Photography Laptop Requirements

All juniors entering the Photography BFA program are required to purchase a laptop and software for use in their courses.

Laptop Requirement needed by 2nd year.

An Apple Macintosh laptop is most highly recommended. Although PCs are fine, they do not network easily with the visual arts server and printers.

There are two primary levels of Macintosh laptop, Macbook and Macbook Pro. Either one would be fine. Avoid the Macbook Air. The minimum specifications are suggested below for each. Educational pricing may be obtained from the Sage Mac Store (http://store.apple.com/us_edu_87510)

MacBook

13-inch: White

2.26GHz

2GB RAM. Up to 4GB RAM possible. Always get as much as you can afford as it is the most cost-effective way to speed up your computer.

MacBook Pro

15-inch: 2.53GHz

4GB RAM. Up to 8GB RAM available. Always get as much as you can afford as it is the most cost-effective way to speed up your computer.

Required Accessories needed by 2nd year

Firewire 400 external hard-drive for backups and transporting files. 500 GB is recommended. $100-$200, money well spent--you MUST back up your work. Dependable brands include LaCie, Maxtor, Iomega, Western Digital.

Recommended: 4GB USB drive

Required Software needed by 2nd year.

(Check for educational pricing.)

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended (CS4 also acceptable). This includes Adobe Bridge.

Purchasing Laptops

Sage has worked directly with Apple Computer to set up an online store specifically for students entering our program.

Click here to access the Sage Apple Store.

Alternately, you can access the Sage Apple Store as follows:

  1. Log on to www.apple.com and click on the Store tab at the top of the screen.
  2. Click on the word Education in the list directly beneath the Store tab.
  3. Underneath Shop for yourself, click Find your college or university
  4. Enter the zip code 12208, then click Sage College of Albany in the list on the right.
  5. Accept the shopping agreement, then click Take Me There

Once inside the Apple Store, you can see a list of our basic Recommended Systems by clicking on the icon in the right-hand column. These can be reconfigured to meet your specific needs.

Apple laptops can also be purchases through educational discount through Apple vendors. In the Albany area, the Apple Store in Crossgates Mall, Castle Computers in Latham, and Comp-USA in Latham all sell Apple products. If you're outside the area, you can visit http://buy.apple.com/ to find a dealer near you.

Purchasing Software

Software may be purchased online through the Sage Apple Store or through an educational software vendor. (We recommend that students purchase through educational discount since the cost savings can be significant.) The following companies sell software at educational discount to students: