post process on Mac

[brick33308]

disclaimer: I don't have a MF cam (instead just Sony A7RV and Leica Q3), but I'm posting here because I previously asked for advice getting/configuring a new PC laptop work station that would hopefully cut down on time to run images through things like ACR AI noise reduction, DXO PureRaw3, etc.

Based on input I received here as well as from other sources including my own research I bought a Lenovo tricked out with the latest/best processor/graphics card, 96GM RAM, etc. It arrived December 21, and during setup that day, I got the Windows blue screen of death, except this time unlike when it's happened before on my other Windows laptops, the new laptop was bricked - it couldn't be restarted. Lenovo tech told me it was some sort of BIOS corruption and offered to replace the laptop. I opted for full refund and immediately ordered the 14" MacBook Pro (size was preferable to 16" because I only use it with external monitor) with M3 Max chip, 48 GB RAM, 4 TB SSD.

For what it's worth: my last PC had the latest processor/Nvidea card at the time I bought it 2 years ago, somewhere in the neighborhood of 36GB RAM, etc., and the time it took to wash an image through ACR AI noise reduction was glacially slow. On my new MacBook Pro, the time is about 3 seconds. Similarly, on my old PC, running a 60MB RAW image through DXO PureRAW 3 would take about a minute and a half (and running a batch of say 200 images was an overnight affair). Now washing the same image through DXO on the MacBook Pro it's less than 10 seconds.

Based on my experience with the new PC bricking up during setup, compared with ease I had in setting up the MacBook and how it rips through image processing, I'll never go back to PC - EVER.

 

[Nikonmark_instagram]

Welcome to the party!

 

[Greg7579]

Brick!!! My fellow Q3 dude and alphasevenarefour lover....

I can't comment on mac, because I finally just built the most high-end gaming rig PC that is humanly possible right now. I mean iot is absolutely kick-azz overkill....

It eats LR AI tasks like Cheetos. I just exported 500 full size JPEGs from 200 MB raw files in about 3 minutes. It sounded like a jet airplane taking off.... My old rig would have ground away for 30 minutes on that and would have heated up like a waffle iron.

LR AI tasks that would have taken my high-end laptop 5 minutes to grind take 5 seconds.

Plus, I have no spinning rust and no array. But I do have 5 M.2 PCIe 4 (and one 5) on the Motherboard and two 8TB Sata internal SSDs. That is about 50 TB inside my rig with no RAID baby!

Can't help you on the mac, but Apple is awesome.

 

[robgendreau]

disclaimer: I don't have a MF cam (instead just Sony A7RV and Leica Q3), but I'm posting here because I previously asked for advice getting/configuring a new PC laptop work station that would hopefully cut down on time to run images through things like ACR AI noise reduction, DXO PureRaw3, etc.

Based on input I received here as well as from other sources including my own research I bought a Lenovo tricked out with the latest/best processor/graphics card, 96GM RAM, etc. It arrived December 21, and during setup that day, I got the Windows blue screen of death, except this time unlike when it's happened before on my other Windows laptops, the new laptop was bricked - it couldn't be restarted. Lenovo tech told me it was some sort of BIOS corruption and offered to replace the laptop. I opted for full refund and immediately ordered the 14" MacBook Pro (size was preferable to 16" because I only use it with external monitor) with M3 Max chip, 48 GB RAM, 4 TB SSD.

For what it's worth: my last PC had the latest processor/Nvidea card at the time I bought it 2 years ago, somewhere in the neighborhood of 36GB RAM, etc., and the time it took to wash an image through ACR AI noise reduction was glacially slow. On my new MacBook Pro, the time is about 3 seconds. Similarly, on my old PC, running a 60MB RAW image through DXO PureRAW 3 would take about a minute and a half (and running a batch of say 200 images was an overnight affair). Now washing the same image through DXO on the MacBook Pro it's less than 10 seconds.

Based on my experience with the new PC bricking up during setup, compared with ease I had in setting up the MacBook and how it rips through image processing, I'll never go back to PC - EVER.

Enjoy.

The best part of a new MBP IMHO isn't the speed or efficiency, it's the HDR display. Yowza. Start looking at your images from those cameras, especially night shots with lights, sunsets and sunrises, bright cloud landscapes, etc and you're really appreciate those 4 extra stops of dynamic range.

 

[bobby350z]

Exactly what most people found when M1 Mac's were introduced. Been a windows guy for 30 yrs, Now only Macs at home.

 

[paulraphael]

I'm all in on Mac, but my workstation is a 2010 cheese grater tower, so I have yet to experience the thrill of Apple silicon. The old war horse still does the job, with occasional complaints.

This will be my year to upgrade. Looking at an M3 Studio, with an external thunderbolt case for extra drives. I'm not looking forward to the migration process.

 

[Greg7579]

Aghhhhh the age-old and never-ending mac vs PC/Windows argument pops up again. I'm always bored by it because I know the pros and cons of both systems, and as far as computer power goes, it's a wash except you get more for much less money with a PC or windows laptop vs Mac.... But Apple is awesome, and I might consider it if I were not so embedded in windows/Intel/PC/Android/ Google and building my own PCs.

I could write a book on this, but it wouldn't matter. These computers are all so good now.

Enjoy your Mac. They are great machines.

 

[themediocreenthusiast]

disclaimer: I don't have a MF cam (instead just Sony A7RV and Leica Q3), but I'm posting here because I previously asked for advice getting/configuring a new PC laptop work station that would hopefully cut down on time to run images through things like ACR AI noise reduction, DXO PureRaw3, etc.

Based on input I received here as well as from other sources including my own research I bought a Lenovo tricked out with the latest/best processor/graphics card, 96GM RAM, etc.

It arrived December 21, and during setup that day, I got the Windows blue screen of death, except this time unlike when it's happened before on my other Windows laptops, the new laptop was bricked - it couldn't be restarted. Lenovo tech told me it was some sort of BIOS corruption and offered to replace the laptop.

what a bummer...

I opted for full refund and immediately ordered the 14" MacBook Pro (size was preferable to 16" because I only use it with external monitor) with M3 Max chip, 48 GB RAM, 4 TB SSD.

Congrats! Is this your first Mac machine? I think you made the right choice with M3 MBP.

I'm both user since windows95 and OS X snow leopard. Currently on MBA M1 MacOS Sonoma 14.2.1

For what it's worth: my last PC had the latest processor/Nvidea card at the time I bought it 2 years ago, somewhere in the neighborhood of 36GB RAM, etc., and the time it took to wash an image through ACR AI noise reduction was glacially slow.

On my new MacBook Pro, the time is about 3 seconds. Similarly, on my old PC, running a 60MB RAW image through DXO PureRAW 3 would take about a minute and a half (and running a batch of say 200 images was an overnight affair).

Overnight affair lol.. that brings back memories with my old Mac processing 100mb+ raw files too

Now washing the same image through DXO on the MacBook Pro it's less than 10 seconds.

Based on my experience with the new PC bricking up during setup, compared with ease I had in setting up the MacBook and how it rips through image processing, I'll never go back to PC - EVER.

Well, truth be told - do know it's not all roses with Mac machines too - esp. for heavy photo or video editing - from my near 20 years experience owning 5 Mac machines.

LCD screen issues, Green lines, black screen of death, or overheating is also a common issue for every generation Mac... it can be extremely frustrating too.

https://eightify.app/summary/techno...concerns-about-overheating-thermal-throttling

I'll advise NOT to upgrade new MacOS if your computer is working great with your current installed MacOS and still supported by Apple.

Unlike Windows - MacOS upgrade is literally every year - which I hated their BS.

It's definitely not as "Simplicity and Minimalism"! hah. .. :-D

Meanwhile - enjoy the sense of liberation and speed!

--
Shooting On The Fly Everyday!

 

[brick33308]

Aghhhhh the age-old and never-ending mac vs PC/Windows argument pops up again. I'm always bored by it because I know the pros and cons of both systems, and as far as computer power goes, it's a wash except you get more for much less money with a PC or windows laptop vs Mac.... But Apple is awesome, and I might consider it if I were not so embedded in windows/Intel/PC/Android/ Google and building my own PCs.

I could write a book on this, but it wouldn't matter. These computers are all so good now.

Enjoy your Mac. They are great machines.

totally agree - if you've got a PC that can handle your photo editing and other needs, that's all well and good and makes sense to stay with it. I just got so twisted/incensed when my brand new whoopty-do PC bricked after 30 minutes of ownership, I said F*** YOU WINDOWS, I'm done with you forever. In the 10 days waiting for my new Mac I watched several Mac setup videos on YouTube, took notes, and the transition from Windows to iOS was utterly simple.

--
https://brick.smugmug.com/Irwin-Photostream/IJF-Photostream/

 

[brick33308]

Brick!!! My fellow Q3 dude and alphasevenarefour lover....

so you finally got your Q3, congrtats! Mine was working great since July, then a few weeks ago turned it on and got System Error, and nothing would change it - removing/replacing battery and card, so I sent it to Leica. Very bummed out I didn't have it with me in Key West new year's eve.

And I traded up from my A7iv to the A7Rv for my New Zealand trip so that I'd have the automatic focus stacking feature. Great great camera.

But I still think the best images I EVER took were with the GF 110 on my GFX50 that I sold a few years back.



View attachment 7df5b2980e764bde837ec08eed20c2d2.jpg



--

IJF Photostream - Irwin

This gallery hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here.

brick.smugmug.com

 

[paulraphael]

I'll advise NOT to upgrade new MacOS if your computer is working great with your current installed MacOS and still supported by Apple.

When I worked at big companies in creative fields (ad agencies etc.) they were all Mac-based, and they were usually about 1-1/2 years behind the current OS.

The IT guys needed that much time to test everything and make sure Apple had worked the bugs out.

I'm not this conservative at home, but I wait a month or 2 for the early adopters jump in the deep end and flail about before I do any serious upgrades.

 

[Greg7579]

I'll advise NOT to upgrade new MacOS if your computer is working great with your current installed MacOS and still supported by Apple.

When I worked at big companies in creative fields (ad agencies etc.) they were all Mac-based, and they were usually about 1-1/2 years behind the current OS.

The IT guys needed that much time to test everything and make sure Apple had worked the bugs out.

I'm not this conservative at home, but I wait a month or 2 for the early adopters jump in the deep end and flail about before I do any serious upgrades.

Apple has made huge strides in the last 3 years updating their hardware faster and their OS...

The big drag on Apple was always that they were way behind the windows laptops and PCs because it took them forever to update models and incorporate the latest components. The PC and windows laptop makers got the latest gear in their machines much faster and way cheaper. But that is not the case so much now. Still true, but not as much. Well, the Apple products are way more money for the same or less computational speed and power.

 

[paulraphael]

The PC and windows laptop makers got the latest gear in their machines much faster and way cheaper. But that is not the case so much now. Still true, but not as much.

How is this true at all? What's more current than Apple silicon?

If you want a laptop with class-leading speed for creative tasks, that can achieve this on battery power, and do it without you ever hearing a fan, there is no competition at any price.

This may not be you. But remember that even in processors designed for desktops and data centers, the holy grail for the last decade has been performance-per-watt. Because this, and thermal dissipation, are the ultimate bottlenecks. Apple's technology is now the cutting edge. Unless you're a gamer.

In response Microsoft and Google have launched their own internal efforts to create custom ARM SOCs (so they can divorce from X86) and Qualcom is full steam ahead in making OEM competition. Qualcom poached about a dozen senior Apple chip engineers to make their project possible.

But for me, at the end of the day, the most important thing is the user interface. All the hardware is good enough. 5 year-old hardware is probably good enough, so price shouldn't be limiting. But when it comes to user interface, while the Mac makes me yell a lot, Windows makes me want to set myself on fire. There is nothing more for me to consider. As always, your mileage may vary!

Somewhere out there are people who thinks we're all crazy for not using Linux and GIMP. I just have to acknowledge that they're are not from the same planet as me, and smile politely.

 

[bobby350z]

I'll advise NOT to upgrade new MacOS if your computer is working great with your current installed MacOS and still supported by Apple.

When I worked at big companies in creative fields (ad agencies etc.) they were all Mac-based, and they were usually about 1-1/2 years behind the current OS.

The IT guys needed that much time to test everything and make sure Apple had worked the bugs out.

I'm not this conservative at home, but I wait a month or 2 for the early adopters jump in the deep end and flail about before I do any serious upgrades.

At my work place, for some many years no one could use windows, only Mac and Linux. This is how I got introduced to a Mac though I had used them way back when I was in grad school. At the time, Mac had nice GUI etc but everyone used Silicon Graphics or SUN Sparc. I just checked and my corp MBP that I am typing is on the latest release 14.2.1 release. A lot of when we update depends on the security updates.

 

[Greg7579]

The PC and windows laptop makers got the latest gear in their machines much faster and way cheaper. But that is not the case so much now. Still true, but not as much.

How is this true at all? What's more current than Apple silicon?

I have followed this very closely for 30 years as a very enthusiastic computer hobbyist and desktop component tracker. Trust me, what I said was absolutely true for decades and until about 2.5 years ago. Apple was extremely slow with their updates in getting the latest components into their desktops and laptops. It is no longer the case but just a matter of historical interest. It also cost them a big part of the international market share starting way back.... It is the reason I didn't want to go Mac. I couldn't see paying Apple three times more in order to upgrade the ram, HDD, SSD, HDD, GPU, CPU, PSU, screen, etc. vs just ordering the part and slapping it in myself.

But that is all history.

 

[paulraphael]

It is no longer the case but just a matter of historical interest.

On this we mostly agree.

Most of us aren't basing purchasing decisions on what the companies were doing decades ago. If we were, I'd be salivating over a Silicon Graphics workstation that costs more than a house and sounds like a leaf blower.

 

[Greg7579]

It is no longer the case but just a matter of historical interest.

On this we mostly agree.

Most of us aren't basing purchasing decisions on what the companies were doing decades ago. If we were, I'd be salivating over a Silicon Graphics workstation that costs more than a house and sounds like a leaf blower.

One thing is still true though. If you want to upgrade your own components as you go along in order to stretch the life of your desktop, or build your own desktop, or game.... You aren't picking mac.

But that is sort of a niche really. Not too many guys building their own rig or even updating major components them selves.

 

[JimKasson]

I'm all in on Mac, but my workstation is a 2010 cheese grater tower, so I have yet to experience the thrill of Apple silicon. The old war horse still does the job, with occasional complaints.

This will be my year to upgrade. Looking at an M3 Studio, with an external thunderbolt case for extra drives. I'm not looking forward to the migration process.

If you're on a Mac, it may be different, but I've had a set of really rotten experiences with the OWC Thunderbolt M.2 boxes. The QNAP one works great for me, though.

 

[paulraphael]

If you're on a Mac, it may be different, but I've had a set of really rotten experiences with the OWC Thunderbolt M.2 boxes. The QNAP one works great for me, though.

Good to know. I'll probably be looking at SATA for the external storage, just because of the price/TB with m.2 drives last time I looked. But I'll re-evaluate everything when the time comes.

 

[JimKasson]

If you're on a Mac, it may be different, but I've had a set of really rotten experiences with the OWC Thunderbolt M.2 boxes. The QNAP one works great for me, though.

Good to know. I'll probably be looking at SATA for the external storage, just because of the price/TB with m.2 drives last time I looked. But I'll re-evaluate everything when the time comes.

With SATA, you've got lots of QNAP options, with Thunderbolt or 10 GbE interfaces. Some of their cheaper units don't fill a 10GbE pipe for some configurations.

Unfortunately, I've found the QNAP NAS's to be incompatible with the Samsung 8TB Quad SATA drives, which are about the cheapest you can get. Those drive seem to work fine for awhile, then the NAS decides they're missing. Unplugging the drives and replugging them back in fixes things, but that's no way to set up a system.