M1 Max MBP has all these unnecessary ports….WTF?!

[Clix Pix]

tiny percentage = one camera model at this time.

Wrong again. You really should take the time to check your facts before writing posts.

The Sony A7S III was the first camera to use CFexpress Type A memory cards. The Sony A1 was the second in the Sony line to use it. The newly announced A7 IV, which will be released in December, is the third.

 

[Fomalhaut]

Wrong again. You really should take the time to check your facts before writing posts.

The Sony A7S III was the first camera to use CFexpress Type A memory cards. The Sony A1 was the second in the Sony line to use it. The newly announced A7 IV, which will be released in December, is the third.

True, but even so, CFe-TypeA must be such as small proportion of potential MBP buyers, that I can see why Apple didn't bother implementing a more advanced (& expensive) port.

I'm curious whether other manufacturers will adopt CFe-TypeA. If not, it may never move from its current "niche status"

 

[usernames need to be uniq]

So even if you are shooting stills and not recording video, when the camera is in a high-frame-rate video mode it gives you a temperature warning? Why is that? presumably it's not recording video, so why would it heat up? Does it use loads of power in "standby mode" when turned on?

I haven't checked out the Ninja V+ yet, so if it can record 8K RAW, this is a good solution. At that level you'll be useing an external monitor in any case, so might as well just record to it as well.

All cameras heat up over time with intensive use and it was hot conditions. Video C3 is used when you press the video button ie a preset for immediate use without changing to video mode. Canon's processors aren't as energy efficient as Sony's and the CFe Type B slot is another source of heat.
Standby mode uses almost no power ie the battery life wouldn't go down after a week of non use with the power switch turned on. Continous focus needs to be turned off. Not sure why it is on by default but it is not needed as it focuses continuously with half press in stills mode.
The Ninja V+ records 8k30 prores raw or 5k60 ProRes. I haven't tried it though.

 

[usernames need to be uniq]

True, but even so, CFe-TypeA must be such as small proportion of potential MBP buyers, that I can see why Apple didn't bother implementing a more advanced (& expensive) port.

I'm curious whether other manufacturers will adopt CFe-TypeA. If not, it may never move from its current "niche status"

When only Sony make the cards (at the moment) there is no incentive for a competitor to use their currently sole sourced memory.

 

[usernames need to be uniq]

Wrong again. You really should take the time to check your facts before writing posts.

The Sony A7S III was the first camera to use CFexpress Type A memory cards. The Sony A1 was the second in the Sony line to use it. The newly announced A7 IV, which will be released in December, is the third.

Correct. I have edited my previous comment.

 

[Clix Pix]

True, but even so, CFe-TypeA must be such as small proportion of potential MBP buyers, that I can see why Apple didn't bother implementing a more advanced (& expensive) port.

I'm curious whether other manufacturers will adopt CFe-TypeA. If not, it may never move from its current "niche status"

Even if Apple had stuck a CFExpress Card-Type A slot in the new M1 MBPs I still wouldn't use the thing anyway; I much prefer my Sony CFExpress Card-Type A / SD card memory card reader.

 

[Fomalhaut]

Even if Apple had stuck a CFExpress Card-Type A slot in the new M1 MBPs I still wouldn't use the thing anyway; I much prefer my Sony CFExpress Card-Type A / SD card memory card reader.

What sort of transfer speeds do you get with CFe and SD cards? From your response, I presume it is better than the 250MB/s quoted for the MBP's SD slot.

 

[cupcakes2000]

You are right.. I moved from a 5Div to R5 last year and the 5Div is still available and hasn't been discounted much if at all. A great camera but can't compare to the R5. I won't debate "professional". I don't make any money from photography but there are lots that make do with lower priced cameras.

I said professional simply because time and time again it’s professionals that are alleged to be the happiest with an internal sd slot. This was the crux of my original input into this thread and so the only point I am coming from.
The 5Div isn’t going to be discounted yet, it’s still a flagship camera.
It’s not in the same bracket as a mirrorless - most of the professional dslr lines aren’t. Professional level mirrorless has only just really become a thing. Most people relying on a camera for their living do two things- one, prefer very well established tech, and two, buy the best they can afford.
The 5div fits in well with this ethos and is a far from an irrelevant line.

 

[adib]

who you calling "foreign"? I bet that you are foreign to me

Every office in which the company you don't work for.

 

[cupcakes2000]

who you calling "foreign"? I bet that you are foreign to me

They were clearly referring to any office other than your own, rather than you personally.

 

[Abazigal]

Apple previously assumed that consumers will move forward with new tech as fast as it becomes available; they have now reset their expectations.

HDMI and SD will be like VGA and Ethernet (on laptops) - it will take many years to disappear because it still has utility for many people.

I don't think I've ever used a monitor with USB-C / DisplayPort in a corporate office. The desks generally have fairly cheap 23-24" 1080p monitors, that have a variety of HDMI, DVI or full-size DisplayPort connectors. I bought a couple of USB-C to HDMI / DisplayPort cables for use with my MBP16, or used a hub with an HDMI output. I still had to remember to pack either the cables or the hub though, so having an HDMI port for quick connections is helpful. Even if I don't bring my own HDMI-HDMI cable, these are very easy to find, even in convenience stores.

What I did at my desk is that I have this usb-c adaptor that connects HDMI (for my monitor), usb-c (for the charger) and USB-A (leading to another USB-A hub). All this plugs in to my laptop via a single usb-c cable. My wireless keyboard and mouse connect via a single dongle attached to the usb hub. The benefit is that I only need to connect a single cable to get all this, and when it's time to pack up and go, I only need to disconnect a single cable.

So it's this weird dynamic where I still use HDMI, but don't need a HDMI port. Yes, we have these projectors in school with HDMI cables running all over (and teachers have to use adapters for them because our work-issued laptops don't have HDMI ports), which makes me wonder why we didn't just use HDMI-to-USB C cables right from the get go, but I suppose it may have been easier procuring your run of the mill HDMI cables?

 

[Fomalhaut]

What I did at my desk is that I have this usb-c adaptor that connects HDMI (for my monitor), usb-c (for the charger) and USB-A (leading to another USB-A hub). All this plugs in to my laptop via a single usb-c cable. My wireless keyboard and mouse connect via a single dongle attached to the usb hub. The benefit is that I only need to connect a single cable to get all this, and when it's time to pack up and go, I only need to disconnect a single cable.

So it's this weird dynamic where I still use HDMI, but don't need a HDMI port. Yes, we have these projectors in school with HDMI cables running all over (and teachers have to use adapters for them because our work-issued laptops don't have HDMI ports), which makes me wonder why we didn't just use HDMI-to-USB C cables right from the get go, but I suppose it may have been easier procuring your run of the mill HDMI cables?

I think that HDMI cables can have a longer cable run, up to about 15 m. However for USB3 speeds which I think you would need for full HD video for USB spec gives a maximum of 2 m.

As for the use of the HDMI port on the MacBook Pro, the idea is to remove the need for the dongle so it’s one less thing to forget or go wrong.

 

[theluggage]

"All these" = 2 LOL! But I do agree it would be better to just have two additional TB ports instead, but I'm not sure if that was possible.

Adding a full-featured TB4 port takes a lot of CPU resources (2 PCIe lanes and 2 DP1.4 streams), whereas the SD slot just needs a USB3.1g1 stream, HDMI just a DisplayPort 1.2 line.

What's changed is, since the M1, Apple are giving each TB port a dedicated controller on the CPU die rather than having each pair of ports sharing a controller. So in terms of bandwidth, the "2 port" M1 13" Air/MBPs already have the same TB bandwidth as the old "4-port" MBPs, and the new "3 port" M1 Pro/Max MBPs have 50% more than their predecessor. What's also changed with TB4/USB4 is that you can now have hubs with multiple downstream TB4 ports - so it makes sense, on a small laptop, to have fewer, higher-bandwidth ports.

Then, as you say, for many people, 3 spare ports after connecting to power and display is actually a gain c.f. the old 4-port models.

its been 5 years. Everyone already had a workaround If they even needed one.

...and now they don't need workarounds. That sounds like a win.

What the new design means is that a lot of people can now just grab their Mac (charger optional) and go. You've got HDMI for presentations and an SD slot for getting pictures from your camera/dashcam/drone/whatever. Downside: if you want to connect to more than three TB/USB-C devices you'll need to pack a hub (which can now drive multiple thunderbolt devices).

That's just a more sensible compromise than before, where you had enough TB ports to directly drive a massive rack of high-end thunderbolt devices but needed to carry a hub/dongle if you just wanted to plug in a data projector or download photos.

Thing is, if USB-C/TB4 was such a wonderful universal port, why do you need four of them?

I use compact flash cards most pro’s don’t use sd cards

SD is still ubiquitous and even new cameras often have SD plus a separate slot for either CF or one of various competing newer card formats. Keep a SD card in your camera as well as your preferred format and you'll always have a fallback.

Then there are drones, dashcams, "sports cameras", Android phones, various synthesizers, Raspberry Pi etc. which all use SD or MicroSD.

Failing that, odds are that someone will make one of those flush-fitting SD cards to fit the new MBPs, allowing you to shift bulky, media libraries, archive files etc. off your expensive Apple SSD.

 

[theluggage]

The Sony A7S III was the first camera to use CFexpress Type A memory cards

...and, guess what, it also takes SD cards. So you still have the option of choosing convenience (pop the card out of the camera, pop it into Mac, no dongle required) or speed (carry around a Thunderbolt CFexpress card reader, and remember to never leave it on the train/in hotel room/at home).

SD (and not even the exotic higher-speed variants) is still the lowest common denominator for cameras, and the only format in many other types of device. It can be implemented with just a USB port's worth of bandwidth and doesn't use much space. Its replacement is still the subject of a format wars, the victor yet to be decided. There's no point Apple putting a SmartMedia2021xtc+* slot in a Mac just to have all the MemoryStickUltraMax11* fans complain. Anyway, anything faster would require Apple to pull a spare PCIe lane or two out of nowhere to provide the needed bandwidth.

The slot is there for convenience - not timing your downloads with a stopwatch.

(* I really, really hope that I made those up! Otherwise, I want a 3.5" floppy drive so I can use my SmartMedia adapter!)

 

[Clix Pix]

For years I had MBPs with SD card slots and also iMacs. I used the slots only very rarely. Memory card readers can be and often are updated periodically as cards are improved in terms of capacity and speed. It costs significantly less to replace a card reader which goes bad or is outdated than to replace an entire computer.

I have not measured the transfer speeds in the Sony CFExpress Card Type A / SD card reader, but I did notice that the speed even with my same SD cards that I use in my A7R IV was faster than with the memory card reader I had been using prior to that. The CFExpress Card Type A transfers from card to computer even more quickly. As it happens, I have not yet taken a trip with the new A1 so haven't needed to take the memory card reader along or buy a spare to keep in my travel kit, but that is what I normally do.

 

[usagora]

Adding a full-featured TB4 port takes a lot of CPU resources (2 PCIe lanes and 2 DP1.4 streams), whereas the SD slot just needs a USB3.1g1 stream, HDMI just a DisplayPort 1.2 line.

What's changed is, since the M1, Apple are giving each TB port a dedicated controller on the CPU die rather than having each pair of ports sharing a controller. So in terms of bandwidth, the "2 port" M1 13" Air/MBPs already have the same TB bandwidth as the old "4-port" MBPs, and the new "3 port" M1 Pro/Max MBPs have 50% more than their predecessor. What's also changed with TB4/USB4 is that you can now have hubs with multiple downstream TB4 ports - so it makes sense, on a small laptop, to have fewer, higher-bandwidth ports.

What? You mean, Tim Apple and Co. aren't sitting around scheming of ways to screw over and/or disappoint their users as many on this forum seem to think? There's actually legitimate reasons and logic behind their hardware decisions? ?

 

[telo123]

What? You mean, Tim Apple and Co. aren't sitting around scheming of ways to screw over and/or disappoint their users as many on this forum seem to think? There's actually legitimate reasons and logic behind their hardware decisions? ?

Omg, ikr! Does this mean the engineers don't just sit around in their $10000+ workstations, six figure salaries, and just eeney, meeny, mini, moe what the ports are in or out?!

Anywho:

Gotta love it. No matter what a company does, not everyone will be happy. We humans just LOVE to complain!

Regardless if there's logic or not, someone will complain because it inconveniences them one way or another lol

 

[doublemycoresplz]

The ports are kind of useful in the 1/1000 scenario where you desperately need them and don't have a dongle handy. Trust me.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

The ports are kind of useful in the 1/1000 scenario where you desperately need them and don't have a dongle handy. Trust me.

Exactly!!! Critics are acting like ports have to be used daily for it to be any worth.

 

[Fomalhaut]

The ports are kind of useful in the 1/1000 scenario where you desperately need them and don't have a dongle handy. Trust me.

But if you have the ports, why would you use the dongle? The only reason I can see would be if your dongles offer better performance.

For many users, myself included, an HDMI 2.0 and 250MB/s UHS-II SD slot is going to entirely adequate for my displays and cameras for many years to come.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Exactly!!! Critics are acting like ports have to be used daily for it to be any worth.

Meaning even in a best case scenario we are talking 99.99% of the time those ports are unnecessary. They could’ve added another USBC port.

 

[Alameda]

Meaning even in a best case scenario we are talking 99.99% of the time those ports are unnecessary. They could’ve added another USBC port.

How often do you need four USBC ports, especially since there’s MagSafe for power?

I’ve never needed four usbc ports. At that point, there are hubs that breakout more ports on the desktop more effectively. Buy a dock with power support and now you can dock the Mac with a single cable.

If you’re going to say that you don’t want a hub, then with your last MacBook you used a usbc for power and you still only had three available usbc ports.

 

[cupcakes2000]

How often do you need four USBC ports, especially since there’s MagSafe for power?

I’ve never needed four usbc ports. At that point, there are hubs that breakout more ports on the desktop more effectively. Buy a dock with power support and now you can dock the Mac with a single cable.

If you’re going to say that you don’t want a hub, then with your last MacBook you used a usbc for power and you still only had three available usbc ports.

But they aren’t just 4 USBC ports - they are 4 multipurpose do anything you want ports. That’s the point that constantly gets missed around here.

 

[Alameda]

But they aren’t just 4 USBC ports - they are 4 multipurpose do anything you want ports. That’s the point that constantly gets missed around here.

I think I answered it above. If you’re plugging four things into the laptop at once, it’s on your desk, and there are all sorts of hubs on the market which simplify that tremendously, and you lose no performance.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Meaning even in a best case scenario we are talking 99.99% of the time those ports are unnecessary. They could’ve added another USBC port.

Not true. I'll be using the SD slot often enough from my Camera and Drone. And I'll also use the HDMI port when needed. I hate HDMI dongles, their too finicky.