Apple iMac 27

ianbarber

ianbarber

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I don't want to start one of those Apple vs Windows thread.

Ive just been down to PC World mainly to looko at the iPad but whilst I was there I had a play with the Aplle iMac 27.

I have never owned or even had a drive of an Apple computer before but the huge clear display really got me interested.

I have heard so many stories that the Apple stuff is far superior to Windows when it comes to editing images in Lightroom or Photoshop.

I also noticed that it only comes with 4GB Ram wheras my PC has 8GB, not sure if the Apple OS manages memory better than windows or even if you can upgrade the memory.

The salesman did say that the iMac has an LED Screen and is very hard to calibrate properly which did worry me a little as I do need a calibrated monitor. I use the X-Rite ColorMunki at the moment.

Has anyone got one of these Apple machines and how do they perform with LR and PS and also is it true that it's hard to create a custom profile for the screen.
 
Pretty sure Edinburgh Gary uses one to edit his stuff. Easy to upgrade the RAM. I've got a 3 year old one with 4G RAM. It flies along. I love mine.

Calibrated mine OK. Use that spider thingy !
 
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superior to a PC of the same price? no. if youve got a decent screen already and youre spending the same sort of price on a windows based box then youll get more bang for your buck.

personally working on glossy screens give me a headache. so you need to try that out for a period of time if possible.

macs and windows based PC are all the same hardware these days so the only difference is the operating system which on both systems have about the same reliability (snow leopard vs windows 7).

so to summerise its all personal preference, best bet is to go and drive an apple then drive a copy of windows 7 on a equally priced/spec'd PC and see what you prefer.

i cant offer you an opinion on calibrating LED screens, but im pretty sure most pros use matte screens?

(i know you didnt want a windows vs mac thing, but thats essentially what you asked)
 
Its a stunning looking thing, but the early ones did have problems. I would think that they will a have sorted this by now, but a bet they still run very hot (top LHS). I wouldnt want to risk that sort of money on something which may have a limited life span, I mean you can't just replace the monitor/computer. Please don't think I'm a pc fan boy, I have both a pc and a 21 inch imac which is loverly and barely gets warm.
 
Don't worry that the mac has only 4gb of ram, osx is a lot more efficient operating system compared to windows, hence no need to defrag, etc.
I've found it quite easy to calibrate the screen on my macbook pro (prob not done correctly, but it's been done lol)
 
Ram is a doodle to fit and the price has dropped a lot since I upgrade mine (buy from crucial)

I calibrate mine with an eye-one display 2 and it's simple .
 
Having both a PC and an iMac I can say that both do a good job. My iMac has 8Gb of RAM and you can add extra simply. My PC ran Lightroom and Photoshop with only 4Gb and unless I had loads of files open that wasn't a problem. In fact my MacBook Pro only has 4 and that runs Lightroom and Photoshop as well.

As far as using it with Lightroom and Photoshop to be honest there isn't much difference between PC and Mac.The few minor differences are easily overcome, and switching from a windows environment to a Mac one is no big deal.

Glossy screen, It's a Marmite situation. It doesn't give me any real problems but then it's all down to how and where you position the screen.

Again calibration is no real problem as Mark has said.

All I would say is if you like it and can afford it then think about it seriously.
 
If you want a bigger screen then it is great price over a PC, but as Neil says if you don't want a new screen then more bang can be had from PC. Mine is calibrated with Eye One Display 2 and is fine.

As my machine is in the lounge the all in one design works perfectly, I think it is the sexiest computer ever made (but then again I may be weird to describe a computer as sexy)
 
I recently switched to a 21.5" iMac, looked at the 27" but it was too big for me. I love it, runs much smoother than the HP I had before and is very nicely designed I think so it adds to a room. As mentioned, its very much personal opinion, but I really like mine. Would be interested to find out more about calibrating the screen as I'm sure it would need doing at some point and hadn't heard of the problems with a LED screen and creating a profile
 
AndyJ1980 said:
Don't worry that the mac has only 4gb of ram, osx is a lot more efficient operating system compared to windows, hence no need to defrag, etc.
I've found it quite easy to calibrate the screen on my macbook pro (prob not done correctly, but it's been done lol)
Click to expand...

you havent needed to defrag since NTFS..

plus if you have an SSD you turn defrag off anyway without any issues..
 
If we strictly tall about using them for Lightroom and Photoshop, then there's really no difference between the two machines in use, because you'd spec the machine accordingly. So for best performance you'd be comparing a Windows 7 64 bit OS PC with probably 8Gb ram, against Snow leopard with 8Gb ram.
The real difference comes in looks and price. The apple stuff generally looks attractive and is very tactile, but you pay slightly more for those looks. What you do get with the apple product is everything nice in one package. You can get the same or better with a pc, but you have to mix and match (which is a both a pro and a con with pc's).

An extra 4Gb RAM is about £60. The monitors are nice, you do have to be careful how you position them to stop reflections on the screen. 27" monitors are really expensive around £850-900, the Dell one is stunning, but the equivilant 24" is around £400, so you do pay a premium for the increased resolution (2560x1440 over 1920x1024 or 1080)

At the end of the day you could chose either if you're just going to run those applications, just depends on your preference. If you start adding other requirement/applications then the choice may change.
 
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