Now I want to purchase a MAC, and some proper RAW conversion software.
My first instinct was to get a 24" iMac (w 2G) and CS3 when it ships...
But the more I searched and googled and read discussion boards, the more overwhelmed I got.
There seemed to be options of Powerbooks and PhaseOne and a lot of other flavours too.
Hi Bruce and welcome. I hope your transition to digital is a smooth one.
If you can think of a computer as just another tool in your bag, then you'll feel more at ease with whatever system you buy. Even though I'm a Mac user, it
appears that it's a good photographer, not hardware, makes a photograph good.
Since you seem to be more of a location photographer, I'd recommend a laptop. The new Intel Mac Laptops are much faster than the ol' G4 versions (like the one I have) when Universal binary programs are used. Most programs are now Universal Binary except Photoshop CS3, which is due to be released by summer.
My location work centers around Capture One, Photoshop, email and Quickbooks Pro. Anything else and I'm just playing games.
Of these programs, Quickbooks is the oddball. I use it to track production fees, assistants, check writing, and job costs. It works, but not as nicely as the Windows counterpart. If you don't need bookkeeping on the road, then you're better off.
Of the image processing software, I began with Capture One and have become very satisfied with it. It produces clean files (low noise), has a good USM algorithm, has an excellent interface and is very easy to manage hundreds of files with. The downside is that it is disk intensive. Combine that with a laptop hard drive spinning at 5400 rpm and you'll find yourself waiting here and there for thumbnails to display in folder containing more than 300 images. Once that folder is cached, then image display is much faster. It is available in Universal Binary now and smokes on a PowerMac tower -- It churns out files in half the time of a dual G5.
As for general image processing, Photoshop is your best choice. There is
GIMP, the free image editing program, but I've never tried it.
There also seems to be a strong Adobe Camera Raw user base. I've tried it a few time, but prefer the file management of Capture One.
Other RAW processors for the Mac:
Bibble ProRaw DeveloperYou should be aware that if you haul off into the woods and "capture" 1,200 images in a day, for four or five days, you will have a strong need for a good image filing system. Look closely at how this is managed with raw processors.
For archiving images I use two
firewire drives for live storage and save a backup set to
archival gold DVDs. All this data is catalogued with
iView Media Pro (which is now owned by Microsoft).
If you go the laptop route, you will need a backup drive for that as well. Here are a couple of choices:
OtherWorld ComputingG-Tech (my current favorite)
On a final note, I do a lot of corporate slideshows, kind of after-dinner keynote entertainment stuff - and currently I run all that from a VooDoo laptop, on PowerPoint. The VooDoo has been pretty reliable, and at some point I may flip over to a MAC on that side of things too, but it doesn't have to be now.
There are many slide show programs out there for the Mac.
iView Media Pro has slide show capabilities, but I've never used it. Perhaps others here will speak up about their favorites.
