best laptop with colour accuracy

[wakica]

Hi fellow photo obsessed Dis'ers

We are looking to replace our laptop - ours is like 9 years old and it's a huge clunky darn thing. We are hoping to streamline - go with something smaller but we still want to be able to put cd's in it (I noticed some very small ones don't take them) and we want it to have VERY accurate colours. We take our laptop on holidays with us to download the several thousand photos we take and we are in the photography business so we do like to edit some while we are away (call it an addiction), and we need something that is colour accurate. We are also doing a destination wedding this coming spring at Madeira Beach outside Tampa so we'll need a dependable laptop so we know our files are safe.

Any suggestions from your experience with the colour accuracy of laptops you've seen or used??
Or, any suggestions on which ones to avoid??

Thank you
Kim

 

[photo_chick]

You will never consistently get accurate color on a laptop. The nature of an adjustable angle screen that you can take into different ambient lighting environments just runs contrary to consistency. And you need consistency for accurate color.

As far as good performing screens... The higher end HP and Sony screens are nice. Apple has some nice screens on the Macbooks as well. I use one of the high performance series HP laptops (with the best video card and most memory I could get when I bought it) for photo and video work and it has handled everything I've thrown at it very well. I don't edit for print color on the laptop though. Even using a colorimeter to calibrate it still won't match my printer 98% of the time because the angle of the screen affects things too much.

 

[wakica]

Thanks Danielle. I'll have a look at those brands. I know the colour will never be perfect on laptop but I guess I'm just hoping for as good as you can get. The one we have right now SUCKS!! Mind you it's definitely old as far as computers go these days lol. I just want something that's pretty decent. We don't edit on it typically but when we are on holidays we go for like 3 weeks and people back home are DYING to have a look at some stuff so I want to be able to do some editing without it looking like junk b/c my monitor is SSSOOOOO off.

I will have a look at those ones you mentioned though. Thanks

 

[mom2maggie]

Honestly, if I had to have a laptop, I would use the laptop with a external monitor hooked up, calibrated. I could never edit on a laptop. I tried once with client photos (I'm a pro photog) and the results were less than stellar. I use my desktop for photos, and my laptop for playing. That said, I know a lot of my photog friends do use their laptops for editing, and most use Mac Book Pro.

 

[disneyboy2003]

Thanks Danielle. I'll have a look at those brands. I know the colour will never be perfect on laptop but I guess I'm just hoping for as good as you can get. The one we have right now SUCKS!! Mind you it's definitely old as far as computers go these days lol. I just want something that's pretty decent. We don't edit on it typically but when we are on holidays we go for like 3 weeks and people back home are DYING to have a look at some stuff so I want to be able to do some editing without it looking like junk b/c my monitor is SSSOOOOO off.

I will have a look at those ones you mentioned though. Thanks

If having extremely accurate colors on your laptop is that important to you, have you considered using a monitor calibration device and perhaps bringing it with you and your laptop when you are out traveling? You can try looking at Spyder3 (link to Amazon). They have three different versions: Express, Pro, and Elite.

I know that photo_chick mentioned that your colors still may not be 100% accurate, since color accuracy depends not only on the laptop monitor settings, but also on the quality of lighting immediately around the laptop, the angle of your laptop screen, etc. That's why I suggested that maybe you also bring a monitor calibration device with you and your laptop.

The other thing to be aware of is that even though your monitor may be as close to 100% accurate in its colors, your clients' computer monitors are likely to be somewhat inaccurate in their colors. For example, I lived for years with a computer monitor that was too blue, but I did not know it until one day I bought a monitor calibration device, used it on my monitor, and saw the huge difference it made.

So even though you may be striving for 100% color accuracy on your laptop, your clients may not be able to appreciate the 100% accurate colors. However, I still think it may be worthwhile to purchase a monitor calibration device.

 

[LordAthens]

Look for laptops with an IPS display (you'll have to dig for the info, it's not generally published in the specs). Keep in mind, you're going to have to do all of your shopping online, unless you have a Dell outlet nearby. The machines with IPS displays are not your typical throwaway junk you find at Best Buy, etc. These are considered "business class" machines.

Right off the bat, I know Dell has a few in their XPS line in both 15.6 and 17" variants and HP has a few with their DreamColor (IPS) displays. Both of these options also command huge upgrade prices, the DreamColor upgrade alone is nearly $600.

So yes, there ARE machines out there that are just as capable as a desktop monitor (the IPS panels are nicer than what many of the users are using here on their own desktops), but you're going to pay, dearly, for it. Keep in mind, just because the panel is in a laptop doesn't make it magically any different than the panel inside your desktop LCD monitor. In general, laptop manufactures use the cheapest panel they can get their hands on to keep costs down. Just look at how many 1377x768 panels are out there in 15" machines. It boggles my mind how people use those, but that's just my opinion.

Getting a non-specific laptop with a high quality external monitor (something like a Dell U2410) would be a great compromise, though obviously you sacrifice portability. You might be able to change your workflow a little bit, IE do your photo sorting, culling and ranking on the laptop, then do your edits back at home when you can plug in to the external display. You certainly don't need a calibrated display when ranking photos for poor composure, out of focus, etc.

 

[LordAthens]

Some other things to consider with a laptop for photo editing;

Small and high performance generally are not in the same category. I would personally be looking at something Sandybridge based as a minimum, either an i5 or an i7. Generally the more powerful the processor, the higher that CPU's TDP is, thus requiring larger heatpipe systems and fan, thus the larger the chassis. Intel's integrated graphics on the Sandybridge systems will be more than powerful enough. You really don't need a dedicated card if you won't be doing gaming with it (and even then, Intel's new onboard "HD graphics" is even sufficient for some of those). Spend the extra money on the i5 or i7. If this is your profession, the extra money will recoup itself rapidly. The more time you're waiting for a image to process, the less time you're doing something else. And load it up with RAM. As I'm sure you're aware, LR and PS both love their RAM. Most laptops can support 8gb or more now.

Basically what I'm getting at is, if you're looking for a "DTR" (Desktop Replacement), don't expect it to be the size of a netbook.

Something else that you noted was having a high quality laptop so that your photos are "safe". DO NOT TRUST LAPTOP HARDDRIVES. As someone in the PC hardware industry, I can tell you with certainty that 2.5" magnetic drives have a far higher failure rate than any other type of drive. This is primarily because of lack of heat dissipation, being bumped around, higher spindle start / stop cycles, etc. Many times there is no indication of a failure coming, it just dies. This is becoming even more common with SSD drives. As there are no moving parts, you can't hear if there is head clicking, spindle motor issues, etc. My experience with SSD failure is they just die with absolutely no warning. For whatever reason, I've been finding that I've been replacing a LOT more "new" drives than old. In October alone I replaced over 20 drives in just 1-2 year old machines. And this is just a little side work for me, just for friends and friends of friends via word of mouth. I never remember replacing that many drives in laptops before (then again, 5 or 6 years ago, there wasn't nearly as many laptops in circulation as there are now).

If you want a fast machine while being able to trust it, I would recommend a laptop with a moderately sized SSD (120gb or better) and then do an external 2 bay RAID enclosure in either eSATA or FW800 (there might be USB3 versions out at this point as well). Again, you're cutting down on portability, but that's far better than losing thousands, if not tens of thousands of images. An alternate solution would be to find a laptop with dual media bays where you can run dual drives in a RAID mirror. Keep in mind this will be a fairly fat laptop and battery life will go down significantly. And as a final fail safe, make sure you're using some type of online backup like CrashPlan (and hope that your destinations have a good wifi service).

HTH.

 

[fireplug]

You may want to take a disc with a few pics on it and go to a store and compare screens. Pick photos you are very familiar with and are comfortable with the colors.
I have found the higher end Sony screens to be the best for me BUT my wife like the same photos on her HP better than mine.

Squid

 

[GDUL]

If having extremely accurate colors on your laptop is that important to you, have you considered using a monitor calibration device and perhaps bringing it with you and your laptop when you are out traveling? You can try looking at Spyder3 (link to Amazon). They have three different versions: Express, Pro, and Elite.

Do you also have to calibrate your printer so that what you see on the monitor (calibrated) is what prints out on the photo printer?

Thanks!

Gary

 

[photo_chick]

Lord Athens brought up the Intel onboard video... my laptop has switchable graphics. I can use the Intel HD graphics (i7 processor) to save battery life, or I can use the ATI Radeon graphics for high performance. From experince with my laptop, there is a really noticeable difference between how these two handle Photoshop. The Intel is OK and gets the job done, but the Radeon is outstanding. Getting the best graphics performance you can is worth the money to me if you're going to be using it for Photoshop.

 

[disneyboy2003]

Do you also have to calibrate your printer so that what you see on the monitor (calibrated) is what prints out on the photo printer?

Thanks!

Gary

Yes, but I don't have any experience with this.

However, if you are printing your photos at a professional photo place, they can provide you with details of their photo printer, so you can enter that into Photoshop to ensure that your picture is printed in the same colors that you see on your calibrated monitor.

I'm sure others with more experience in this can provide more details about this process.

 

[photo_chick]

Do you also have to calibrate your printer so that what you see on the monitor (calibrated) is what prints out on the photo printer?

Thanks!

Gary

When I print at home I let Photoshop manage the color. The printer color correction is turned off, so there is no need to calibrate anything on the printer side. Just make sure it's aligned properly as a part of the regular maintenance. I also have the ICC profiles for the specific brand and finish of paper that I'm using loaded into Photoshop. But still, even with the monitor calibrated and everything I usually have to adjust something a little, (via adjustmentlayer in PS) so I print a test strip before I waste the ink and paper on a bad print. I'll cram maybe 10 tests on one sheet as I'm working, just keep feeding that sheet in there as I need it, so it really saves a lot.

 

[rdunative]

I went through the same thing just a few months ago. I wanted a laptop to edit a couple of photos while on vacation and the screen on my HP latptop changed with the slightest angle adjustment from just moving around in your seat. I ended up with a Macbook Pro just due to it's color consistency and better viewing angle.

It's not nearly as good as a desktop monitor for size and true color but it's the closest thing I've found without taking the actual monitor with me.

Here's a good quick explanation of the ISP monitors

http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php

I use the HPZR22w and the Dell 2005FPW for editing and they work perfectly for all my needs.

I made the mistake of getting the cheaper 22" monitors that retailers put on sale for like $120 and it was horrible and I ended up giving it away. It was after that I found out about the different panel technologies.