PC or Mac for photo editing?

Question

I'm starting to get pretty serious about photography and am looking to upgrade my current computer. I'm also looking into purchasing Photoshop CS3. Should I get a PC or Mac for this? Which model would you suggest? Do you know if the Mac comes standard with a good photo editing program? What do you prefer? I have an Olympus camera and it's set up currently to save both in RAW and JPEG and I'd like a program that's compatible with RAW so that I can edit the photos and then convert to JPEG when I'm done editing. (I'm still a beginner at photography and at imaging, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of this!) Any and all suggestions are appreciated!! (I'm posting this in two separate sections to maximize my answers!)

Answer 1

Get a PC, they are more compatible when it comes to day to day things, as far as photo editing as long as you have CS3 for editing you'll be fine.

You may want to check out Adobe Lightroom.

Answer 2

Both versions of Photoshop CS3 are remarkably similar so it wouldn't matter which OS version you bought. The Mac only comes with IPhoto installed which is not up to your needs for editing purposes. I do prefer using the Mac but only because I love using Aperture (only for Mac) for finishing/touching up photos. It's not as full featured as Photoshop for editing (it can do a lot of color corrections and basic editing tools) but as an image manager, it's very very good...it can also do the RAW->JPG conversion that you speak of.

Answer 3

In my view, if you want to get serious about photo editing you must get Photoshop.  On the Mac, iPhoto has some editing capability but nothing to compare to Photoshop.  Personally I like the Mac best for its outstanding OS and near freedom from viruses.  I have a PC and a Mac and I use the PC only on those rare occasions when I must use an application not available for Mac.

Photoshop will do everything you want to do and much, much more.  It has a steep learning curve so be prepared to spend a lot of time learning how to use it to its full potential.  There are a lot of books which will help in this regard.

Good luck!

Answer 4

You are going to get answers depending on whatever platform the answerer is more comfortable with.

That said, if you are comfortable on a PC, go with PC. If you are comfortable on a Mac, go with a Mac.

If it doesn't matter to you, and you can do either, as a Mac user , I suggest you look at the Mac platform. The ease and usability are a large part of the Apple experience.

Answer 5

Mac is good ONLY if you are like not even 100% serious, you have to be like 100,000,000,000 serious. Mac costs over 1,000 dollars, and you must be careful. You gotta be sure this is what you want.

I suggest PC, because there is way more programs availible for it, such as The GIMP, but it's not recommended, because SOME versions have viruses. But Photoshop, Photoshop is what you want. I currently have it, and its very good! I got it for free, if you would like a free copy, I can upload it for you, and you can download it for free. Shoot me a email if you want it. [e-mail]

Answer 6

Which one do you want? :D

First, laptops.

If you go PC, you'll have to get a higher priced one (meaning more than $600) to have the processor and such for CS3.

If you get a Mac, get the MacBook Pro.  I'm regretting not having that dedicated graphics card.  It'll be faster for processing.  Upgrade the RAM on your own.  It's cheaper.  And really really easy.  I've heard great things about Aperture.  Adobe Lightroom (available on PC and Mac) is a great little program too.  It's not too memory intensive (used it on an old 1.2 GHz iBook), but nice for organizing and some more basic (yet still powerful) editing.

With PCs, right now, if you get one in a brick&mortar store, HPs have the better graphics cards, with a couple of exceptions (that I don't recall at the moment...I forget about work when I'm at home!).

For desktops.

MacPros are insane.  2 quad cores, with a price to match.  A lot of desktops come with a dedicated graphics card.  Desktops are upgradeable, so graphics cards, harddrives, etc. are all changable.  More RAM, etc.  But there are powerful laptops, and having the portability is nice.

Since you don't have the software yet, you could go either way.  I love my MacBook, but PCs are nice too.