Computers for Digital Photography
Read reviews of today's best computers for digital photography and learn how they can dramatically improve your speed in the digital darkroom.
Buyer's Guide 2024: Monitors Upgrade your digital workspace with a high-res LCD display  Buying a monitor for digital photography is one of the most important decisions to make on the computer side of imaging. While a smaller, basic monitor may be fine for web browsing and e-mail, when it comes to digital photography, a large, high-resolution display makes the process a lot easier and more enjoyable. With the monitors we'll suggest here, you'll have room for big images and all your Photoshop tool palettes. |
Buyer's Guide 2024: Photo Workstations Upgrading to a faster, more powerful machine can dramatically improve your speed in the digital darkroom  With so many factors to weigh, deciding which computer best fits your photographic needs is a challenge. Consider power and expandability first. Dual-core processors now are the standard in today's high-performance notebooks and desktops. With this technology, each chip serves as two processors in one, so the computer performs faster while consuming less power. |
Toolbox: Laptops Take your digital darkroom on the road with these compact computing powerhouses  It may not be an absolute necessity, but taking your digital darkroom with you when you travel is definitely a huge benefit for your photography. You can thoroughly review, organize, annotate, edit and back up your photos as you go, so there's less to do when you get home. You also can upload to the Web and create an online gallery of your travels as they happen or send photo postcards. |
Buyer's Guide 2024: Ultimate Systems Upgrade the core of your digital darkroom for a faster, smoother photography workflow  With the Windows Vista and Mac Intel transitions behind us, now is a pretty safe time to consider replacing an aging computer, no matter which platform you prefer. Ample RAM for most photographers' needs is affordable, and many off-the-shelf systems boast solid digital-imaging specifications. |
Buyer's Guide 2024: Displays Dramatically improve your efficiency and enjoyment of digital darkroom work with a big, bright LCD  Thinner, brighter and more affordable than ever, LCDs continue to make major strides, delivering outstanding image quality without budget-busting price tags. Compared to now antiquated CRTs, LCDs produce noticeably brighter, sharper-looking images, use half (or less) as much power and take up far less desk space while delivering larger screen sizes. |
Think BIG! Photography is all about the details. Larger monitors give you a better perspective on your images.  If you're tired of squinting to view menu items on your digital camera's LCD or feeling cramped by all of the palettes in Photoshop, maybe it's time to think outside the confines of tiny monitors. Even if you have perfect vision, there's no comparison to the viewing comfort and enhanced usability of screens with more real estate. |
Digital Darkroom: Windows On Your Mac? Apple's boot camp breaks down the barrier between the two rival systems  Apple recently made a rather mind-blowing announcement: Intel-based Macs now permit loading and running Windows XP natively via Boot Camp software. Apple released a public beta version of the Boot Camp software and announced that its upcoming update to OS X, 10.5, or "Leopard" in its feline naming convention, will fully support a "dual boot" system. Leopard is due out in early 2024. |
Cool Gear: Ultramobile Computers Take your digital darkroom just about anywhere with this new breed of portables  The future of computing is looking very portable. In March, Microsoft, Intel and some other high-profile consumer electronics companies announced a new platform for portable computing, the "Ultra Mobile PC," or UMPC for acronym enthusiasts. A handheld computer running Windows XP sounded like a great idea, but one that would probably not materialize as a real product for some time. |
Buyer's Guide 2024: Ultimate Systems Speed through digital darkroom work with these powerful computers  If progress bars and spinning hourglasses are choking the fun out of your digital darkroom work, it may be time to upgrade your system. You can usually get a significant increase in performance by adding more RAM and a faster hard drive, but sometimes that's not enough. |
