Which laptop?

Hi Glenda,

Apple would definately be the way to go. I went to apple 3 years ago, and wouldnt go back. From what you've said, for $2600 you can get the Macbook Pro, which has the 15-inch screen and 2.66GHz Processor, and has 320gb Hard drive, so plenty of storage. The good thing about the mac laptops is their battery. The macbook pro has a 7hr battery so great for being out an about.

In terms of photography, they come with Iphoto as standard, which is great for editing photos and tagging etc, it can view/edit Raw photos if you take photos in that format. For more in depth changes you can purchase Aperture (apples in house advance photo program) which is great for that next step. I use both and havent had a problem with them yet.

My imac is now 5 years old, and hasnt been upgraded, apart from the Operating system, it still runs fast, and has no problems. Thats not something you could generally say about a 5yo standard pc running windows 7 for instance, if it could even run it, so they are a long term investment, and can stand the test of time. Screen quality is great too. If you did need for whatever reason, to run Windows, you can install windows and have a dual setup, and run whatever system you need to at the time.

Hope this helps, any questions just ask.

Lochlan

Hello
Apple have a great product but unfortunately the bulk of software is written for windows. I would consider changing to Apple if software such as Oziexplorer was available for it. The other thing to consider is that you generally get more for your money on a windows spec machine. More memory, faster processor for the same dollar value. Also, Windows 7 is actually quite good ( for windows). Still, if the software is available for your needs, then Apple is a good choice.
With your budget you could just about take your pick of reputable brands and be a winner but be wary of any that have a lot of proprietry 'bloatware' that just slow them down. For example, the latest Toshiba's can be a real pain until you get rid of all the Toshiba utilities running in the background.
For travelling, battery life can be an important consideration such as using it in a maccas for free Internet access etc. The latest intel I series can come up short in that area.
Cheers
Mike

I have a 15 in laptop and found its size was its worst point.

In the van unless you only pull it out occasionally they are a pain.

It is also too big to use comfortably in the car

I would recommend a 10in ASUS NETBOOK these are going for about $350 at present when they were previously close to $1000.

They arent as fast as the big new ones but have a very readable screen and a 160gig Hard drive and have a footprint half that of a 15in They do everything the bigger ones do with the exception of writing discs.

They dont have a DVD drive. You could do as I did and buy a 1TB external drive for your photos and edit them when you get home.

A WIndoze based machine gives you a much better selection of software.

Apples are used by graphics creators and are supposedly quite good at it but personally I would stick to the more used type.

Glenda,
I won't knock the apple product as I use their iPhone and the technology they use is terrific.

I bought aDELL laptop and had it configured to suit my specific requirements.

I wanted a 15+ inch, 1680 x 1050 pixel screen, as I like to look at my photo's in hi-definition, not the lousy 1180 x 760 pixels of the usual laptop screens available, as you spend a lot of time looking at the pictures when doing photography while travelling.

Maîneÿ . . .

We use a HP 13 inch laptop when travelling, it has a 2.66 Ghz Intel processor, 4 gig of ram, 1 gig video card, LED screen and a 320 gig hard drive.

The biggest buying point for use was the size, daylight viewable screen, good processing powers and the number and location of the USB ports.

We run high end computers at home and work including a 17 inch Toshiba laptop with 2.8GHz processor, 8 gig of ram, 2 x 500 gig hard drives and a full keyboard for on site work, but this laptop is to BIG for mobile use, it's heavy, has a shorter battery life and is more bulky to transport.

When away we use an external hard drive to back up photos just in case the laptop fails or gets stolen plus we use multiple 2 gig CF cards for our photo's again just in case.

The other thing to look for is is a 12 volt power adapter available for it, don't use an inverter and a 240 volt charger.

I prefer Window based machines over Mac but I find Mac's are easier to use and offer good functions, Window based machines have more support available whereby Mac has a limited support network, try finding someone in a small town on a Saturday who might be able to help you with a problem with you MAC...Windows based no problems.

You can always find someone at a caravan park who knows Windows inside out.

Software easier to get too.

Mapping software is very scarce for the MAC unless you run it in Windows.

Try and stay away from Netbooks.

Hi Glenda

We choose Toshiba Satellite for travel laptops, having the reputation of being the one to take the knocks of rough road travel. I too want a larger screen for viewing our photos. The screen is good for viewing from slightly different angels, whereas my sister's Dell can only be viewed at optimum angle so only one person at a time can really look. I put the day's photos on as screen saver, and it sits on the bench displaying the day's tour while we have tea.

We have a tiny USB NextG modem which doesn't need separate power for the modem as some do, and we have an antenna which can be put onto the caravan roof for better reception.

We use a dash mounted GPS, so do not want to try and fit a laptop in the tow vehicle for mapping. The laptop can be used to hold the software and download it to the GPS as needed.

I carry a Terabyte external HD for backing up photos (which are also backed up of DVD, CD or USB thumb drive before i blank the camera memory card).

When the inverter i was using for the laptop died on me, two members here suggested purchasing a power supply to run the computer direct from 12 v. What good advice - much more efficient and easier too. I need mains for the external HD, so back up onto the thumb drives most days, and periodically to the Terabyte and burn to DVD.

Motherhen

We have a Toshiba 17" laptop which often goes days at a time without being brought out of it's bag but is still essential to us for it's large capacity and screen. As well as having a large amount of mapping software, including OziExplorer, CoPilot Live Laptop and many of the Hema maps, we are also very much into photography, as the multitude of A4 prints of our travels which adorn the walls of our house will testify, so we have very similar requirements to you.

We have an external hard drive that is usb only, so it does not need a separate power supply but runs off the computers power - very handy and we back everything up to it frequently.

For daily use we have a 10" Acer One Aspire which has a 160Gb hard drive and which can be bought for under $400 now in many shops. It also has every bit of the mapping and photographic software that we have on the Toshiba and runs it all very well. We keep the little 'puter in the car when we're travelling as we have a Telstra Next G usb modem that the passenger can use when we get near a town to check emails and research the areas we are heading to for things to see etc. Because we usually free camp away from towns we generally can't get phone and internet reception where we are camped so having the little one in the car makes it easier to pay bills etc. online and it's easy to take into Maccas to use their free internet.

We also sometimes use the Acer when we're in remote areas as we have a bluetooth Holux gps (no wires) that interacts with OziExplorer on the Acer so that we can figure out exactly where we are when we're in the middle of nowhere. We have often managed to find great camping spots in this way as we can see when promising looking tracks are coming up soon. The screen on our HP PDA (which has Ozi as well as Tom Tom) is a bit small to see the big picture so we use the PDA for navigation and for recording our tracks and then transfer it to the 'puters.

We generally use the little Acer every day to back up our tracks and photos as it has a 12v power supply as well as 240v, but we bring the Toshiba out every few days to do another backup of the whole lot and to make it easier to edit the photos on the big screen.

I know this has been a bit long winded but the main point I want to make is that the cost of all our equipment together would have been less than the budget you have allowed, and it gives us a computer each when we want it and allows us so many options for a reasonable price. Hope I haven't just confused you more.

I use a digital SLR and have several photo processing programs on my desktop IE Paint Shop Pro, Nikon capture NX, Photo Shop Elements etc. These all run perfectly on my old 3 Ghz Pentium with 160 G hard drive and 2Gb ram.
I also use a calibrated Samsung Syncmaster 245T Screen.

Recently I brought a 17" Toshiba satellite L550, it only cost me $1260 and I am surprised that it is almost as capable as my desktop. The screen alone on my desktop cost as much as the Toshiba.

The laptop only has a 2.1 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor , 4 G ram and 300 HD.

So what i am saying is any of todays laptops should serve you more than adequately.

Have fun with you decision and take some great photos.

Hi Glenda

Unfortunately their is no suitable laptop at the moment , if by good screen you mean one that can be read out in the open - but hope is on the way.

A good screen for this requires at output of about 1000 nits and most today are around 200.

Same issue with GPS's and mobile phones.

This means that some form of shading or geting it out of strong light is required.

Recently Samsung released a moblie phone using OLED technology, check it out - as a design engineer in these sorts of things , I can tell you its been something we have been waiting for for a long time.

It is expected that this technology will go beyond demo units and be mass produced this year.

So whatever unit you buy today will be more quickly obsoleted than normal.

Hence I would go with the suggestions above and by a cheapie like the $350 Asus EE pc mentioned - just ensure you get model with matte screen as most are switching to shinny screens which and even worse to use.

This has been great - so much help - my first question on the forum and it has saved me about $300 -$400! I have found the exact adapter/converter/powersupply ;) that I need for the laptop I am thinking of thanks to you all. My husband is happy to as we have decided to take the advice of also buying a small laptop for him and we won't have to share!

I hope to be able to pay-it-forward with advice to others sometime in the future (but it won't be about electrics that is for sure!!)

Thanks everyone.

Hi Glenda and Max, I won't go into the pro's and cons of PC versus Mac but I want to make 2 points.
1. For mobile navigation I found a 15" screen far too big. Weight, size, ease of mounting caused me to purchase a 10" laptop. It is excellent for mobile navigation, easily read, easily mounted without being in the way.
2 I use windows, my travel mate uses a Mac but for navigation he runs windows. This is because the range of mobile nav software for Mac is limited and not as good. They are his words, not mine.
As for viewing images on a larger monitor all you need is a 2nd monitor.
Good luck.

Head to a good Mac shop and talk to them about Virtual PC it is a software program that allows you to run PC programs on mac systems.

Being a luddite I have not got it on my mac but I love the mac system and OS.

Hello Glenda & Max

Prices vary enormously as you probably already know. You might like to check out https://www.mln.com.au/ to get a guide (no I'm not involved with them in any way). Once you have decided on a model you can check http://www.staticice.com.au/ for best available price - if only to use it as a bargaining point with your local supplier. Most will go close to matching prices or offer another sweetener. The laptop market is very much in the buyers favour, has been for last 12 months at least. Whirlpool.net.au is a great resource for expert and user views of various laptops.

Laptop reliability survey> http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-reliability-survey-asus-and-toshiba-win-hp-fails/

PS high-powered (fast CPU) laptops with dedicated graphics cards can get VERY hot. Need good airflow underneath.

Cheers

Glenda,
I use mac, and I think that they have lots of advantages your your situation. I would suggest you look at the 13 inch macbook pro. Spec it with 4 gig of ram and 250 gig hard drive and keep the min processor to save money. You will find the base processor more than up to anything your are ever likely to do. If you purchase a program called Parallels or another called VM ware fusion you can run any windows (xp, vista (wasn't that a success, sorry couldn't resist lol), or 7) and their associated programs for any windows mapping or other program. Most people who "switch" like this security, however after a short time they just use all the apple stuff. They don't need any virus protection so will run very fast (there is more to life than numbers!). They come with a really cool magnetic power cable so it will not pull the computer off the table if you trip on it. And the best part is if you purchase a portable hard drive designed for laptops and hook up with firewire, it will do auto backups from within the operating system every hour without any extra power cords, very cool, very important for those special photos.Check out Apples website. Most big news agents will have a copy of Macworlds Mac Basics 2. Before you make up your mind get a copy and you might be pleasantly surprised, at worst it is the most elegant way to run windows.

Get a MacBook Pro. You won't look back. iPhoto and Aperture are great for organizing photos, and you might wan't to get PhotoShop CS4. I have Fusion with Windows XP on mine, but I never use it. Just get all Mac programs for it, and import all your files over from your PC.

If you finally decide to use an inverter to keep the laptop operating, whatever you do, DON'T have an inverter running and producing 240 volts whilst driving. In the event of a collision it is possible that (a) the vehicle occupants could be electrocuted (b) Emergency Service workers coming to aid injured may also be unknowingly exposed to 'live' 240 volts and be injured or killed. A very stupid idea to run an inverter whilst mobile.

Fascinating read and exchange of views and experiences. OK, for my two bobs worth. and what we have done. Get two. A netbook id great for mapping, if you want mapping while on the move. Good size/power weight for handling inside the car. We use an Acer Aspire. No problems, run it off cig lighter but in future will run it so that it stays on, but in sleep mode, when the ignition is turned off. Saves lots of starting up fiddling around each time we stop.
We have an ASUS for handling our photos. Got an AUS purely because PC has all the photo programs I use and because ASUS topped Cnets notebook reliabilty review. Combined cost of both under $1500. Asus set up with all the photo programs I use (and that is quite a few) so I can organize/process while we are travelling. Like Motherhen. we have a big, USB plug in back up drive as belts and braces in case of hard drive failure. I strongly support doing this, whatever way you go.
And now something I just found that amazed me. Despite all this, I lost some shots. I was advised to try a product from Lexar that can search flashcards for shots taken yonks ago, even when the card had been reformatted many times since the shots wre taken. And it found the shots!! This is not foolproof, it doesn't always get all shots but it is extraordinary how far back into a cards background it can go. So, I now carry and interchange several memory cards (they are pretty cheap these days.). Even if I lose my hard drives, even if I have used the cards and reformatted them several times, I am still pretty confident that in an emergency, I will be able to recover most of my photos.

Glenda,

Much has been covered.

Below is my setup.

It is a Dell Latitude ATG D630. Not cheap but the laptop has got about 50,000KM of Oziexplorer recording plot files all over Australia. It has a ruggedized hard drive and although only 80gb does me.

I have a quite a few MP3's and play them through an FM transmitter to the car stereo system.

When I run out of CF card storage for the camera I can transfer the photos to the laptop where I have Photoshop and can edit photos.

My Next G phone can be used as a modem so if I have a phone signal can recieve emails and browse the web.

I use CoPilot for street navigation in the metro area and Oziexplorer for outback touring. GPSGate allows both applications to share the GPS reciever.

I use a Globalsat BT338 is the GPS reciever.

Although I had many digital maps I bought the Hema which has all their maps plus the Geoscience 1:250,000 set.
Also have 1:100,000 for some states and 1:25,000 for NSW.