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Will you be purchasing the newly announced Retina MacBook Pro?

  • Yes; I will be buying a BTO option.

    Votes: 44 30.3%
  • Yes; I will be buying the base model.

    Votes: 25 17.2%
  • No; I will be staying with my current setup.

    Votes: 76 52.4%

  • Total voters
    145

MCAsan

macrumors 601
Jul 9, 2012
4,587
442
Atlanta
Fully agreed. Our rMBPs have replaced our i72600K desktops. When we get home from a shoot, edited photos go external thunderbolt RAID 1 set to free up the SSD space for the next shoot. I love only needing the power supply and a CF card reader.....no external HDs to lose or crash in the field.
 
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bsmr

macrumors 65816
Oct 4, 2005
1,041
267
Germany
Fully agreed. Our rMBPs have replaced our i72600K desktops. When we get home from a shoot, edited photos go external thunderbolt RAID 1 set to free up the SSD space for the next shoot. I love only needing the power supply and a CF card reader.....no external HDs to lose or crash in the field.

Which photo managing/editing software are you using? There are not many on the market which are supporting retina resolution.
 

MCAsan

macrumors 601
Jul 9, 2012
4,587
442
Atlanta
Software wise we use LR, Nik Suite plugins, and rarely CS 6 Photoshop. They are not updated for Retina yet. That is OK as we use the Retina displays only in the field. At home we use large monitors.

Monitor wise we currently use HP 2511 at home. I am planning to replace those with 27" IPS monitors for the holidays. The candidates are Apple Thunderbolt, HP 2740, Dell U2711, and the new Viewsonic IPS monitor that should be released this month.

Side note: I used to think the Apple Thunderbolt display was very expensive. But if you have a Mac laptop and want the docking features (USB hub, audio..etc.) then you have to compare something like a 27" IPS panel ($800) plus something like a Delkin Thunderbolt dock (lists for $399). Even if the Delkin sells for less that list, the combo is still likely to be more than a Thunderbolt display. Also that combo will not give a Mac laptop a magsafe power connection. So this area will be interesting to watch from now through the holidays.
 

sonicoliver

macrumors newbie
Feb 28, 2012
4
0

MCAsan

macrumors 601
Jul 9, 2012
4,587
442
Atlanta
...if you are a photographer who is on the go, I see no excuse NOT to own this laptop.


Agreed. That is why both the wife and I have one maxed out. They are not cheap....neither is a Canon 5DIII or a 500mm lens. ;)

At least a pro can depreciate it with the rest of his capital assets (camera bodies. lenses, flash..etc.).
 

blanka

macrumors 68000
Jul 30, 2012
1,551
4
I zoom in when editing photo's all the time. 90% happens at 300% magnification, so a Retina screen absolutely adds nothing to that.
 

photogy

macrumors member
Jun 2, 2010
64
0
as a professional tog...i can see why this thread is getting so much chatter (not all of it relevant)

am in similar position as have 2009 15" mbp 2.8 with 8gb. Run cs5, lr3, PS etc and works well. I use 23" cinema to edit..most of it at home (final stuff anyway) but also lots on location for interim.

I don't really see the need for glitzy res on location as much of that is pre-print anyway. When you carrying a load of camera gear a few extra ounces don't matter.

Then you have the issue - do you use 15" rmbp to final edit or older (but calibrated) 23" or 27" cinema display as its larger? (no brainer)

(the storage stuff on thread is irrelevant)

I see the relevant issue as:

What extra benefits would do you get (now) from rmbp as opposed to getting a mbp?

* most pro's edit on large screens anyway (ie home)

* new connectivity ports, screen etc favor the rmbp but its the first of new gen and the rest of the stick in's will take time to catch up (seamlessly).

this thread would be a non issue if the newly awaited mac pro was here..but thats obviously (and sensibly) been delayed until this new cross in tech has established itself!
 

joshuaginter

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 19, 2011
152
0
Canada
I don't have the intention of bumping my own thread, but I am highly curious if the 13" Retina MacBook Pro changes anything for voters above.

Is a 13" Retina MacBook Pro more alluring for photographers, or is the integrated graphics card a deal breaker? I could also see the lack of a 16GB RAM option being a deal breaker.

As a wannabe photographer, I'm wondering if the best Mac news of the day came in the form of the new iMac or the new Mac Minis. It certainly can't be the iPad mini!
 

MCAsan

macrumors 601
Jul 9, 2012
4,587
442
Atlanta
Is a 13" Retina MacBook Pro more alluring for photographers,


The only positives compared to 15" rMBP I see are smaller/lighter package (but not by much) and lower cost (but not be enough given dual core vs quad core). I am very glad we did not wait on 13" rMBP. IMHO, it is too much (cost) for too little (processing power and memory).
 

Prodo123

macrumors 68020
Nov 18, 2010
2,326
10
I don't have the intention of bumping my own thread, but I am highly curious if the 13" Retina MacBook Pro changes anything for voters above.

Is a 13" Retina MacBook Pro more alluring for photographers, or is the integrated graphics card a deal breaker? I could also see the lack of a 16GB RAM option being a deal breaker.

As a wannabe photographer, I'm wondering if the best Mac news of the day came in the form of the new iMac or the new Mac Minis. It certainly can't be the iPad mini!

HD 4000 is a huge dealbreaker.
Non-user upgradeable RAM is also a dealbreaker.
 

Dave00

macrumors 6502a
Dec 2, 2003
883
106
Pittsburgh
I don't have the intention of bumping my own thread, but I am highly curious if the 13" Retina MacBook Pro changes anything for voters above.
I've got the 15" rMBP, which I use primarily for photo and video editing, and couldn't be happier. Quite an upgrade over my 13" macbook. Color rendition is far better than the older machine (so you get less of those surprises when you make prints) and also the IPS screen is worlds better for showing people something on the screen. Used to be I'd have to hold it at just the right angle to show someone else a picture. Not anymore. DVD rips from external USB2 drive at over 100 FPS on Handbrake. Quiet as a mouse.
 

joshuaginter

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 19, 2011
152
0
Canada
I've got the 15" rMBP, which I use primarily for photo and video editing, and couldn't be happier. Quite an upgrade over my 13" macbook. Color rendition is far better than the older machine (so you get less of those surprises when you make prints) and also the IPS screen is worlds better for showing people something on the screen. Used to be I'd have to hold it at just the right angle to show someone else a picture. Not anymore. DVD rips from external USB2 drive at over 100 FPS on Handbrake. Quiet as a mouse.

Had the 13" Retina Pro been released alongside the 15" with the specs it was released with yesterday, would you have opted for the 13" instead?
 

CASLondon

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2011
536
0
London
One photographer's view, interesting...

http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20121023_1-MacBookPro-Retina-13.html

I'm a video guy staying with my last version 17" for a couple of reasons, express slot and screen real estate, and dual hd set up. But its interesting where Apple is going with the various lines.

I'm starting to value for my own work, iPads, current version mac pros, and the mac mini over the beautifully designed flagship iMacs and rMBPs
 

4kusnik

macrumors newbie
Oct 20, 2012
23
0
One photographer's view, interesting...

http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20121023_1-MacBookPro-Retina-13.html

I'm a video guy staying with my last version 17" for a couple of reasons, express slot and screen real estate, and dual hd set up. But its interesting where Apple is going with the various lines.

I'm starting to value for my own work, iPads, current version mac pros, and the mac mini over the beautifully designed flagship iMacs and rMBPs
Very useful and informative article. I was inclined to choose 13" but after reding the article the only issue that is remained is to make a decision about 15" configuration. As I am a car owner then portability is not an issue for me.
 

millerrh

macrumors 6502
Sep 14, 2005
463
32
Also, the retina display's concept itself presents many issues. The first and most important to us is the effect of the increased resolution on the enlargement of photos. The 100% view on the loupe will be 4x smaller on an RMBP compared to the normal 15" MBP. To get the magnification level to me the same, the RMBP will have to use the 400% view, which introduces blur. This is very bothersome, as manually correcting chromatic aberration (which is often only 1px thick when shot with a good lens) becomes proportionally more difficult. The same goes for designers working with large formats and prints.

I'm surprised I haven't read more about this issue. Or a similar one - you get the image looking sharp and good on your retina screen, but on a non-retina screen you might have added more sharpening otherwise and it looks too soft.

I suppose we deal with a similar situation now though....on a standard screen, you really don't know what it will look like on print by viewing it on your monitor. But you know it will look good on other screens.

With the retina, it seems you might actually have a reasonable view of what it might look like printed. But you lose all sense of what it will look like on others monitors. (at least that's my assumption).

Can anyone with one comment on this? Is this a non-issue? I love every idea about the retina screen except that it might sway me to believe my images are better than they are and deliver sub-par results for people with normal screens.
 

joshuaginter

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 19, 2011
152
0
Canada
I recently purchased the 13" Retina. So far, I have found that the improved images on the Retina have little to no effect on non-Retina monitors. The biggest different between Retina and non-Retina would be colours and contrast.

For example, my personal Tumblr page had a header that was set at a low PPI because it was created on the poorer display. After viewing it on the Retina display, I knew I had to change it. Once I updated the PPI of the header, it looked great on the Retina display AND on the non-Retina display. I believe photos are the same story. You don't get a poorer image on the non-Retina display. You just have a display that can't take advantage of the full extent of the image. Just my take on it, though.
 

Prodo123

macrumors 68020
Nov 18, 2010
2,326
10
I suppose we deal with a similar situation now though....on a standard screen, you really don't know what it will look like on print by viewing it on your monitor. But you know it will look good on other screens.

With the retina, it seems you might actually have a reasonable view of what it might look like printed. But you lose all sense of what it will look like on others monitors. (at least that's my assumption).

To be honest I get a darn good idea of how my prints will look when compared to the monitor. Since I use the high-res display and the Thunderbolt Display, it's pretty close to print as far as I can tell.

As for the issue which I previously mentioned, I think you misunderstood. The issue I bring up is one of working space.

Let's say that you have a 15" uMBP with a normal screen of 1440x900. When you open Aperture, your working space will be around 1000x700 and your photos will be downscaled by Aperture for display within the working space. Let's say you're shooting with the 7D, so you have a 5184x3456 photo which is shrunk by a factor of ~5 for on-screen viewing. So when you tell your loupe to view an area of 50x50 on the downscaled photo within the working space at 100%, you're selecting an area of the actual image which is 250x250. The loupe will therefore show a 250x250 image.

But now on the rMBP with a 2880x1800. The working space on the Retina Display is then 2000x1400, and the photo is downscaled by a factor of 2.5 instead of 5. When viewed side-by-side with the 15" uMBP without loupe, both images should look identical, with the extra resolution of the rMBP making the photo appear sharper.

Now apply loupe to the rMBP. Tell it to view the same apparent area on the rMBP, which should be an area of 100x100. The area of the actual photo which you're telling Aperture to display is still 250x250. The loupe will still display a 250x250 image on the Retina display.

Now, we know that the pixel density is double in each direction on the rMBP when compared to the uMBP, right? This means when two images of the same resolution are displayed on each screen, the rMBP will be 2x smaller in each direction as the uMBP. So the 250x250 image of the loupe, when displayed on the rMBP, will look tiny when compared to the uMBP's loupe. Increasing the magnification of the loupe will cause the image to be blocky and even harder to view than before!

This issue of smaller loupe personally would bug the heck out of me, since I use it all the time to inspect and refine an image.
 

millerrh

macrumors 6502
Sep 14, 2005
463
32
Actually I did not mean to discount your original post, but to add to it. I 100% agree with you on this. One of my purposes for zooming in to 100% is not just to view it at 1:1. But also to physically enlarge it. Now to get that same physical enlargement I'll need to go higher than 1:1 which introduces blur as you say. Now can you trust the results? Maybe with the retina there will be a lot of zooming OUT to get to 1:1 just like today we zoom IN to inspect our work.

----------

I recently purchased the 13" Retina. So far, I have found that the improved images on the Retina have little to no effect on non-Retina monitors. The biggest different between Retina and non-Retina would be colours and contrast.

For example, my personal Tumblr page had a header that was set at a low PPI because it was created on the poorer display. After viewing it on the Retina display, I knew I had to change it. Once I updated the PPI of the header, it looked great on the Retina display AND on the non-Retina display. I believe photos are the same story. You don't get a poorer image on the non-Retina display. You just have a display that can't take advantage of the full extent of the image. Just my take on it, though.

Thanks for that perspective. Maybe you're right. After all going from a larger image and downscaling smaller never seems to hurt the quality. Perhaps that's all that is really going on when you edit on retina and view on non-retina. Conversely the other way around actually DOES look horrible.
 

Rossawilson1

macrumors newbie
Dec 5, 2012
1
0
Interesting propersition

It's certainly an impressive and beautiful machine, the display is stunning but as a photographer the idea of using a display few to zero clients will be using their end is off putting. I don't wanna be making edits based on a rmacbookpro display and wondering how that's going to look at the clients end. It's just anther variable to work around as far as I can see. Even if there's little to no difference ill let that be confirmed elsewhere.

As for colour gamut, there are certainly valid reasons to want a wide gamut display, being able to preview lipping warnings for various paper profiles that are outside srgb is very useful. That said depending on whether your fine art or wedding or portrait or docu you maybe happy to let that slide.

If your a pro I think you're more likely to go for the non retainer version, pros rarely jump to new untested tech.. Otherwise that screen is gonna be gorgeous to look at for the most part of apples target market.
 
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