Integrating A MacBook Air Into A Pro Photographer’s Workflow
Digital Photography Review’s David Schloss says he’s been using Apple laptops since a PowerBook 540c back in 1994, when he would spend countless solo hours in media centers uploading images via a 14.4 kbits/sec telephone modem. He notes that while the workflow of the professional photographer hasn’t changed much in nearly two decades, the tools have evolved radically and the deadlines are much shorter.
Schloss reports that while many photographers he works with now opt for the most powerful laptops (noting that the 15-inch Retina Display MacBook Pro is incredibly popular in media centers these days) he’s been optimizing a system based on speed – something that has become an increasing priority with his clients, and his current workflow is based around the limber, slim MacBook Air.
Four generations in, he says the MacBook Air provides all the power a photographer needs and then some. His is built-to-order with a 1.7Ghz Dual Core i7 processor (that can boost its speed up to 3.3Ghz under heavy load), Intel HD Graphics 5000 video processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD hard drive – a configuration that configuration came to $1549, compared to $1199 for the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro and $2700 for the 15-inch model. Why not the super-compact 11-inch MacBook Air. Schloss says the choice simply came down to screen real estate. While the 11-inch MacBook Air is lighter and even more compact than its 13-inch sibling, the diminutive screen makes image editing too difficult, while the 13-inch is light without sacrificing image-editing space. The 13-inch Haswell MacBook Air ialso offers 12-hour battery life (in moderate use) vs. the 11-incher’s nine hours, and he says that’s a huge factor for the location photographer, and he’s gotten seven to eight hours of real-world photo-editing use out of the battery, making it one of the longest-lasting computers he’s ever used. He can rely on the MacBook Air to have enough juice to run for a whole shoot and since it has the horsepower to process any camera file he throws at it, he knows he can reliably work a full assignment on a single charge without the computer bogging him down.
The latest MacBook Air also comes with 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which offers greater range and speed. He summarized that the MacBook Air Iis one of those rare beasts that provides a professional level of power in a diminutive package without sacrificing functionality.
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