Dare I Ask

[Rob26]

Lightroom Version

Lightroom Classic 9.4

Operating System

1. macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Still waiting to upgrade my elderly iMac 2010. When the new Mac Mini arrived I thought it would be the ideal replacement together with a good quality monitor.
So I waited for the Lightroom classic to be updated to run fully on Apple silicone. Still waiting and waiting, beginning to wonder what's happening? Until it is available it would be difficult to decide on which to get 8 or 16gb memory. Now rumours are flying around of a new iMac.
This needs to be a long term purchase so I must get it right. so now I am concerned that maybe it would be better to go with Intel processor instead.Or just show
an abundance of patience.
Rob

 

[Denis de Gannes]

Still waiting to upgrade my elderly iMac 2010. When the new Mac Mini arrived I thought it would be the ideal replacement together with a good quality monitor.
So I waited for the Lightroom classic to be updated to run fully on Apple silicone. Still waiting and waiting, beginning to wonder what's happening? Until it is available it would be difficult to decide on which to get 8 or 16gb memory. Now rumours are flying around of a new iMac.
This needs to be a long term purchase so I must get it right. so now I am concerned that maybe it would be better to go with Intel processor instead.Or just show
an abundance of patience.
Rob

See the system requirements for LrC 10,
“The minimum macOS now supported is 10.14 (Mojave) – 10.13 (High Sierra) is no longer supported.

RAM has also increased to a minimum of 8GB, with a recommendation of 16GB.”

New computer 16gb or more also pay attention to the GPU specs needed.

 

[clee01l]

Eventually, Apple will replace all of their line up with M1 chipped Macs or the successor to M1. Lightroom Classic will run now in "Rosetta" mode. And eventually (soon perhaps ?) a native M1 version of LrC will be released. If you are ready for a new Mac. and the Mac that you want is an M1 Mac, nothing should stop you as there will always be improvements in technology. Intel Macs will be around for many years and it will be a long time before they become obsolete. And intel Mac is probably not selling well in anticipation of an M1 replacement. So, Intel Macs ought to be selling at a discount and there is no harm in buying one of these now. You will be ready for another new computer long before the current Intel models go obsolete.

 

[Rob26]

Thanks for the reply very helpful. I have almost convinced myself that a Mac Mini plus Eizo 24" monitor would be a good route.
The weakest link might then only be the M1 mini and I could replace a few years down the line. The monitor would be good for 5years at least I think. It will be a total replacement including keyboard and mouse all my existing stuff too old.I will wait till end April in case the iMac arrives and looks a better item. But I cant wait for ever although my system works it is slow and I am unable to upgrade Lightroom.

Rob

 

[Colin Grant]

One thing for sure, the M1 iMac will be a whole lot more expensive. Ask yourself if you need to pay more? What will the iMac do for you that the Mac mini will not.

 

[Rob26]

Yes on its own the Mac Mini would cost less. But I will need to buy Mini,Monitor,Mouse and keyboard. Very unlikely
my present keyboard and mouse would work with new Mac Mini.
So I would like to see just what the iMac can offer first.
This present iMac has done us well 11 years now and only a new hard drive under warranty in 2012.
However my thinking is that separate items might be best, if anything serious breaks in the iMac it all goes.

 

[Colin Grant]

Well the keyboard and Magic Mouse are cheap enough. Any way this is perhaps a debate for elsewhere as it is not Lr related anymore. It is something upon which only you can make the decision.

 

[clee01l]

Yes on its own the Mac Mini would cost less. But I will need to buy Mini,Monitor,Mouse and keyboard. Very unlikely
my present keyboard and mouse would work with new Mac Mini.
So I would like to see just what the iMac can offer first.
This present iMac has done us well 11 years now and only a new hard drive under warranty in 2012.
However my thinking is that separate items might be best, if anything serious breaks in the iMac it all goes.

Your Mac Keyboard, Mouse or touchpad will work fine with a Mac mini. The only improvements Apple has made to these is to go wireless and maybe to get thinner. Any bluetooth keyboard, mouse or touchpad will work on any Mac. Even a Windows keyboard and mouse.
If anything breaks on an iMac, it is repairable. The only iMac component that I would replace a whole iMac for is the display. You apparently have already replaced the internal HD. So no repair on an iMac is any more complicated.

I've had 3 iMacs, two were 27" and I upgraded to a) get rid of the DVD player, b) get TB3 ports. I also downsized to the 21 inch to fit a different work space. My current iMac is over 3 years old and has been trouble free,

 

[instanes]

I replaced my 2015 iMac with 32 Gb of RAM, with a Mac Mini M1 with 16 GB of RAM and a 32 in Dell monitor. The LR on the Mini runs circles around my old system. Am assuming when LR can run native on the M1, speed will even will be faster. My old iMac had a 27 in screen, the new Dell is 32" and I LOVE the extra real estate. Not just for LR, but it is much easier to have more than one app open simultaneously and visible on the screen.
Hope this is helpful...

 

[Rob26]

Your Mac Keyboard, Mouse or touchpad will work fine with a Mac mini. The only improvements Apple has made to these is to go wireless and maybe to get thinner. Any bluetooth keyboard, mouse or touchpad will work on any Mac. Even a Windows keyboard and mouse.
If anything breaks on an iMac, it is repairable. The only iMac component that I would replace a whole iMac for is the display. You apparently have already replaced the internal HD. So no repair on an iMac is any more complicated.

I've had 3 iMacs, two were 27" and I upgraded to a) get rid of the DVD player, b) get TB3 ports. I also downsized to the 21 inch to fit a different work space. My current iMac is over 3 years old and has been trouble free,

 

[Rob26]

Looks like my wait is nearly over. apple event 20th this month when all are hoping for news of the newer iMac.
Lets also hope that Lightroom CC support for M1 chips will follow on quickly. Then I can make a sensible choice I hope.

 

[tim_krueger]

Hi Rob!

I was in a similar situation but my main production machine was a 2014 5K SSD only iMac that has been experiencing some unpredictable crashing episodes.

I ordered 3 M1 Macs to test and sent the first 2 back.

Test 1 - base Mac mini - returned - I had problems with my existing Apple Keyboard and Magic mouse connecting reliably. While troubleshooting with an Apple Support rep on the phone they had me try to reinstall the OS and it bricked.

Test 2 - base Mac Book Air & LG Ultrafine 4K - returned - When importing and generating previews the Air was painfully slow, taking 2-3 times longer than my 6 year old iMac, I believe due to cooling issues. The 4K seems like an amazing buy for $800 with the TB3 in and out, supplying power to the Air, and acting as a dock, but going from the 218PPI of the 5K to the 183PPI of the 4K was completely unbearable for me. A7r IV photos that were in focus and look great on the 5K looked soft and bad on the 4K. This is the same 4K screen that will come in the iMacs Apple will announce Tuesday. For anyone coming from a 72PPI or 102PPI panel the 4K will probably be excellent, it unfortunately not for me.

Test 3 - maxed out Mac mini, Apple Magic Keyboard & Magic Mouse 2, LG Ultrafine 5K, & OWC 32TB Thunderbay 4 - still testing - I'm having issues importing from folders that contain jpgs so until that is resolved I can't fully test or recommend this setup. I am in touch with Apple, Adobe, and OWC support and hoping to have it resolved soon. However the 5K is terrific, night and day better for me than the 4K, I just wish it had a TB out like the 4K. The OWC Thunderbay 4 is seeing speeds in the mid 700Mb/s, and the internal 2TB SSD is seeing speeds in the mid 3,000Mb/s, yes mid three thousands! I whole heartedly recommend the largest internal SSD you an afford.

In addition to the insane improvement in R/W speeds you'll see with an M1 LrC is equally impressive even still running on Rosetta. Flipping through previews is instantaneous as is transitioning modules. On my 2014 iMac it could take 3-4 seconds for a change made in the develop module to show, but everything is absolutely instant on the M1 now. The RAM on M1 is a totally different concept than RAM as recommended by Adobe. LrC never maxed out 8GB when I had it even when importing or editing 1,000 ARW files from my A7r IV. Now that I have 16GB there is plenty or headroom, I can even run Chrome lol.

Bottom line, the M1 chip is great for LrC and will be a massive improvement over your 2010 iMac even if you only get 8GB of RAM. Get as much internal storage as you can afford and don't skimp on a display. Without the Thunderbay and 5K, but using the 4K ($700), Mac mini ($1700), & Peripherals ($250) that's only $2,650. Using the base Mac mini thats $1,650. It's likely that the base 24" 4K iMac announced Tuesday will be at least a couple hundred cheaper. I don't think I'll ever go iMac again just because I want to upgrade the computer more often than the display but it is the most cost effective way to go for most people. What ever you do, I'm sure you'll be very happy with the M1 and LrC performance on Rosetta. LrC on M1 will hopefully even improve quite a bit more.

Tim

 

[Rob26]

Thanks Tim
Helpfull info.

 

[LexS]

The 21.5" iMac (mid 2010) has a main drive 7200-rpm. and a DVD connection. it is super-SLOW.
The 27" iMac (mid 2010) has a main drive 7200-rpm and/or a 256GB SSD, the 7200-rpm main drive is super slow.
For both the max OS is 10.13.6 (HighSierra) !!

 

[tim_krueger]

That new 24" iMac looks pretty nice and it's 4.5K so 218PPI.

 

[Rob26]

Yes your right is does look nice.Could well be the way forward me me.
Two things left to sort out.
1) Would Retina screen be better for my photo processing or should I go with Eizo CS2420 I have no knowledge of either. But I will soon be able to see the Retina in local Apple store.
2) What colour?
ps Any info on Lightroom classic and the M1 chip yet? Been a long time

 

[mcasan]

A major Adobe competitor has released their beta for supporting Apple Silicon and Metal graphics in native mode. So it could be out to the public by end of May. Indeed we need Adobe to step up with LrC and ACR native mode on Apple Silicon.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Adobe will release a native version when it is ready. What a major competitor did is pretty irrelevant, because it will not influence this process.

 

[clee01l]

Adobe will release a native version when it is ready. What a major competitor did is pretty irrelevant, because it will not influence this process.

It might give some indicator of when the M1 version will get released (i.e. soon) Coupled with the fact that Lightroom and Photoshop already run natively in M1, it seems that Lightroom Classic must be pretty close. Given that Adobe releases decimal releases on ~3month schedule, the next bug fix/camera updat is probably some time in May. However, since M1 requires complete compile for the chip. Adobe could release a 10.2 version sooner than May.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[tim_krueger]

The Eizo CS2420 mentioned has a PPI of only 92, you couldn't pay me to work on a 92 PPI screen. Maybe the color science is better, but if the photos all look blurry the color science doesn't matter.

 

[Rob26]

Thanks that is a big help. I feel the future for my wife and myself best served with on on the new iMacs

rob