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To start of with I am no stranger to macs ( my brother was a authorised mac dealer/repairer, so i had all of the old part ex,s starting with a lc II, quadra,powermac,emac,imac G3 and my last mac 17 inch imac which is still in the roof ) I never really liked the last imac that i had and so changed over to pc's guessing around ten years ago.

Thing is i have had iphones for ages i have also had ipads for some time including the lastest ipad air II ( nice bit of kit ) and i love the way the iphone and the ipads work together and of course transfering jpegs from the fuji XT-1 to the ipad is a breeze....

This is my dilema my windows 7 laptop is big, old, slow and on the way out so i need to replace it and with windows 10 on the cards i just dont fancy it, (and the plan is that maybe next year I will get a 27 inch imac ) so I am now thinking about a macbook pro for a laptop ( must be small for when i am on the move..possibly 13 .3 inch i5, but i have a few things that I would like to know before i make the move to a macbook pro..

Will it run lightroom and ps creative cloud ok ( not worried about lightening fast but do want it to work ok ) ?

 

second thing I work from two different places and at the moment have dell 24 inch ips screens one that i plug my window lappy into and one with my desktop attached, so would the macbook pro connect ok and work ok with my dell screens ?

 

I also use a wacom intuos graphics tablet, so would that work with the macbook pro.

 

the idea would be that I could cart the macbookpro around with me using it either as a compact laptop or at either end of my journey attached to a 24 inch monitor..

 

any views on my above ramblings or am i just expecting to much from a macbook pro (as i would rather not purchase a new 27 inch mac just yet as i have a few things to sort out before i am ready .

 

Thanks for reading, Steve.

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I'm absolutely certain that PS and LR will work with MacBook Pros. I watch YouTube videos on LR techniques and most of the video presenters are using MacBook Pros, and often with Wacom tablets.

 

I'd check with Adobe re minimum specifications, but I use LR and PS on the cheapest 21" iMac. It's plenty quick enough for me.

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You will have no problem with PS or LR on MacBook Pro but I recommend maxing out on RAM at time of purchase (as with any laptop intended for graphics). I have 13 inch 2014 retina model with 16 Gb of RAM and it is excellent. New ones were released this year. 36mp raw files no problem, big panoramas in LR6 no problem, external

27 inch monitor no problem (adaptor may be required). Very fast. I don't use wacom but I can't imagine there would be a problem. MacBook Air is lighter but not as powerful by any means.

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thanks both ian and MDM, that is just the sort of news that i wanted to hear..and if i can put off buying a new desktop for a while even better...sadly my brother retired from being a mac dealer so the days of cheap macs for me has long gone...

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I've used a number of MacBooks Pro & Air now. I did have a 13" macbook pro retina, 8gb ram 2.6ghz I think. It ran CS6 perfectly and Capture One Pro 8 as well as a host of other photo apps. In hindsight I would've gone for 16gb ram though just to give the extra headroom (if it hadn't been for video requirements).

 

In the end I ended up selling the 13" in favour of the 15" Macbook Pro Retina (2015), 2.5 - 3.6ghz i7 with 16gb ram, 500gb ssd and dual video card as I'm starting to do more 4k video clips.

 

This is a beast of a machine and runs 1x 27 inch screen with 2560 x 1440 resolution and a 27" Cintiq also with 2560 x 1440 resolution and doesn't skip a beat. This means I was able to do away with upgrading my old iMac as it is just as powerful, if not more so, than most workstations. So, if you go for something a little more expensive / powerful for the laptop, you could avoid the additional cost of buying an iMac as well!!

 

The 15 is still a nice size, not to big at all. The new trackpad "force touch" is very nice on the new machines (both 13 & 15). If you do go for the 13", max out ram and chip if you can, it will be more than enough to replace an iMac if you have a screen to attach to it! The other perk of this is you don't have to sync files between machines.

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I've used a number of MacBooks Pro & Air now. I did have a 13" macbook pro retina, 8gb ram 2.6ghz I think. It ran CS6 perfectly and Capture One Pro 8 as well as a host of other photo apps. In hindsight I would've gone for 16gb ram though just to give the extra headroom (if it hadn't been for video requirements).

 

In the end I ended up selling the 13" in favour of the 15" Macbook Pro Retina (2015), 2.5 - 3.6ghz i7 with 16gb ram, 500gb ssd and dual video card as I'm starting to do more 4k video clips.

 

This is a beast of a machine and runs 1x 27 inch screen with 2560 x 1440 resolution and a 27" Cintiq also with 2560 x 1440 resolution and doesn't skip a beat. This means I was able to do away with upgrading my old iMac as it is just as powerful, if not more so, than most workstations. So, if you go for something a little more expensive / powerful for the laptop, you could avoid the additional cost of buying an iMac as well!!

 

The 15 is still a nice size, not to big at all. The new trackpad "force touch" is very nice on the new machines (both 13 & 15). If you do go for the 13", max out ram and chip if you can, it will be more than enough to replace an iMac if you have a screen to attach to it! The other perk of this is you don't have to sync files between machines.

Thanks for your input Duncan, this is getting more and more interesting.

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Love my 13" macbook pro retina display - the 27" iMac is better for working on photos due to the screen size but the 13" does an amazing job when I'm on the road and is lightening-fast with LR and PS CC - I have an i7 late 2013 with only 8 GB RAM and a 500GB SSD, 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD would be amazing. The solid state drives are really the way to go - have one on the iMac too and the speed is terrific. 

 

I use the Wacom Bamboo tablet with no problems, assume you can use yours - guess you should check with the manufacturer for the latest drivers if it's not just plug and play. Don't know about an outside monitor but if it works you could save a lot using it with the monitor instead of buying an iMac too. 

 

With iCloud you'll love how you can save so much and have it on your phone, iPad and laptop, seamlessly going from one to the other. I love making notes on my phone and having them show up on my computers, and with Yosemite & iCloud, I can start a document on my laptop and finish it up on my iMac with the changes all up to date. I also save some of my photos to the cloud but still need to sync my LR catalogs. IMHO it's a definite advantage of keeping my gadgets all in the Mac family. 

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Love my 13" macbook pro retina display - the 27" iMac is better for working on photos due to the screen size but the 13" does an amazing job when I'm on the road and is lightening-fast with LR and PS CC - I have an i7 late 2013 with only 8 GB RAM and a 500GB SSD, 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD would be amazing. The solid state drives are really the way to go - have one on the iMac too and the speed is terrific. 

 

I use the Wacom Bamboo tablet with no problems, assume you can use yours - guess you should check with the manufacturer for the latest drivers if it's not just plug and play. Don't know about an outside monitor but if it works you could save a lot using it with the monitor instead of buying an iMac too. 

 

With iCloud you'll love how you can save so much and have it on your phone, iPad and laptop, seamlessly going from one to the other. I love making notes on my phone and having them show up on my computers, and with Yosemite & iCloud, I can start a document on my laptop and finish it up on my iMac with the changes all up to date. I also save some of my photos to the cloud but still need to sync my LR catalogs. IMHO it's a definite advantage of keeping my gadgets all in the Mac family.

 

Thanks for the reply, i think either the 13 or 15 inch would make a good laptop for travelling and hooked up to one of my dell 24 inch IPC screens would make a good machine for editing... i too love using notes or diary on my phone and find them updated on my ipads seamlessly .. brilliant.

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I also save some of my photos to the cloud but still need to sync my LR catalogs. IMHO it's a definite advantage of keeping my gadgets all in the Mac family.

 

I put my LR catalogue (not the photos) in a Dropbox folder. It automatically syncs across computers.

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Love my 13" macbook pro retina display - the 27" iMac is better for working on photos due to the screen size but the 13" does an amazing job when I'm on the road and is lightening-fast with LR and PS CC - I have an i7 late 2013 with only 8 GB RAM and a 500GB SSD, 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD would be amazing. The solid state drives are really the way to go - have one on the iMac too and the speed is terrific. 

 

I use the Wacom Bamboo tablet with no problems, assume you can use yours - guess you should check with the manufacturer for the latest drivers if it's not just plug and play. Don't know about an outside monitor but if it works you could save a lot using it with the monitor instead of buying an iMac too. 

 

With iCloud you'll love how you can save so much and have it on your phone, iPad and laptop, seamlessly going from one to the other. I love making notes on my phone and having them show up on my computers, and with Yosemite & iCloud, I can start a document on my laptop and finish it up on my iMac with the changes all up to date. I also save some of my photos to the cloud but still need to sync my LR catalogs. IMHO it's a definite advantage of keeping my gadgets all in the Mac family.

Thanks for the reply, i think either the 13 or 15 inch would make a good laptop for travelling and hooked up to one of my dell 24 inch IPC screens would make a good machine for editing... i too love using notes or diary on my phone and find them updated on my ipads seamlessly .. brilliant.

 

 

Forgot to say earlier, I also use an Intuos 4 and the Mac drivers for that are solid. Work really well.

 

What connectors do you have on the monitor? On my 13" (2013) the HDMI only powered unto 1080 for some reason, the Thunderbolt did the full 2560 x 1440. The 15" dual graphics card Macbook does 2560 x 1440 on both HDMI and Thunderbolt. Depending on the monitor inputs, you'll need Thunderbolt adapters to connect it to the laptop.

 

I think both 13 & 15 handle 4k monitors now and the 15 dual graphics card will do support one monitor unto 5120 x 2880. Worth bearing in mind. I opted for the dual card one as I have no intention of upgrading this for 3-5 years at least.

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If you are not in a hurry, there are rumors that Apple will be announcing a refresh across most of its product lines. The announcement is rumored to take place in early September. If you buy a new Mac today, you could end up having buyer's remorse in just a few weeks.

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Just me two cents! I have a 2015 13inch Macbook Pro 2.9 I5 8GB Ram, and I have no problems running Photoshop CC, while working on multiple RAW images. No sure about the Dell Monitors, but I can't imagine there would be problem.

 

Good Luck! 

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To start of with I am no stranger to macs ( my brother was a authorised mac dealer/repairer, so i had all of the old part ex,s starting with a lc II, quadra,powermac,emac,imac G3 and my last mac 17 inch imac which is still in the roof ) I never really liked the last imac that i had and so changed over to pc's guessing around ten years ago.

Thing is i have had iphones for ages i have also had ipads for some time including the lastest ipad air II ( nice bit of kit ) and i love the way the iphone and the ipads work together and of course transfering jpegs from the fuji XT-1 to the ipad is a breeze....

This is my dilema my windows 7 laptop is big, old, slow and on the way out so i need to replace it and with windows 10 on the cards i just dont fancy it, (and the plan is that maybe next year I will get a 27 inch imac ) so I am now thinking about a macbook pro for a laptop ( must be small for when i am on the move..possibly 13 .3 inch i5, but i have a few things that I would like to know before i make the move to a macbook pro..

Will it run lightroom and ps creative cloud ok ( not worried about lightening fast but do want it to work ok ) ?

 

second thing I work from two different places and at the moment have dell 24 inch ips screens one that i plug my window lappy into and one with my desktop attached, so would the macbook pro connect ok and work ok with my dell screens ?

 

I also use a wacom intuos graphics tablet, so would that work with the macbook pro.

 

the idea would be that I could cart the macbookpro around with me using it either as a compact laptop or at either end of my journey attached to a 24 inch monitor..

 

any views on my above ramblings or am i just expecting to much from a macbook pro (as i would rather not purchase a new 27 inch mac just yet as i have a few things to sort out before i am ready .

 

Thanks for reading, Steve.

 

Thanks for posting. I'm currently running an old laptop and Windows 7 and am considering the same idea (13" Mac Book Pro with HDMI link to big monitor) so I'm following this thread with interest. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well after a ten year break from macs and now having owned my MacBook Pro for a week I can now say I am happy to be back, it seems to plug in to my dell ips monitor via HDMI and works well.. I also have purchased a rain desk stand which brings it up higher from my desk so as it is centred with the dell monitor, a apple wireless keyboard and a apple Magic Mouse.. It works perfect with my graphics tablet and no problems with running Lightroom and pscc, all that and plugged into my Bose speakers and listening to all my floyd and Hendrix tracks on iTunes whilst editing ...all in all a result.. :)

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Well after a ten year break from macs and now having owned my MacBook Pro for a week I can now say I am happy to be back, it seems to plug in to my dell ips monitor via HDMI and works well.. I also have purchased a rain desk stand which brings it up higher from my desk so as it is centred with the dell monitor, a apple wireless keyboard and a apple Magic Mouse.. It works perfect with my graphics tablet and no problems with running Lightroom and pscc, all that and plugged into my Bose speakers and listening to all my floyd and Hendrix tracks on iTunes whilst editing ...all in all a result.. :)

Which specification of Mac Book did you go with in the end?

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Well after a ten year break from macs and now having owned my MacBook Pro for a week I can now say I am happy to be back, it seems to plug in to my dell ips monitor via HDMI and works well.. I also have purchased a rain desk stand which brings it up higher from my desk so as it is centred with the dell monitor, a apple wireless keyboard and a apple Magic Mouse.. It works perfect with my graphics tablet and no problems with running Lightroom and pscc, all that and plugged into my Bose speakers and listening to all my floyd and Hendrix tracks on iTunes whilst editing ...all in all a result.. :)

 

Which specification of Mac Book did you go with in the end?
as the most important thing for me was portability and the fact that I will be getting a Mac desktop in the future I went for a 13 inch 2.9 GHz i5 model with 8 meg of ram and 512 gig flash storage. This was always going to be used as a portable for me and as I have said I will get a desktop Mac in the future. I have been using it for the last week with Lightroom and pscc and it has performed fine.. If it was going to be my only Mac I would have probably done as Duncan suggested earlier in this thread and gone for the 15 inch i7 with 16 meg ram.. Why .. Well not because I need it as the MacBook that I have clearly does the job, but more the case of its always best to have a bit more power than you need. I must say when I had macs years ago they seemed to be well made, but the modern macs just seem to ooze quality.
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When I bought my first iMac, I spent extra to have windows installed because I had a few windows only apps. Turns out the only time I used it was to make my DACS application because they couldn't read the Pages format. Those apps? Didn't really need them. The main one was noise ninja, but LR and PS is just as good.

 

I lost one inexpensive photo painting program, but have since gotten superior ones to it. The others, I simply notified the makers and told them I'd switched, and they gave me the links to download the Mac version.

 

My 2nd Mac doesn't have windows, and I've found a way to change the format of written documents to Word that works just fine.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

To start of with I am no stranger to macs ( my brother was a authorised mac dealer/repairer, so i had all of the old part ex,s starting with a lc II, quadra,powermac,emac,imac G3 and my last mac 17 inch imac which is still in the roof ) I never really liked the last imac that i had and so changed over to pc's guessing around ten years ago.

Thing is i have had iphones for ages i have also had ipads for some time including the lastest ipad air II ( nice bit of kit ) and i love the way the iphone and the ipads work together and of course transfering jpegs from the fuji XT-1 to the ipad is a breeze....

This is my dilema my windows 7 laptop is big, old, slow and on the way out so i need to replace it and with windows 10 on the cards i just dont fancy it, (and the plan is that maybe next year I will get a 27 inch imac ) so I am now thinking about a macbook pro for a laptop ( must be small for when i am on the move..possibly 13 .3 inch i5, but i have a few things that I would like to know before i make the move to a macbook pro..

Will it run lightroom and ps creative cloud ok ( not worried about lightening fast but do want it to work ok ) ?

 

second thing I work from two different places and at the moment have dell 24 inch ips screens one that i plug my window lappy into and one with my desktop attached, so would the macbook pro connect ok and work ok with my dell screens ?

 

I also use a wacom intuos graphics tablet, so would that work with the macbook pro.

 

the idea would be that I could cart the macbookpro around with me using it either as a compact laptop or at either end of my journey attached to a 24 inch monitor..

 

any views on my above ramblings or am i just expecting to much from a macbook pro (as i would rather not purchase a new 27 inch mac just yet as i have a few things to sort out before i am ready .

 

Thanks for reading, Steve.

 

Thanks for posting. I'm currently running an old laptop and Windows 7 and am considering the same idea (13" Mac Book Pro with HDMI link to big monitor) so I'm following this thread with interest. :)

 

Me too! I'm sick of Windows update and everything else and as I have windows 7, I don't want to get 10, not until I've moved everything onto a mac. I'm even looking at e-bay, but think that may be too dodgy, but price is an issue after a hard drive failure and broken lens on holiday!

I did go into apple yesterday and the himself uses a Macbook air with 128g for all his graphics work, but whilst he seemed to think it would be ok, I'd like a pro, then a desktop, think I need to sell some stuff!

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To start of with I am no stranger to macs ( my brother was a authorised mac dealer/repairer, so i had all of the old part ex,s starting with a lc II, quadra,powermac,emac,imac G3 and my last mac 17 inch imac which is still in the roof ) I never really liked the last imac that i had and so changed over to pc's guessing around ten years ago.

Thing is i have had iphones for ages i have also had ipads for some time including the lastest ipad air II ( nice bit of kit ) and i love the way the iphone and the ipads work together and of course transfering jpegs from the fuji XT-1 to the ipad is a breeze....

This is my dilema my windows 7 laptop is big, old, slow and on the way out so i need to replace it and with windows 10 on the cards i just dont fancy it, (and the plan is that maybe next year I will get a 27 inch imac ) so I am now thinking about a macbook pro for a laptop ( must be small for when i am on the move..possibly 13 .3 inch i5, but i have a few things that I would like to know before i make the move to a macbook pro..

Will it run lightroom and ps creative cloud ok ( not worried about lightening fast but do want it to work ok ) ?

 

second thing I work from two different places and at the moment have dell 24 inch ips screens one that i plug my window lappy into and one with my desktop attached, so would the macbook pro connect ok and work ok with my dell screens ?

 

I also use a wacom intuos graphics tablet, so would that work with the macbook pro.

 

the idea would be that I could cart the macbookpro around with me using it either as a compact laptop or at either end of my journey attached to a 24 inch monitor..

 

any views on my above ramblings or am i just expecting to much from a macbook pro (as i would rather not purchase a new 27 inch mac just yet as i have a few things to sort out before i am ready .

 

Thanks for reading, Steve.

 

Thanks for posting. I'm currently running an old laptop and Windows 7 and am considering the same idea (13" Mac Book Pro with HDMI link to big monitor) so I'm following this thread with interest. :)

 

Me too! I'm sick of Windows update and everything else and as I have windows 7, I don't want to get 10, not until I've moved everything onto a mac. I'm even looking at e-bay, but think that may be too dodgy, but price is an issue after a hard drive failure and broken lens on holiday!

I did go into apple yesterday and the himself uses a Macbook air with 128g for all his graphics work, but whilst he seemed to think it would be ok, I'd like a pro, then a desktop, think I need to sell some stuff!

 

 

I used to have a Macbook Air 11", did have a 13" Macbook Pro and now have the 15" Macbook Pro with dual graphics cards.

 

If you have no need to process 4k video or heavy HD footage manipulation, go for the 13" Macbook pro, ideally with 8-16gb ram. The Airs are nice but there is little processing headroom for Capture One and Photoshop etc. The 13" is a great all rounder in a nice size system! Connect to a monitor via Thunderbolt though.

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