SRT, I don't really know how it compares on a personal basis. Mine is still new in the box as I bought it years ago and never used it... Yes , I know , BIG gas attack. I did a lot of research though at the time and it was top shelf rated. I now have a new Mac and am interested in hooking up the scanner as I have boxes and boxes of slides; hope the colors have not faded too much. It is a dedicated scanner and will scan at a very high resolution. Silverfast software seems to be a viable option as it was also recommended by a # of hogs. I wil post how things work out as I will hookup soon... bob. PS... I only went to Silverfast because the OEM software would not work on the newer Mac processors.

Trying to reinvent the wheel with off brands of OS and software seems daunting to me and an expense of time when there is a superb set of software available for photographers.

I have been shooting RAW since 2005. There are no finer programs for handling RAW images than Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Shooting Real Estate and events, I shoot a minimum of 300 images per day and without Lightroom I do not know how I could manage the workflow.

Lightroom gives you the ability to shoot a white balance target and setting the color temperature instantly for 1 exposure to the whole sequence of shots with the click of your mouse. Absolutely no need to fool around with white balance in the camera.

From there you can edit Lightroom images in Photoshop to your liking, return the new image to Lightroom and export the collection in High Res or LR to a designated folder for sending files to the client, burning DVDs, or storage. For $10/mo for my money I would not mess with the other junk out there.

I live in the southwest corner of Vermont, love to go different places in this general area of New England. Woodstock is in a beautiful area, have been there multiple times, but mostly stopping off when passing through. Did you see a lot of the area, such as the Billings Farm and Museum, and of course, the town of Woodstock? Quechee Gorge is just down the road, with a great view from the bridge. We walked down into the gorge, and I got some great photos.

When looking at computers, Dell's website gives the specifications and you can select what you want and "build" your own. If you are not sure just what you need for best photo developing, the customer service people can help with that. There also have been some excellent posts on just this subject on UHH. Unfortunately, I don't have a link for some of them, but you could do a search. One person who I recall had great recommendations was Gene51, as well as others. You want to have a computer that is fast, otherwise everything will be way too slow, and plenty of memory. If you are buying a desktop, it will be easier to find the right combinations; if buying a laptop, get the best you can, and add on at least two external Hard Drives for storing and backing up your photos, with lots of memory. Otherwise you are more likely to run out of storage space and have to move everything over to an xHD anyway.

Just found one notation I made about Dell laptops. Pretty sure there were a couple of others, but perhaps this will help:

Inspiron 15 5000
- dedicated video card
-15.6" FHD [1920x1080] - anti-glare LED backlit display

The dedicated video card speeds things up, and the anti-glare monitor is so much better for viewing. I have an IPS monitor 27" Ultrasharp for my desktop and love it.

There might be other choices that are better, just have to do the research. Of course you could have one custom built for a similar price, if there is a person in your area who does that and is well-recommended.

Susan

I just retired from an IT job so while I'm ill-equipped to advise on photography post-processing, I can advise get a new laptop from HP, Dell or Lenovo with at least 8GB RAM,good video card, and solid state drive. If you're a member, Costco or Sams club has some decent selection and also have external back up drives at great prices. If your not a member, Best Buy has competitive pricing. The price of desktops and laptops have plummeted in recent years so you should be able to get something really nice for not too much money.

Best of luck!

You all looking for a good PC. Have one made just for you, it's much cheaper. I have a friend that has a computer repair shop. He started with a new case & every piece he put in it was new plus he put in what I wanted. I ask him what about that extended warranty the big stores want you to buy, his answer was why do you want that for ? He then said I warranty it for a year you don't need to worry & if your hard drive goes bad then the maker of the hard drive will warranty it for three years, there again everyone is still happy, & after four years & you still have it well Mc I work on PC's. My PC cost me $ 600.00 & if I had gotten it a Best-buy it would be at-least $ 1800.00

Lots here for me to learn from when I get up to speed with my new Nikon.

But what I will add as a long-time Windows user is that a couple of years back I took a deep breath and decided to switch to Apple Mac. Purchased an Apple Mac mini - see https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/ and have never looked back. It was much easier to update the brain cells (what were left of them) from Windows to Mac and the money saved on the computer was put into a really nice screen for my desk. Best of luck and look forward to reading more.

I don't know much about the scanner devices mentioned, but can speak to the rest of your post.

First, your gear is quite decent for working on upgrading your photography. None of the lenses have wide available apertures for low-light situations, but so often when using a lens that does, it is still stopped down! So it seems to me you can do very well with what you have. Just work on your technical skills to gain better understanding of what your camera can do, work on composition and such things as keeping the background and edges in mind as well as the primary subject matter, and remember that most images are greatly improved when you can capture the light!

Second, for editing photos, it is best to have a newer better computer with sufficient speed and large enough screen to see the images. I use a desktop with large 27" monitor because I get into small details in some editing projects. But there are good laptops as well. Dell is the one I choose.

Third, photo management and editing, LR is a very good program that does both. I found it fairly easy to learn, although there are certain concepts that have to be understood and some people do struggle with them. The main one is that LR manages your images through a Catalog system, but your actual images are NOT in LR - they are in a folder on your Hard Drive. But all management must be done from within LR so that LR always knows where to find your images when you are looking at them and editing. Any changes made directly in the folder on your HD will make LR lose track of them and then it will tell you those photos or files are missing! Get a free trial and try it out before purchasing. If you get the subscription, PS will be included which allows you to learn it later on when ready. And there are lots of places to find information/get answers to questions about LR.

Shooting in RAW is best for good image quality, but generally requires at least some basic editing. It contains a lot more information than a JPG image, and editing can be done in more depth.

Hope this helps.
Susan

I have to say upfront that I only have 16MP camera so the file isn't too large. I use an old HP Z600 workstation with dual Xeon 5620, 12Gb of RAM. It has an old ATI Firepro V5700. I paid $400 for it 3 years ago used. I bought a couple of NEC LCD2190p monitors. They are only 1600x1200 monitor but support hardware calibration. I use NEC Spectraview II software with an old Spyder II. I use Photoshop CC and it works very well for me. The computer came with Windows 7 Pro and I took the free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro from Microsoft. I paid $60 for each of the monitor which are 3 years old. I am happy with the $520 system.

Getting a decent monitor and calibrator really isn't intimidating. The key is calibration (linearizing the output of the monitor so it produces perfect gray at all brightness levels from black to white) and profiling (telling the operating system's color management system EXACTLY what YOUR SPECIFIC DEVICE can do. With a calibrated and profiled monitor, you know that the color you see is displayed as accurately as it can be on your equipment.

I have an iMac. I calibrate and profile it once a month. The procedure is quite simple — I plug in the USB "hockey puck" (colorimeter). Start the software. Follow instructions on screen. Review the results. The software verifies that my iMac displays slightly more than the sRGB color space (pretty much the standard in most of the photo world). So my prints match my screen...

I use the same calibration kit to profile the other Macs and PC in our house. We can trust our monitors, because they are all calibrated to the same standards.

It matters when you are preparing files to send to a photo lab, post on the Internet, or print on your inkjet printer with quality inks and photo papers. And yes, it matters when you work in black-and-white, because it gives you that linearized view of your grays.

Spend decent money on a monitor and a calibrator (DataColor Spyder5Pro+ or similar item from X-RITE). A good calibrated and ICC-profiled monitor is a necessity for accurate color imaging, whether the destination is screen or printer. Monitor and calibrator together should run about $500 for full sRGB color gamut, and more, if you want Adobe RGB.

A faster computer is in order. AT LEAST 8GB RAM, 2.5GHz dual core i5, 1TB hard drive, etc. Get something that would work for gaming... It's usually fine for photo editing. Consider getting an SSD drive for it. SSDs are an order of magnitude faster than conventional hard drives, so I/O operations (reading from and writing to disk) go MUCH faster. Photo editing is fairly I/O intensive. Video editing is even more I/O intensive.

As others have indicated, look at Affinity Photo. For $50 or so, once, it is a bargain. Photoshop does everything, but probably is overkill for most hobbyists/enthusiasts. I use Photoshop and Lightroom CC, but I do professional level work, and grew up with both of those tools. If you sell your work, $10/month is a bargain. If not, well... do you get that much value from it?

My background is about the same, as in "Old guy, retired, strictly amateur, but an avid picture-taker..." I used to think that the "peak" of my photography fun may have been my Tri-X days and the darkroom I built. A job change forced a move and I lost the dark room. I spent a couple decades dreaming of the old darkroom and shooting with a Canon Elph when I had to take a picture of something. But, it was not very exciting.

After retirement, my granddaughters showed some photography interest. I decided to help. The tables turned as I started answering their questions. I forced me to look beyond the Canon Elph.

The BIG DEAL for me was the discovery of Lightroom and RAW shooting. Sure, a few people hate Adobe and their CC rental plan. I'm not one of them. I one of the several million that joyfully give them the $10 every month. Like the old darkroom, Lightroom and Photoshop give me endless opportunities to learn and use both new and old techniques.

SRT101fan, I encourage you to fix your computer issue and then commit to the Adobe plan. Don't try to conquer it all at once. Shoot a few dozen RAW shots and discover the adjustment (development) capabilities. Odds are you'll have more fun with photography than ever.

Just to be sure I say it, Adobe's stuff is not better or worse than the others. But, as king of the mountain, the learning options are exponentially greater than for all the other photography tools combined. Don't commit to the Adobe rental plan because it is better in itself. It is only better because there are so many avenues to rich learning experiences.

Get your computer fixed, good luck and have a lot of fun!