Moving to a Mac ?

[monkeyleader]

So I'm sorley tempted to ditch my desktop PC and get an iMac. I find myself playing less and less PC based games these days so now could well be the time for an iMac (24")

I was just wondering - any limitations in regards to photo processing? I know in the past the Mac has struggled with RAW files etc ..

Any advice from Mac owners in regards to photo post processing?

cheers,

Nige

[electrolyte]

Although I don't own a Mac my brother does.

He runs Lightroom perfectly fine and copes fine with RAW files. However, he is a bit of a lo-fi man and prefers film to digital and doesn't own a DSLR but has loads of film cams - eg Lomo, Holga, Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim etc - but he gets his films scanned in when he processes them and then adjusts the scans in Lightroom as if they are digital files. He has a film scanner that he is thinking of up-grading so that it will produce RAW files from his scans so I don't think you should worry about RAW compatibility.

[Liquid101]

You'll have no problems at all with the new iMacs and Leopard is a dream to use - although it'll be better after the 10.5.2 update

Having said that - the iMac line is due an update any time now - so it's worth waiting. I've been waiting for months now With any luck they'll up the proceesing power with new Penryn line, or maybe even quad core

The GPU is also in need of replacing - the HD2600 is fine, but it's not really up to much if you ant to carry on with any serious 3D stuff.

I'd put money on a refresh in the next month or so .........at least I hope so, I can't cope with this laptop for much longer.

[Deano_uk]

I'm a guy that works in the PC industry and in my house I have 3 macs and one old old PC.

I guess that tells you that although I make my living with PC's i much prefer to use Macs myself.

I was surprised and thought when I bought my Mac book pro I would still need a PC for some tasks but over the last few months I've sold on my pcs and converted totally to Macs. I haven't found a single thing that I can do with a PC that I cannot do with my mac.

Go for it you will never look back :D

[pixelpixel]

Originally Posted by monkeyleader

I was just wondering - any limitations in regards to photo processing? I know in the past the Mac has struggled with RAW files etc ..

Forget the past......apple have moved on and improved

Also note that Apple do a good range of refurbished mac's. If I was to buy one it would be this way IMO. You can save some money

[Tobers]

Macbook Air

[richard plumb]

I thought they only updated the imacs in september last year? Do they really update them that quickly?

I'm loving mine. so much simpler than the PC was, but seemingly no less capable.

[hot-fuzz]

I have alwasy been a PC man through and through, but recently have come to appreciate the power of the Mac for photo processing. My friend has one for processing solely and swears by it.
As long as you get at least a half decent one you will not be disappointed.

Trouble is, they are a bit on the expensive side.

[geofftelforduk]

Nige

I just bought a Refurbed Macbook last week from Apple.com and I am lovin it!! Its just so nice to use and the best thing is it "just works"!!! Leopard is fantastic!! I am running VMWare Fusion with Windows XP Pro for things like IIS Web Server and a couple of other Windows specific apps!! Love it!!!

[Liquid101]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

I thought they only updated the imacs in september last year? Do they really update them that quickly?

It's 193 days since the last upgrade, and the average cycle for the iMac is 205 days.

It'll probably be a processor and GPU upgrade - but wouldn't rule out a matte screen option as well.

[Peakoverload]

I converted to the dark side about a year ago and although I still use PC's everyday at work using a Mac at home has been nothing short of a revelation.

The following statement is usually the kind of statement that really winds up ardent PC users but it's true:

Until you use a Mac you really can't appreciate what it's like to use a computer that works.

The normal process for any Mac convert is something like:

Day 1: Oooh, ahh, my new Mac has arrived and isn't it gorgeous!

Day 2: Really love this Mac, a few things are confusing me but I'm sure I'll get there in the end.

Day 3: I do really love the Mac and I love the way iLife integrates beautifully and I can see there is enormous potential but why can't I just do simple things like display the properties of a file.

Day 4: They say if you can use iTunes you can use a Mac, I guess they are right.

Day 5: I've just installed my first new program. I'm in total shock. How can it be that simple, no I mean it. You thought installing a program on a PC was just about the easiest thing you could do, try it on a Mac. Seriously.

Day 6: I'm really loving this Mac, I've found that installing a program is stupifyingly simple and uninstalling it is just as easy and I now know I don't have to worry about leaving a mess in my registry and I'm getting used to the fact that to copy something I don't do a Ctrl+C but I effectively do an Alt+C but, I dunno, it still feels a little over complicated to me.

Day 7: OH MY GOD! It wasn't over complicated. It was simpler. For years I've been doing things the long way around i.e. the PC way. Now I can do things the Mac way i.e. the quicker and simpler way. I REALLY love my Mac now.

As for Mac's and RAW? Mac's LOVE RAW which is why Leopard supports them in the OS. You can view thumbnails of them in Finder (Windows Explorer to you ) and you can even preview them without opening them in any photo editing tool by using QuickView (just press the Spacebar). Welcome to the world of Apple Mac's, your life just go easier!

Seriously. Buy One. They are nothing short of stunning.

Oh and for the record, I was/am a long time PC geek (built dozens, supported hundreds professionally) who always ridiculed Mac's in the past. I doubt I'll ever buy a PC ever again and as the Mac will run Windows (better than a PC does as well for that matter!!) and Linux I'll never need to.

[Radiohead]

I'd never go back to a PC now.

[Gizmo 76]

I've been using a Mac for about 4 and a bit months now, and I would never go back either

The whole integration aspect that Peakoverload mentioned really is superb, and makes the Mac more of an experience rather than a chore. If you embrace this integration aspect, use iLife, .mac, itunes etc... and you'll wonder how you ever went about things in another way before.

Two of the OS features really stand out for me, and that I would never want to live without now are - Time Machine and Spaces. Time Machine saved my butt once, and Spaces is like having loads of screens (kinda of), no more having to move windows to get to others, you can actually assign programs to certain spaces, works really well.

You'll get updates, but you won't be as bombarded with them as your on a PC, 10.5.2 was released last week with some nice little changes.

Installing software like has been mentioned is a breeze, slightly different (except for Adobe, and Microsoft software, which is the same as you know) to what you're used to, but it's pretty much a case of just dropping the program file in to your application folder, that's it.

I use iPhoto as my main image browser/importer, then I edit my shots in Photoshop. Also Photomatix works great on it as well I'm trying out Aperture 2 at the moment, so I may invest in this in the coming months if I get on ok with it.

I haven't heard any rumours of a new iMac yet (Apple are good at keeping things under wraps until the product is pretty much ready to launch), but it might be worth waiting a 3/4 weeks after what Liquid has said.

Go onto the apple site and watch a load of their videos showing off the OS and software, you'll more than likely be impressed.

Anyways i'm off to bed now, and iMac will wake me a 10am with some music

[T0MAT01]

Originally Posted by geofftelforduk

I just bought a Refurbed Macbook last week from Apple.com and I am lovin it!!

Is apple.com the best (read cheapest! ) place to buy from? As I'm also considering a switch to Mac...

[Peakoverload]

Originally Posted by T0MAT01

Is apple.com the best (read cheapest! ) place to buy from? As I'm also considering a switch to Mac...

Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not. To a certain extent it depends on what you are buying i.e. if it's an off-the-shelf system or a custom build.

When I ordered my iMac I had a custom configuration and also ordered new speakers and an external hard drive (an iomega 640GB and very nice too). I phoned two Apple dealers and got them to quote me on the spec, I then phoned Apple and told them the spec I wanted and without me prompting they gave me a healthy discount that brought it to something like £50 less than what I was quoted elsewhere and I think that also included more RAM on the graphics card than I had asked the other companies to quote on too. So for me Apple where the cheapest, however I know of others that have had the reverse experience. Get them to quote, it can't hurt.