I know this is slightly off topic, but I know there are a bunch of you out there with some computer expertise.

I'm a PC user, an old Pentium II. I'm upgrading into Macs, bought the ibook for the mobility and will now get the canoscan 4000. Eventually, I'm going to get a desktop G4 for heavy duty editing, but right now, I need to be able to stay mobile.

Anyway, just looking for any wisdom from people who've traversed this path before. Whether it's experience with an ibook, with Mac or just experience in upgrading to from one system to another, I'd like to hear from you.

For background, I shoot dance performances (modern, jazz, ballet, etc.) with an M6 (35 and 50 summicron) and an F100 (85 1.8) The ibook will be used so I can display my images in lobbies to sell prints or CDs of images. I'll have to make do without a desktop until I make a little more money from sales.

Thanks.

-- victor (danzfotog@yahoo.com), May 02, 2002

Answers

I made the switch from Windows/Intel to Mac about 2-1/2 years ago. Best decision I have made. I have an iBook as well (and an iMac). I recommend a second battery and at least 256MByte of RAM. I use a Nikon CoolPix as a digital image source, and the interface is perfect and easy as pie. I use Corel Photopaint, which works good. I know most use PhotoShop though.

You should play with iTunes and iMovie, both applications are outstanding and make the diminutive iBook an incredibly useful device. I like to watch the occassional DVD movie as well. Take a look at the iPod, I don't have one yet, but it looks perfect too. Apple's Industrial Designs and user interfaces continue to set the standards.

Enjoy, and doesn't it feel good to cut some times with the evil MicroSoft empire!!!

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), May 02, 2002.

Hey Dan, you never got back to me?

-- Phil (philkneen@manx.net), May 02, 2002.

Do you want me to call you? I got you e-mails, thanks.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), May 02, 2002.

I think 256M of RAM is kinda small for working in photoshop. i'm using a G3 "Lombard" Powerbook maxed out at 512M and that's what I'd recommend, especially because memory is cheap right now.........

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), May 02, 2002.

Congratulations on switching over to the bright side! You did the right thing, especially if you're a creative professional.

I'm a network administrator at the University of Texas at Austin. My office is all Mac. One thing I'll recommend is buying the VGA video adaptor (around $40) so you can connect an external tube monitor to your iBook. For scanning and printing, I find that it's easier to calibrate the color and brightness to an image on a picture tube than on an LCD display. I have found Viewsonic monitors to be good and inexpensive.

You'll never regret making the switch to Mac. I like to call it "the operating system for people". Enjoy your digital lifestyle hub; Macintosh will change your life for the better.

-- Luke Dunlap (luked@mail.utexas.edu), May 02, 2002.

Oh, yeah...

You will definitely want 512MB of RAM, especially if you're planning on running OSX. It's pretty cheap right now.

The best book on OSX is David Pogue's "Mac OSX: The Missing Manual" from O'Reilly Press.

-- Luke Dunlap (luked@mail.utexas.edu), May 02, 2002.

I'm a long time Mac and Unix user. Now that NeXT's OS and Mac have become OS X, the system is a joy.

I'm thinking of buying a canonscan 4000 for my G4. How do you like it? I don't think there is Canon scanner software for OS X yet, but it should be along now that Photoshop is native for OS X. I did discover that Vuescan has software which is supposed to support the Canon scanners on OS X - Vuescan seems to work fine with my early Nikon scanner.

I believe the Canonscan 4000 has a SCSI interface, which would speed things up. I plan on using that with my G4, as I bought the SCSI card but the ibook doesn't have SCSI, does it?

-- Tom (therbert@miami.edu), May 02, 2002.

I use a G4, twin, with about 1.5 G. OS10 will run at 256 but more is better; especially with Photoshop 7. I have a flat screen moniter. It is great but I have found it hard to calibrate. I run a Sony for that purpose [reflecting the comment from Luke]. Only advice; for the time being avoid USB; it soooo slow. It dumps my data. Use either SCSI or firewire. USB does work well for small files.

Art

-- Art (AKarr90975@aol.com), May 02, 2002.