[filmscanners] Re: Get a Mac...Digital Darkroom ComputerBuilders?

["John Poirier" <jpoirier@theedge.ca>]

----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Paul D. DeRocco
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 4:23 PM
To: laurie@advancenet.net
Subject: [filmscanners] RE: Get a Mac...Digital Darkroom
ComputerBuilders?


At the other extreme, there's a lot more freeware available for Windows than
for a Mac, and often even a pro needs some twiddly little utility to perform
some obscure function that the major software doesn't have. For instance,
for my Minolta DiMage 7 camera, the only alternative raw to TIFF converters
I've seen on the web are for Windows. That may change eventually, but the
Windows market is a much bigger cauldron of software creativity.

--

I think that observation is correct.  Software selection becomes a  factor
for me when I look beyond simple imaging to image management and file
management in general.

I have used Photoshop extensively on both platforms, and to me there is not
a whole lot of difference either in terms of end product or the means of
getting there.  It is true that there are differences in initial setup in
terms of getting devices to work etc., but once that hurdle is passed anyone
who is genuinely competent in digital image should be able to get by just
fine on either platform.

I can see why people like Macs in terms of ease of hardware setup, but there
are other factors to be considered in platform choice.  As mentioned,
software selection is a consideration.  Another is support.  In the
organization where I work  the IT staff are totally Windows-oriented.  It is
much easier for all concerned to use Windows machines for imaging.  I also
use Windows systems at home because that's what I am familiar with, and my
experience wrestling with Windows on the job makes it relatively easy to
keep things going at home.

If I were starting from scratch as an inexperienced individual or in a small
organization doing relatively low-volume work with no organizational IT
considerations, I would probably go for a Mac.

Basically, I don't see what the fight is about.  Both platforms can get the
job done.  Neither has  magical properties that makes it superior in some
inexpressible way to the other.  Just choose what works for your particular
situation.

(I do have a guy working for me who has about a dozen G3s running sound
recordings.  He runs Pro Tools and it works great.  However, he's perfectly
capable of building a Mac from  a pile of parts and having it work the first
time- a good thing because our IT guys are terrified by the them, and G3s
seem to go sour just as often as the average Windows system.)

John Poirier

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