The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

Ahh, overclocking.......I started overclocking back in the days of the Celeron 300 and ran the whole gamut from peltier cooling with zillions of fans through to highly complex water cooling with dual graphics cards. I must have spent a fortune until I realised that if it was performance I was after then spending a little more on a high end GFX card and RAM I would achieve the same result! Also my dear wife wouldn't threaten divorce!

Ha ha, those were the days! Its very easy with the older/newer chipsets (sandy bridge etc,) and the gain can also be decent on the OPs chipset. (e.g. I could OC my 2600K on air to 4.5ghz just via the bios without any hardware mods or costs, never felt the need as its now a secondary machine and still fast). Crossfire/SLi is a waste of time these days, gains arent worth it. LR/PS are very CPU intensive so an OC can be very beneficial without major cost (maybe £20 cooler if required).
 
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I wasnt commenting on the value of pc vs mac but the spec for the money. If people want/need to use an Apple they'll pay for it, Apple resale value tends to much better than other products.

The one that Trev was on about was a Hackintosh? I was just curious as to its value compared to a similarly spec'd Mac. I am considering buying one as I get p***ed off paying apple prices.
 
The one that Trev was on about was a Hackintosh? I was just curious as to its value compared to a similarly spec'd Mac. I am considering buying one as I get p***ed off paying apple prices.

Can do Hackintosh to a lot of configs these days with a little research, even build it yourself (easy, its more about config that software), if you really want to continue with OSX then youre more limited than with a Win10 build but you can still build a dual boot monster. That specific build is around £500-600 cheaper than the nearest imac (nb it incl a nice screen) with a similar spec but its overpriced imo. I priced up something that will destroy that ebay build for well under 1.5k.
 
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Can do Hackintosh to a lot of configs these days with a little research, even build it yourself (easy, its more about config that software), if you really want to continue with OSX then youre more limited than with a Win10 build but you can still build a dual boot monster. That specific build is around £500-600 cheaper than the nearest imac (nb it incl a nice screen) with a similar spec but its overpriced imo. I priced up something that will destroy that ebay build for under 1.5k.

Interesting. I have a decent Benq monitor so looking at the main box really. Something I will consider doing once I get my work back up and running again sometime reasonably soon....
 
Interesting. I have a decent Benq monitor so looking at the main box really. Something I will consider doing once I get my work back up and running again sometime reasonably soon....

You did me a favor and I havent forgotten, so if you need any help when the time comes, let me know.
 
Hackintosh always have drawbacks, from certain functions like airdrop don't work, or imessage or Siri, and at minimum you can't click update when a new patch drops to patch security because there is a risk its going to brick the whole thing.

My main reason and the appeal of Apple is the It Just Work idea. I spent a lot of time fix my old windows machines. I think computers are there to serve me, make my life easier, i hate wasting my time troubleshooting and fixing things. I appreciate the satisfaction from it but these days there are other areas in life where the same satisfaction can be gained that is more productive than upgrading graphic card drivers to get 5% more performance in benchmarks.

Upgrading, or the lack of opportunity is actually a POSITIVE to me, if i can't upgrade then i won't spend time looking, i just max it out the door and leave it for 10 years. It's like getting a car, im not getting a Fiesta and then spend money to make it like a Porsche, i rather just get a Porsche.
 
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Ahhh remember the good old days of making Hackintosh MSi netbooks. Good times.
 
I think the old saying PCs are ugly is silly these days, this is my current machine. All aluminium, ITX build. Ive owned lots of mac pro/ imac so wanted something that looked nice.

Phone distortion!

3600X
1660 Twin Fan GTX
32GB LPX 3200
ROG Strix B450-i
Riotoro Enigma 650w
1TB Rocket NVME
512GB Rocket NVME
960GB Integral SSD
4TB HGST
3x Be quiet! 120mm





It looks great both spec wise and visually but I just don’t like Windows and no amount of spec will change that for me.

The latest Samsung’s are often better spec wise and price wise than the latest IPhone but I hate Android so it doesn’t matter to me.

The ecosystem is what sells it for me, the price is not a concern as value for money in terms of what I want it for justifies the price difference.

I have no issues with those who like Windows and agree spec for spec the Mac is more expensive but those who own Apple devices are clearly not fussed about cost.
 
It looks great both spec wise and visually but I just don’t like Windows and no amount of spec will change that for me.

The latest Samsung’s are often better spec wise and price wise than the latest IPhone but I hate Android so it doesn’t matter to me.

The ecosystem is what sells it for me, the price is not a concern as value for money in terms of what I want it for justifies the price difference.

I have no issues with those who like Windows and agree spec for spec the Mac is more expensive but those who own Apple devices are clearly not fussed about cost.

Completely agree, OS and usability ux/ui is very important to a lot of people and the premium is worth it for many and it should be, as mentioned things like airdrop are cool and the apple ecosystem works so well. I've been with osx and pc for many years but it was more clear cut during the early days, Microsoft have done a lot to catch up but for some it's still not enough and I do get it, that's where the value is esp with the iMacs... But for someone who has used both extensively and understands both OS's well, it's a different value proposition.
 
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Completely agree, OS and usability ux/ui is very important to a lot of people and the premium is worth it for many and it should be, as mentioned things like airdrop are cool and the apple ecosystem works so well. I've been with osx and pc for many years but it was more clear cut during the early days, Microsoft have done a lot to catch up but for some it's still not enough and I do get it, that's where the value is esp with the iMacs... But for someone who has used both extensively and understands both OS's well, it's a different value proposition.

I think a key differentiator in OS design is that some prefer the OS to manage all the system-related stuff, while others prefer to have more involvement/options. A key part of how the OS is perceived is that Apple make good default choices in the way their OS works straight 'from the box' while Microsoft made some very poor default choices, however because Windows boxes are much cheaper almost everyone gets stuck with those crappy defaults & most aren't interested enough to change them. If I were stuck with the M$ defaults in the way that one is as an Apple user with OSX then it would be an unpleasant experience, but the customisable nature of Windows means that behaviours and appearance can be adjusted to give a very pleasing interface.

I like to be able to choose how I work. I want an OS that 'says' "what would you like to do today?" rather than one which took over decisions and choices of where things were stored or how they were labelled.

I still use my old Macbook (it's currently kept for Zoom conversations because there's nothing much personal on there) and also use Linux in various flavours, as well as windows, and if my choice of image development software would run on Linux then I'd probably have migrated my home systems to that fully. No one system is better, but each has strengths and weaknesses and it's important that as a user you match those strengths to your requirements while making sure the weaknesses aren't fatal.
 
I think a key differentiator in OS design is that some prefer the OS to manage all the system-related stuff, while others prefer to have more involvement/options. A key part of how the OS is perceived is that Apple make good default choices in the way their OS works straight 'from the box' while Microsoft made some very poor default choices, however because Windows boxes are much cheaper almost everyone gets stuck with those crappy defaults & most aren't interested enough to change them. If I were stuck with the M$ defaults in the way that one is as an Apple user with OSX then it would be an unpleasant experience, but the customisable nature of Windows means that behaviours and appearance can be adjusted to give a very pleasing interface.

I like to be able to choose how I work. I want an OS that 'says' "what would you like to do today?" rather than one which took over decisions and choices of where things were stored or how they were labelled.

I still use my old Macbook (it's currently kept for Zoom conversations because there's nothing much personal on there) and also use Linux in various flavours, as well as windows, and if my choice of image development software would run on Linux then I'd probably have migrated my home systems to that fully. No one system is better, but each has strengths and weaknesses and it's important that as a user you match those strengths to your requirements while making sure the weaknesses aren't fatal.
Why not try Linux then?
 
Completely agree, OS and usability ux/ui is very important to a lot of people and the premium is worth it for many and it should be, as mentioned things like airdrop are cool and the apple ecosystem works so well. I've been with osx and pc for many years but it was more clear cut during the early days, Microsoft have done a lot to catch up but for some it's still not enough and I do get it, that's where the value is esp with the iMacs... But for someone who has used both extensively and understands both OS's well, it's a different value proposition.

Exactly this
Don’t think I could or would want to go back to windows. I’m not clued up on pc/laptops and always had issues with my windows ones. We probably bought a new one every other year as they just slowed so badly.
Fair enough I never spent a lot on them though.

My last/first mac was a 2011 mbp which I replaced with a 2016 at the start of 2017 only because it died due to the logic board dying.
But we now have 1 mbp, 1 MacBook Air, 1 mac book ,1 old 13”mbp2011 ,
3 iPad mini ,1 iPad Air and 3 iPhones in the house so we are well and truly locked into there eco system.
The fact I never have to do anything to them unless it’s a system update is great and that I have both the kids on there own Apple id’s that are linked though mine means I can stop them buying anything or can restrict what I want in there devices is a big plus also.

I do with you could airplay/screen share to non Apple products though. Won’t work with my Sony tv anyway.
 
Exactly this
Don’t think I could or would want to go back to windows. I’m not clued up on pc/laptops and always had issues with my windows ones. We probably bought a new one every other year as they just slowed so badly.
Fair enough I never spent a lot on them though.

My last/first mac was a 2011 mbp which I replaced with a 2016 at the start of 2017 only because it died due to the logic board dying.
But we now have 1 mbp, 1 MacBook Air, 1 mac book ,1 old 13”mbp2011 ,
3 iPad mini ,1 iPad Air and 3 iPhones in the house so we are well and truly locked into there eco system.
The fact I never have to do anything to them unless it’s a system update is great and that I have both the kids on there own Apple id’s that are linked though mine means I can stop them buying anything or can restrict what I want in there devices is a big plus also.

I do with you could airplay/screen share to non Apple products though. Won’t work with my Sony tv anyway.
It's weird as I'm fairly au fait with computers, and know a few computer wizards and despite me buying decent windows laptops and following all guidelines to keep them running ship shape mine always slowed to a point where they were just unusable, a fresh install sped them up but it was only very temporary. I was told it must be certain software I was running, but I have one windows laptop that has only ever been used for viewing x-rays and this is now snail pace after around 18 months. I must be cursed :LOL:
 
Apple are excellent at marketing and are a money machine, 6/7 years ago I worked for PC World Business, at that time it was the business to business arm of the Dixons group and I worked there for just over 15 years. It was a strange sort of set up in that while I worked from a PC World store, PC World Business was actually part of another company also owned by Dixons called Equanet. Equanet traded completely separate from PC World as a reseller rather than a retailer so many things were different including that they had their own buying department, warehouse, terms and conditions etc. Because of this and because I was based in-store I could sell equipment both direct from Equanet and from the store. I suspect it was some sort of tax avoidance scheme.

I had visibility of profit margins for goods sold from the Equanet warehouse but not from retail. Apple desktops and laptops averaged just over 20% margin when sold vis the Equanet warehouse. I had no visibility of what the margin was for retail but we were told that the profit margin when sold retail even if sold at the same price as at Equanet was higher. Retail margins were higher because they bought many more units. At that time, they were 10% cheaper if sold from Equanet rather than form retail. But even at the Equanet margin at an average of 20% Apple was a large profit driver. For windows hardware say Dell, Sony etc the average profit margin for windows desktops and laptops was 4%.

So just as an example take the standard Macbook Pro, back then they cost £999 retail and via Equanet £900 inc vat. So, every macbook pro I sold from Equanet made £180 of margin. If I sold an equivalent spec Dell, Toshiba, H.P laptop they cost less usually around £749 inc vat and this would then make £28 of profit. This means that every Macbook Pro sold retail made a minimum of £280 profit, because the retail proce was £100 more. The retail margins were higher so it would have been more than that. Add to that Apple targeted both Equanet and Dixons for units sold, accessories sold, Apple care etc. If they met the target there was large bonuses paid directly to the company. Apple were making so much money from Dixons a few years before I left that they actually employed someone full time in each store to run demonstrations of products. This wasn’t like a normal rep that would cover multiple stores the Apple rep was permanently based in one store. They were well paid too, much better wages than the normal sales person wages paid by Dixons and slightly more than an assistant manager was paid. The Apple rep also received very good bonuses when in store targets were met.

Things are probably much different now 6/7 years is a long time in those sorts of businesses Equanet was sold by Dixons to another company, I assume because whatever tax loophole they were using has now been closed. PC World Business is still running but is now incorporated into the normal PC World.

So, in short for every Macbook Pro Dixons sold retail at that time was making them £280 minimum and giving them a £1000 sale. The equivalent windows-based laptop was giving Dixons a £750 sale and £28 worth of profit. Then think about what Apple are making themselves they are far and away the most profitable hardware manufacturer and I read sometime ago on laptops and desktops they average around 30% margin, before they sell into retail. This means that the actual value of a £1000 Macbook Pro at that time would have been about £428 ex vat. So think about how much money that means Apple are making when they sell direct rather than through a retailer or reseller.

Every time you buy an Apple desktop or laptop you are being totally ripped off at an obscene level.
 
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It's weird as I'm fairly au fait with computers, and know a few computer wizards and despite me buying decent windows laptops and following all guidelines to keep them running ship shape mine always slowed to a point where they were just unusable, a fresh install sped them up but it was only very temporary. I was told it must be certain software I was running, but I have one windows laptop that has only ever been used for viewing x-rays and this is now snail pace after around 18 months. I must be cursed :LOL:
Are you using the manufacturers "bloatware"? We have a Lenovo laptop that used run excruciatingly slowly so I got rid of the Lenovo Win10 installation and downloaded a fresh Win10 from Microsoft. It does run quite a bit faster now, you must take care not to remove the Lenovo back up sector on the HDD though!
 
Apple are excellent at marketing and are a money machine, 6/7 years ago I worked for PC World Business, at that time it was the business to business arm of the Dixons group and I worked there for just over 15 years. It was a strange sort of set up in that while I worked from a PC World store, PC World Business was actually part of another company also owned by Dixons called Equanet. Equanet traded completely separate from PC World as a reseller rather than a retailer so many things were different including that they had their own buying department, warehouse, terms and conditions etc. Because of this and because I was based in-store I could sell equipment both direct from Equanet and from the store. I suspect it was some sort of tax avoidance scheme.

I had visibility of profit margins for goods sold from the Equanet warehouse but not from retail. Apple desktops and laptops averaged just over 20% margin when sold vis the Equanet warehouse. I had no visibility of what the margin was for retail but we were told that the profit margin when sold retail even if sold at the same price as at Equanet was higher. Retail margins were higher because they bought many more units. At that time, they were 10% cheaper if sold from Equanet rather than form retail. But even at the Equanet margin at an average of 20% Apple was a large profit driver. For windows hardware say Dell, Sony etc the average profit margin for windows desktops and laptops was 4%.

So just as an example take the standard Macbook Pro, back then they cost £999 retail and via Equanet £900 inc vat. So, every macbook pro I sold from Equanet made £180 of margin. If I sold an equivalent spec Dell, Toshiba, H.P laptop they cost less usually around £749 inc vat and this would then make £28 of profit. This means that every Macbook Pro sold retail made a minimum of £280 profit, because the retail proce was £100 more. The retail margins were higher so it would have been more than that. Add to that Apple targeted both Equanet and Dixons for units sold, accessories sold, Apple care etc. If they met the target there was large bonuses paid directly to the company. Apple were making so much money from Dixons a few years before I left that they actually employed someone full time in each store to run demonstrations of products. This wasn’t like a normal rep that would cover multiple stores the Apple rep was permanently based in one store. They were well paid too, much better wages than the normal sales person wages paid by Dixons and slightly more than an assistant manager was paid. The Apple rep also received very good bonuses when in store targets were met.

Things are probably much different now 6/7 years is a long time in those sorts of businesses Equanet was sold by Dixons to another company, I assume because whatever tax loophole they were using has now been closed. PC World Business is still running but is now incorporated into the normal PC World.

So, in short for every Macbook Pro Dixons sold retail at that time was making them £280 minimum and giving them a £1000 sale. The equivalent windows-based laptop was giving Dixons a £750 sale and £28 worth of profit. Then think about what Apple are making themselves they are far and away the most profitable hardware manufacturer and I read sometime ago on laptops and desktops they average around 30% margin, before they sell into retail. This means that the actual value of a £1000 Macbook Pro at that time would have been about £428 ex vat. So think about how much money that means Apple are making when they sell direct rather than through a retailer or reseller.

Every time you buy an Apple desktop or laptop you are being totally ripped off at an obscene level.

It's all fair point but in reality you don't think about it like that. You don't think about profit margins, you think about how much it cost on another platform and the benefits of each platform and your preference on the platform.

"I am not giving this evil company my money" is not on my radar, at least not when it comes to computer hardware. They are all made by Foxxcon anyway,

Between a £500 windows PC and a £1000 MBP, if they are the exact same hardware, give me the MBP tbh, the same windows laptop will no doubt be made of a plastic shell, likely bigger, full of bloatware out of the box and the trackpad would be average at best. I watch a lot of hardware reviews online and I think the only windows laptop out at the moment that I would get would be the Dell XPS13, 2 in 1 or the Asus G14 (with the AMD chipset). All of them with the spec that I want are into the £1500 region too. Which brings me back, I end up spending £2300 (£2100 after HE discount) on my MBP in late 2018, I looked at windows laptops but I just could not bring myself to do it, I know I could save £500 and it would be faster too...but I just can't. £500 on OSX, worth it.
 
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It's all fair point but in reality you don't think about it like that. You don't think about profit margins, you think about how much it cost on another platform and the benefits of each platform and your preference on the platform.

"I am not giving this evil company my money" is not on my radar, at least not when it comes to computer hardware. They are all made by Foxxcon anyway,

Between a £500 windows PC and a £1000 MBP, if they are the exact same hardware, give me the MBP tbh, the same windows laptop will no doubt be made of a plastic shell, likely bigger, full of bloatware out of the box and the trackpad would be average at best. I watch a lot of hardware reviews online and I think the only windows laptop out at the moment that I would get would be the Dell XPS13, 2 in 1 or the Asus G14 (with the AMD chipset). All of them with the spec that I want are into the £1500 region too. Which brings me back, I end up spending £2300 (£2100 after HE discount) on my MBP in late 2018, I looked at windows laptops but I just could not bring myself to do it, I know I could save £500 and it would be faster too...but I just can't. £500 on OSX, worth it.

You might not "think of it like that" and be happy enough get bent over by Apple but not everyone is the same.

At no point did I mention a £500 windows pc as an alternative that is just you being a fan boy. The windows units I mentioned as I clearly said were around £749 and were pretty much a like for like in terms of spec (they had more ram and a few other differences, but generally better) including build quality in terms of the chassis etc. The aluminium design of the MacBook Pro isn't specific to Apple only the unibody design is. Many manufacturers including Dell, Sony, Asus etc. have had very similar body designs or used the same materials in their own units. Yes you could buy a £500-£600 laptop with a plastic case with the same hardware but I was comparing like for like.

The Apple trackpad sucks, not sure why anyone would see that as an advantage, even the gestures they stole from Asus who were the first to offer that in a laptop. Apple didn't offer that until about a year later, same as the way they do with most things. They take someone else's idea and remarket it very cleverly at a much higher price.

It's not about them being an evil company, any company will try and leverage their profits as much as possible Apple are just better at that than anyone else in their market, it is a simple fact though that compared to every single other company in their sector they massively overcharge for their products.

If say Nikon brought out a new camera it was pretty much the same spec as the A9 just a bit slower only with Nikon's U.I software but decided to charge what works out at bout 30-40% more than the A9 do you think many people would buy it? Probably not as they don't have the same marketing nuance to con people the way Apple does.
 
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You might not "think of it like that" and be happy enough get bent over by Apple but not everyone is the same.

At no point did I mention a £500 windows pc as an alternative that is just you being a fan boy. The windows units I mentioned as I clearly said were around £749 and were pretty much a like for like in terms of spec (they had more ram and a few other differences, but generally better) including build quality in terms of the chassis etc. The aluminium design of the MacBook Pro isn't specific to Apple only the unibody design is. Many manufacturers including Dell, Sony, Asus etc. have had very similar body designs or used the same materials in their own units. Yes you could buy a £500-£600 laptop with a plastic case with the same hardware but I was comparing like for like.

The Apple trackpad sucks, not sure why anyone would see that as an advantage, even the gestures they stole from Asus who were the first to offer that in a laptop. Apple didn't offer that until about a year later, same as the way they do with most things. They take someone else's idea and remarket it very cleverly at a much higher price.

It's not about them being an evil company, any company will try and leverage their profits as much as possible Apple are just better at that than anyone else in their market, it is a simple fact though that compared to every single other company in their sector they massively overcharge for their products.

I was trying to lean to YOUR favour by LOWERING the price, making the windows laptop more attractive and making Apple an evil company.

If you are to give me choice between a £749 laptop and a £900 MBP and Apple is not evil...then I wouldn't even blink, MBP it is, every day of the week.

Profit Margin? Profit what? I don't care who makes the profit really, what matters is what I get in the hand. Profit margin (20%, 30%, 14% etc) matters to sales and the accountant of the operating company, customers cares about how much they are spending. At no point when I am shopping at Sainsburys or Tesco I think of their profit margin on a block of cheese, I think of whether I like that cheese and whether that is worth my money.

Profit Margin?
 
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For me there are three big advantages of Windows over Apple for my use.
Firstly, since I've used Windows for a long time I am familiar with it's "quirks" - yes, they move things about when they change versions, but the things I want to change I can find - when faced with an Apple machine I don't even know if you can make a given change, let alone where to look to change it! - and I suspect that much of the "Only Apple, Windows is impossible" views are for similar reasons, people are familiar with one, making the other harder (a bit like Sony menus vs Canon menus, etc.)
Secondly, the software I use as a developer is all Windows based - there may be Apple versions, but I don't know if everything has an Apple version.
Thirdly, with Windows I can decide the exact specification of machine I need, I can add more had disks later, etc. Its open and flexible.
 
If you are to give me choice between a £749 laptop and a £900 MBP and Apple is not evil...then I wouldn't even blink, MBP it is, every day of the week.

But that is purely down to your preference of Apple as an OS, over Windows - for me, the £749 laptop is the clear choice, not only is it cheaper, but it is Windows, which for my needs is superior (Though I'd actually spend £749 on components for a tower, and get even more for my money, rather than a laptop, but again, that's my use case, not yours, where I want multiple monitors, etc, which make the portability of a laptop redundant).
 
But that is purely down to your preference of Apple as an OS, over Windows - for me, the £749 laptop is the clear choice, not only is it cheaper, but it is Windows, which for my needs is superior (Though I'd actually spend £749 on components for a tower, and get even more for my money, rather than a laptop, but again, that's my use case, not yours, where I want multiple monitors, etc, which make the portability of a laptop redundant).

Of course, and the point I was making is that OSX is worth it for me....and I literally said

£500 on OSX, worth it.

p.s. I am comfortable on either, my work setup.

kAcjzPp.jpg
 
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From the POV of fixing them when that was what I was doing the quality of the Apple stuff was there to see compared to some pc's. An issue in those days was that although you could buy thousands of cheap things to fit to pc's some of them caused problems which maybe only showed up in very specific instances or after a series of specific things happened which sometimes actually made diagnosing the issue easy, just remove the cheap card made by someone you've never heard of and fit something else and voila, that strange fault the customer complained about which can't be replicated using diagnostics is miraculously no more.
 
I think I opened a can of worms by discussing apple v PC! At the moment I think I’ve decided that just the imac will be going. At present I have both an iMac and MacBook Pro. The imac is my main photography editing machine but with the lockdown I’m finding I’m using (and enjoying) the MacBook Pro the most (I haven’t done more photography editing recently). I think I will need to look at options around laptops as it would enable me to be more mobile. I don’t like being tied to a desktop as it doesn’t really suit me. At present a laptop will likely be either a Dell XPS or a MacBook. It’s likely both will have the same issue regarding future hardware updates so that’s a mute point regarding Apple. Another point I should consider is that I‘m invested in several G Tech external storage that’s thunderbolt 2. I could get a thunderbolt 2 to 3 adaptor do it would be compatible with a MacBook. I’m not use if it can be adapted to connect to a dell laptop.
 
You might not "think of it like that" and be happy enough get bent over by Apple but not everyone is the same.

At no point did I mention a £500 windows pc as an alternative that is just you being a fan boy. The windows units I mentioned as I clearly said were around £749 and were pretty much a like for like in terms of spec (they had more ram and a few other differences, but generally better) including build quality in terms of the chassis etc. The aluminium design of the MacBook Pro isn't specific to Apple only the unibody design is. Many manufacturers including Dell, Sony, Asus etc. have had very similar body designs or used the same materials in their own units. Yes you could buy a £500-£600 laptop with a plastic case with the same hardware but I was comparing like for like.

The Apple trackpad sucks, not sure why anyone would see that as an advantage, even the gestures they stole from Asus who were the first to offer that in a laptop. Apple didn't offer that until about a year later, same as the way they do with most things. They take someone else's idea and remarket it very cleverly at a much higher price.

It's not about them being an evil company, any company will try and leverage their profits as much as possible Apple are just better at that than anyone else in their market, it is a simple fact though that compared to every single other company in their sector they massively overcharge for their products.

If say Nikon brought out a new camera it was pretty much the same spec as the A9 just a bit slower only with Nikon's U.I software but decided to charge what works out at bout 30-40% more than the A9 do you think many people would buy it? Probably not as they don't have the same marketing nuance to con people the way Apple does.

I don't want to get involved either but.....

I don't feel I've been bent over by Apple - when you look at getting a monitor as good as the 27" 5k iMac screen it doesnt seem bad value.

Also I had my last iMac for 8 years - I paid £1100 for it and sold it for £500 - £600 for 8 years use ????
 
Samyang 75mm f1.8 announced...

https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/samyang-75mm-f-1-8-fe-officially-announced/

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLP4U5kqtuM&feature=emb_logo


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdPtDvr-Czw&feature=emb_logo

Smaller, lighter and cheaper than a Sony 85mm f1.8?

I wont be selling my Sony 85mm f1.8 but I can imagine people taking a good look at the Samyang especially if the compact size and weight or the price are what interest them.

Yep I'm tempted by this !

I've got the 18 & 35 so adding the 75 would give me a good range for very little weight and cost :)
 
I think I opened a can of worms by discussing apple v PC! At the moment I think I’ve decided that just the imac will be going. At present I have both an iMac and MacBook Pro. The imac is my main photography editing machine but with the lockdown I’m finding I’m using (and enjoying) the MacBook Pro the most (I haven’t done more photography editing recently). I think I will need to look at options around laptops as it would enable me to be more mobile. I don’t like being tied to a desktop as it doesn’t really suit me. At present a laptop will likely be either a Dell XPS or a MacBook. It’s likely both will have the same issue regarding future hardware updates so that’s a mute point regarding Apple. Another point I should consider is that I‘m invested in several G Tech external storage that’s thunderbolt 2. I could get a thunderbolt 2 to 3 adaptor do it would be compatible with a MacBook. I’m not use if it can be adapted to connect to a dell laptop.

You can easily transfer thunderbolt to usb c using an adpator.
 
Yep I'm tempted by this !

I've got the 18 & 35 so adding the 75 would give me a good range for very little weight and cost :)

I do like compact and lighter kit but recently I've been willing to buy bigger kit such as the Sony 20 and 35mm f1.8's rather than the very compact Samyangs because even if the Samyang is on the camera it still has to go in a bag so only relatively compact Sony kit as well as very compact kit Samyang makes it onto the list of possibilities.

I can see the attraction in these Samyangs and if the 18mm was f1.8 maybe I'd have been more willing to go that way. I don't think I'll be selling my Sony lenses to get the Samyangs though but for anyone just buying into the system the Samyangs must be well worth a look.
 
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So a daisy chained set of thunderbolt 2 hard drives could be connected to a PC using a UBS-C using a thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter? That could save me a lot by not needing to replace all my external hard drives.

Not sure if daisy chain would effect it or not you would maybe need to do a bit of googling.
 
Every time you buy an Apple desktop or laptop you are being totally ripped off at an obscene level.

Value is not always perceived in monetary terms.

I don’t care what their profit margins are.

I pay what I feel is worth it for the product I want.

I have a choice, I can buy something else.

Got the latest Apple Watch in order for the Wife’s birthday at the moment, means I can use her older Watch 3 as the Watch never bothered me too much.
 
QUESTION. My latest Samyang showed up.

It's odd, I think it's slightly decentered but in a different way to what I've seen before. The corners seem consistent but then the mid frame seems off. The mid left seems sharper than mid right when doing a test at infinity on a distant chimney stack.

Anyone seen that before?
 
Value is not always perceived in monetary terms.

I don’t care what their profit margins are.

I pay what I feel is worth it for the product I want.

I have a choice, I can buy something else.

Got the latest Apple Watch in order for the Wife’s birthday at the moment, means I can use her older Watch 3 as the Watch never bothered me too much.

Mrs WW likes those fitness watches that give all sorts of information. I like mechanical wind up ones :D
 
QUESTION. My latest Samyang showed up.

It's odd, I think it's slightly decentered but in a different way to what I've seen before. The corners seem consistent but then the mid frame seems off. The mid left seems sharper than mid right when doing a test at infinity on a distant chimney stack.

Anyone seen that before?

If it's not consistent from one side to the other then surely that can't be right but differences between the centre, mid and corners may be for other reasons than decentering, if they're consistent.

I suppose another thing to consider is if any issues show up when do they show up. I suppose the lens could be slightly off but still acceptable to you? I think I'd try and exchange it if I thought it was too far off for me or for anyone else I may try to sell it on to at some point in the future.
 
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