Any thoughts on MacBook Air 2011 and Aperture 3, Photoshop?

[thomasuk]

I'm thinking about changing my 2011 MBP 15" 2.0 i7 for a new MacBook Air. I never use CD drive and 13" is perfect size as I'm out and about a lot.

I use Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5 for photo editing, including RAW files as a hobby.
I've visited my local Apple Store and unfortunately they don't have Aperture nor CS installed on their MacBook Airs so I was hoping that anyone lucky, who owns new MBA can share their experience of working with Aperture or CS. I like when I can see all the adjustments in real time and smooth experience is important for me.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks

 

[stevenpa]

I'm thinking about changing my 2011 MBP 15" 2.0 i7 for a new MacBook Air. I never use CD drive and 13" is perfect size as I'm out and about a lot.

I use Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5 for photo editing, including RAW files as a hobby.
I've visited my local Apple Store and unfortunately they don't have Aperture nor CS installed on their MacBook Airs so I was hoping that anyone lucky, who owns new MBA can share their experience of working with Aperture or CS. I like when I can see all the adjustments in real time and smooth experience is important for me.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks

Lightroom and CS5.5 work fine for me.

 

[Titanium81]

I'm thinking about changing my 2011 MBP 15" 2.0 i7 for a new MacBook Air. I never use CD drive and 13" is perfect size as I'm out and about a lot.

I use Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5 for photo editing, including RAW files as a hobby.
I've visited my local Apple Store and unfortunately they don't have Aperture nor CS installed on their MacBook Airs so I was hoping that anyone lucky, who owns new MBA can share their experience of working with Aperture or CS. I like when I can see all the adjustments in real time and smooth experience is important for me.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks

Keep in mind the HUGE color gamut difference between the 15" MacBook pro and the MacBook Air.

(Of course an external monitor will solve that problem.)

 

[Titanium81]

I'm thinking about changing my 2011 MBP 15" 2.0 i7 for a new MacBook Air. I never use CD drive and 13" is perfect size as I'm out and about a lot.

I use Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5 for photo editing, including RAW files as a hobby.
I've visited my local Apple Store and unfortunately they don't have Aperture nor CS installed on their MacBook Airs so I was hoping that anyone lucky, who owns new MBA can share their experience of working with Aperture or CS. I like when I can see all the adjustments in real time and smooth experience is important for me.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks

Do you have the "High-Resolution" screen on your 15" MBP?

If so, that is a very sweet setup you have right now!

 

[thomasuk]

Do you have the "High-Resolution" screen on your 15" MBP?

If so, that is a very sweet setup you have right now!

It's lower screen spec.

PS. Struggling with RAM on Lion at the moment (clean install), but that's a different story Just thinking whether SSD brings THAT much of performance increase.

 

[Titanium81]

It's lower screen spec.

PS. Struggling with RAM on Lion at the moment (clean install), but that's a different story Just thinking whether SSD brings THAT much of performance increase.

Stick on of these in your MBP and you should definitely notice a difference, and you can still enjoy the dedicated graphics card that you already have in your 15" MBP


http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce/Solid_State_Pro

It's all around CHEAPER than getting a MacBook Air & would be A LOT FASTER!

 

[philxor]

I use similar apps, PS CS5 and Lightroom, on a 2010 Air without much difficulty. As long as you aren't working on huge files or ones which are very complex it will work fine.

 

[urkel]

I'm thinking about changing my 2011 MBP 15" 2.0 i7 for a new MacBook Air. I never use CD drive and 13" is perfect size as I'm out and about a lot.

I use Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5 for photo editing, including RAW files as a hobby.

Why did you buy such a powerful computer and then change your mind on how much power you need in such a short amount of time? I went from a 09 MBP 15" to a. 13" Air and the Air runs Aperture so much better, but it just seems odd to Change computers so quick.

 

[misterneums]

New things always look the best?

 

[thatin]

you change to the air just for the mobility?
Then you should get a spare screen at home Then you are good to go

 

[thomasuk]

Why did you buy such a powerful computer and then change your mind on how much power you need in such a short amount of time? I went from a 09 MBP 15" to a. 13" Air and the Air runs Aperture so much better, but it just seems odd to Change computers so quick.

I was upgrading from MBP 13" to MBP 15" because I had very good opportunity to change my old machine for new and pay just for the difference, so all together it was more good opportunity rather than buying 15" for full price due to need of power.

Bottom line is that I'm in between decision to keep my 15", perhaps upgrading RAM short term and maybe waiting for SSD to drop on price and upgrading HDD moving forward long term, or selling MBP and buying top spec MBA 13".

Looking to keep my new machine for around 3 years so with MBA, I'm concerned about long term performance, especially with 4GB of RAM as Lion looks like RAM hungry.

On the other hand MBA looks like perfect laptop to suit my needs, but maybe I'm making it too complicated

It looks like you're happy with your MBA and Aperture performance.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[thomasuk]

you change to the air just for the mobility?
Then you should get a spare screen at home Then you are good to go

Lucky enough to have 20" Cinema Display

 

[LeakedDave]

I was upgrading from MBP 13" to MBP 15" because I had very good opportunity to change my old machine for new and pay just for the difference, so all together it was more good opportunity rather than buying 15" for full price due to need of power.

Bottom line is that I'm in between decision to keep my 15", perhaps upgrading RAM short term and maybe waiting for SSD to drop on price and upgrading HDD moving forward long term, or selling MBP and buying top spec MBA 13".

Looking to keep my new machine for around 3 years so with MBA, I'm concerned about long term performance, especially with 4GB of RAM as Lion looks like RAM hungry.

On the other hand MBA looks like perfect laptop to suit my needs, but maybe I'm making it too complicated

It looks like you're happy with your MBA and Aperture performance.

Thanks for sharing.

As soon as you began to consider the Air, it was right for you.

Welcome to accepting that such a thin laptop is a fully capable workstation. Enjoy your soon to be purchased MacBook Air

 

[HiRez]

I haven't tried Photoshop on it yet (13" i7), but it runs Lightroom like a champ, actually considerably faster than my late 2009 15" MacBook Pro. Only thing I don't like is the screen (mine's a Samsung) has a narrow color gamut, so the colors never get deep and saturated (and my screen is hardware calibrated). The 15" MBP unsurprisingly has a better screen. But the Air weighs less than 3 lbs., sacrifices must be made. So far makes a very good Lightroom machine and I have no doubt it will run Photoshop just fine.

 

[Brenzo]

I have the 1.5 11" Air and have found Aperture to run significantly faster when compared to my MBP 2.4Ghz C2D from 2007. Sandy Bridge and SSD make it pretty fast and I haven't seen a single beach ball.

The only issues I am running into are mostly software-related. I've noticed that Aperture is pretty buggy when using brushes or making other adjustments and I'm chalking that up to Lion. Usually any weird bugginess will happen just once (when first zoomed into a specific area) and will then disappear.