Be Excellent To Each Other

I’m going to buy my wife a photo editing computer and would like some advice if possible since I just looked on the Apple website and found it a bit confusing.

While it would be lovely to buy a £4k 27” Mac, I’m afraid I don’t love her that much. Ideally, it would be less than £1500 but could go higher if really essential. I don’t think that will be necessary though since it’s for editing pictures of babies and children, not doing video editing or 3D modelling or anything.

So, it seems the choices are a 21.5” Mac, or a Mac mini. If the former, which one? Do I need to upgrade any of the upgradeable things?

If the Mac Mini...huh? What is it, what do I need to buy separately, why is it better?

Yes, yes, I know. You’re officially old when you don’t understand new technology

If there’s a better computer for photo editing I’m happy to hear that as well.

iMacs are great all in ones. If you already have a nice monitor, keyboard and mouse etc the Minis are good value.

What a nice wife you are!

Also, there’s not as big a benefit as there used to be for graphics by going down the Mac route. You get more bang for your buck with a pc.... but I’m still a sucker for them.

Is it still true that Mac’s are a bit more easy to use when you know the software without all the windows updates and performance slow downs?

Yeah... but it still boils my piss from time to time. I’ve invested so much time it’d be counter productive job wise for me to shift to windows. They are nice(r) but in all honesty I can’t sing their praises like I used to.

They are simpler from an OS point of view and they look pretty.

Let me look about tomorrow at what’s on offer, if you want to go down the Mac route I’d say a cheaper 27 iMac would be your best bet. Can upgrade ram yourself and they have a lovely display.

I'm not really sure how true that is any more. There's nothing wrong with them, but there's also not a great deal that earns them the higher price point nowadays. I've got a MacBook Pro with work and it's nice, but the touch strip thing (it probably has a name) is a waste of space and it's no better built than any other decent laptop.

The touch pad is lovely, though (but too big if I were being picky).

Simpler to use, for me then. I don’t champion them as I used to.

Macs are fantastic and easy to use as long as you stay in your lane. You want to get complex? Surprise! It's Linux, motherfucker!

Is it worth buying the Intel-based ones or waiting for the new architecture?

What software would you be using for the photo editing? Photoshop and lightroom are now a monthly sub (grrrr), Aperture was snuffed out. Macs come with Photo but I only ever really use it for importing, not editing. Might be worth you looking at if that’ll be enough for you. iMovie is a nice simple video editor though, think they all still come with that.

I don’t think you have a choice if you’re buying new now.

I’m getting the new M1 MBA as a work laptop as soon as my Royal Mail money comes through (if ever).

She will most definitely be sticking to photo editing only.

I’m not totally against buying a PC, just have a possibly outdated belief that it will more annoying with updates and starting to slow down. It would also be a bit more complicated because I’d have to choose multiple things to buy and I don’t have a clue where to start with it.

She uses Photoshop and Lightroom.

I think a Mac is a good choice for those reasons as well as peace of mind. You don’t want to end up like Sat who due to PC use turned into a broken shell of a man.

Don't blame PCs for that

That 2019 27” iMac fits your bill then I’d say. You can also run a second extra monitor from them too (like I do). John Lewis give you a two year guarantee too.

I’d missed that you’d posted that link but just went back and saw it. That’s perfect, thank you.

No worries

The only issue is that with a Core i5 and only 8GB RAM it might be a bit slow for photo/video editing.

I would possibly spend a bit more for an i7 and 16GB RAM.

It's definitely just for photos, though. Editing videos yeah, you definitely want all you can get but photos aren't really that demanding for any reasonable computer now.

If the RAM is user upgradeable, avoid the Apple Tax by buying it at 8GB and upgrading yourself.

Link

RAM upgrade is trivial. Go for the 8GB

Throw in some more RAM and it'll be sweet. I'm currently working on a 2012 27" iMac 2.9 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 with 24gig RAM and it's great for Video / Photos / D&D character portraits.

Also the Grpaphics card is a Radeon Pro 570X with 4GB of VRAM mine is only 512mb!

It is a nice computer with a beautiful display for £200 under the budget. x

I forgot the RAM was user-upgradeable. As you were!

Is yours 5k, Z?

No, just a measly 2560x1440 (QHD/WQHD - Wide Quad High Definition). It's no wonder I'm struggling...

Fucking hell. Your poor eyes!

Also the HD started failing last year so it's running the OS off an SSD drive hanging out of its backside

Wrong thread!

Just to make sure I’ve covered all angles, are there any Apple laptop versions that would could do these tasks? Just to give her plenty of opportunity to give me a heart attack when she balances both her beer glass and her laptop on the cushioned arm of the chair.

Don't go down the laptop route if the main task is photo editing x

BIG SCREEN

Even the lowest spec new MacBook Air would be more than up to the task. But you’d need to put 16GB RAM in from the start as they’re not upgradeable.

However you'd only have a small screen unless you want to connect it to an external monitor, and then it becomes a fancy desktop.

have a look at Affinity photo. It’s very good and it’s a one off purchase price of £40 I think

The speed tests coming off those SoC M1 architecture are something else

Am I right in assuming that you won't be able to run Windows on the M1-powered Macs any more?

Correct

I just bought a new mac. But not really. Since it was a refurbished one, i could go one class higher than i would normally. So that mighr be an idea worth checking out. I’m sure there are similar shops in the uk

And since I sometimes have to fix my kid’s windows laptops i can assure you mac os is atill way friendlier to use on a daily basis. ( and on the intel one you can run windows anyway)
( in the m1 presentation they claim m1 will give you much more bang four tour buck. But tgey don’t really say who they are comparing with)

Yesterday the big sur update came out which feels luke really nice fresh up. Finally a real mac os update again. And yesterday my iphone 13 mini arrived a well. So I feel completely fresh and fruity now.

iPhone 13? My, you are cutting edge

I'm quite a fan of the laptop and external monitors set up and it's how I've been set up at work and home for the last 6 years - although it's going to be a higher initial cost to get set up it gives you the best of both portability and nice big clear screens.

Lady T does a lot of Photoshop and Lightroom work on a 2014 macbook pro and it's fine for her. I don't think you need crazy high specs for photo editing.

The photo editing - is this for pro level (like paid work) or not quite that level? Because of course pics can look different depending on the screen unless you calibrate, and then of course if they get printed.... I guess what I'm saying is it can be a pretty deep hole (!) so decide what you really want to get out of it before you dive in (!!). Also remember to consider your backup/storage situation and reserve at least 10% of your hi-fi/AV budget for interconnects.

I've been talking to her about it over the weekend and I think she'd prefer a laptop so if she gets a studio, she can edit there as well as at home. Does a Macbook connect to a non Apple monitor ok?

It's not professional yet but potential to become so.

Yes. Apart from when it doesn't and you need to reboot the laptop to get the handshake to work, because Apple.

BeeX advice thread going as they always have and always will do

Make sure it's a modern monitor with at least DisplayPort and you should be ok.

Should

Thunderbolt 3 (usb-c) is preferable as then you don’t need an adapter. Most modern monitors have a usb-c port.

That's why I said at least Display Port

If it helps @sdg this is what I’m considering at the moment.

Is that powerful enough to run photoshop and light room then? Would it need any additional RAM or memory or anything?

I still prefer the idea of a desktop but if a MacBook can connect to a monitor then at least she can have a comfortable workstation setup but get the versatility of a laptop. Might need to get one with a bigger screen though.

All the machines in this thread are more than capable. I think unless portability is the main goal you'd be better off with the iMac for photo editing.

It initially comes with 8GB and 256GB SSD, so I upgraded those. But yeah, easily.

Like Z says though, you pay a premium for a laptop, so unless Jen wants to edit photos on the sofa while watching Netflix or in your local Starbucks I’d consider an iMac.

If you want a bigger screen then you’ll need the larger MacBook Pro and then we’re getting into the realms of silly money.