPN I have to use (that would be you, Checkpoint, who took over a year to release a SecureRemote client for 10.6). A 13" MBA with 4GB ram and 256GB storage is on order for home/travel use. I asked for a superdrive and a USB-ethernet adaptor as well. Screen size isn't much of an issue now I am rebuilding my wet darkroom!

 

Chris

PS My wife bought an iPad. She now travels with the iPad and a 15" MBP!

[mjh]

I have a 15" MacBook Pro – the generation before the unibody MBPs. I had bought it with some reluctance as I had wanted something smaller (like the 12" PowerBook G4 it was replacing), only there wasn’t a smaller MacBook Pro at the time and the display of the 13" MacBook was just awful. Now while I love the relatively high resolution of my MBP’s 15" screen, I still resent its size, so I have been circling the current 13" MBP whenever I’ve come by the local Apple Store. Now with the 13" MacBook Air and its 1440x900 pixel screen it looks like there might be a 13" MacBook Pro with the same display in the future and that would be my next portable Mac.

[Rick]

Now with the 13" MacBook Air and its 1440x900 pixel screen it looks like there might be a 13" MacBook Pro with the same display in the future and that would be my next portable Mac.

 

Michael, I just got back from the Apple store in Seattle and they just put the 13" out. The display is gorgeous, it is unbelievably small, it is very quick on iPhoto (not my choice, that is what was loaded). This is my next computer. I think, from what you have said, that you are going to love this thing. The 11" model looked nice as well and it could be a great travel computer. Just that 2MG memory, I'd have to stop the run everything at once in spaces like to do. I think people are going to be impressed. First impressions, this is the real deal. I'll warn you now, you know who you are, don't go look at this.

[Guest stnami]

Google Image Result for http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4kjDuxJjK_Y/TAkObFQPXDI/AAAAAAAAAGg/dkUc82E-aTQ/s1600/slave-ship01s.jpg

[Rick]

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Ok...now for something completely different... stnami. Slaves and beads and I'm sure there must be some subtile social commentary thrown in there somewhere. Thanks for contributing. I'll put you down for no Christmas MacBook Air. Maybe an abacus or a nice slide rule instead?

[Bo_Lorentzen]

Without rally getting into he yes or no deal... I have been living quite comfortably on my ipad the last week, a similarly sized osx device would be awesome, speed is not really a issue while traveling, size and weight is, I almost always only do carryon for any trip and full size stuff takes a toll on the space.

 

Being able to run LR is a bonus,

 

.

[Guest stnami]

Glossy screen and inbuilt battery.......... and no thanks to the puppet master

 

 

ps the old found in garbage tip macDell 9" takes up very little space

[Rick]

Ok, no shiny beads on your Dell abacus and I'll have Santa fill your stocking with a bunch of D-cell batteries... oh, no puppets, you have a problem with puppets. Me too.

[NZDavid]

Got a new Macbook vanilla version on runout special recently. I like saving money! It's a beauty! 2GB RAM is enough, processor speed is impressive, and it's way ahead of top models of even two years ago. Just couldn't see any point in paying any more for Pro version. As for Macbook Air, looks very nice, but first model had a heat problem (as did Macbook Pro), but perhaps they have now solved this. I don't see the weight issue as decisive; if I am traveling I wouldn't want to lug around a computer anyway unless I really had to, as always YMMV.

[eapple]

I have the new 11" MacBook Air now for the past week and have installed CS4. Photoshop handles the M9 files just fine and at a very reasonable speed. I do not want to do any extensive editing while traveling since, as stated above, no laptop is as good for that purpose as my iMac at home with its 27" screen and LR3 and Aperture 3.0. The 11" screen is perfectly adequate for both quick editing and reviewing of JPEG and RAW images, and its smaller size allows it to fit into a shoulder bag with the camera and 3 lenses. Add to that email, Skype (with video),internet connectivity via WiFi and ethernet and a full size keyboard to utilize all the computer features, and this becomes a great travel companion for a photographer.

[rob_x2004]

Take a 1Gig SD card. Do an in camera copy to the card, take it down to the local photo shop and use their photoshop. Use their printer too, saves lugging an epson through the airport. Win win.

Wot?

[MarkP]

I have the new 11" MacBook Air now for the past week and have installed CS4. Photoshop handles the M9 files just fine and at a very reasonable speed. I do not want to do any extensive editing while traveling since, as stated above, no laptop is as good for that purpose as my iMac at home with its 27" screen and LR3 and Aperture 3.0. The 11" screen is perfectly adequate for both quick editing and reviewing of JPEG and RAW images, and its smaller size allows it to fit into a shoulder bag with the camera and 3 lenses. Add to that email, Skype (with video),internet connectivity via WiFi and ethernet and a full size keyboard to utilize all the computer features, and this becomes a great travel companion for a photographer.

 

 

My wife just bought the entry level 11-inch 1.4HGz MBA.

 

I completely agree that LR3 & PSE run reasonably well even with this slow processor. Screen is small and reflective (compared with a desktop or my high-res MBP non-reflective screen), colour improved with Spyder 3 Pro calibration (overkill!!!).

 

However, it has an operating system, excellent battery life, and is small and weighs next to nothing.

[kdemas]

The 11" Air is one sweet little traveling machine. I think I'll have to have Santa bring me one

[leicamr]

I have just picked up an iPad for my brother and have been very tempted, but the Mac Book Air is very tempting for travel image correction. The iPad has an excellent display which has a large angle of view in all planes without affecting colour or brightness / contrast. It is superior to all the Mac Books from the Air upwards that I viewed in store. They all loose colour and brightness increases when viewed above 90 degree horizontal, and the reverse when viewed below 90 degree horizontal. The on line LFI image gallery viewed on an iPad is stunning.

 

An application called Air display is available from the iTune app store. It enables a Mac Book or laptop to be extended to the iPad (via a WiFi connection) which would allow me to get colour correction in the ball park for mobile situations.

 

If only the iPad was a Mac Book Air in tablet form.

 

I wonder if Steve Jobs ever views this forum? But the iPad doesn't even run Adobe flash player, so why would he worry about Leica / Apple user requirements.

 

Mark

[deirdre]

I wonder if Steve Jobs ever views this forum? But the iPad doesn't even run Adobe flash player, so why would he worry about Leica / Apple user requirements.

 

He mentioned Leica in the iPhone 4 announcement.

 

Thinking about it, I can't imagine him owning a different brand of camera (other than one made by Apple). He just seems like a Leica person. Besides, a black Leica would match his mock-turtleneck.

[Knomad]

I'm probably going to order one of the new MBA's soon. But I'm staying close to the base 11" version, maybe with the extra RAM.

 

Why? Because more and more, it's about minimalism. That's why I shoot a Leica instead of some clunky and overcomplex DSLR. Similarly, I want a small, light and basic laptop for travel.

 

On a recent three-week trip, I brought only an iPad. It was almost enough. It handled email and web browsing admirably, got by on writing, and I simply didn't download the six 4GB SD cards from five model shoots til I got home.

 

That's where the MBA is going to come in. It's better for writing, which I do a lot of. It will handle basic photo editing. But I'm not going to load it up with LR and CS5, that would defeat the purpose.

 

Instead I'll probably run it with a simple text editor like WriteRoom, that and Google Docs and the cloud should handle all my writing needs. I may load Capture One 5 to be able to do some basic RAW editing, but if I load Photoshop at all it will probably be Elements. I might try a couple of different combinations and adapt whatever works best, but the point is to force myself to keep the hard drive clean, move the files to a remote drive quickly when at home, and to do only essential editing on the road on the little screen.

 

It's the iPad which has opened up this whole new way of working for me. It's a new kind of freedom, it's a game changer. I have enough to think about on travel, and this will help to keep technology from being a distraction from the experience.

[Rick]

Knomad, you have summed up my thoughts exactly. I have an extra copy of LR3 so, that will go on. But, I'll try and use my internet storage service (cloud), when traveling, to move pictures off the computer. I have an iPad with the unlimited dat plan and I'm going to put it on eBay. I'd like to keep it but, as you said, minimalism reigns.

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[ptarmigan]

I have the new 11" MacBook Air now for the past week and have installed CS4. Photoshop handles the M9 files just fine and at a very reasonable speed. I do not want to do any extensive editing while traveling since, as stated above, no laptop is as good for that purpose as my iMac at home with its 27" screen and LR3 and Aperture 3.0. The 11" screen is perfectly adequate for both quick editing and reviewing of JPEG and RAW images, and its smaller size allows it to fit into a shoulder bag with the camera and 3 lenses. Add to that email, Skype (with video),internet connectivity via WiFi and ethernet and a full size keyboard to utilize all the computer features, and this becomes a great travel companion for a photographer.

 

My wife just bought the entry level 11-inch 1.4HGz MBA.

 

I completely agree that LR3 & PSE run reasonably well even with this slow processor. Screen is small and reflective (compared with a desktop or my high-res MBP non-reflective screen), colour improved with Spyder 3 Pro calibration (overkill!!!).

 

However, it has an operating system, excellent battery life, and is small and weighs next to nothing.

 

Gents

 

I'm looking at the options too and have been wavering between a 4gb 11" or stepping to the 13" to increase processor power. I also inevitably come back to the 13" MBP but I really wanted something smaller and lighter - and less cash if possible.

 

So real specifics on performance of LR and PS would be helpful. There was a brief comment on colour calibration. How good can you get the screens after calibration?

 

Thanks in advance.