Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: shaun on August 16, 2019, 04:22:20 pm

Title: Which Mac
Post by: shaun on August 16, 2019, 04:22:20 pm
Hi

My 27 imac is getting old and I need a replacement, want to stick with apple. I have it hooked to an Eizo monitor.

1. I was always told you can't calibrate an imac screen properly is that still true?

2. For Lroom, pshop and maybe some video editing in the future I want something quick without spending needlessly. I have lost touch with requirements and would appreciate advise on what is necessary for optimum performance.... Ram, processor, graphics card, i5,i7 or more.

Appreciate any help
Thanks
Shaun
Title: Re: Which Mac
Post by: BobShaw on August 16, 2019, 07:57:59 pm
Well I have a 2013 iMac 27" with 24G RAM and 512G SSD. I works fine for me. I also have an Eizo monitor attached. I don't do much video editing. I have never found processor speed to be an issue. The usual delays are applications and peripherals access time. All of my data is on a Thunderbolt 2 drive. Its predecessor the 2008 iMac is still working also.

So I think that any 27" would be fine. Spend some time working out the RAM. You want as much as possible in the 4 slots. The minimum you can usually equip is two. Third party RAM is usually fine but if you want to use it work out the cheapest solution only using a maximum of two slots with Apple RAM if that is the way you want to go.  Get an SSD drive as that makes a massive difference. Ensure that any peripherals are Thunderbolt 3, not just USB 3.

As for screen calibration, I have not had a real issue. Anyway, if you have an Eizo also what is the concern? Most times I just use the Mac screen.
Title: Re: Which Mac
Post by: Joe Towner on August 16, 2019, 10:22:27 pm
Hey Shaun,

First thing, on your Mac, go 'Apple' - About this Mac - what year (generation) is it? How much RAN & what's your storage like internally (SATA/Fusion/Flash) & how full is it?  What other storage do you have plugged into the Mac, or it there a network share you connect to?

Depending on the items above, you might get away with doing a SSD upgrade only, plus some RAM.  If/when you get into doing video you'll want to splurge on the then best options.
Title: Re: Which Mac
Post by: smthopr on August 17, 2019, 03:00:35 pm
Hi

My 27 imac is getting old and I need a replacement, want to stick with apple. I have it hooked to an Eizo monitor.

1. I was always told you can't calibrate an imac screen properly is that still true?

2. For Lroom, pshop and maybe some video editing in the future I want something quick without spending needlessly. I have lost touch with requirements and would appreciate advise on what is necessary for optimum performance.... Ram, processor, graphics card, i5,i7 or more.

Appreciate any help
Thanks
Shaun

Regarding the iMac display, it should be usable for fully color managed applications like photoshop after calibration and profiling.  It might not be quite as good as the Eizo, but it should be ok.

The bigger issue is using a wide gamut Retina display iMac for video.  Video applications are not fully color managed, or even, color managed at all.  So, if you are color correcting for standard HDTV output, you will see colors much too saturated on your iMac display in video, even if you've calibrated/profiled your display with something like an iOne Display Pro device.

If your Eizo display is one that stores the calibration in the display, you can calibrate using the Color Navigator software to limit the display to REC709 color space (which you can not do on the iMac display). REC709 is the standard color space for HDTV.  And this is still not the most accurate calibration for video.  For that, one needs to create a 3D LUT calibration which one can use in Davinci Resolve output to the display over a Black Magic Decklink device such as the "mini monitor" for about $150.  Or you can get a LUT box to store the 3D LUT calibration.  I suspect that for you the 3D LUT calibration is a rabbit hole you might want to avoid, so for "ball park" accuracy, you can stick with the Eizo/ColorNavigator REC 709 Calibration for video.

As for the computer itself, I still use Photoshop and my Eizo display, with my 2013 MBP, 16GB ram, and it's fast enough usually.  Though, since I now have a Windows workstation for video color correction, I sometimes use that with it's 128gb of RAM and $1000 graphics card.  It's not as much faster as one might expect, but with 128GB of RAM I can keep open very large photographs without needing to access the cache disk which does help a little bit.  But, saving large Photoshop files on the workstation doesn't seem all that different from saving from the MBP. 

If you are working in 4K video, you may need the biggest baddest video graphics card you can afford.  And that might mean getting the new Mac Pro instead... And a bigger bank account to go with it.
Title: Re: Which Mac
Post by: shaun on August 21, 2019, 08:24:05 am
Thanks all for your more than generous replies.

I have a 2010 imac 2.8ghz i5 8gb ram with 1tb fusion drive.

Got some prices so will go with for i9 with 1tb sata drive & 32 gb ram. Will I notice any difference with stills if I up that to 64gb?

Thanks again guys
Shaun
Title: Re: Which Mac
Post by: BobShaw on August 21, 2019, 08:37:39 pm
Got some prices so will go with for i9 with 1tb sata drive & 32 gb ram. Will I notice any difference with stills if I up that to 64gb?
Shaun
I think that you would better off getting the SSD drive than worrying about Ram.
Title: Re: Which Mac
Post by: Joe Towner on August 21, 2019, 11:10:14 pm
+1 to Bob's statement. The fusion drive is ok, but you're still limited by the fact it's spinning rust.  The NVMe SSD is over 10x faster, plus RAM is a trap door on the back adjustment that most folks can do (vendors like MacSales.com have short videos).
Title: Re: Which Mac
Post by: shaun on August 26, 2019, 05:48:10 am
ok thanks again, showing my ignorance in these things...Now going with SSD drive and updating ram myself.

Shaun
Title: Re: Which Mac
Post by: Eric Brody on August 27, 2019, 03:16:51 pm
Another option, if money is critical, might be to have an decent size SSD installed by a local shop (assuming you have one nearby) and adding RAM. No question a new machine would be snappy and fun and based on the age of yours might be justified but at least look at the options. Were I going new, I'd get it with 8GB, add up to 32 from OWC (I don't work for them, just a customer), and a decent size SSD, at least 512, 1TB is better and if you can swing it, 2TB since they just reduced the prices. Keep the Eizo! Best of luck to you.