Apple: I need two pair

The new Mac Pro and dual 23″ Apple Cinema Displays are setup and have wasted no time completely dominating the entirety of my desk space.

I use a similar setup at the office, so the processor speed is nothing new, and I have yet to install the really power-hungry apps. The biggest difference between my new home setup and the one at the office is, besides the dual displays, the RAM. At 9GB installed, the new system is a three-fold increase over the system I’m used to using at the office, which handles most everything with ease.

Thanks to the nicely designed case, installing the RAM was a snap, literally, with easily accessible boards that popped in and out. The additional internal harddrives were easily installed into the sliding bays as well.

For general use, the new machine is blazingly fast and easily smokes my old G4, even on simple tasks. Tonight I’m going to install Nikon Capture NX and see how the new setup handles 12mp RAW files. Updates coming soon.

About the author: Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits. He also grills a mean steak.

Contact Todd for image licensing and assignments wherever the rock show lives. You can also get in touch with Todd via Twitter.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 8:55 am and is filed under Photography Gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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6 Responses to “Apple: I need two pair”

1. Anand Sankaran says:

   August 30, 2007 at 11:16 am

   I absolutely hate you :D.

   But let me know how NX behaves. It was terrible the last time I tried.

   Reply
2. Todd says:

   August 30, 2007 at 1:26 pm

   Anand, I’ll definitely report on how Capture NX performs. I’ve heard that v1.2 shows a nice improvement over 1.1, which itself was a great improvement over the initial release.

   As has always been the case, Capture has a barely-tolerable interface, but, to my eye, still delivers the best overall image quality, especially with regard to color reproduction.

   Reply
3. Stephen says:

   August 31, 2007 at 7:07 am

   Showoff! :-p

   What did you have in the way of monitors for your G4? Dual displays are so nice and I find they really help me at work (got two 20″ widescreens).

   If Capture NX doesn’t run well on that beast, there is something seriously wrong with that program! It’s a shame that the likes of Lightroom and ACR can’t match the Capture colours because I much prefer their workflow and interface…

   PS: I’m posting this from a Macbook. OS X is awesome.

   Reply
4. Todd says:

   August 31, 2007 at 8:01 am

   Hey Stephen, I have a 17″ Apple Studio Display hooked up to the G4. It’s not a bad screen, but not nearly as bright as the new ACDs.

   I’m just starting to use the two displays and hopefully will settle into a nice setup for using the real estate effectively. Any suggestions?

   After some very brief use of Capture NX last night, there’s a startling difference in the performance of this program. Images load almost instantly and controls are very responsive. There’s a very slight lag when adjusting the image, but this is measured in milliseconds. Saving NEFs takes one or two seconds, and saving JPGs takes about half a second.

   Is that Macbook yours? Have you switched over to the dark side yet?

   Reply
5. Stephen says:

   September 1, 2007 at 8:33 am

   It depends what you do most with your two screens – at work my main job is web development so I usually have one screen for all the code files I’m working on and the other for browsers to test or to read documentation. I also find it good having two screens for e-mail so I can refer back to things without scrolling. For photo editing, I’d keep the thumbnail browser on one screen and the main editing window on the other – maybe put the tool palettes off the main editing screen too. Having said all that, this is using Windows, which doesn’t have nice features like OS X’s Expose…

   Wow, those Capture NX figures are very impressive and must come as a welcome change for you! I’m expecting to see more photo updates here now! ;-)

   The Macbook isn’t mine unfortunately but it belongs to my local camera club. I’m continually developing their website (for online compeition entries mainly) so I get to look after the laptop for now at least… I’d been considering a move to the “dark side” for a long time and this has helped cement that decision.

   Reply
6. Todd says:

   September 1, 2007 at 10:57 am

   Thanks for your thoughts on the dual displays. For photo processing, I imagine I’ll use iView in one window and then Photoshop in the other. Or perhaps a Photoshop/NX split, depending on the stage of editing.

   I’m photographing Alice in Chains tonight, then Bloc Party next week, and possible Rilo Kiley as well. Should be some interesting shows in the next few months.

   Would you get a Macbook, an iMac, or a Mac Pro?

   Reply