iMac G5 and Aperature

[SUBY]

Hello,

After only a few years of PC use I am probably going the Mac route. Was going to upgrade the Pc and mainly screen BUT then thought, let's try something else. Anyway, this is not about whis is better/ worse (already posted some feedback in the 350d forum).

If anyone who has already or in the next few days will have Aperature and has an iMacG5 please let me know how quick/slow it is on this system. I am looking at the std 20 inch model with 2Gig total Ram.

Was going to purchase elements 4 but may have to go version 3 as 4 is not available for the Mac.
Cheers

 

[uwe_r]

If anyone who has already or in the next few days will have
Aperature and has an iMacG5 please let me know how quick/slow it is
on this system. I am looking at the std 20 inch model with 2Gig
total Ram.

Have received Aperture 2 days ago and use a PM Dual 2.7 GHz with 8 GB RAM and GeForce 6800 Ultra as my main machine. Out of curiosity I also gave it a try on my iMac 2.0 20" with 2GB RAM (the previous model). It is absolutely acceptable/good, RAW import is faster than ACR or DPP and there is a host of time saving functions (like Lift and Stamp) that speed up the workflow as compared to CS2/Bridge enormously. If you buy the new iMac G5 with 2.1 GHz it will be even much faster than mine, as the PCI Express architecture and the XT600 GPU will give you a much better Core Image performance. Actually specific transactions could even be faster than using a dual processor PowerMac with the standard graphics card.

Anyhow, I do not think you can get the new iMac with 2 GB RAM, as there is 512 MB on the logic board and only one upgrade slot, so you can either add 1GB for a total of 1.5GB or add 2GB for a total of 2.5GB.

Cheers,
Uwe

 

[Tim Wright]

Although I am a PC guy (I develope software for PC's) I bought an iMac 20" 2.1 a week ago just for my photo stuff. I have 1.5 gig ram and a 250 gig internal and a 300 gig external drive. I got Aperture yesterday and loaded it up. I imported a folder with about 60 1DMKII raw files at about 9 meg each in about 3-4 minutes. I found it to actually be fairly quick. I tried a few adjustments to a raw file then had it open the file in PS as a 16 bit PSD file and that was also quick. I then imported about 6000 raw files which took a couple of hours (didn't time it). Over all I find it very acceptable.

 

[dsytang]

Are you able to install Aperture on 2 different Mac? Like one at work and one at home?
--
dsyt

 

[SUBY]

uwe- sounds very German. I have spent the 1st half of my life growing up in West Berlin. What are you up to in Thailand? I can't afford the Power Mac of any sort. I do realize only one port is available for expansion in regards to Ram. The total I can afford will then be 2Gig. In Australia they charge Aud$300 for 1.5 extra Ram and Aud$1800 for extra 2Gig. These are Apple prices but would like to stay genuine in case of warrenty issues down the track. This upgrade restriction has been heavy on my mind with going this way with this affordable Mac but I have been convinced it will keep me going for quite a few years longer.

Tim Wright- 6000 Raws, very impressive. Had the 350d for six months and be lucky to have clocked up even a thousand shots. You see, not only am I trying to learn computers but now also the requred post processing of a dslr. It is sad but somrhow the confidence in having a system in place has prevented me from taking digital pics. I get confused by all the freeware programs for raw pics and am after just one I can concentrate on, hence the post about aperature and the iMac I don't have yet.

dsytang- No, can't install Aperature on any computer at all. Still typing on but have sold my PC and looking at a good deal on a Mac in Australia. At work, it's all Pc. A friend of mine manages a graphic design business but they are not getting it in.

Certainly Aperature is not going to disuade me from changing operating systems, just want to find the one P/P software I can buy and stick to.
Thanks for the help guys.
Oh, just another thing before I order:

Anyone use the new 'mighty mouse'? Was going to go wireless but the older version is included in the w/less version.

Also, am not going to watch movies on this system, would like to listen to quality sound through CD as I am mucking around on the Mac. Any suggestions on crisp sound available with sub? Heard the bose is a bit tinny.
Any suggestions would be great.
Cheers

 

[Kip Kline]

What IMHP would do is make that iMac a dedicated photo processor.
Put only the essential software on it and delete all the rest. Aperture
and Photoshop etc. only.

Get a big HD and start with at least two external drives. One for the
Vault and one for your original Aperture library.

My G5 (new) iMac has only 1Gig of ram. It work fine but the rendering
takes a second or two. It is well within reasonable expectations. Your
2GB of ram should help there. The old computer is not doing all the
email and web browsing whilst the iMac G5 is the workstation.

You will be happy with it too.

If anyone who has already or in the next few days will have
Aperature and has an iMacG5 please let me know how quick/slow it is
on this system. I am looking at the std 20 inch model with 2Gig
total Ram.
Was going to purchase elements 4 but may have to go version 3 as 4
is not available for the Mac.
Cheers

 

[Alpha Doug]

IMHO Apple's pricing for RAM is insane! You can buy 1Gbyte Dimms for about $100 U.S. from multiple vendors over the internet. OWC sells "same as factory" Samsung Dimms for that price. You can either install them yourself, or if you are absolutely worried about warranty, have a local Apple certified tech install them for $30 USD or so. If you save a ton of money on RAM, you can afford the computer better. And more software.

If you are an amatuer photographer, and you are relatively new to the Mac and to dSLR photography, I think I would start off with simple software first before moving up to Aperture. iPhoto, which is free with your new system, works just fine if all you are doing is shooting JPEGS. If you are shooting RAW, then it is relatively simple to just make a nested folder library of your photos, and use the browsing function of PSE 3.0 or PSCS2 to sort them, rate them, delete them, and feed them into the RAW processor in either program.

There are many speaker systems out there that cost less than the BOSE and produce very good sound. I would go to a store and listen to Altec Lansing, Creative, etc. You should be able to get very nice sound for under $100 USD.

By the way, as far as upgrading, in the future not to far, RAM price for 2 Gbyte Dimms will come down, and you can add another GByte later, plus you can always add external firewire drives, and firewire and USB 2.0 peripherals. The only problem with an iMac is that you can't upgrade the monitor, cpu, or video card. But that's why it's less expensive than a PowerMac. If you already have a monitor and keyboard and mouse, you might think about the base model PowerMac, or a slightly used PowerMac. Almost anything can be upgraded on those.

I just recently purchased a new dual core 2.0 PowerMac and it came with the Apple "Mighty Mouse". Even though it is corded, I kind of like it. Shape is nice, and the little scroll ball is kind of neat. I have a Logitech wireless mouse (by the way, why would you buy an Apple wireless mouse? It only has one button. Any USB compatible multi-button mouse will work with the Mac and can be programmed for all sorts of stuff.) and it has five buttons and a scroll wheel, which actually rocks sideways for sideways scrolling. But it is somewhat bigger, and I don't think it tracks as well as the Mightly Mouse.

 

[Kip Kline]

In just a few days I have designed several proof books for our
last few weddings. Although these were not in the original contract,
I will be mailing them out and ordering dupes for our use.

My point is that within a few days Aperture is saving me time and
improving the workflow by leaps and bounds. The versions alone
will save 1-2 days in rendering the jpegs to toned and B&@ jpegs.

In that regard, Aperture really has no cost concerns since it saves
its cost in time so fast and quality and deliverable products.

We were happy to upgrade our four year old Macs without any
regret. The iMac G5 is perfect. In many ways is is like what the
Canon 5D did to the mid range selection. Not as fast as the
1DIIn, but priced right for its use. A top of the line Mac would
be nice, but not really (totally) needed even for Aperture.

Aperture is a time saver and that is money at the end of the day.

 

[Clix Pix]

Back in October I made the switch from PC to Mac, buying a Rev B iMac and installing 2 GB RAM. (The Rev B is the version just prior to the current "iSight model.") I learned about Aperture coming soon, so held off on purchasing any other cataloging software, but did install PS CS2 in the iMac. Later I also got a 15" PB and maxed out the RAM in that machine, too. I am VERY pleased with my Macs and with the Tiger OS. It beats Windoze hands-down.

Aperture arrived on my doorstep the other day and I promptly installed it in the iMac. I am very pleasantly surprised at how well it functions in there, and my earlier concerns about it being very slow were unfounded. True, I haven't imported thousands of images/files into it all at once -- I plan to take a more gradual and leisuely approach -- and true, right now most of my images are still .jpeg rather than in RAW. I do, however, plan to start shooting in RAW with my D70s and later with the D200 once I get that.

Anyway, the functions and features that I used in Aperture in the iMac worked just fine, although probably a G5 Power Mac with LOTS of RAM and with a faster video card, etc., would run circles around my iMac, I think that the iMac does a credible job with the program. I installed Aperture in the PB last night and while it is slower than the iMac it, too, was able to handle Aperture. I'm not planning to use that machine for heavy-duty imaging, but I wanted Aperture available when I travel.

I quit the Entourage (Mac version of Outlook) program while in Aperture so that I wouldn't be interrupted by notification of incoming emails, but I opened and used Photoshop while keeping Aperture open, too, and had no problems. No crashes, even though using two very RAM-intensive programs. Heh, try THAT in a Windoze machine!

At some point in the future I may go all out and get a Power Mac, but at this point my iMac is working quite well with Aperture and that is very satisfying. I have purchased and will be iinstalling an external hard drive on the machine, and I think that will be very helpful, too, for backing up my files and my images. The Aperture program suggests this, but it is something I've been meaning to do ever since I bought my iMac.

The G5 iMac is a very fine machine and you get a lot of value for your money. It will work just fine with Aperture, PS CS2 and anything else you throw at it.

--Connie
--
Through the years with Coolpixes and now the D70! D200 on the way...
PBase supporter, Smug Mug supporter
http://www.pbase.com/the_feminine_perspective

 

[Clix Pix]

Yes, you ae able to install Aperture on two different computers. I think the idea is that someone would install it on one desktop and one laptop. That's what I've done. I don't know if you can then install it on a THIRD machine, or if you would then need to buy another copy of the program.

--Connie
--
Through the years with Coolpixes and now the D70! D200 on the way...
PBase supporter, Smug Mug supporter
http://www.pbase.com/the_feminine_perspective

 

[SUBY]

Thanks for the tips. Will call Apple and raise the question about warrenty with using 3rd party Ram. Am also looking at the 3 year warrenty so this again reinforces my decision. A friend who works in a Mac oriented workplace has suggested the warrenty issue in this regard.

Basically I will be left with no components after my Pc goes out the door so a Power mac + monitor just cannot be done. This is where the iMac will be great even with the 2Gig ram and not 2.5

Gotta go now but think you will see me here more often asking silly questions. Will have to invest in a book for sure.

Cheers

 

[uwe_r]

uwe- sounds very German. I have spent the 1st half of my life
growing up in West Berlin. What are you up to in Thailand?

Yep, I'm from Frankfurt. I am doing a documentation project for a branch of the United Nations in Bangkok since 14 months and may stay another 6 months.

I can't afford the Power Mac of any sort.

I was not suggesting that. I just kind-of compared performance on the two configurations and the performance benefit of the maxxed out PM as compared to the iMac is nowhere as big as the price difference may suggest. The iMac is definitely OK for Aperture. I mainly use the PM for high definition video work.

I do realize only one port is
available for expansion in regards to Ram. The total I can afford
will then be 2Gig. In Australia they charge Aud$300 for 1.5 extra
Ram and Aud$1800 for extra 2Gig. These are Apple prices but would
like to stay genuine in case of warrenty issues down the track.

What I meant is that there is no 2 GB RAM total configuration for the current 2.1 GHz 20" model. You cannot remove the 512 MB chip on board, you can only add one with 512MB, 1024MB or 2048MB. So, possible configurations are 512MB (standard), 1GB, 1.5GB or 2.5GB. DON'T buy RAM from Apple (rip-off) and do not worry about the warrantry. You get very good modules from Crucial and Transcend for much less money and both offer lifetime warrantry (in fact almost all Apple authorized resellers sell this RAM, at last in Asia). In case you have to send the machine to Apple for repair, just take the 3rd party module out, it's a matter of 30 seconds.

This upgrade restriction has been heavy on my mind with going this
way with this affordable Mac but I have been convinced it will keep
me going for quite a few years longer.

Do not worry about it. It is really only significant if you need an extension capability (such as SDI video out) that is exclusively available via a PCI card. Most expansions one normally needs (drives, TV tuner, capture boards, sound modules, card readers) are available as Firewire or USB devices and work well.

Anyone use the new 'mighty mouse'? Was going to go wireless but the
older version is included in the w/less version.

Yes and for photo and video work I would always prefer a wired mouse as they are more responsive. The MM is very exact and responsive and the scroll button is very handy for photo and video work (horizontal scrolling is much more convenient than dragging scrollbars). I do not like the side buttons, they are poorly located and I found myself activating them accidentially more than once; turned them off in the preferences and now I am fine.

Also, am not going to watch movies on this system, would like to
listen to quality sound through CD as I am mucking around on the
Mac. Any suggestions on crisp sound available with sub? Heard the
bose is a bit tinny.

Sound reception is very individual and the manufacturers optimize their speakers for particular music styles. For me Bose/JBL sound pretty good with electronic and heavy stuff but insufficient for mostly acoustic music (Jazz, Classic, Acoustic pop/rock/folk/country/etc.). For these types of music I like Klipsch and Harman/Kardon speakers better. Altec-Lansing's are pretty much universal in my ears. I ended up (after buying/returining 6 different sets) with the Harman/Kardon SoundSticks II and am very happy with them. I recommend you take a CD with your preferred music to a store and listen to some different models, nobody here will be able to tell you what sounds good in your ears.

Cheers,
Uwe