Have you switched to Mac? (now just fighting over which is better)

sam0329 wrote in post #2719644
Hi,
so far I havent fully understand every single feature of Aperature yet, I usually use it to covert RAW to Tiff and than edit, than convert to JPG or pick some nice one and retouch in PS. Its not as fast as Capture One Pro, but I like the interface, pretty easy to use. I know you can do custom album using the build in layout functions. And I m going to try it out on my next wedding, hope this help

P.S. the program is pretty soild on my Mac pro so far, never quit on error, not even once. If you use Mac, its worth it, unless you re going to buy CS3 and lightroom.

Sam

HURRY !
Go buy that Mac- I have one and LOVE it.
I have CS2 and Im not planning on buying lightroom either.
Aperature is really what I want to get next, first I guess I would have to add ram, if I have the info right, I thought the requirement is 1gig of ram.

Thankyou

Well, my friend with the 17" macbook pro is looking to sell it in favor of the 15" so I may be in line for one of those. He says it's just too big to use on airplanes if you fly coach.

I'll stick to PC's.

I got a Dell inspiron e1705 17" notebook a few months ago.

Specs:

Core 2 Duo e7200 2.0ghz cpu
17" 1900x1200 wxuga screen
2gb 667mhz ram
100gb 7200rpm hdd
nvidia g0 7900gs video card
DVD burner
Blue tooth
6usb ports
1 firewire
5 in 1 card reader
etc, etc

for just under $1500 new.

I'm running Vista Ultimate on it right now and it's golden. And I didn't have to spend $2800 to get it...

Rumjungle wrote in post #2720612
Well, my friend with the 17" macbook pro is looking to sell it in favor of the 15" so I may be in line for one of those. He says it's just too big to use on airplanes if you fly coach.

He'll find the 15" too big to use in coach, too.

I could never use mine effectively on planes. If that's his main priority he should look at a 13" Macbook.

It's not a major consideration for me, I don't fly enough for it to be an issue.

I agree about the Dells as I just priced them out...$900 is a hefty premium for a Mac! So, I guess it depends on how much my friend is willing to let the 17 go for. It's already got parallels on it but I'm not sure on the rest of the specs. However, I remember it to be a pretty big (but slim), heavy, and hot machine.

Rumjungle wrote in post #2721043
I agree about the Dells as I just priced them out...$900 is a hefty premium for a Mac! So, I guess it depends on how much my friend is willing to let the 17 go for. It's already got parallels on it but I'm not sure on the rest of the specs. However, I remember it to be a pretty big (but slim), heavy, and hot machine.

but you also get most of your software with that, its far more ready to go than a Dell is out of the box. A 15" is pretty well priced, the 17 is definetly a premium. They have refurbed 17s for $1999 though, thats a pretty sweet deal

You're right, Corey. That's a big selling point for many people. Luckily, I have a everything I need for the PC so I could go with either. Still, macbooks are just nice. Does any pc notebook compare in terms of packaging? Sony maybe?

You're paying for integrated design and stability. I have no problem with paying a premium to have access to OSX - it's a wonderful OS with features Windows just never thought of.

And I very much doubt any company can match Apple in packaging or design, I'd be wary of Sony products right now - their profits dropped 94% last year, and they're axing a lot of their departments (computers aren't likely, but you never know).

Yeah you'll probably need 1gb of RAM to use Aperture smoothly, I have 2gb because I got a student discount.

To all the people on the fence - if you buy a mac, you will enjoy using the computer. I can guarantee that. It doesn't have multiple versions that remove features or add others, you get things out of the box that Windows has to cover with third party applications.

I'm using a 20" 2.16ghz Core 2 Duo iMac, 2gb of RAM, 256mb ATI card, 250gb HD (with 500gb external). It is blindingly fast, and churns through any program you throw at it. Aperture is beautiful, and very intuitive to use.

I will say that Parallels is quite good, but useless if you want to play games or do graphically heavy work. Install Bootcamp instead and have a small windows partition, and it'll run fine. It's actually easier to install Windows on a mac than on a PC - honestly.

For those switching, here's a list of nice applications that are either cheap or free (which is the great thing about OSX, much of the useful stuff is cheap):
Firefox (duh!)
Camino (basically firefox optimised for mac)
Newsfire (RSS reader, very nicely designed)
Thunderbird (alternative to Mail, both are good)
Adium (messenger program)
Toast (bit more expensive, but a great CD/DVD writer)

Many people will probably want a word processor too, there are some great free ones on the internet, like Open Office. But I will say that iWork and Office for Mac are both very good too, although iWork leaves out complex controls for better designs.

Hope that helps a bit!
Now, go buy yourself a mac, and you won't regret it. Ever noticed how every Mac user touts how great they are, but Windows users are either looking to switch, or mock Mac users?
It's because they can't hold shift and minimise applications in slow motion

Oh yeah, and for those who don't know - hold ctrl and use your scroll wheel to zoom in or out (very smoothly) - it's great for those with bad sight.

Deal fell through on my friend's 17-incher...so I wound up with new one!
Dan, I have you to thank for this...

Traded in my 2 years old 17" Powerbook couple days ago (worth $1000 CAD) for a new 17" Macbook Pro, holy, its so speedy, not much slower than my MacPro or I should say its really hard to tell the difference. And its stable, I finished editing 245 photos without slowing down or restart the machine. My P4 now just serve me as a backup server...

Throlkim wrote in post #2723836
Hope that helps a bit!
Now, go buy yourself a mac, and you won't regret it. Ever noticed how every Mac user touts how great they are, but Windows users are either looking to switch, or mock Mac users?
It's because they can't hold shift and minimise applications in slow motion

Quite the opposite of every forum I visit....

And don't start on the Mac commercials. This so much misinformation and pc bashing from the company itself, that they end up looking like morons and act like little kids throwing insults on a playground to most serious PC (and even a couple mac users) that I know.

It's always good to win over customers by telling them things that aren't true. I don't think I've once seen an ad by Microsoft saying that Macs are bad because they can't do this or that...

Philco wrote in post #2622048
I've been getting ready to buy a new machine and I've decided to switch to Mac. I'm wondering if anybody who's switched to Mac has experienced any drawbacks at all, related to wedding workflow or otherwise, since abandoning the PC. I'm not excited about buying CS2 all over, and I know I'll have to upgrade to CS3 because of the Intel chips. Otherwise, I'm not seeing a downside at all. Should I be?

Thanks!

I've been a Windows user for over 20 years, and I thought I'd try a Mac, mainly because I had a bad experience with a new PC with Vista (big mistake). I couldn't find the drivers for most every piece of hardware...it sucked! I couldn't sync my iPaq PDA (Windows Mobile 5.0)...although the interface looked cool, it was a memory hog.
I bought a Mac Pro system tower, pretty much maxed out, quadcore, 4gb ram, 500 gb HD, 20" flat screen, etc. about 4-5 months. Even though I have a dual boot system on it, XP and OS10, I find myself in the Windows side more often. I don't use Photoshop at all, never have. I have used Paint Shop Pro since the days of Jasc (version 1 or 2 in the early 90's)...and Corel doesn't make a Mac version...so, hence the reason I'm in Windows most of the time.

I just got frustrated (with the Mac) because it slowed down my workflow, and one of the main things, although small, was the fact I couln't rotate photos inside 'Finder', as you can in 'Explorer'. Apple told me I had to use a 3rd party software to that...what? There were other issues too, but too lengthy to explain. I'm selling my whole system and getting a desktop replaceable laptop, with XP.

dcyphert wrote in post #3902946
I don't use Photoshop at all, never have. I have used Paint Shop Pro since the days of Jasc (version 1 or 2 in the early 90's)...and Corel doesn't make a Mac version...so, hence the reason I'm in Windows most of the time.

I used to be a paint shop pro user when it was Jasc and always found it more intuitive than Photoshop, but as soon as corel got their hands on it that was a good enough reason to make the change to Photoshop. Think it was x10 or something the last version of PSP I tried and it was dire, took even longer than CS2 to load.. and was horrid once it had.

Now ive been using Photoshop (CS2) for a while I can see that PSP isnt a patch on it, once you get your head round CS2 then you can see why they are able to charge a lot more for it and its worth it.

Also started using a mac this year (although I still also use windows as I work in IT) and am loving that, so much less hassle than a PC.

Regarding the thumbnails, I would never look at them through finder myself, I would always use Bridge so that wouldnt be an issue for me.

I'm a photo Retoucher for commercial Photography for 8 Years ... before that i was a pC user...it hangs so frequently ... i change to mac 8 years ago due to compatibility of files given from Mac user clients ...after a while i realise this computer works ... no calibration problem ... easy setup .. reliable ... and no virus .. add more Rams it will FLY i tell you .. .. imaging having 10 Psd files open .. each weighing not less than 1 Gig in size each .. and still having no problem ... in slacking of performance ... and it never gives up on me ... its really a good platform if you're ever serious into creative work ...now with the new intel mac processor gives so much more power and flexibility

just like all mac users say .. you're never turn back once you're a Mac ...furthermore their srvice is tip top...

Hey, do you guys like coke or pepsi?