New iMac

[freelanceshots]

I bought at the end of December 2010 the 27" Imac i3 processor and upgraded to 12GB memory for an additional 110 dollars (Newegg) on top of the 1,550 dollar price that I bought the computer for. My computer runs fine with big photo projects like having 10 full res 5D2 TIF images open at once in Photoshop along with all the other stuff I have it do. I don't do any video editing and probably never will so I can not advise you on that. All the extra stuff that you have your eye on will just be the extra icing on the cake. The only bad thing about the imac's is the glare that comes off the screen but that is minor really as the screens are amazing. Just don't have your work station in a room with a bunch of big windows or a really bright light in the ceiling. I feel that the lighting around your work station should be controlled/limited anyways but to each is own.

[rusty]

sorry to jump on this thread, but thinking of getting an imac this summer.


freelanceshots - are you using either lightroom or aperture? i

[freelanceshots]

I do not use aperture or lightroom rusty. DDP has done everything I've ever wanted as far as image browsing and RAW processing and its free with a canon camera. If I do anything with a photograph its through photoshop. No need to spend more money on things that I've already got covered. LR and AP might be better in some areas but I just don't think I use the additional features to justify the added cost. Once I got my iMac I try and do as little work on a PC as possible as its just that much nicer and easier to use. Any upgrades that a person does or extra processing speed that one adds to these computers is just an extra benefit as they run well even as a base model. I didn't notice a big difference on how my imac ran after I upgraded to the higher level of memory but I'm sure it improved on some level. I feel that with the additional money that you spend on the higher level models you will see small difference/gains that may or may not be noticed. As long as my computer turns on fast, wakes up from sleep mode quickly and open programs quickly I'm going to be a pretty happy user plus the need not to have to buy/load malware software and update that all the time. When I searched online about the actual difference between the i3 and the i7 processor (Youtube for example) with the parameters i mentioned there were very small differences between the 2. The only item that I think would make a bigger difference in speed would be to add a solid state hard drive for the programs and for general short term storage and access. Firewire 800 harddrives and a FW 800 card reader are a decent upgrade and that's where I'd spend the extra money. Maybe they will come out with a Firewire 1200 in the short future.


One idea would be to save your extra money for the insane price of gas, utilities and groceries which is only going to get higher before this years end. How much higher, we will have to see.

[neuroanatomist]

DDP has done everything I've ever wanted as far as ... RAW processing

I thought that as well...then I tried DxO Optics Pro, and I must say that it does a much better job at noise reduction and lens correction than DPP (and better than Aperture at NR; Aperture doesn't offer lens corrections).

Any upgrades that a person does or extra processing speed that one adds to these computers is just an extra benefit as they run well even as a base model.

Agreed. A processor upgrade will buy about 6 extra months of real-world computer lifespan (in terms of technology advancements), and a relatively small amount of real-world performance gain.

I didn't notice a big difference on how my imac ran after I upgraded to the higher level of memory but I'm sure it improved on some level.

Or not... Actually, Mac OS X does an excellent job at memory allocation and management, much better than Windows, IMO. It's really hard to get a current Mac to be RAM-limited (as judged by the amount of memory actually in use and the ratio of PageIns to PageOuts). Honestly, the only situation in which I think more than 4 GB of RAM is currently necessary is if you're running Windows or another OS as a virtual machine (I run a Windows VM for work, which is why I have 8 GB of RAM, but when the VM isn't running, I don't ever go over ~3 GB of RAM in use). But RAM is cheap, and does future-proof you a bit as well. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade.

Maybe they will come out with a Firewire 1200 in the short future.

They did much more...it's called Thunderbolt, and it's like Firewire 10000.

[freelanceshots]

I do my all my lens distortion correction in CS5 through a highly regarded plug in. Might someday look into DxO Optics Pro but I really don

[freelanceshots]

Is Thunderbolt a hard drive? I guess your out of luck running thunderbolt thingy unless you have the newest imac or macbook pro. It seems to be a lot faster then firewire 800 which is pretty fast. How do you hook up a card reader to run Thunderbolt fast?

[neuroanatomist]

Is Thunderbolt a hard drive?

It's a new I/O technology. There are Thunderbolt hard drives, but no CF card readers yet. An exec inCanon’s Video Products Group, stated that the company is “excited about Thunderbolt technology and feel it will bring new levels of performance and simplicity to the video creation market.” Maybe means a Thunderbolt port on some future Canon products (camcorders, if not dSLRs).
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