Any Pro-Photogs Using the Retina Yet?

[garstudios]

Just wondering if there are any professional photographers using the retina macbook pro yet, and if they could give some sort of review that is purely based on a photographers workflow that includes the positive and negative aspects of the retina.

any links to such reviews would be welcome too.

all the reviews i can find are basically an overview of the whole machine and not based on photography work.

also, on a side note, why do all the reviews out there compare the retina macbook pro to a non retina macbook pro that has a regular hdd in it....then conclude that the retina has better performance. thats just plain silly and ignorant. at least compare it to one with similar specs.....

anyways, i would just like to be pointed to any photography based reviews on the retina. thank you.

 

[mexico]

Mine won't be here until July 16-20 I'll let you know then! I work for a University as a professional Videographer but also do occasional photo work. My GF does more photography and I'm sure she will love this thing. I can say that coming from an original non-unibody macbook pro this thing should feel insane! Bridge takes me about 10 minutes to start on this laptop currently so we will see how the new one compares.

 

[garstudios]

yeah, im just thinking about getting a non retina for now, then maybe upgrade next summer/winter to a retina. give it enough time to settle. i usually upgrade my macbook pro every other year anyways.

i did check the retina out at best buy, then when i went home, and did some work on my current macbook pro and my external displays....i felt like sand paper was being rubbed on my eyes.....thats after only like 5 minutes of messing with the retina...

which brings me to the next problem.

if i get this retina, and apple updates their displays to retina...which will happen. then im just going to have to spend even more money to update everything....which is sad. cause theres no way i can work on both a non retina and a retina......my eyes would be screwed....

 

[samarth1]

As a photography enthusiast, I would also love to see some professional reviews from photographers, as the beautiful retina display and its benefits for photography was one of the main reasons I invested in this machine. My current workflow in Lightroom 4 on a 1366x768 resolution Lenovo is woefully small, and is frustrating at times because of the voluminous nature of RAW files. A Samsung 830 256gb SSD that I put in recently helps, but nothing can make up for the lack of screen space when working with high resolution photographs.

Edit: I'm also in the 3-4 week group, so I'm looking at a July 16-20 delivery, having ordered on June 15. I genuinely hope I don't have to wait that long to get my hands on this beast!

 

[whtrbt7]

I'm waiting until next year. There's going to be a lot of kinks in this year's version. Base resolution is 1440x900 still so everything will kinda look the same. You can "hack" the display to get to the full 2880x1800 but you'll suffer some slight slowdowns due to the Intel 4000 graphics with this hack. The NAND flash is also slower than what I was expecting and I know the speed could be faster if they would just stop thinking of traditional pipelines to the NAND flash. Retina display does help with Aperture (but not LR4) so if you're an Aperture user (which I am), the photos will display with double resolution while the text and controls are same size to allow for easier viewing of text. Storage will need to be addressed by next year for more speed and also more storage. Apple seriously needs to consider making the RMBP more expensive and slapping 2 SSDs into the enclosure so RAID 0 is possible for increased speed. The reason why there is faster performance on the RMBP compared to the standard model is due to the fact that everything is soldered on (except the NAND flash...seriously why not?) The unified board in the RMBP is faster but, like I said, lacks more speed due to the SSD connector design. Photographers will notice a good speed increase for up to 25MP images on the RMBP but anyone working with a Nikon D800 or D800E may have several issues just due to slow handling of these near 40MP image sizes. Even Retina display won't save you if you're working with these large file sizes. FCPX performance on the RMBP is excellent. 16GB of RAM is just enough to make you not cringe when editing 1080p video. What I'm saying is that the RMBP is still good and generally faster due to the logic board design. The problem is that Apple didn't go far enough to really warrant an upgrade. The biggest issue for photographers will be storage because 512GB base upgradeable to 768GB is not a solution. Even with a Thunderbolt external, the biggest issues are portability and speed which could have been solved with a 2-4 slot SSD option so onboard RAID could happen. Build the machine for professionals if you're going to build something like this. External storage is not a solution, it's a cop-out.

 

[MacBird]

All photographers who I talked with canceled their rMBP order for now after seeing them in the store. Due to scaling, images posted online appear less sharp than on displays running at native resolution. Contrast and blacks look very good, though.

Increasing the resolution of images online would circumvent the problem but you invite even more people to steal images. It's quite a dilemma, either make your website resolution-independent and risk more theft or stick with small images and live with a slight fuzziness.

Any idea whether Adobe will update CS6 only? I would not be surprised if they would not update CS5 for retina displays.

 

[mexico]

I'm waiting until next year. There's going to be a lot of kinks in this year's version. Base resolution is 1440x900 still so everything will kinda look the same. You can "hack" the display to get to the full 2880x1800 but you'll suffer some slight slowdowns due to the Intel 4000 graphics with this hack. The NAND flash is also slower than what I was expecting and I know the speed could be faster if they would just stop thinking of traditional pipelines to the NAND flash. Retina display does help with Aperture (but not LR4) so if you're an Aperture user (which I am), the photos will display with double resolution while the text and controls are same size to allow for easier viewing of text. Storage will need to be addressed by next year for more speed and also more storage. Apple seriously needs to consider making the RMBP more expensive and slapping 2 SSDs into the enclosure so RAID 0 is possible for increased speed. The reason why there is faster performance on the RMBP compared to the standard model is due to the fact that everything is soldered on (except the NAND flash...seriously why not?) The unified board in the RMBP is faster but, like I said, lacks more speed due to the SSD connector design. Photographers will notice a good speed increase for up to 25MP images on the RMBP but anyone working with a Nikon D800 or D800E may have several issues just due to slow handling of these near 40MP image sizes. Even Retina display won't save you if you're working with these large file sizes. FCPX performance on the RMBP is excellent. 16GB of RAM is just enough to make you not cringe when editing 1080p video. What I'm saying is that the RMBP is still good and generally faster due to the logic board design. The problem is that Apple didn't go far enough to really warrant an upgrade. The biggest issue for photographers will be storage because 512GB base upgradeable to 768GB is not a solution. Even with a Thunderbolt external, the biggest issues are portability and speed which could have been solved with a 2-4 slot SSD option so onboard RAID could happen. Build the machine for professionals if you're going to build something like this. External storage is not a solution, it's a cop-out.

You raise an interesting point with it having "kinks." I am a little afraid to adopt such a new revision of computer into my workflow. I'm afraid there will be problems that Apple didn't think to address with this first release. But my current macbook is far too slow for me to continue using. I figure anything majorly wrong with this first shipment will most likely be covered by applecare.

As for storage, this is nearly a non-issue for me. I currently use a 320gb HD on my current laptop. so going to 512 will actually be an increase in size! Honestly though, most professionals in this field never rely on internal storage. It is too expensive to upgrade internal storage on a laptop when we can just raid together a bunch of hard drives for double the storage and speed.

As for storage workflow: Whenever I work on a project I keep all of its files in a separate folder on our server at work. While I am working on that project I keep the folder on the desktop of my mac pro at work. If the folder is over 100gb then I load the folder onto an external drive at the end of the day for continued revisions on my laptop. If it is smaller then I just drop right onto my laptops HD. The only time I ever actually work on something like this is at my home at a desk so having to deal with an external is really no issue. So when I want my macbook to be portable is usually for entertainment: netflix, writing, reading blogs, etc. these all take little memory if any at all. The only reason for me having a bigger hard drive in the new laptop is because of my bulging iTunes library ~60gb at this time but I have about 100cd's/records I still have to convert to digital!

All that is to say that while yes it stinks that these have tiny drives, it won't have any impact on me as a professional video worker. Even if Apple shoved in 3TB of storage somehow, I would quickly fill that to capacity with archived projects and still have need for external storage.

----------

Any idea whether Adobe will update CS6 only? I would not be surprised if they would not update CS5 for retina displays.

goodness I hope they update CS5! I use cs6 at work and it is lovely but I cannot afford a personal copy for my own laptop.

 

[Cypther]

Not going to get one until there's a matte option. Most professional Photographers I know use an external monitor that's colour calibrated when editing photos. There's not many "Professional" that would edit all their photos only on a laptop screen specially when it's glossy. I know I wouldn't and I'm pretty picky with my photos.

 

[garstudios]

Not going to get one until there's a matte option. Most professional Photographers I know use an external monitor that's colour calibrated when editing photos. There's not many "Professional" that would edit all their photos only on a laptop screen specially when it's glossy. I know I wouldn't and I'm pretty picky with my photos.

this is exactly my concern. i use external displays for most editing. i though on occasion, have to edit photos on my macbook pro, which is color calibrated along with my externals. my concern is switching back and forth between the retina and a normal display. the eye strain and eye adjustments. especially if im working on an external while at the same time working on my macbook pro. plus i have several other displays i run with other applications and computers on my desk. i constantly use them all at the same time including my macbook pro screen. i already notice eye strain just from glancing at my new retina iphone then back to my non retina macbook pro vs. when i had a non retina iphone. not to mention my eyes felt like they were bleeding when i had to set up my retina iphone and was switching back and forth between the non retina iphone, and new retina one.

the only way i see this working for me is if i keep the retina macbook closed while i work on my externals. which is lame.

 

[testcss]

All photographers who I talked with canceled their rMBP order for now after seeing them in the store. Due to scaling, images posted online appear less sharp than on displays running at native resolution. Contrast and blacks look very good, though.

Increasing the resolution of images online would circumvent the problem but you invite even more people to steal images. It's quite a dilemma, either make your website resolution-independent and risk more theft or stick with small images and live with a slight fuzziness.

Any idea whether Adobe will update CS6 only? I would not be surprised if they would not update CS5 for retina displays.

1. retinajs
2.I believe Adobe is only updating Photoshop for CS6, then every app for CS6.5 (out in about 8-9 months).

----------

Just wondering if there are any professional photographers using the retina macbook pro yet, and if they could give some sort of review that is purely based on a photographers workflow that includes the positive and negative aspects of the retina.

any links to such reviews would be welcome too.

all the reviews i can find are basically an overview of the whole machine and not based on photography work.

also, on a side note, why do all the reviews out there compare the retina macbook pro to a non retina macbook pro that has a regular hdd in it....then conclude that the retina has better performance. thats just plain silly and ignorant. at least compare it to one with similar specs.....

anyways, i would just like to be pointed to any photography based reviews on the retina. thank you.

Everyone doesn't understand what Apple is doing in Aperture, FCX, etc. The content area is shown at native res while the toolbars are pixel-doubled. So, you see the same photo, just it looks like you zoomed out 50% compared to another 1440 x 900 monitor. Nothing changes with sharpness, etc. The only difference is that the RMBP has a better screen than basically any other laptop on the market. Only Aperture (and for videos - FCX) uses native res to show the photo; however, Adobe will update Photoshop/LR soon. I edit photos and then optimize them for the web for my job btw.

 

[Ishimaru]

I'm not a professional, but I'm certainly a photographer. Aperture on the rMBP is just amazing. The only thing I don't like about it, is the lack of desktop space, especially when compared to the 27" CD. That said, photos are stunning on this screen. I shoot with a D800 (trying to go "pro") and I don't notice any real slow performance shooting with RAW on this computer. The SSD is fast enough to read it, but 8GB of RAM simply is not enough. While I do have the 8GB model now, I have the 16GB on order and will be taking this one back once I receive it. I just want a 27" retina display.

 

[markp99]

While I do have the 8GB model now, I have the 16GB on order and will be taking this one back once I receive it.

You will not be disappointed! The 16GB makes all operations on those HUGE D800 Raws very manageable.

I am contemplating a similar upgrade, but from 256GB to 512GB SSD. 256GB just seems a bit too constraining, even with an external drive, the next larger SSD is just too spendy for me. Managing my files so actively & continuously seems such a chore.

 

[Ishimaru]

You will not be disappointed! The 16GB makes all operations on those HUGE D800 Raws very manageable.

I am contemplating a similar upgrade, but from 256GB to 512GB SSD. 256GB just seems a bit too constraining, even with an external drive. Managing my files so actively & continuously seems such a chore.

That's what I'm hoping for. I'm coming from a 2011 17" with 16GB of RAM, so this 8GB is a little choking. I went with the $2799 model and even with 90GB (small compared to most pros) of photos, I still have 300+GB left on the SSD.

 

[Cypther]

People who think they need a Retina Macbook pro to improve their photography post processing is mind numbing. I have a late 2011 MBP with HR-AG and a 30inch old school Apple cinema display matte screen. I don't think I ever thought "man my screen looks so pixelated I can't edit my photos".

To be honest I can't tell the different from a non Retina (late 2011 MBP with HR-AG)vs a Retina screen unless I'm looking at the screen around 8" inch away. And who the hell sits that close to a screen at all time and edit their photographs professionally? I think it's just more of a gimmick/luxury for photography right now than any real practical use.

 

[whiteonline]

As mentioned by Cypther, photographers use external monitors for post processing. Sure you can use the MPB when in a pinch, but a real photographer won't send out product to clients based primarily on their notebook display.

I think this retina display talk comes from people trying to justify the purchase for themselves...

 

[optics261]

I'm waiting until next year. There's going to be a lot of kinks in this year's version. Base resolution is 1440x900 still so everything will kinda look the same. You can "hack" the display to get to the full 2880x1800 but you'll suffer some slight slowdowns due to the Intel 4000 graphics with this hack. The NAND flash is also slower than what I was expecting and I know the speed could be faster if they would just stop thinking of traditional pipelines to the NAND flash. Retina display does help with Aperture (but not LR4) so if you're an Aperture user (which I am), the photos will display with double resolution while the text and controls are same size to allow for easier viewing of text. Storage will need to be addressed by next year for more speed and also more storage. Apple seriously needs to consider making the RMBP more expensive and slapping 2 SSDs into the enclosure so RAID 0 is possible for increased speed. The reason why there is faster performance on the RMBP compared to the standard model is due to the fact that everything is soldered on (except the NAND flash...seriously why not?) The unified board in the RMBP is faster but, like I said, lacks more speed due to the SSD connector design. Photographers will notice a good speed increase for up to 25MP images on the RMBP but anyone working with a Nikon D800 or D800E may have several issues just due to slow handling of these near 40MP image sizes. Even Retina display won't save you if you're working with these large file sizes. FCPX performance on the RMBP is excellent. 16GB of RAM is just enough to make you not cringe when editing 1080p video. What I'm saying is that the RMBP is still good and generally faster due to the logic board design. The problem is that Apple didn't go far enough to really warrant an upgrade. The biggest issue for photographers will be storage because 512GB base upgradeable to 768GB is not a solution. Even with a Thunderbolt external, the biggest issues are portability and speed which could have been solved with a 2-4 slot SSD option so onboard RAID could happen. Build the machine for professionals if you're going to build something like this. External storage is not a solution, it's a cop-out.

Dont know how many things are wrong in this post, but its a lot...

Start with this one:
1) Base resolution is 1440x900 still so everything will kinda look the same

No it's not. Actually the display is always at the full 2880x1800 res but defaults the scaling of icons and desktop items to what it 'would-look-like' if it were 1440x900.