Mac or PC for photo viewing

Lylamae

New Member
I know this question must get asked alot. I have to download 300 or more photos from discs to view for a project. I'm narrowing it down to the best 5 photos so I'm not really editing or modifying them. I have a iBook G4 and a Dell laptop. They are both 5 years old and slow. I know everyone prefers the Mac, but I need to get a new laptop for this project and can't decide. I have pros and cons about both. I actually find the PC easier to use, but the Mac to be a bit faster.

I'm using Canon EOS program for photo viewing on both computers.

Any advice on what computer I should get next???
 
If its just for showing a slide show of pictures, get the cheapest one you can because any laptop can do that. I think a Mac would be over kill, and anything over like $600 would be over kill.

All you are going to do is just show pictures?
 
I can't do the slide show, I have to use a program that shows thumbnails, because I have to go back and forth constantly to compare colors and details in different photos and need to have the photo number displayed, so slide show doesn't work for that. I download the discs onto an external hard drive, but once I get into using the program the computers are slow and get locked up alot. I was hoping a newer computer would speed things up.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Well there are two features that a Mac can do that Windows can't that may or may not be a huge deal for you. The first one is screen zoom. They can zoom in via the finder keyboard short cuts so you can zoom in on any picture or thumbnail in any application. The second feature is the color sync it can do with the monitors to get better color syncs in your current environment, and of course they all have high end screens.

However, you may be able to use third party apps that do that for windows, I just don't know of any. Also, you would need to weigh out the costs, since a Macbook is $1000 and to just show thumbnails you only need a mediocre computer at best.

In fact why is your iBook G4 slow, perhaps we can tune it up.

What model is it and what are the specs? Version of OS X? What applications are you running?
 
I updated the G4 to Leopard with more memory, so I'm on 10.5.2 Memory says 1.25GB.

I use a Canon program for viewing, but every once in awhile it locks up and I get the rainbow wheel. It is very frustrating. It got better once I put more memory in the computer, but still seems to be a problem.
 
create a new user account, log into that account and then try the program, does it work faster?

Did you upgrade the install or do a fresh install of Leopard?
 
Well there are two features that a Mac can do that Windows can't that may or may not be a huge deal for you. The first one is screen zoom. They can zoom in via the finder keyboard short cuts so you can zoom in on any picture or thumbnail in any application. The second feature is the color sync it can do with the monitors to get better color syncs in your current environment, and of course they all have high end screens.

However, you may be able to use third party apps that do that for windows, I just don't know of any. Also, you would need to weigh out the costs, since a Macbook is $1000 and to just show thumbnails you only need a mediocre computer at best.

In fact why is your iBook G4 slow, perhaps we can tune it up.

What model is it and what are the specs? Version of OS X? What applications are you running?

Just thought I'd remind you about the Mac Mini which is $600. :)
 
If all you want to do is some photo viewing, then I would go with a company that is known to have high quality monitors (if you plan on looking at photos on the laptop). But if you aren't a professional/enthusiast, then it really doesn't matter what laptop you go with, as practically anything new will be plenty.
 
Well if it is for professional use, the best product should be a higher concern over price. However, price does play into it as well, but my major concern would be, "Will this impress my clients?"
 
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