Advice on buying an iMac

[jlcst]

As much as I love my Mac they're not without their own issues. Several months ago I was particularly unhappy with the newest system, El Capitan, and decided to downgrade to the previous system. It took a bit of work but I was able to do it. Macs also have regular system updates. I don't know how the number compares to Windows but I suspect it may happen even more often because most updates run through the Apple Store. I currently have about a half dozen software updates waiting to be installed.

 

If you decide to switch, I believe you can contact Adobe and transfer your license from Windows to the equivalent Mac version but you might want to double check before you take the plunge. People seem to love SSD but I find the internal 1tb drive on my Mac Mini, along with a couple of external drives is perfectly adequate.

 

If you're anywhere near an Apple Store I'd highly recommend paying them a visit and spending some time using a Mac before you make a decision. If you decide you prefer Mac over Windows it may be well worth the extra money spent.

 

fD

 

Thank You FD

 

I am most grateful for your time I will most definitely go and try before I buy at least that way I will get a feel for it. What has been most helpful here is that everyone that has taken the time to give their insight has helped me to build up a picture in my minds eye so that when I do go to the apple store I will be able ask relevant questions based on the kind of information that you wonderful people have given to me so thank you once again for taking the time to reply I am most grateful

 

Kind Regards

           Jim

[jlcst]

One other thing. If you do go for an iMac, don't pay Apple for the memory. They charge you a laughable sum for it. You can easily buy the memory you need and put it in yourself as the slots are easily accessible on the back of the machine. It takes about five minutes in total. If you buy a laptop you have to pay Apple's money for the memory as its not user accessible.

Got it Colin Thank you 

Kind Regards 

              Jim

[jlcst]

Can I just take this opportunity to thank everyone who has replied to my request for advice it has been very informative and  helpful I am most grateful to you all 

 

Kind Regards 

           Jim

[KevinS]

My 21in iMac does have slots for more memory, haven't really needed to install any yet. (came with 4gb, room for 8) I chose a refurbished computer from Apple to help keep the cost down. Free shipping, IIRC. No thoughts of replacing, many years to go barring any sudden failure.

[fotoDogue]

My 21in iMac does have slots for more memory, haven't really needed to install any yet. (came with 4gb, room for 8) I chose a refurbished computer from Apple to help keep the cost down. Free shipping, IIRC. No thoughts of replacing, many years to go barring any sudden failure.

 

Memory was upgradeable in older 20 and 21 inch iMacs but hasn't been since Mid 2012.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191

 

One of the local Apple Authorized Dealers was offering a deal where they would max out the ram and hard drive for $200. Even if an iMac isn't "user upgradeable" it's not the end of the world.

[M.Chapman]

First of all sorry if this is an inappropriate question in this forum but I am guessing that there are lot of Mac users here and I would like some advise if possible please. I am so fed up with windows constantly updating and causing problems, that I am getting to the point  where I am seriously considering buying an iMac after spending ages sorting out my P.C today. Windows did yet another update last night came to boot up this morning and got the dreaded error message wasted hours  sorting it out I wont bother with the boring details. Just for the sake of clarity I am using windows 10. I have been using a P.C for many years and I have considered changing over to a Mac but I have always been a bit reluctant as I am not the worlds best when it comes to Technical stuff, at my age 67 I thought perhaps it’s just best to stick with what little I do know. All I mostly use a computer for is photography either editing looking on the internet to learn more on the subject via forums and YouTube that kind of thing so is it worth my while changing over, as I understand it Mac’s are supposed to be the best when it comes to photography and video editing, are they as good as the hype? What are the negatives if any? Do you have problems with the operating system? Will I need to consider forking out for new software if I buy One? I use Lightroom mostly now but still use Photoshop a little. For those of you that made the transition was it a big new learning curve? These may seem like obvious questions and I hope that you don’t think me foolish but it is a big decision and of course a great deal of money to spend so any advise on the subject will be most gratefully received.

Regards Jim 

 

Not inappropriate at all. I've been through exactly the same problems with Windows 10 and have given up on it. I'm responsible for 3 computers. Two of them I reverted back to Windows 7 SP1, disabled all updates, installed a free virus checker and set the email and web browser to run in a Sandbox (Sandboxie) to stop any viruses that might get past the virus checker from attacking the computer. Both those machines now run beautifully. Cold boot in 15 seconds, and no danger of those damned updates. 

 

However for my main computer, where I do all my photography stuff using LR4 and PSE, I swapped to a secondhand MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) with external monitor. I updated the RAM 8GB and swapped the HDD for a 1TB hybrid SSD/HDD and installed El Capitan. It works brilliantly. I'd never used a Mac before so it took me a while to get used to it, but now it's my computer of choice. It's fast and extremely stable. It was a bit of a culture shock swapping from Windows. PSE and LR are virtually identical, but the ways of doing things under OS-X are often different to Windows. Some things are easier on a Mac, but I still miss the Windows 7 File Explorer which is better (IMO) than Finder.

 

Here's a couple of tips that helped me.

 

• If you format any external USB drives using FAT32 or better still ExFAT, then you can read and write them on both Windows and OS-X without needing to install NTFS or HFS+ drivers. 

   

• To Cut and Paste (i.e. move) a file in Mac Finder use <Cmd + C> to copy the selected file. Then navigate to the destination folder and type <Alt + Cmd + V> to paste the file into the new folder and remove the original. You can of course drag and drop in Mac Finder, but I find Cut and Paste is often easier.

I won't be going back to Windows anytime soon.

[NYCat]

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the learning curve because there is so much help with that at the Apple stores. At least there is here in the USA. 

 

Paulette

Thank you for your reply Paulette it's most appreciated Love your wildlife images by the way they a lovely

Kind regards Jim

 

 

 

Thank you for your appreciation of my beloved wild creatures. If you belong to a photography organization you may be able to get a bit of a discount on the price. I bought mine through PPA here in the US and I was able to get better features that way than I could get in the store. I'd give you details but all the technical stuff seems to seep right out of my brain. Faster, stronger, better--...whatever.

 

Paulette

[Marianne]

I switched to a Mac years ago and I'd never go back. My husband who has always used PCs is even thinking of switching after realizing how much better the trackpad on my Mac works compared to the one on his PC - he went out and bought a mouse because it was so unresponsive - and he doesn't use it for photos. I print a lot of my work for galleries and the color matching is terrific. True confession I use ICC profiles and the built in color profiles on my MACs and haven't bothered with a color monkey (can't think of the name of the gadget) in years and I haven't had any issues - I even get beautiful skin tones when I print portrait work for clients. I had heard the iMac screens were slightly blue but I have not found it to be the case. 

 

I have both an iMac where I do most of my processing - the screen is beautiful and I hear the new ones are even nicer - and a Macbook Pro for travel and when I'm working outside my house. (Or for being online with my feet up on the couch on a lazy day). The software upgrades have been free for about a year now, maybe longer. I like that I can go into an Apple store if need be and their phone support is terrific. If you're with a professional photo organization (such as the British equivalent of ASMP) check your benefits you might get a discount. Their phone support is really good and I would pay the extra $200+ to get a three year warranty with phone support, replacements etc. (assume in the UK they have similar extended warranty options). Their support is really top notch and if you go online, put in your phone number they call you back always in less than an hour. My plug was starting to fray and they replaced it even though it still worked because I was coming up on the warranty end and was concerned it would go on me without warning. I was totally upfront about it and they sent me a new one and I sent back the old one - they paid all postage. 

 

My PCs lasted longer but I do so much more processing now - I got my first iMac when I started shooting and processing photos in earnest. I'd say I've had to replace them every four years which isn't awful - by then you want the new bells and whistles anyway. I still have a seven year old laptop as a backup (the hard drive fried in year two and they replaced it).  My daughter's laptop died in year two while she was writing her thesis and they upgraded her from 250GB to 500GB when they replaced her hard drive. 

 

So, they are expensive and perhaps the laptops are temperamental - they get moved around a lot of course - but my 4-year old iMac is still going strong and I don't plan to replace it - I run my Lightroom catalog on the SSD with the photos on a 4TB lighting bolt connected LaCie drive and it's seamless. Get as much RAM as you can afford and get a solid state drive plus a regular hard drive (I have a dual 260GB SSD 1 TB HD in my iMac) and with 8 GB of RAM it does everything I need. I'd get 16 if I were buying it today. It's still massively faster than my husband's new PC which has supposedly better specs. Someone else can tell you if you need 32GB RAM but I just process photos not video or 3D so I'm good with 8GB. 

 

With Photoshop CC and LR, you don't even have to worry about switching platforms anymore (in the old days Adobe let me switch to the MAC version of PS 3 back then for the upgrade price). 

[Colin Woods]

The lack of Windows Explorer was one of my main gripes with Mac. The Finder is nowhere near as good. I use Bridge as my Explorer replacement but another good alternative is Cocoatech Pathfinder. It costs but its good. And, yes, all the software I owned was replaced with the mac version when I contacted the company. The only thing I need now is for the excellent ProShow Gold slide show software to be released for Mac. If anyone knows of a good slideshow package for mac (I don't need fancy transitions, just the ability to have slides on screen for a customisable length of time and to easily add a music track) then you can let me know.

[giphotostock]

Mac. Life is too short to deal with Windows. There are meaningful things to do in life, and Windows is not among them. Speaking from experience.

 

GI

[jlcst]

 

First of all sorry if this is an inappropriate question in this forum but I am guessing that there are lot of Mac users here and I would like some advise if possible please. I am so fed up with windows constantly updating and causing problems, that I am getting to the point  where I am seriously considering buying an iMac after spending ages sorting out my P.C today. Windows did yet another update last night came to boot up this morning and got the dreaded error message wasted hours  sorting it out I wont bother with the boring details. Just for the sake of clarity I am using windows 10. I have been using a P.C for many years and I have considered changing over to a Mac but I have always been a bit reluctant as I am not the worlds best when it comes to Technical stuff, at my age 67 I thought perhaps it’s just best to stick with what little I do know. All I mostly use a computer for is photography either editing looking on the internet to learn more on the subject via forums and YouTube that kind of thing so is it worth my while changing over, as I understand it Mac’s are supposed to be the best when it comes to photography and video editing, are they as good as the hype? What are the negatives if any? Do you have problems with the operating system? Will I need to consider forking out for new software if I buy One? I use Lightroom mostly now but still use Photoshop a little. For those of you that made the transition was it a big new learning curve? These may seem like obvious questions and I hope that you don’t think me foolish but it is a big decision and of course a great deal of money to spend so any advise on the subject will be most gratefully received.

Regards Jim 

 

Not inappropriate at all. I've been through exactly the same problems with Windows 10 and have given up on it. I'm responsible for 3 computers. Two of them I reverted back to Windows 7 SP1, disabled all updates, installed a free virus checker and set the email and web browser to run in a Sandbox (Sandboxie) to stop any viruses that might get past the virus checker from attacking the computer. Both those machines now run beautifully. Cold boot in 15 seconds, and no danger of those damned updates. 

 

However for my main computer, where I do all my photography stuff using LR4 and PSE, I swapped to a secondhand MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) with external monitor. I updated the RAM 8GB and swapped the HDD for a 1TB hybrid SSD/HDD and installed El Capitan. It works brilliantly. I'd never used a Mac before so it took me a while to get used to it, but now it's my computer of choice. It's fast and extremely stable. It was a bit of a culture shock swapping from Windows. PSE and LR are virtually identical, but the ways of doing things under OS-X are often different to Windows. Some things are easier on a Mac, but I still miss the Windows 7 File Explorer which is better (IMO) than Finder.

 

Here's a couple of tips that helped me.

 

• If you format any external USB drives using FAT32 or better still ExFAT, then you can read and write them on both Windows and OS-X without needing to install NTFS or HFS+ drivers. 

   

• To Cut and Paste (i.e. move) a file in Mac Finder use <Cmd + C> to copy the selected file. Then navigate to the destination folder and type <Alt + Cmd + V> to paste the file into the new folder and remove the original. You can of course drag and drop in Mac Finder, but I find Cut and Paste is often easier.

I won't be going back to Windows anytime soon.

 

Thank you for all that valuable information MC

I have taken it all on board I am most grateful to you for taking the time to explain so much in such fine detail. I am being drawn ever closer to going down the road of iMac after listening  to yourself and others interesting points of view. Your advise is very much appreciated and has help a great deal thank you.

 

Kind Regards 

                  Jim

[Guest]

I bought an iMac a few months ago when ticked off with Windows, went back within two weeks. Poor graphics card, unable to CUDA render as it's a jumped up laptop version, and dealing with a screen that calibrates poorly...even with the new auto whatever in new software. The OS is now not as great versus Windows as it once was.

 

Result was I had a W10 machine built with an SSD for programs and normal HD for the filing. It's a machine which switches on quicker than the iMac and runs a hlll of a lot quicker...all for £700 less than the i7 and I see my images on a proper screen.

 

Not against Macs since I would rather have a Mac pro but again Apple have messed that up with stupid graphics cards which don't do full, proper CUDA rendering.

 

You now have the crazy situation that, in the UK, you have to get a retina screen to get an i7 machine - bonkers.

[M.Chapman]

Hi Jim,

 

If you do decide to switch to Mac OS X, a book that really helped me was "OS X Yosemite for Dummies" by Bob Le Vitus. Worth every penny IMO. Although as others have said the online help from Apple and in forums etc. is also excellent.

 

I also tried "OS X Yosemite" by Chris Kennedy, but that contains nothing more than copies of the help comments that already appear in the on screen menus. The "Dummies" book not only tells you what the menus do, it tells you how and why you might want to do things one way or another.

 

Also, to ease the transition to OS-X, I bought and installed Parallels Desktop 11 which allows me to run any of my Windows programs on my Mac without using bootcamp and rebooting. Parallels is superb. It saved the day several times whilst I was still learning how to use the Mac, but needed to work on some of my "Windows" files.

 

I still use Parallels now to run some programs that I haven't found a Mac alternative for yet. NB. To run Windows as a Virtual Machine under Parallels you will need to install a copy of Windows (using Parallels). But it was so easy to setup and use I was stunned. I also stopped the Windows VM from accessing the internet to avoid any possible problems with Windows updates and viruses. 

 

PS. I've given you a helpful vote (green arrow) for saying thanks to my earlier comments.

[Gervais Montacute]

Yeah I use a 2016 5K Retina 27 inch with 32 GBs of Ram with an i7 4.2 Ghz upgrade and an upgraded video card.

 

It's good and Lightroom 5 works well on it.

 

I've used up both the Thunderbolt slots and the 4 USB slots on the back so it will need a USB hub at some point.

[ann m]

To save a bit on the cost, I usually buy refurbished from the Apple Store. http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

 

However, over the years I have gone over to apple for everything else & have found this site http://www.refurbiphones.co.uk/

very good, indeed I'm typing this on a refurbished iPad pro from there.

 

I've never had any issues & the savings are worth having.

 

ann

[KevinS]

 

My 21in iMac does have slots for more memory, haven't really needed to install any yet. (came with 4gb, room for 8) I chose a refurbished computer from Apple to help keep the cost down. Free shipping, IIRC. No thoughts of replacing, many years to go barring any sudden failure.

 

Memory was upgradeable in older 20 and 21 inch iMacs but hasn't been since Mid 2012.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191

 

One of the local Apple Authorized Dealers was offering a deal where they would max out the ram and hard drive for $200. Even if an iMac isn't "user upgradeable" it's not the end of the world.

 

Thanks, fD, for the current info. My old iMac is so stable and functional that I don't spend any time reviewing specs on newer machines. When the time comes I'll confidently get another iMac. Agreed that user upgradeable isn't needed. 

[MDM]

Rather than buying direct from Apple, I'd recommend having a look at Jigsaw 24 (http://www.jigsaw24.com). They are a major Mac dealer but they also have a lot of other stuff like 3rd party memory (as somebody mentioned can be very expensive from Apple) and a big range of hard drives and monitors. They are very helpful and knowledgeable - good customer service. I've bought from them a few times. They are based in Nottingham and you can pick up directly if you are anywhere near there in the Midlands. 

[jlcst]

 

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the learning curve because there is so much help with that at the Apple stores. At least there is here in the USA. 

 

Paulette

Thank you for your reply Paulette it's most appreciated Love your wildlife images by the way they a lovely

Kind regards Jim

 

 

 

Thank you for your appreciation of my beloved wild creatures. If you belong to a photography organization you may be able to get a bit of a discount on the price. I bought mine through PPA here in the US and I was able to get better features that way than I could get in the store. I'd give you details but all the technical stuff seems to seep right out of my brain. Faster, stronger, better--...whatever.

 

Paulette

 

Sadly I don't belong to a photography organization Paulette but it might be worth my while looking into that in the future thank you for the advise. Yes I am a big fan of wildlife images I just love taking them in so it's easy for me to appreciate your images.

all the best 

                  Jim

[jlcst]

I switched to a Mac years ago and I'd never go back. My husband who has always used PCs is even thinking of switching after realizing how much better the trackpad on my Mac works compared to the one on his PC - he went out and bought a mouse because it was so unresponsive - and he doesn't use it for photos. I print a lot of my work for galleries and the color matching is terrific. True confession I use ICC profiles and the built in color profiles on my MACs and haven't bothered with a color monkey (can't think of the name of the gadget) in years and I haven't had any issues - I even get beautiful skin tones when I print portrait work for clients. I had heard the iMac screens were slightly blue but I have not found it to be the case. 

 

I have both an iMac where I do most of my processing - the screen is beautiful and I hear the new ones are even nicer - and a Macbook Pro for travel and when I'm working outside my house. (Or for being online with my feet up on the couch on a lazy day). The software upgrades have been free for about a year now, maybe longer. I like that I can go into an Apple store if need be and their phone support is terrific. If you're with a professional photo organization (such as the British equivalent of ASMP) check your benefits you might get a discount. Their phone support is really good and I would pay the extra $200+ to get a three year warranty with phone support, replacements etc. (assume in the UK they have similar extended warranty options). Their support is really top notch and if you go online, put in your phone number they call you back always in less than an hour. My plug was starting to fray and they replaced it even though it still worked because I was coming up on the warranty end and was concerned it would go on me without warning. I was totally upfront about it and they sent me a new one and I sent back the old one - they paid all postage. 

 

My PCs lasted longer but I do so much more processing now - I got my first iMac when I started shooting and processing photos in earnest. I'd say I've had to replace them every four years which isn't awful - by then you want the new bells and whistles anyway. I still have a seven year old laptop as a backup (the hard drive fried in year two and they replaced it).  My daughter's laptop died in year two while she was writing her thesis and they upgraded her from 250GB to 500GB when they replaced her hard drive. 

 

So, they are expensive and perhaps the laptops are temperamental - they get moved around a lot of course - but my 4-year old iMac is still going strong and I don't plan to replace it - I run my Lightroom catalog on the SSD with the photos on a 4TB lighting bolt connected LaCie drive and it's seamless. Get as much RAM as you can afford and get a solid state drive plus a regular hard drive (I have a dual 260GB SSD 1 TB HD in my iMac) and with 8 GB of RAM it does everything I need. I'd get 16 if I were buying it today. It's still massively faster than my husband's new PC which has supposedly better specs. Someone else can tell you if you need 32GB RAM but I just process photos not video or 3D so I'm good with 8GB. 

 

With Photoshop CC and LR, you don't even have to worry about switching platforms anymore (in the old days Adobe let me switch to the MAC version of PS 3 back then for the upgrade price). 

 

Thank you Marianne.

 

​I very much appreciate your taking the time to offer your very helpful advice 

 

Kind Regards 

            Jim

[jlcst]

I bought an iMac a few months ago when ticked off with Windows, went back within two weeks. Poor graphics card, unable to CUDA render as it's a jumped up laptop version, and dealing with a screen that calibrates poorly...even with the new auto whatever in new software. The OS is now not as great versus Windows as it once was.

 

Result was I had a W10 machine built with an SSD for programs and normal HD for the filing. It's a machine which switches on quicker than the iMac and runs a hlll of a lot quicker...all for £700 less than the i7 and I see my images on a proper screen.

 

Not against Macs since I would rather have a Mac pro but again Apple have messed that up with stupid graphics cards which don't do full, proper CUDA rendering.

 

You now have the crazy situation that, in the UK, you have to get a retina screen to get an i7 machine - bonkers.

Thank you Geoff.

You point of view on the pros and cons are most welcome and helpful thank you for taking time out to reply.

Kind Regards 

                   Jim

[jlcst]

To save a bit on the cost, I usually buy refurbished from the Apple Store. http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

 

However, over the years I have gone over to apple for everything else & have found this site http://www.refurbiphones.co.uk/

very good, indeed I'm typing this on a refurbished iPad pro from there.

 

I've never had any issues & the savings are worth having.

 

ann

Thank you for the links Ann I will take a look properly later I am grateful for your taking the time to reply 

Kind Regards 

                Jim

[jlcst]

Rather than buying direct from Apple, I'd recommend having a look at Jigsaw 24 (http://www.jigsaw24.com). They are a major Mac dealer but they also have a lot of other stuff like 3rd party memory (as somebody mentioned can be very expensive from Apple) and a big range of hard drives and monitors. They are very helpful and knowledgeable - good customer service. I've bought from them a few times. They are based in Nottingham and you can pick up directly if you are anywhere near there in the Midlands. 

That looks very interesting MDM I will check it out later Thank you so much for the reply and the link I am most grateful to you.

Kind Regards

               Jim

[Ed Rooney]

And . . . do all you Mac users clean the cache on your browsers, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, from time to time? That could be the reason for slowdowns and hiccups in your computer's performance. I bring this up because someone once told me we don't have to empty the cache in Safari. We do. 

 

Edo

[MDM]

No problem Jim. I have no association with Jigsaw by the way.

 

On the general question, I would certainly advocate Mac over PC. I started with Macs way back in the dark ages of Windows 3, then changed to Windows when Win 97 came out but went back to Mac in 2009. A major advantage is that things such as peripherals, OS upgrades etc do tend to work so there is a lot less time messing about. Even the blips tend to get sorted out fast by Apple and the hardware or software vendors, whereas with Windows there are so many different hardware vendors involved it can be a bit of a nightmare if things are not working. Macs are just a lot neater and easier to work and the learning curve is shallow if you have ever used any computer. The differences between Macs and PCs for high-end graphics are a lot less though than they used to be - Macs just got established in that world way back and have tended to hold their own although the really high end Macs now are mostly incredibly expensive. 

 

I would advise you to get as much RAM as you can afford and at least twice as much as you think you need, particularly if you don't get a model which has user-changeable RAM. It is really cheap nowadays (as long as you don't buy it direct from Apple) and it makes things really comfortable. Contrary to what somebody said back there, Photoshop is a memory-hungry hog and lots of RAM allows you to run a lot of programs at the same time. 

[Robert M Estall]

The easiest upgrade to most iMacs is the RAM. I installed two 8s from Crucial which took me up to a total of 20 for about £75. That's plenty! It was very easy, just a couple of little screws to undo; a little hatch opens and follow the instructions from Cricial.Ten minutes and all done. Refurbs are OK and save a bit , but not a huge discount. I actually went that way to enable mine to run some old software on a "not-the-latest" version of the operating system. The 27 inch gives you the option to have a modest solid state drive for all your software and current work while storing everything on the 1 or 2 TB hard drive MY advisor steered me away from the 2 TB option but things may have improved in that department

 

You CAN upgrade an older iMac replacing the Hard drive with a Solid State drive, but I'ld get professional help with that. Mine is 5 years old and going just fine. But at that age I do a lot of back-ups with external drives.You KNOW IT MAKES SENSE!

 

Unless space is a real problem, go for the 27 inch. It's so nice having all that room to move around in. If they made an even bigger one, I'ld go for that!