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[hazy]

My work has gave me a decent budget to go to PC world and get a Laptop and Scanner. The scanner and laptop I want must be good for photograhy. Any good ideas people

[Dexter St. Clair]

I Know it's easy to be glib but Don't go to PC world unless someone can point out a genuine bargain there.

[DVF]

Get a Mac if it's for arty stuff, a 12" iBook's only £699!

Try Imaging Resource or Flatbed Scanner Review. From what I've seen scanner quality is random these days.

[stinkpad]

Get a Mac if it's for arty stuff, a 12" iBook's only £699!

Yeah, I'd definitely recommend a mac. Might want to wait a week or so as the rumour is that they're going to announce an intel based ibook this week.

[retired tiger]

Very helpfull shop in Ruthven Lane for Macs.

I have no connections with them!

[mrlipring]

how much work can you ACTUALLY get done on a 12" screen?

Surely if it's for photo stuff, the bigger the better?

[Jazza]

Working with images you will want a big screen (15" widescreen?) and plenty of RAM (at least 1Gb for photoshop) so budget for a RAM upgrade from 512Mb to 1Gb (around £50 extra). Almost any scanner is good enough these days - we have one that also does slides & negatives - cost around £100.

[lordsleek]

fuck a Mac unless its for dtp its shit for anything else

[Snapshot]

Well, that's that decided then.

Here's my own very humble opinion - coming from a Windows-PC-owning geek with an fairly average knowledge of both photography and computers:

If you are fairly new to computers and/or digital photography then I'd definitely consider an Apple of some sort...

Apple are gunning to be the photography platform of choice, and there's a broad range of tools out there going from beginner-friendly (iPhoto) to professional-level (Aperture, Adobe Photoshop).

Unlike the minefield that is "PC shopping", Apple have a reduced number of options, and although hardware prices are typically slightly higher, the machines themselves do seem to be of markedly better build quality.

However... if on the other hand you already have experience with, and have no grumps with Windows, then go and get yourself a decent Windows laptop from a reputable place. The important thing is to get something you'll be comfortable and productive with.

I would recommend against the likes of PC World though - generally the staff are clueless, and the cheaper "bargains" will be ghastly bad. However I'm unsure what would be a better starting point, at least to get a feel for prices and features. Why not go in but leave your wallet in the car, so you know you can try things out and not be forced into anything.

To get a laptop for photography use, I'd recommend you consider the following:

1. Ensure its a decent quality, decent sized, high-resolution screen, as you'll want to see very fine detail in the photos, and will need as much screen space as possible. Screen resolution is measured in pixel dimensions, such as 1024x768 (average) or 1280x1024 (Better). Screen size is measured in inches across it diagonally. 12" is small, 15" is better, and obviously the bigger it is the better, although it's more to carry around!
2. Get a lot of memory - as much as you can afford. 512mb would be an absolute minimum, with 1Gb or more highly recommended. You'll probably have to buy additional memory, as they always sell them with the bare minimum required.

If you do go down the Windows laptop route, and you're not totally clued up about PCs, then do try and drag a friend along with you, as they'll be able to spot some of the more obvious scams and crappy systems.

BigCraig is right about scanners though - they're one of those things that are just pretty damn good these days. An Epson scanner at around £100 that does slides & negs will be perfect for you. Make sure you keep the scanners glass surface clean, as a pristine £60 scanner will easily out-perform a £200 scanner with crap and dust all over it

For the record you'll nearly always get an extreme reaction from any computer geek if you ask them about buying a Mac vs a PC. Its like some sort of holy war...

Hope this helps,

[red_kola]

fuck a Mac unless its for dtp its shit for anything else

Too true. I have real problems appearing clueless on public forums with my Mac. I make sure I post all my unsubstantiated, ill-informed and prejudiced posts from my PC at work...
Well, most of them anyway...

[AlanM]

Have a look at Dell, if your employer is a largish company they can also invoice which keeps accounts people happy rather than large expense or petty cash claims.

[allyharp]

I second the idea of checking out Dell if you decide not to go for a Mac. They're great in my experience and quite reasonably priced at the moment too.

[cumbo]

have to agree,Had a dell laptop for a year now.Apart from one breakdown (Picked up and returned by dell within 48 hours) not bad January sale on just now you could afford a few extras.extra hard drive etc

[Fossil]

aye Dells good

you could also try
http://www.europc.co.uk.
(Down Cardonald way)
Good selction of laptops etc.

Phone them the stock changes by the day

[hazy]

Cheers everybody. I will go with the mac because the deal with PCworld and my work has been set up. Got a wicked discount.