The problem was that Apple had a big hole in its turn. The next major leap up was the Mac Pro, initially the awful (in my opinion) Mac Pro junk, and when Apple happily abandoned it, it replaced it with another Intel-based Mac Pro (cheese grater) in 2019 It’s been a lot of money for me, so I sat down at the iMac hoping for better days. Things got better with the release of laptops with the new Apple Silicon Mac Book pro. Last year I bought the 16 “model with the M1 Max chip and I loved it. I kept wondering when a desktop M1 Mac would come. I was expecting an iMac 27”, but instead, we got something much better: Mac Studio. It came in two versions, very fast and very fast x 2. I chose very quickly, as critics seemed to say that the M1 Max was more than enough for a landscape photographer. Another motivation was that I hated that my laptop was faster than my desktop computer and I really wanted to work on a bigger screen.
What I bought
It was still expensive. My choice was the Studio with 64 gigs ram, I chose to spend the extra $ 200 on a 10-core CPU with a 32-core GPU and a 16-core neural engine. I mounted the hard drive to 2 TB to match the iMac from which I got rid of. It totaled $ 4,798 plus taxes, but included the Studio screen (more on that later).
Adjust it
The 2 boxes from Apple arrived on the 18th, release day. The boxes were innovative. As I hovered over the new arrivals with a box cutter, Apple forged me. there was a tab and each box opened easily without tools. It was a very “Apple” experience. With a typical Apple whim, the back of the boxes showed the back of the products. I did not even notice this until I moved the boxes to the garage. I had already sold my iMac, but had made 2 backups of Time Machine before it left. When I connected the Mac Studio and the Studio monitor, the new Mac Studio did its usual routine with the machine asking me if I had a backup. (By the way, I have to say that I have never seen a Mac boot so fast. It was ready to start in less than 5 seconds.) I wondered if the boot process would be longer when the Mac was fully loaded. It was not. Studio was very fast in this important first test. It took about 1 1/2 hours to transport the Time Machine, which was faster than I thought it should be. After the usual and multiple iCloud connections, I was ready to edit some photos. My usual workflow is DXO PureRAW in Photoshop, a transition from Topaz Sharpen AI and then to other specialized processors like Luminar AI when needed, The DXO PureRAW is not native to the M1, but they have done a few tricks to speed things up. It looks about 25% faster in Mac Studio. Photoshop was a disappointment until I realized that my Time Machine backup had responsibly transferred an Intel version of the PS to the new Mac. I uninstalled and reinstalled it and the Apple Silicon version came to life. Was it fast? I will say. From a Mac that just started, Photoshop emerged in about 2 seconds. Wow. Editing in Photoshop was also fast. I had the impression effects applied almost in real time. I’m used to waiting for a render. I use Lightroom mainly for panorama assembly. it is also very fast. A 9-image panorama was previewed in about 6 seconds (usually took 20-30 seconds) and the actual assembly took about a minute. I use, and like, Adobe Bridge, but it has not yet been upgraded to Apple Silicon. It still works significantly faster and can create a visual directory on a networked volume faster than ever before. The Luminar Neo and Luminar AI from Skylum are made for Apple Silicon and are both faster than on my iMac. It’s not as fast as my Adobe products, but the rendering time seems to be around 10-15% improved. This is probably a combination of their universal code, more ram on this Mac than my old one, and processor speed. I expect that as the Luminar code gets tighter it will be even faster. The Topaz applications I use, Topaz Sharpen AI scream fast. I use Sharpen AI more. Using my latest Mac, taking a sharp preview can take 30-45 seconds. It’s about 5 seconds now. In fact the performance is only about 15 seconds. It used to take 1-2 minutes.
The Apple Studio screen
Glad I bought the screen. It does not have all the bells and whistles of newer monitors like HDR and local dimming, but it looks fine. It seems to be about the same screen that was on my 27-inch iMac. The built-in speakers are fine, but not as good as the pair of Audio Engine A 2+ mini screens I have in my office. However, the Studio Display speakers sound good from such a slim screen, definitely the best built-in on-screen speakers I’ve ever heard. If you have good speakers in your workplace, do not use these built-in Apple speakers as an excuse to buy this monitor. The webcam is awesome, as has been widely reported. Tracking FaceTime calls for some reason does not match the quality on my iPhone or iPad. The video looks like an old VHS tape. Poor resolution, sticky faces. Apple has signaled that it will improve on a firmware. I hope so.
Recap
Did the Mac Studio and the Studio screen make me a better photographer? Not at all. However, the increased speed of everything inspires me and encourages me to try new things and techniques. I can get the job done faster and there are small things like the SD card slot that are really appreciated, along with all the enlarged ports. I’m glad I bought the Mac Studio. I think it’s a long way from Apple, but I welcome it as well. The speed increases are obvious and as a busy photographer, it seems the perfect fit for my workflow. It may be a bit overkill and not significantly faster than my M1 Max laptop, but the larger screen and the Thunderbolt, USB A and USB C port collection on the PC and more ports on the Studio screen is a really big deal. Also nice is a front SD card reader. Photographers will cheer. If I were to make more videos, I would think of Ultra, but I have no complaints about the Mac Studio I have configured and I think most photographers would consider it a steady upgrade and an amazing improvement in the speed of their workflow. After years and years, some of my fellow Windows users are jealous and ask questions.
