First Edit On rMBP with CS6 Feedback

[AlvinNguyen]

Picked up my base rMBP last week and just finished editing my first editorial with CS6 at 1900x1200. The machine ran flawlessly, faster than my Late 2011 2.5Ghz 8gig RAM 17" MBP. Color rendition is beautiful and perfect - I have zero issue with it. I normally edit with Bridge, CS6, Chrome, Itunes all on and running. There was no lag whatsoever.

I feel like a lot of "photographers" are either misinformed and making conclusions without actually ever using the machine, or just don't know how to make their workflow work with the machine. I'm editing 36mp files from my Nikon D800 and it's super smooth. Even my previous 17" MBP was facing lag issues. The screen makes it really easy to go on the road and edit without worrying about having an external monitor.

If anyone is wondering why I went with the base at 8Gig of RAM. Two reasons: 1. I hate waiting and 2. I upgrade my computer every year and I would rather put the extra $200 into the new machine next year. So if you're a photographer, don't hesitate to commit to a base rMBP - it's perfect. This machine chews up and spit out D800 files like it's snack bars.

Samples of what I finished - just in time for July 4th

 

[spdntrxi]

Nice work... D800 studio dream machine.. Looks good. I'm a canon guy... Too much invested in long fast glass to switch... But your work is nice.

 

[AlvinNguyen]

Nice work... D800 studio dream machine.. Looks good. I'm a canon guy... Too much invested in long fast glass to switch... But your work is nice.

Thank you, that's quite understandable as I switched twice. Once from the D700 to 5D2 and now back to Nikon. I like them both but that 36mp sensor is too much of a draw for fashion work

 

[thekev]

I can edit phase one files on a 2011 machine with no lag including many layer groups and many alpha channels. I know this, because I've done it. How did you test color rendition? Was it against a known reference of any kind? What kind of brightness range can it hold? You seem to be doing this for print. I typically wouldn't suggest max brightness as it's a moving target (slow moving at first but still). I'd suggest something closer to a paper white that can be maintained as long as you own the machine. Out of curiosity how is it coming out relative to your prints? If you're at 8GB of ram and your prior machine had an HDD, that may have been the source of your lag. Photoshop is extremely ram hungry. It either consumes ram or writes to scratch disks, so if it's using scratch disks, SSDs are faster than HDDs, especially laptop HDDs. I'm sure it's a very nice machine. I'm just wondering about some of these details, and I know from experience that the 2011s are extremely capable.

I'm also wondering about your experiences with the screen due to lack of context. All displays have some warmup time. It would be interesting to know how much it changes. Displays are also designed to look good visually. It's difficult to determine accuracy without a good point of reference unless something is just way off.

Thank you, that's quite understandable as I switched twice. Once from the D700 to 5D2 and now back to Nikon. I like them both but that 36mp sensor is too much of a draw for fashion work

That nikon is just immensely popular. I saw so many people switch from Canon when it came out.

 

[Fortimir]

D800 user here as well. First off, fantastic work! Secondly, I went with the 16GB because I noticed a major difference upgrading my iMac to 16GB with these 14-bit, 36mp bad boys.

I suspect the SSD makes much more effective use of 8 though, and I can see it being enough in most situations. I do 100-300mp pano stitches pretty regularly, though...

BUT I have to say, the reports of a smaller color gamut are overblown, because while marginally smaller, it's actually much closer to sRGB which is what we publish to day-in/day-out. After a calibration, I realized that the rMBP ships with *very* good color. The only major observable difference with the calibrated files is that there is too much contrast out of the box which was crushing some shadow detail.

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I typically wouldn't suggest max brightness as it's a moving target (slow moving at first but still).

I can't answer for the OP, but I don't work anywhere near max brightness. I calibrate my displace for 120 cd/m2 in my moderate low to moderate lighting conditions. That works out to about half brightness on my iMac, and maybe about 60% on the new rMBP.

As far as warm up, there really isn't I can detect. It's on and ready to go. For real.

 

[spdntrxi]

Thank you, that's quite understandable as I switched twice. Once from the D700 to 5D2 and now back to Nikon. I like them both but that 36mp sensor is too much of a draw for fashion work

Considered a d3 a few years ago... But have been using canon 1 series since markIIn...III and for the last couple years the IV. Considering the X...hard to go back to full frame though, eventhough I have had a couple 5ds . I don't blame you for a second choosing the d800... Especially for studio work.

Again love you work...good to know the retina MacBook is a winner.. My delivery is getting near ~ 10 days

 

[thekev]

D800 user here as well. First off, fantastic work! Secondly, I went with the 16GB because I noticed a major difference upgrading my iMac to 16GB with these 14-bit, 36mp bad boys.

I suspect the SSD makes much more effective use of 8 though, and I can see it being enough in most situations. I do 100-300mp pano stitches pretty regularly, though...

I've started to do this too using an older 1Ds (I should update one of these days), but I suspect it's for different purposes. I needed a quality source of spherical hdr imagery without massive licensing fees attached for some of my personal projects. They're used for CG lighting, although I do a lot of other stuff. Sometimes I need something specific, so I shoot it. I have run into issues with tripod removal and retouching hdr imagery, as it's not the same in photoshop as dealing with a typical single frame image. I've also been searching for a suitable pano bracket that can adequately support a 1Ds style camera. If you have any thoughts on the subject I'd enjoy hearing them without hijacking the thread.

BUT I have to say, the reports of a smaller color gamut are overblown, because while marginally smaller, it's actually much closer to sRGB which is what we publish to day-in/day-out. After a calibration, I realized that the rMBP ships with *very* good color. The only major observable difference with the calibrated files is that there is too much contrast out of the box which was crushing some shadow detail.

I've always felt the need to quantify gamut in terms of internal volume relative to Adobe RGB was a little silly. As you mention here, the final results are what matters, and better conformation can mean quite a lot. What did you use to run a new profile?

I can't answer for the OP, but I don't work anywhere near max brightness. I calibrate my displace for 120 cd/m2 in my moderate low to moderate lighting conditions. That works out to about half brightness on my iMac, and maybe about 60% on the new rMBP.

As far as warm up, there really isn't I can detect. It's on and ready to go. For real.

Huh.. I've never seen that before in any display. It would be interesting to measure it given differences in perception of such behavior. A lot of the older Apple displays couldn't go that low without problems, so that sounds excellent. I keep mine around 90ish. I adjust it to match the paper I print on as close as possible. I'm using a CG243W. In some ways I wish I went with a CG211 which I've used before even though I never personally owned one. I'm not sure I could go down to a 15" notebook display. My previous experience with Apple and displays hasn't been very good. If these are holding up and still looking good a year from now, I may change my mind. I haven't updated the mac pro in forever, but my macbook pro isn't choking (ssd + 16GB) so I'm fine for now.

 

[zerotiu]

Hmm wow! Great works indeed!
Although I'm only a photography hobbyist, can't wait for my retina to came

 

[Fortimir]

It would be interesting to measure it given differences in perception of such behavior.

At home I just use a Spyder3Elite. It's great. I've used $2000 spectrophotometers, but when it came down to buying one for myself, I didn't see results worth the extra money. If it breaks or gets lost I'll probably suck it up and get a ColorMunki.

But anyway, I need to find a way for it show me a measurement of brightness in realtime. I can turn off the display for a bit, and then turn it on and watch the brightness measurement.

 

[GoreVidal]

Reminds me of my old flame Amelia, I'd pursue that backside.

 

[thekev]

At home I just use a Spyder3Elite. It's great. I've used $2000 spectrophotometers, but when it came down to buying one for myself, I didn't see results worth the extra money. If it breaks or gets lost I'll probably suck it up and get a ColorMunki.

But anyway, I need to find a way for it show me a measurement of brightness in realtime. I can turn off the display for a bit, and then turn it on and watch the brightness measurement.

Most displays vary in color and brightness. Spectrophotometers can be better when a colorimeter just can't deal with the gamut, but I wouldn't bother with the ColorMunki assuming you mean the low end spectrophotometer. The i1 display pro works quite well, although I haven't tried it with X-rite's software. I will say it's the first time i've been able to get a reasonably neutral grey (no longer feels kind of green) on an Adobe RGB type display. I'd go with that. They're $250. Unfortunately the build quality isn't what it was like with some of the older pucks. I had an older DTP-94. It was made in the US rather than China, and the materials were much more rugged.

If I needed a new laptop this year, I'd probably go with the rMBP. I guess my biggest point of disagreement with the OP is that the 2011 lags in any way. Going to 16GB of ram or an SSD which he automatically got with the rMBP basically takes care of the issue of pushing data around in this circumstance. The biggest gains at the moment seem to be on the gpu end, as Adobe has been pushing some of the really annoying stuff onto gpu calculations.