Hi all,

Seeking recommendations from fellow photographers and videographers.

I'm currently using an aging Dell laptop. My custom desktop PC is also very much semi retired.

Budget: Approx. RM10,000
Preference: Mac (I've been using PowerBook long ago, and went for Dell due to budget constraint a few years ago)

Recently I've been doing a decent amount of travelling work, thus a new laptop is a must. However I'm also looking at a desktop for faster processing ie. 4K rendering and bigger screen for viewing comfort and long hours editing.

Here's what I've been thinking:

1. 1 top of the line 15" MBP (That will eat my entire budget)
2. 1 13" MBP / MacBook + 1 iMac / custom Windows PC

The reason why I'd prefer mac for travelling due to stability. I've had enough of problems with Windows system especially when away.

And I've never done workflow simultaneously on Mac and Windows. I'd be less headache if both laptop & desktop are running on same system.

I do a lot of heavy Lightroom raw processing and Premiere 4K rendering. Your recommendations are appreciated!

As recent macs (MBP, Macbook or Imacs) generally have very good screens, they are a little under powered when using lightroom in full screen mode. Lightroom will lag when doing edits on it. Photoshop not such much.
For 4K rendering, you'll have to wait even longer for it to finish rendering. The only proper solution to 4K editing/rendering (esp when you're doing more than just cutting clips) with a OSX is probably a MacPro.
Which is beyond the 10K budget.

I'll avoid hackintosh if your reasoning to getting OSX is stability.

Personally though... I'll go for the Razer Blade Stealth and Razer Core combination.

Thanks for the input. Generally Windows-based laptops are almost always cheaper and better in terms of performances. I do accept a slight performance disadvantage for the sake of overall system stability. Over the years that I switched to Windows from Mac I've had countless of system freezes, stupid frequent updates that delays my shutdowns significantly when I'm rushing and many more.

It's also true that current MBP's are nowhere near "current" performance benchmark. It's also one of the reason I'm still holding back, anxiously awaiting skylake 15" from Apple.

I don't mind a Windows power desktop for editing as I'd be at base and can still deal with its cock-ups, but not on laptop when I'm travelling.

This also makes me wonder if anyone has any input regarding workflow between mac and Windows for editing?

This post has been edited by netboy: Jun 5 2016, 09:25 PM

I mainly edit videos on a pure OSX platform due to FCPX. (started using FCPX and motion 4 years ago and I don't think I'll be learning Premiere anytime soon)

However, when transferring files between my team mates (some uses Premiere), I'll just export XML.

Not an effective way, but it's the only way between FCPX and Premiere Pro.


If you're using premiere pro all the way, I believe you can just edit those off an external HDD.
You can get those portable thunderbolt dual HDD or SSD. Should give you sufficient speed to edit on the go.