For most of the past year, I've been processing my photographs and publishing the blog from a Toshiba laptop. I got one after my Dell desktop machine (carpet top machine really as it was too big to sit on top of my desk) began to die a slow death and was cannibalised for parts by one of my sons.
The laptop has some real advantages, a main one being the opportunity to process photographs whilst sitting in a coffee shop. The drawbacks are substantial, though, and include a 15-inch screen, limited ram, a slower processor and, as it comes out of the box, a distinct lack of mouse.
I've been thinking of switching to a Mac having enjoyed using one a long time ago - a coal-powered LC with 10 mb of ram and a 40 mb (no, not gb) hard drive! Amazing that I was still able to run Photoshop and Pagemaker at the same time. But now all of my software is for the PC and Macs remain expensive in comparison with PCs so it looks as if I'll be sticking with Bill Gates for a while yet.
Cath will be inheriting my laptop for her school work so I've been going through the hard drive deleting as much stuff as possible. The pictures above are two I discovered in a folder that, for whatever reason, I never got around to processing. They were both shot on the K10D with the 16-45 zoom.
The bottom one looks as if the wind has started to expose the flank of a dinosaur. Westhaven, where these pics were taken, is a fairly regular haunt of mine as it's just a mile or so from where I live and I can usually find something of interest there.
"...and Macs remain expensive in comparison with PCs..."
ReplyDeleteSigh! You're paying a much higher 'price' as it is. And if we're only talking dollars, it's still not true. Google it please.
I know what you're suggesting: that people often perceive Macs to be dearer than they are. But the fact is that I'm in the UK and the bottom of the range iMac would cost me over £750. For about £450 I can get a comparable PC (performance-wise) and wouldn't have to restock on software. In other words, switching to an iMac would cost me at least double what I'd pay for a PC. Believe me, I've done plenty of Googling!
ReplyDeletelovely shots, Bruce!
ReplyDelete"and wouldn't have to restock on software", that's not part of a Mac being more expensive than a PC. If you switched the other way, you'd incur that cost too.
ReplyDeleteI had a look at Apple's UK site and for a machine comparable to my 2 year old iMac (on which I am using PS & LR with no difficulty) it is £831. I then went to Dell UK and specced a slightly more powerful model for £729. But then you don't get iLife with a Dell, a shelf (upgrade) price of £69 (let's say a fair retail value of £99) which brings the theoretical price of the Dell to almost exactly the same.
And yes, you could probably find some configuration of some manufacturer which is cheaper than the Dell, but you still need to factor in the cost to you of spending some number of hours/days per month "looking after" a Windows setup. I'm a switcher, so I know full well what I left behind and I wouldn't switch back for anything.
Finally, consider you are probably comparing prices between a snazzy looking Peugot and a dependable BMW. You're never going to get a BMW X3 for the price of a Peugot 807, but it will last longer, be more reliable and much more enjoyable to drive.
If you like Windows and all the fun it brings, good luck to you. I just don't like blanket statements that "Macs are more expensive" because on a TCO basis, they're just not.
What do mac and Leica owners have in common? Their superiority complex! :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't want to get into a long, boring debate about macs and pcs as this is a photography blog but suffice to say that I CAN get a good, reliable pc for just over half the cost of a mac. If I couldn't, I'd buy a mac, so QED.
And I'm sorry if you've had bad experiences with pcs but I honestly do not have to factor in hours/days each month - not even minutes - keeping Windows, even crappy Vista, ticking over.
Let's just agree to differ on this one, eh?
Yes, we can agree to differ, but only I have been on both sides of the fence. In any case, you've stated your preference.
ReplyDeleteIf you read my post again, you'll see that I've been a mac user as well. And my preference is for macs - just not at the prices they charge.
ReplyDelete