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Posted

Probably in the wrong forum but I don't want the "technophiles" in the IT section blowing my brains out.

My aged PC has finally given up. I'm disinclined to rebuild it (again) and am thinking as follows.

As a photographer I've long since been aware of the accolades poured on the Apple Mac stuff; faster, superior graphics , colour rendition etc

So I'm considering a 24" iMac. The Macbook and MacPro are not in the equation: I'm using a 17" Toshiba Qosmio for travel and can't afford a MacPro!

I know it's going to be a learning curve but before I take the plunge I wonder if you guys have any experience or thoughts on this.

The issues that I'm interested in are:-

1) Firstly, is the iMac a good machine

2) Copying all my photo related stuff over. I see from the Apple site that one of their "Geniuses" attends to this for free (in Thailand?)

3) Are the graphics, colours and speed all that they claim (versus a fast Windows system)

4) Software. I currently use Lightroom and Photoshop CS3 - will this sit on the Mac o/s

5) What problems am I likely/knowingly going to experience

I guess there's many more issues but if anyone has a view, or indeed has switched over I'd appreciate your opinion.

Posted

1) yes, very good.

2) Simple task, even a muppet could do it, (not calling you a muppet), i am sure the shop staff will do it for free though.

3) Yes

4) Yes, perhaps the shop staff will give you a good deal. I told the guy in Phantip Plaza i wanted to install Office for Mac and he installed it for free. I use Photoshop CS3 and it's faster than on Windows.

5) Mac OS X is very easy to learn, if you are worried there are plenty of books you can get. The only issue is wishing you moved to a mac last year not this year!

Nidge.

Posted

I moved to a 24" Imac from XP last year. Never regretted it for a moment.

First thing you will notice is that Lightroom runs much faster on a Mac (processed full resolution previews four times faster than my XP machine which had the same CPU inside). CS3 runs fine.

Mac OS is easy and fun to learn. I bought a book and worked through that for a few hours to learn some of the tricks; but it really is easy. Some of the new features in Leopard (Cover Flow and Quick View) are very useful for photo previewing.

The iMac is a fantastic self-contained media machine. Music sounds great, movies look great and it is perfect for photo processing. With the latest iMac models you just need to be careful about positioning in your room because the new screens are reflective so you have to avoid too much backlight.

I run my iMac into a network which has a couple of network storage drives attached. I download my photos to the iMac initially when importing them to Lightroom; but then I move all my photos to the network drive. This does not seem to slow down subsequent processing in Lightroom.

I have a Firewire drive attached to the iMac for Time Machine backups. Time Machine works really well and has saved my life on more than one occasion when I need to recover something I deleted earlier by mistake.

I bought the bluetooth keyboard which I prefer to the standard keyboard; but that is just down to personal preference.

As Nidge said, the only downside is the regret you will feel at not having moved sooner!

Hope that helps. Hugh

Posted

Well, thank you both so much.

Lightroom is the main "problem" - so slow on my windows set-up. Glad to hear the iMac addresses this.

"Hughden" could you explain a little more please -

"I run my iMac into a network which has a couple of network storage drives attached. I download my photos to the iMac initially when importing them to Lightroom; but then I move all my photos to the network drive. This does not seem to slow down subsequent processing in Lightroom" ............not too sure what you mean in relation to "moving" all your photos.

Very much appreciate your replies and assurances - Seems a trip to Pantip is inevitable!

Posted

Vulcan,

If you have a portable hard drive that you use for windows you can plug that into your mac and copy directly from it. Transferring files is a simple as that. I always have at least 1 portable hard drive attached to mine, (macbookpro). If you use time machine, (the awesome back up facility), you will need an external hard drive anyway.

Nidge.

Posted

Thanks "nidge"

I've actually got 2 x 160Gb portables that I back all up to so seems this is the way to go. Would you suggest a further (maybe larger) external hard drive over and above this? I ask this question as I'm currently "storing" about 120Gb of shots and feel the inclination to acquire some sort of larger external storage.

It seems also that both yourself and "hughden" advocate REMOVING photos from the machine to an external drive. May I ask why? I've always BACKED UP to an external BUT retained the original imports on my machine - or am I reading you both wrongly.

This area is becoming an issue to me as I'm currently shooting about 1Gb a day so you can see my concern about space and storage.

I know "hughden" shoots as much, if not more, than me and I'm curious as to what you guys use to overcome/protect/store your stuff. My 200Gb storage on my Qosmio is rapidly diminishing!

Thanks in advance

Posted

I don't remove my pics, although i don't shoot anywhere near as much as you either.

Large external drives are really cheap now, I would go for a 500Gb drive or more if i was in your situation. I believe it's best with OS X that you leave at least 20Gb hard drive space to keep everything running smoothly. Look for a drive that works using firewire rather than USB. I just got one and it is faster than USB although more expensive. Mine is firewire 400, the 800 is faster still. (although after using windows everything will seem to be turbocharged :o )

Nidge

Posted (edited)
So I'm considering a 24" iMac. The Macbook and MacPro are not in the equation: I'm using a 17" Toshiba Qosmio for travel and can't afford a MacPro!

I thought 24" iMac costs just as much as MacBook Pro if not more?

This area is becoming an issue to me as I'm currently shooting about 1Gb a day so you can see my concern about space and storage.

Apple store in Thailand told me I can order BTO version iMac (that you can normally order only through Apple website elsewhere) with maximum HDD capacity of 1TB but you have to wait about a month for delivery. You'll lose warranty if you replace the HDD within a year of your purchase and they're reluctant to do so for my MBP (which came with only 80GB HDD).

BTW as you might already know fotofile is now an Apple dealer and they probably can answer all your questions for iMac.

4) Software. I currently use Lightroom and Photoshop CS3 - will this sit on the Mac o/s

My package of Lightroom (which I haven't installed yet as I ran out of inernal HDD space) says it's for both Mac and Windows.

And it doesn't take any genuis to copy files from Windows machines to Mac. :o

Edited by Nordlys
Posted

Don't really want the MacBook - looking for a desk top actually

Hope I'm reading the FotoFile site correct

Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon Processors - 103,500 :D

Mac Pro 3.0GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon Processors - 269,000 !!!! :o

iMAC 24-inch 2.4GHz - 72,900 :D

Apple Quote:-

"Moving to Mac? Let a genius do it.

You don’t need to be a genius to use a Mac. But you may want a Genius to help you move to a Mac. Bring your PC into any Apple Store and a certified Apple Genius — an in-store expert with a mastery of all things Mac — will move everything to your new Mac for you. It couldn’t be easier. But then, it’s Apple."

Hope they got one at FotoFile :D

Posted

Welcome to the world of iMac. Now you have the choice of using lightroom or aperture for your photo management . Last year I bought lightroom at a student discount price of $90 and never felt comfortable using it. Lightroom seem to work fine but not very user friendly. Last month apple lowered the price of Aperature when they released version 2.0. I tried the trial version and the next day and bought the full version. Its beautiful ! In addition it meshes nicely with other Apple programs such as iPhoto, email, iweb, keynote etc.., and even photoshop.

Aperature has its own backup system called Vault. This program will do a great job of backing up all your photos. Do not use the backup system Time Machine which is included with Leopard. Time machine does a great job of all files except photos from either Lightroom or Aperature.

Good Luck

Posted

Sorry for not explaining myself too well.

If your photo volume is not too high, then keeping them on the iMac and backing them up via Time Machine will be fine. However I have about 13,000 RAW files in my Lightroom catalogue so I needed some larger storage. I keep my photos on a 500GB Synology NAS device which sits on my wired network.

When I first take photos off a CF card I copy them to the iMac for initial review and processing. Once I have finished any urgent work; I move the photos from my iMac to my NAS drive. Next time I start up Lightroom it can't find the photos (obviously); but then I repoint the source to the NAS and all is well again. Lightroom seems perfectly happy accessing photos on the NAS; but it did not like having to do an initial import from the NAS (very very slow), which is why I start with my photos on the iMac.

The NAS backs up to an attached USB drive. My iMac backs up to a Firewire drive using Time Machine. You could keep your photos on an attached Firewire or USB drive; but then there is the issue of backing that up.

I find this approach enables me to keep large numbers of photos in an accessible place, backed up, and not clogging up my iMac hard drive. I also have a Macbook which can access the NAS based library via a wireless network. All of this is really easy to set up on a Mac.

Hope that helps clarify.

Posted

Thanks "hughden" for that clarification.

The back-up procedure you employ is actually similar to that which I currently use. Glad to see I'm on the same wavelength as others :o

All in all I'm now convinced that the iMac is indeed the route to go.

Many thanks again to you all for your attention

Posted

highden wrote

The NAS backs up to an attached USB drive. My iMac backs up to a Firewire drive using Time Machine. You could keep your photos on an attached Firewire or USB drive; but then there is the issue of backing that up.

Sorry I gave some wrong info about backing up Lightroom photos with time machine. I did recently read on a forum that it was not recommended and epeated what I read. You are doing it and it works. I stand corrected.

FYI, I took advantage of the reasonable prices of external drives and bought two 500GB drives, one for primary storage and the other for backups.

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