Got a new M1 MacBook Pro!

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Further recommendation for base model MacBook Pro. Lightroom is excellent to use and there are many useful YouTube tutorials to help you and Steve’s comprehensive Lightroom video based teaching course. The latest version of LR has excellent masking options and its library organisation is very easy to use. D500 files are not big by today’s standards either @Bazzaton2712 and in any case additional external storage is cheap these days if you should need it. Larger HD storage on the Mac would be faster but much more expensive.
 
After a LOT of research I decided that even as a professional video editor (and of course heavy Lightroom and moderate PS user) the 16" M1 Pro with 32gb's of RAM would do the trick (the M1 MAX and 64 GB's of RAM really are for developers or heavy rendering vfx/cgi/After effects type use, etc).

This replaced the most recent fully tricked out (fastest provcessor/64GB's of RAM) 16" Intel MacBook Pro. That machine was pretty great compared to all previous laptops, this one destroys it.

I went into the archive of recent editing projects (4k video, some simple effects, titles, color correction, etc) and it's like a small miracle and for this forum I messed with a variety of files from my A1 and A7rIV and everything I've done from simply moving to the next image to auto selecting the subject or sky is basically instant. As powerful as my Intel Mac is it does - not infrequently - get hung up on some of these things and it's pretty great knowing that will no longer be the case.

Anyway, if you're in the market I highly recommend one.
I was also amazed how quick it was downloading to Photomechanic - using a Delkin Black CFExpress Card (1750Mb/s) with a Blackjet card reader on the 14" MBP M1 Pro, I downloaded 25Gb of jpgs in 58s vs 8.50s using same card & reader to a 2017 iMac! Next day I downloaded 58Gb in 2 mins!
 
I was also amazed how quick it was downloading to Photomechanic - using a Delkin Black CFExpress Card (1750Mb/s) with a Blackjet card reader on the 14" MBP M1 Pro, I downloaded 25Gb of jpgs in 58s vs 8.50s using same card & reader to a 2017 iMac! Next day I downloaded 58Gb in 2 mins!
Hi Johan, How warm/hot does the Blackjet Reader get when attached with no card and when transferring files? (I assume it is the Thderbolt interface). Thanks.
 
I nee d to take the=plunge as now early retired and living now in Kent coast UK the wildlife have re opened my love for photography; what editing program would you advise using if I upgrade to a Mac please
I used Photoshop and Lightroom as my main programs. For quick culling I use Photomechanics. Must quickly than LR. Of course I have all sorts of plugins, Topaz, Nik, ..., lots of choices - pick the style of edittng your like.
 
I bought a Macbook Air a few months ago for a travel computer. It's faster handling files than my 6 year old iMac (which I can hardly wait to replace with an M1 27" iMac).
 
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I used Photoshop and Lightroom as my main programs. For quick culling I use Photomechanics. Must quickly than LR. Of course I have all sorts of plugins, Topaz, Nik, ..., lots of choices - pick the style of edittng your like.
Why does Photmechanics work quicker than P or X for culling files in LR, plus star ratings and survey mode, @RichF ?
 
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Hi Johan, How warm/hot does the Blackjet Reader get when attached with no card and when transferring files? (I assume it is the Thderbolt interface). Thanks.
The card reader stays cool and the card is cool as well. I was reading reviews on B&H site about different readers and most of them had the cards getting very hot during downloads, or getting very hot even when not removed from the reader right away after downloads. This (metal) reader is VERY fast and card stays cool, whether you remove it right away or leave it in the reader - highly recommended even though it's double the price of most of the plastic readers.

Besides the heat issue, we're going into a long period of using CFExpress Type B cards (also reads XQD), so it'll be worth it over the long run

It's a lot bigger than most readers, however not too big for me when uploading images from a sports field
Screen Shot 2022-01-15 at 9.29.27 am.png
 
Why does Photmechanics work quicker than P or X for culling files in LR, plus star ratings and survey mode, @RichF ?
PhotoMechanic (PM) renders images instantly and you can scroll through RAW images as fast as you can press the keyboard left/right arrow.
But for me the biggest advantage of PM is that you can start reviewing the images while the card is still downloading, whereas in Lightroom (LR) you need to wait for the whole card to download first - then when viewing images in LR, each image takes a few seconds to render.

My workflow is upload images to PM. Then cull / select those I need to edit in LR. Caption the images if required. THEN take the few selected ones to LR and edit as required.

PM is great even if you're not a sports photographer / journalist that needs to upload and/or caption images quickly. If e.g you shoot birds, just the ability to review them quickly will save you a LOT of time - lately the slowest cameras are 7fps, so a day of shooting a few thousand images x a few seconds per image = lots of time.

CameraBits is the company that makes PM software - cost is $150 and their support is great. Their support dept responds very quickly to queries / issues and their website has great videos how to use it - from very basic use to quite complicated setups. HIGHLY recommended.
 
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I suspect that PM used embedded jpgs in each raw file, LR does something else
PhotoMechanic (PM) renders images instantly and you can scroll through RAW images as fast as you can press the keyboard left/right arrow.
But for me the biggest advantage of PM is that you can start reviewing the images while the card is still downloading, whereas in Lightroom (RM) you need to wait for the whole card to download first - then when viewing images in LR, each image takes a few seconds to render.

My workflow is upload images to PM. Then cull / select those I need to edit in LR. Caption the images if required. THEN take the few selected ones to LR and edit as required.

PM is great even if you're not a sports photographer / journalist that needs to upload and/or caption images quickly. If e.g you shoot birds, just the ability to review them quickly will save you a LOT of time - lately the slowest cameras are 7fps, so a day of shooting a few thousand images x a few seconds per image = lots of time.

CameraBits is the company that makes PM software - cost is $150 and their support is great. Their support dept responds very quickly to queries / issues and their website has great videos how to use it - from very basic use to quite complicated setups. HIGHLY recommended.
Thanks Rich and Johan. I shall check out their website and videos to see if it would benefit my workflow. Thanks for the helpful info, and taking the time to reply, Bruce
 
After a LOT of research I decided that even as a professional video editor (and of course heavy Lightroom and moderate PS user) the 16" M1 Pro with 32gb's of RAM would do the trick (the M1 MAX and 64 GB's of RAM really are for developers or heavy rendering vfx/cgi/After effects type use, etc).

This replaced the most recent fully tricked out (fastest provcessor/64GB's of RAM) 16" Intel MacBook Pro. That machine was pretty great compared to all previous laptops, this one destroys it.

I went into the archive of recent editing projects (4k video, some simple effects, titles, color correction, etc) and it's like a small miracle and for this forum I messed with a variety of files from my A1 and A7rIV and everything I've done from simply moving to the next image to auto selecting the subject or sky is basically instant. As powerful as my Intel Mac is it does - not infrequently - get hung up on some of these things and it's pretty great knowing that will no longer be the case.

Anyway, if you're in the market I highly recommend one.
I have the 13" MacBook Pro M1 with 16GB memory and 1TB SSD, connected to a BenQ 32" 4K monitor. I am happy.
 
Congrats to all with new MacBook Pros. I've been waiting for the update to the 27" IMac but may go ahead and get a 14" M1 Pro as my 13" laptop is pretty old now too. With so much pent up demand it may take quite awhile once the IMacs are announced to actually get one. Not sure if I will still plan on purchasing the IMac or go for a monitor for the lap top and be done for awhile. I would love to hear from those who made recent MacBook Pro purchases what you decided about an external monitor.
Thanks! Carol
 
Congrats to all with new MacBook Pros. I've been waiting for the update to the 27" IMac but may go ahead and get a 14" M1 Pro as my 13" laptop is pretty old now too. With so much pent up demand it may take quite awhile once the IMacs are announced to actually get one. Not sure if I will still plan on purchasing the IMac or go for a monitor for the lap top and be done for awhile. I would love to hear from those who made recent MacBook Pro purchases what you decided about an external monitor.
Thanks! Carol
hook it up to a 27" monitor (or larger) and get the best of both worlds. I did that with my 13" MBP and like the combo. Laptop for travel, desktop for at home

Jeff
 
Congrats to all with new MacBook Pros. I've been waiting for the update to the 27" IMac but may go ahead and get a 14" M1 Pro as my 13" laptop is pretty old now too. With so much pent up demand it may take quite awhile once the IMacs are announced to actually get one. Not sure if I will still plan on purchasing the IMac or go for a monitor for the lap top and be done for awhile. I would love to hear from those who made recent MacBook Pro purchases what you decided about an external monitor.
Thanks! Carol

I’m pretty happy with the laptop/Eizo ColorEdge CS2731 27" setup. As a home/desktop setup it’s super solid plus I have the flexibility of the laptop.
 
Congrats to all with new MacBook Pros. I've been waiting for the update to the 27" IMac but may go ahead and get a 14" M1 Pro as my 13" laptop is pretty old now too. With so much pent up demand it may take quite awhile once the IMacs are announced to actually get one. Not sure if I will still plan on purchasing the IMac or go for a monitor for the lap top and be done for awhile. I would love to hear from those who made recent MacBook Pro purchases what you decided about an external monitor.
Thanks! Carol
I debated between waiting for a new 5K iMac or MacMini with M1Pro/Max VS getting the MBP and using that with an external. I'm happy with my decision of using an external monitor and moving the laptop from my desk and my couch plus when travelling. I got a OWC TB4 dock which has a nice piece of software that in one click ejects all drives before I disconnect the single TB4 cable going into the MBP. I have around 8 external volumes connected so having to go and eject each one would have been a headache.
I bought a BenQ PD3200 monitor and am using my 2009 iMac via Target Display Mode as a 2nd screen. Unfortunately my 2015 5K iMac is now collecting dust which is why I'm done buying iMacs and if I do go back to a desktop setup it will be a higher end MacMini. I don't need a collection of beautiful screens with outdated computers sitting in my basement. LOL
 
I debated between waiting for a new 5K iMac or MacMini with M1Pro/Max VS getting the MBP and using that with an external. I'm happy with my decision of using an external monitor and moving the laptop from my desk and my couch plus when travelling. I got a OWC TB4 dock which has a nice piece of software that in one click ejects all drives before I disconnect the single TB4 cable going into the MBP. I have around 8 external volumes connected so having to go and eject each one would have been a headache.
I bought a BenQ PD3200 monitor and am using my 2009 iMac via Target Display Mode as a 2nd screen. Unfortunately my 2015 5K iMac is now collecting dust which is why I'm done buying iMacs and if I do go back to a desktop setup it will be a higher end MacMini. I don't need a collection of beautiful screens with outdated computers sitting in my basement. LOL
Thank you for sharing this. It's very helpful and I will look into the products you mentioned, OWC dock is something I'm not familiar with. I have a 2014 IMac with a beautiful screen that I will give to a relative who doesn't have the same processing needs with a warning to only store data on an external drive. It's too bad it can't be used as a second monitor.
 
hook it up to a 27" monitor (or larger) and get the best of both worlds. I did that with my 13" MBP and like the combo. Laptop for travel, desktop for at home

Jeff
I'm considering this option myself. New 14 inch M1 MBP is my daily driver and I've got a 2019 Intel iMac that's the family file server/LR machine back in the office as well as another older Mac mini hooked up to the TV. I'm considering whether to replace the iMac with a new one when the larger screen version comes out or whether to move the file server services to the mini and get a good 5K monitor and just hook up my laptop to it when I want the larger screen for LR/PS.

LR catalogs are definitely less cumbersome with a single computer although it's not that hard to have one on the laptop, the master on the desktop, and do the export/import routine for photos from a trip. I'm waiting to see what this year's larger iMac does before making a decision…and a separate monitor that will last for several computers is certainly cheaper and more efficient overall than tossing perfectly good monitors when one wants to upgrade the computer they're attached to.

If I do go the keep a desktop route…I will probably choose this year's 'pro' Mac mini and a monitor unless the larger iMac is compelling or I can't find an acceptable 5K monitor. Apple's monitor is nice but it's like 5K or something and that's overkill but rumor has it they're working on a cheaper but still nice 5K monitor in the 2-2.5K range…
 
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I'm considering this option myself. New 14 inch M1 MBP is my daily driver and I've got a 2019 Intel iMac that's the family file server/LR machine back in the office as well as another older Mac mini hooked up to the TV. I'm considering whether to replace the iMac with a new one when the larger screen version comes out or whether to move the file server services to the mini and get a good 5K monitor and just hook up my laptop to it when I want the larger screen for LR/PS.

LR catalogs are definitely less cumbersome with a single computer although it's not that hard to have one on the laptop, the master on the desktop, and do the export/import routine for photos from a trip. I'm waiting to see what this year's larger iMac does before making a decision…and a separate monitor that will last for several computers is certainly cheaper and more efficient overall than tossing perfectly good monitors when one wants to upgrade the computer they're attached to.

If I do go the keep a desktop route…I will probably choose this year's 'pro' Mac mini and a monitor unless the larger iMac is compelling or I can't find an acceptable 5K monitor. Apple's monitor is nice but it's like 5K or something and that's overkill but rumor has it they're working on a cheaper but still nice 5K monitor in the 2-2.5K range…
"pro" Mac Mini???
 
"pro" Mac Mini???
it's not really called Pro by Apple but generally speaking they've had for a decent number of years both the entry level white mini and a higher end silver/gray one with more ports, better specs, and such. In this case…I expect that by the summer or so we'll see both a higher end larger screen iMac and a higher end mini with the M1 Max chip…possibly even a dual M1 Max capability assuming they can make the software part of that work right…the thermal envelope for a dual chip model in either desktop would. be pretty easy to accomplish…assuming that there's actually much of a performance benefit but it might be that inter chip channels just aren't fast or wide enough to really utilize a second chip fully. OTOH…the software could offload one set of tasks to each chip and then inter chip comms bandwidth would go way down I guess.
 
it's not really called Pro by Apple but generally speaking they've had for a decent number of years both the entry level white mini and a higher end silver/gray one with more ports, better specs, and such. In this case…I expect that by the summer or so we'll see both a higher end larger screen iMac and a higher end mini with the M1 Max chip…possibly even a dual M1 Max capability assuming they can make the software part of that work right…the thermal envelope for a dual chip model in either desktop would. be pretty easy to accomplish…assuming that there's actually much of a performance benefit but it might be that inter chip channels just aren't fast or wide enough to really utilize a second chip fully. OTOH…the software could offload one set of tasks to each chip and then inter chip comms bandwidth would go way down I guess.
Thanks for the info. My old 2015 iMac bogs down horribly with the big A1 files, so I just started shooting 21 MB APSC until I can get more computer. :) Kind of like it, actually, getting excellent results.
 
it's not really called Pro by Apple but generally speaking they've had for a decent number of years both the entry level white mini and a higher end silver/gray one with more ports, better specs, and such. In this case…I expect that by the summer or so we'll see both a higher end larger screen iMac and a higher end mini with the M1 Max chip…possibly even a dual M1 Max capability assuming they can make the software part of that work right…the thermal envelope for a dual chip model in either desktop would. be pretty easy to accomplish…assuming that there's actually much of a performance benefit but it might be that inter chip channels just aren't fast or wide enough to really utilize a second chip fully. OTOH…the software could offload one set of tasks to each chip and then inter chip comms bandwidth would go way down I guess.
If/when you decide on a monitor please post what you've chosen. I've been eagerly awaiting the new IMac as running LightRoom on the raw files from my D850 and Z7ii requires a bit more patience and time then I have. I will probably go ahead and order the MacBook Pro this week since my laptop is approaching 6 years old. My husband has a spare monitor I can use with the MacBook while I wait out the IMac or decide to go ahead and get a nice monitor and forego the desktop. I recently read somewhere that larger than 27" monitor is now unlikely for the next generation of IMacs but I have no idea how credible that is. I would love to have a 32+" monitor but not at the price of the Apple XDR so I will look into alternatives. Last year I moved my catalog off the IMac internal drive to SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD along with all of my photos and that helped Lightroom performance quite a bit but that great new selection feature in LrC is quite slow. Keeping both the catalog and photos on an external drive makes moving between machines very easy, something to consider.
 
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If/when you decide on a monitor please post what you've chosen.
Will do…I want at least 27 inch size and 5K…the 27 inch 2019 iMac is 5.5K IIRC. Buying one of the 5K Apple monitors doesn't make sense for what I'm going to use it for so hopefully I'll be able to find something comparable in specs to what an iMac monitor has but without the computer built into it.

Dunno whether the next iMac will be larger than 27 or not…considering that the precious 21 was replaced by the M1 24 a 30 or 32 wouldn't surprise me…but I would be not be surprised if they stayed at 27 since the resolution would have be much larger to keep the Retina pixel density. I have to say though…other than monitor size my 14 inch M1 Pro MBP runs rings around my 2019 Intel 27 inch iMac.
 
The card reader stays cool and the card is cool as well. I was reading reviews on B&H site about different readers and most of them had the cards getting very hot during downloads, or getting very hot even when not removed from the reader right away after downloads. This (metal) reader is VERY fast and card stays cool, whether you remove it right away or leave it in the reader - highly recommended even though it's double the price of most of the plastic readers.

Besides the heat issue, we're going into a long period of using CFExpress Type B cards (also reads XQD), so it'll be worth it over the long run

It's a lot bigger than most readers, however not too big for me when uploading images from a sports field
View attachment 30613

FYI - This Blackjet reader is currently on sale for $119.95 @ B&H. I picked one up this weekend. It is everything Johan said it would be. Very fast and runs much cooler than my Sony reader.

Marty
 
My old iMac 27” 5k is great for viewing imges, but showing its age as is comparatively slow .., the old style fusion memory and intel chip.
I”m considering the new M1 Mac mini.
I have a windows pc which I can access through my Mac using Microsoft’s Remote os app. … basically it logs onto the pc via the lan and opens a window to the pc….seamless .
I was wondering if I could do similar with the Mac mini But I can’t see any similar apps.
anyone got any experience of using a 2nd tjis way?

Oops sorry….I guess I’m hijacking the thread.
 
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