M1 as digital darkroom

[slitherjef]

So, full disclosure here, I'm not really an Apple person but my current choices of operating systems are really not working out for me. Windows irks me. Linux is okay to meddle with but getting actual work done on my Linux box... It could be smoother and the tools available leave a lot to be desired in terms of what works for me, granted the .cr3 files are sort of supported I just can't get things to work on my Linux workstation. I'm using Manjaro. The mantra seems to be, "try a different distro"

Well, sure maybe and it may or may not work. Bottom line? Not sure I really want to continue trying to make things work when I come back from a rare photography excursion and just want to pop the card in the computer, load up Canon DPP to do minor raw adjustments and probably gimp for other tweaks and probably upload.

Right now I'm not ready to rent adobe suite, but maybe later in once I get a reliable workflow going for my photography once again. Honestly I think my computer's are keeping me from picking the camera up more often, so I started thinking about an M1 mac.

I haven't used an Apple device in a long time, like 2011 mbp pre retina. Found it a little backwards and was often lost but was able to edit photos and used the last standalone retail box of lightroom

I also find Linux very backwards and it's limiting with available software. Sure rawtherapee and darktable are available but it's just a struggle to use and rawtherapee crashes and corrupts my raw images trying to open. Just fed up trying.

I got a couple options for an M1 provided it'll actually work for me. A mini with a few more ports or maybe even a macbook pro or air but the small screen might be a bit too small to work with. I'd probably prefer a mouse.

And yes, my windows 10 box would probably work to but... Ugh... It irks (creeps me out?) Me. I'd rather run it in a VM.

A side note is I dabble with astrophotography also and work with fits files. Gimp should be able to somewhat work with these also, but stacking and registration not sure what's available for mac OS.

But primary would be photography with DSLR and .cr3 (Canon EOS R) image decoding.

Thoughts? Any M1 photographers here?

 

[MevetS]

I do not have a ASi Mac, so I can't help there.

But with respect to Astrophotography, this site may be helpful: https://www.macobservatory.com

Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[Bending Pixels]

I switched from a 2019 MacBook Air (16GB RAM) to a 2020 MBP (16GB RAM also). I use mine for both digital image editing and video editing. If you're using Lightroom Classic, it will scream under a M1 - even while running under Rosetta 2 (Adobe is expected to port their app's to Universal coding early next year).

Screen wise - the MBP is very sharp. You can increase the resolution if need be.

Unless you're using it for professional work, consider getting the MacBook Air. Most photo editing app's (that have been updated to run natively on an M1 or to run under Rosetta 2) will run very well.

 

[matrix07]

A mini with more ports could be released next year. It'll be more expensive (but more capable as well). If you don't mind hub then port is not a problem for current version.
You said Adobe is out of the picture so I guess no Photoshop and Lightroom? If that's the case you could look at Pixelmater Pro. It can read virtually every RAW files on Earth and has great selections of tools, and AI tools, for adjusting photo. It doesn't have library management though. I believe any photo you throw at it will be saved in iCloud. That means you have to subscribe to it.
The only problem you will have, I think, is the monitor. You need to check whether what you have compatible with M1. And of course this current version of mini can run 2 external monitors. If you want 3, no luck.

 

[alels]

For what you described i bet you'd be happier with an iPad pro, and perhaps a pencil.
Not sure if there's any iPad stacking tools though.

 

[slitherjef]

I find tablets awkward and last time I used iOS (an iPad mini... Yeah I know...) It was very counterintuitive. I couldn't even get comfortable with a surface.

Anyway, the mini could work a little better then the laptops: my monitor is a BenQ SW2700PT

I see it's got 2 USB 4 ports and 2 standard USB A (ermm, not listed) keyboard and mouse into that, monitor into HDMI, external drive into USB 4 #1 and card reader into USB 4 #2 and the lil thing even has its own separate power cord.

Could be a fit 🤔

I'm not against adobe (well kind of, I don't dig the SAAS model) but can't justify it right now until I can get my photographic grove back. Would also potentially like to print.

I should note while the primary purpose is a digital darkroom, I'd likely do some web browsing and maybe even learn some web coding.

Edit: I am currently entertaining the thought of an iPad pro for digital darkroom. Researching some info on that tangent.

 

[armoured]

I haven't used an Apple device in a long time, like 2011 mbp pre retina. Found it a little backwards and was often lost but was able to edit photos and used the last standalone retail box of lightroom

I also find Linux very backwards and it's limiting with available software. Sure rawtherapee and darktable are available but it's just a struggle to use and rawtherapee crashes and corrupts my raw images trying to open. Just fed up trying.

I got a couple options for an M1 provided it'll actually work for me. A mini with a few more ports or maybe even a macbook pro or air but the small screen might be a bit too small to work with. I'd probably prefer a mouse.

Do not have an M1 (yet) but it'll be fine for photography. But I think you need to separate the questions or issues a bit.

-Personally I think for photography all of the quality photography programs run on Mac. But you need to figure out what you can use. Honestly Photos (included with every mac) is probably okay to start with and to figure out what kind of workflow you need. I've tried various and eventually realised that although Lightroom is a beast to get your head around, it is a very, very powerful beast and well supported. (I still lament the loss of aperture though) That said, there is a stable of mac photography software/packages that each has advantages and disadvantages; some are particularly high quality, I daresay all are better than the linux variants (IMO).

-The M1 itself is not much of an issue. All the main programs will run now in intel versions, some have been updated for M1, the rest will be updated before long. You won't face any issues as you don't have legacy software such as filters or whatever that you can't use.

-Screen: decide whether you want a large screen laptop (16") or would prefer the convenience of a smaller screen for travel and use wherever and whenever you want. If the latter, buy an external monitor of whatever target size you wish for desktop/photograpy use. (I prefer the latter, small screen fine for most uses and great for travel etc - external monitor for editing).

 

[Pressure]

For what you described i bet you'd be happier with an iPad pro, and perhaps a pencil.
Not sure if there's any iPad stacking tools though.

Affinity Photo works on both iOS and M1 natively. It’s a full RAW and Photo app replacement for Photoshop.

 

[Krevnik]

For me, my workflow in the past has been:

* Lightroom - Library Management
* Affinity Photo - Any sort of more complex mucking about than what LR enabled
* Nebulosity - Astrophotography Stacking (which I then take into Affinity for final processing)

I’ve since given up on Lightroom, partly because there was never any LR 7 perpetual license, partly because LR “Classic” is end of life at this point, and partly because 120$/yr for what I do isn’t worth the price.

The question mark I have is around Nebulosity. It should run under Rosetta, I hope. The catch with it is that it also supports direct capture from cameras (and interacts with PHD Guiding for additional functionality), and those camera libraries come from the camera manufacturers. So no real idea if/when it will get an Apple Silicon native build.

 

[matrix07]

Affinity Photo works on both iOS and M1 natively. It’s a full RAW and Photo app replacement for Photoshop.

Affinity Photo is great. Pixelmator Pro is having a 50% discount right now though.

 

[TinyWorkshop]

pixelamtor pro on the M1 works very very well.

IMHO in conjunction to apple's Photo (using it as plugin) is a perfect match

 

[slitherjef]

Thanks for the info on affinity photo! Would be awesome if it'd run in Linux. The lack of available raw support is why I'm looking at Apple stuff right now.

Would also be nice if I could use an Apple computer without an online account but don't think that's possible.

As far as screen size, obviously larger is better I rarely edit in the field anyway, it'd just be a little easier to offload a macbook air (don't need a touch bar) if it didn't work out. I know the macbooks are really port limited and would need some port awareness and planning to use only two (basically one if I need to plug it in).

This could also be the M1 is just new gear to get. Another part in thought process is, windows 10 and just deal with it. A windows 10 pro full box and new drive is still cheaper than a new M1 setup.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Another vote for Affinity. 30 day free demo, so beat it up before committing. Good info about RAW editing here.

Although I am not a serious photographer, I do tech support for some. You might also consider CaptureOne as well. Not inexpensive, but well-liked, and compared to an Adobe subscription, cost is perhaps in the ballpark. Be aware that while a license can be purchased, historically new OSes required a newer, paid version fairly often, so a subscription may be a safer option.

As for hardware, while I don't yet have hands on an M1 Mac yet, I would be very confident that they would handle your needs well, outside of the limited internal storage. I would lean towards the Mini as well. Be sure to budget for a good quality monitor, as well as some substantial external storage.

While it is true one needs an account to use Apple's App store, it is fairly non-invasive. You don't have to use iCloud or anything else. There are some things that would we wise to use (mulit-factor authentication), but are not required. One could easily set up a dummy Apple ID, and give no real data. If you are really worried about tracking, you can turn off most tracking during the setup phase, and use a VPN or other tools to disguise IP and location information. So you can opt-out of or not intialize something like 95%+ of data scrapping. Of all the large tech companies, Apple is the least invasive, and pale in comparison to the likes of Facebook and Google and Amazon.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Another angle: M1 MBA, a good dock, monitor, and storage.

More money, but you end up with a powerful and mobile Mac, and still have a powerful and flexible work station when docked. Likely less cost compared to 2 high powered Win boxes.

 

[deeddawg]

So, full disclosure here, I'm not really an Apple person but my current choices of operating systems are really not working out for me. Windows irks me. Linux is okay to meddle with but getting actual work done on my Linux box... It could be smoother and the tools available leave a lot to be desired in terms of what works for me, granted the .cr3 files are sort of supported I just can't get things to work on my Linux workstation. I'm using Manjaro. The mantra seems to be, "try a different distro"

Well, sure maybe and it may or may not work. Bottom line? Not sure I really want to continue trying to make things work when I come back from a rare photography excursion and just want to pop the card in the computer, load up Canon DPP to do minor raw adjustments and probably gimp for other tweaks and probably upload.

Right now I'm not ready to rent adobe suite, but maybe later in once I get a reliable workflow going for my photography once again. Honestly I think my computer's are keeping me from picking the camera up more often, so I started thinking about an M1 mac.

I haven't used an Apple device in a long time, like 2011 mbp pre retina. Found it a little backwards and was often lost but was able to edit photos and used the last standalone retail box of lightroom

I also find Linux very backwards and it's limiting with available software. Sure rawtherapee and darktable are available but it's just a struggle to use and rawtherapee crashes and corrupts my raw images trying to open. Just fed up trying.

I got a couple options for an M1 provided it'll actually work for me. A mini with a few more ports or maybe even a macbook pro or air but the small screen might be a bit too small to work with. I'd probably prefer a mouse.

And yes, my windows 10 box would probably work to but... Ugh... It irks (creeps me out?) Me. I'd rather run it in a VM.

A side note is I dabble with astrophotography also and work with fits files. Gimp should be able to somewhat work with these also, but stacking and registration not sure what's available for mac OS.

But primary would be photography with DSLR and .cr3 (Canon EOS R) image decoding.

Thoughts? Any M1 photographers here?

Some thoughts in no particular order...

#1 - Don't be in a hurry to buy a mouse. While I've never found a Windows laptop trackpad I liked and usually use a mouse I also love the Mac trackpad and use an Apple Magic Trackpad when in clamshell mode. It also provides a continuous user interface when moving between desktop and on the go.

#2 - what all do you need ports for? With a pair of thunderbolt ports you can very easily expand. I use a Caldigit TS3+ for a single-cable docking solution and it has more ports than I have need for.

#3 - 13.3" is fine for basic culling/tagging/sorting/etc work and PhotoMechanic works great on M1 -- I also use a 27" 1440p Dell U2717D monitor that provides plenty of desktop / screen real estate.

#4 - there's a number of good non-Adobe packages available on macOS. Pixelmator, Affinity Photo, even Luminar. Though unless you're on a limited/fixed income or very infrequently use photo editing software, the $10/mo for Adobe LR/PS package isn't much in the grand scheme of things when you factor in the vast amount of resources / tutorials / tips-n-tricks / etc available on the web for those.

#5 - macOS has some slightly different ways of doing things than Windows which can take a little time to get used to, but make sense in the end. Biggest one I see folks struggle with is Windows Alt-Tabs through all applications & windows in one big line. macOS Command-Tabs to switch *applications* and Command-' to switch through *windows* of one application. Also - Windows closes the application when you close the last window. macOS does not. Thus the red-dot on the window closes the window but not the application - need to Command-Q to quit the application and close all windows.

 

[edk99]

Would also be nice if I could use an Apple computer without an online account but don't think that's possible.

You most certainly can. Other than downloading things from the App Store you don't need to sign into the App Store or iCloud. Most software you can install outside of the App Store.

 

[Krevnik]

Another angle: M1 MBA, a good dock, monitor, and storage.

More money, but you end up with a powerful and mobile Mac, and still have a powerful and flexible work station when docked. Likely less cost compared to 2 high powered Win boxes.

This is where I want to be in a year or so myself, once the 16" MBP goes Apple Silicon. I've had to do it with the pandemic turning my job into indefinite work from home with the work provided 16" MBP, and it's worked better than I thought. But I really want the cooler CPU and better battery life. I get maybe 3 hours of work away from my desk with the Intel CPU, and the fans are noisy.

 

[James_C]

Affinity Photo works on both iOS and M1 natively. It’s a full RAW and Photo app replacement for Photoshop.

I second this, I dumped Photoshop a couple of years ago after using for many years and switched to Affinity Photo. I don't regret it and love Affinity. Their website has lots of tutorials to get you up to speed.

 

[hugodrax]

The Mini is more than capable of handling huge 100K Libraries and 50megapixel images are no problem at all. In reality iPhoto is a great app and no need to buy additional software it handles RAW files no problem.

 

[MevetS]

The Mini is more than capable of handling huge 100K Libraries and 50megapixel images are no problem at all. In reality iPhoto is a great app and no need to buy additional software it handles RAW files no problem.

Except of course that iPhoto won't run on an ASi Mac ...

(And of course you meant Photos ... )

 

[deeddawg]

Except of course that iPhoto won't run on an ASi Mac ...

Don't be so sure... There's apparently some rather resourceful folks out there...

See:

GitHub - cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive: Retroactive has been discontinued. You should transition from Retroactive to supported apps such as Music, iTunes for Windows, iMazing, Photos, Darktable, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve.

Retroactive has been discontinued. You should transition from Retroactive to supported apps such as Music, iTunes for Windows, iMazing, Photos, Darktable, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve. - ...

github.com

 

[MvdM]

The Mini is more than capable of handling huge 100K Libraries and 50megapixel images are no problem at all. In reality iPhoto is a great app and no need to buy additional software it handles RAW files no problem.

I have a Mac Mini M1 16 GB. Opening a 50 MB RAW file takes up 1.5 GB of RAM. So, opening 11 RAW files gives this Mac Mini a beachball. Opening Affinity Designer with the Demeter tutorial and moving this image around goes choppy. So far, I am not impressed with M1 and Affinity.

Update : opening the RAW files in Photos gives good previews, but after importing them they stay empty.

 

[hobowankenobi]

I have a Mac Mini M1 16 GB. Opening a 50 MB RAW file takes up 1.5 GB of RAM. So, opening 11 RAW files gives this Mac Mini a beachball. Opening Affinity Designer with the Demeter tutorial and moving this image around goes choppy. So far, I am not impressed with M1 and Affinity.

Update : opening the RAW files in Photos gives good previews, but after importing them they stay empty.

Good to hear real-world reports. I expect Affinity apps are not yet optimized for AS, and are running via Rosetta 2. If so, it will be interesting to see how (and when) performance changes once optimized.

 

[MvdM]

Good to hear real-world reports. I expect Affinity apps are not yet optimized for AS, and are running via Rosetta 2. If so, it will be interesting to see how (and when) performance changes once optimized.

They are optimised. Looking in Activity Monitor it says in the column Architecture Apple , not Intel. Downloaded from the Affinity site, not the App Store.

 

[hobowankenobi]

They are optimised. Looking in Activity Monitor it says in the column Architecture Apple , not Intel. Downloaded from the Affinity site, not the App Store.

That's a nice surprise. Checking out their info now. Thanks for the udpate. It will interesting to see if there are any further performance improvements (by Affinity and other devs) for M1 Macs as time goes by.