Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/04/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In the hands of an experienced user, Macs and PCs can be used to achieve identical results in digital photography. The differences are minor, and it is easy for a trained user to work around them. Experts might not even know that they are working around anything. I find the cost issue to be a red herring. The basic hardware cost of a Mac is about 10% higher than an equivalent-speed PC, but the total-system cost, including software licenses, accessory devices, printer cables, and so forth is virtually identical. The real difference between the two approaches is with untrained, beginning, or nontechnical users. The Mac and its software come closer to doing, right out of the box, the things that most people want. The PC has more options, more variables, more choices. If you make those choices correctly, do your configuration correctly, and calibrate properly, the two tools are identical give or take the slight differences in keyboards. The place where this is most noticeable is in end-to-end color workflow. If you buy a Mac, an Apple monitor, a photo printer that Mac OS knows about, and a digital camera that Mac OS knows about, then you will have, without even knowing that you have it, full camera-to-print color management, and get the best colors that your imaging and display hardware can produce. If you actually understand color management (hah!) or if you are really good at reading and following instructions (more likely), you can configure a PC running XP to give you color management that is identical to what you'd get from a Mac. The other place where the Mac outshines the PC is in the simplicity and integration of the non-professional applications available for it. iPhoto integrates perfectly with the OS, the printer drivers, the display hardware, and most consumer-grade cameras. Many users will not need the full power of Photoshop CS; for them, iPhoto is very sweet. My mother uses iPhoto. Every week or two she needs to ask my help on some complex image processing issue; I use Photoshop to make the edits and then put the image back into iPhoto. Everyone goes away happy. I know enough about computers and about color that I can do what I need to do on whatever computer is in front of me. I've had both Macs and PCs for as long as I can remember, and I raised my children in a mixed Mac/PC environment in which they were led to believe that Macs and PCs interoperate perfectly. I primarily use a dual processor PowerMac G5 for the same reason that I primarily drive a Volkswagen Phaeton: I LIKE it. But if I find myself seated in front of a Dell PC or inside a BMW, I can get the very same results. (Though I sure do admire the heads-up display in the 2005 BMWs....) Brian Reid