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Pardus

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 9, 2006
57
17
Vancouver, BC
Looking for more of a real world experience from a photographer's perspective.

I am a commercial photographer and my main computer that I do all my real processing is a loaded retina 5K iMac which is great, love it.

In my studio, I have an older 24" iMac and a 13"MBA which both drive me nuts because of their slow speed both processing and USB as well their screens suck. I have been holding out for the new 15mbp to replace them both in the studio. The main usage is just shooting while tethered and previewing images so that I can make adjustments to my shot. Colour isn't super important as everything is calibrated but brightness and showing true whites is and with my current setup, have to pay very close attention to histogram cause the screens are so dim. I normally won't be doing a ton of photoshop or lightroom on it on a daily basis but definitely will at times, especially on location shoots etc.

So with that said, looking at benchmarks, I am not really seeing big improvements over the 2015 models. hell, even the 2015 2.2ghz model isn't all that bad in comparison and I save $1000 and can get one today. The money isn't really all that important but I do put weight on value. I don't mind spending if I get $1000 more value out of a 2.6 with the 460 upgrade but not sure that I will.

So just looking for opinions on saving some money and instant gratification or waiting until january for a custom build and dropping an extra grand.
 
The only real advantages of the 2016 over the 2015 is basically weight, the rest is a wash, the battery in the 2015 is probably just a bit better, the 2016 GPU is better - but hardly used in Lightroom/PS, you won't be using USB-C with current tethering solutions. The CPU is also hobbled a bit by the DDR3 memory so the performance in photo editing apps will basically be the same. The higher speed SSD is useless as not even XQD can max out a much slower SATA based SSD- you're shooting tethered so not a big deal, P3 color space isn't really being used in the photography world and the 500 nits screen brightness is too strong in a studio environment. I also would really miss the magsafe which has saved my rMBP 15 many a time...
 
Don't just look at benchmarks. There's indeed a sensible performance improvement on the new generation, due to better CPU+RAM+SSD+GPU (especially the 460). That, paired with the smaller footprint, updated screen and the TB, makes the 15'' a solidly better machine than the old model, as it should be of course. IMO, the main issues are price (vs the 2015) and reliability which seems a bit poor among this early batches. And of course the ports, or lack thereof. As a photographer the SD card slot may be very handy for you, and the now model ditched it.
 
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Don't just look at benchmarks. There's indeed a sensible performance improvement on the new generation, due to better CPU+RAM+SSD+GPU (especially the 460). That, paired with the smaller footprint, updated screen and the TB, makes the 15'' a solidly better machine than the old model, as it should be of course. IMO, the main issues are price (vs the 2015) and reliability which seems a bit poor among this early batches. And of course the ports, or lack thereof. As a photographer the SD card slot may be very handy for you, and the now model ditched it.

Unfortunately it is not that black & white. There are a lot of variables right now that are being looked at with the latest update. A lot of potential issues that need further examination. One of the major being poor battery life, amongst many other possible issues.
 
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Don't just look at benchmarks. There's indeed a sensible performance improvement on the new generation, due to better CPU+RAM+SSD+GPU (especially the 460). That, paired with the smaller footprint, updated screen and the TB, makes the 15'' a solidly better machine than the old model, as it should be of course. IMO, the main issues are price (vs the 2015) and reliability which seems a bit poor among this early batches. And of course the ports, or lack thereof. As a photographer the SD card slot may be very handy for you, and the now model ditched it.

I bought two of the USB-c sandisk extreme pro readers apple is featuring. Blazingly fast. Blows away the SD slot on my 2014 MBP.
 
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I bought two of the USB-c sandisk extreme pro readers apple is featuring. Blazingly fast. Blows away the SD slot on my 2014 MBP.

Are you referring to importing straight into LR or importing files from SD card to MBP hard drive in general? Interested in this feedback. RAW files in bulk can suck!
 
Are you referring to importing straight into LR or importing files from SD card to MBP hard drive in general? Interested in this feedback. RAW files in bulk can suck!

My workflow is to copy from SD to a folder on my NAS, and from there to LR.

I use a Sony a7rii, so the RAW files are huge. The copy from the sd card using this card reader is many times faster than on my old machine with its built-in slot.
 
2016, without a doubt. Anyone saying otherwise is simply trying to justify their own decision.

Couldn't I say the same thing about this post (Seeing as how you have the newest MacBook Pro)? There are pros and cons for each side. For a photographer, I would recommend the 2015 model. Why?:

1) Skylake is not that much of an improvement over Haswell/Broadwell chips that were in the MBP's from 2015
2) Battery life is drastically shorter
3) No SD card reader
4) All TB3 ports
5) No MagSafe
6) Cheaper to buy the older models
7) A lot of QC issues that are popping up with the newer models

Sorry, but this post is just humorous
 
Couldn't I say the same thing about this post (Seeing as how you have the newest MacBook Pro)? There are pros and cons for each side. For a photographer, I would recommend the 2015 model. Why?:

1) Skylake is not that much of an improvement over Haswell/Broadwell chips that were in the MBP's from 2015
2) Battery life is drastically shorter
3) No SD card reader
4) All TB3 ports
5) No MagSafe
6) Cheaper to buy the older models
7) A lot of QC issues that are popping up with the newer models

Sorry, but this post is just humorous

My battery life doesn't seem shorter (after doing an SMC reset)
 
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My workflow is to copy from SD to a folder on my NAS, and from there to LR.

I use a Sony a7rii, so the RAW files are huge. The copy from the sd card using this card reader is many times faster than on my old machine with its built-in slot.

Does anyone know off hand what the transfer rate is of an internal MBP SD card slot vs USB-C?
 
Look at this link: http://barefeats.com/hilap2016.html

It shows real-world benchmarks for things like PS noise reduction.

The differences are not subtle!!

They're intentionally exaggerated to show the differences. For a typical image, noise reduction should be near real time. Even if it isn't, you're potentially talking about 2 seconds vs 3 or something of that sort. There's no reason most people would simply run this on a long stream of images.

I'm actually quite skeptical of first generation products. 2012 had some issues such as screen delamination and a few gpu issues (far less than 2011). This year could be more of the same.
 
The 2016 has a better and brighter display. If you were doing shoots in brighter environments like outdoors that would be an advantage. Greater % of sRGB and Adobe RGB. No substitute for a larger calibrated external monitor though.

If you are using a SDcard to transfer images to your primary 5k imac the 2015 would have a advantage.

Both will be a big step in performance from what you are using now. The performance difference between 2015 and 2016 is modest at best.

You are probably using usb for the tethered connection so that won't change. You might need to buy a few cables or dongles. The lack of a magsafe connector might be a bit more of a risk of an accident with clumsy subjects or their handlers around. If you buy the right usb3 dock you could get by with only one cable connection to the laptop for power, camera, external drives, etc. with the 2016.

If your primary studio shooting area(s) and where the iMac is are where you could (or have) run ethernet cable, you could (or are) use shared disk or a NAS as your storage area. Then there is no SDcard or external drive or wifi file copying. Immediately available to both systems. Also where your backup system could see them.
 
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2016 model, no question. I use mine for photography and the new wide color display is noticeable in Lightroom RAW photos.
 
As an amateur photographer I ordered the 2016 15" 2.7/16/512 to handle the ever-increasing RAW file sizes from digital cams. Currently shooting a d810 w/36megapixel files, and can definitely see my 2012 rMBP struggling with the file sizes. Also definitely looking forward to the insanely fast read/write speeds the new rMBP's seem to have.
 
Couldn't I say the same thing about this post (Seeing as how you have the newest MacBook Pro)? There are pros and cons for each side. For a photographer, I would recommend the 2015 model. Why?:

1) Skylake is not that much of an improvement over Haswell/Broadwell chips that were in the MBP's from 2015
2) Battery life is drastically shorter
3) No SD card reader
4) All TB3 ports
5) No MagSafe
6) Cheaper to buy the older models
7) A lot of QC issues that are popping up with the newer models

Sorry, but this post is just humorous

No, you could not. Why? Because most of what you have listed is either pure speculation or completely subjective.

1. An improvement is an improvement. For the significant future, CPU performance improvements will be incremental. Moreover, the 460 GPU is a significant improvement and this will be taken advantage of. By your logic, there has been no reason to upgrade over the respective predecessor for the past 5 years.
2. No, it's not.
3. Not a problem. There are faster solutions and has led to a more portable computer for mobile use.
4. This is an improvement, it's hilarious you've listed it otherwise.
5. You win. One small sacrifice.
6. New tech is always more expensive. Not a problem. If cost is the issue, the OP wouldn't even be considering the 2016 model. Otherwise, it's a non-issue. 7. No, there isn't.
 
Pardus,

As a fellow working photographer, I would like to weigh in and offer my opinions. So you can better understand my background, I am not a studio-based or commercial photographer. I am an assignment-based photographer that covers action sports, on-sight portraiture of athletes, and nature and wildlife documentary projects in some pretty wild and remote places. I travel with a MacBook Pro. Back at home base, I work on a 5K iMac.

I totally understand your need to replace your existing studio set-up. I think my biggest question and perhaps the biggest factor is are you just going to use this laptop for tethering...or do you plan to utilize it for mobile editing as well? If the usage is 90% or greater for tethering and money truly is a factor, then I would lean towards a 2015 model. But it is a complicated answer, because the 2016 does offer several nice features, such as the expanded color gamut, which as you know is pretty huge. But then again, if you are doing zero editing on this machine and are only using it to check lighting and critical details on a tethered shoot, then the expanded color gamut may not be that important to you.

I'm not trying to tick-off kevinkyoo (Post #14 above), but I do want to warn you that he is very much against the new MBP and is aggressively making it known in just about any thread he can find. He has his opinions and that is cool, but I personally disagree with his sky-is-falling recommendations. For example, because he's read some threads on this internet forum talking about battery life, QC issues, etc, he's convinced that problems are wide-spread when in fact they are not. Enough on that. Just wanted to make sure you weren't unnecessarily swayed by those that are on a campaign against the new MBP.

Truthfully, at this point, I see great benefits to the new MBP. The only areas that come up short in my mind are:

1) The extra money. As a commercial photographer, you are better than most at understanding that laptops, cameras, and lenses, etc are nothing more than tools. You are the artist. So when it comes to this laptop purchase, you should probably approach it based on your needs versus cost. If you are only tethering in the studio (and hardly any other use) and the expanded color gamut is not important to you, then I would go with the 2015 and save the extra money.

2) I agree with others that it stinks losing Mag-Safe. However, now you can plug in on either side and after-market solutions for Mag-Safe are being developed right now. Yes, there will be a tiny nub sticking out, but the after-market solution will get us 95% of the way home in terms of what its being used for.

With the exception of the two concerns listed above, I see everything else as a benefit. So if you #1 or #2 don't hold you up, I say full-steam ahead on the new MBP.

I'm just one photographer with an opinion that is not any more valuable than anyone else's, but my line of work is right in step with yours and I'm happy to engage in these conversations as I find it interesting and I often pick up a point of view that I might not have considered before. So ask away and eventually, let us know what you end up going with.

Cheers...
 
No, you could not. Why? Because most of what you have listed is either pure speculation or completely subjective.

1. An improvement is an improvement. For the significant future, CPU performance improvements will be incremental. Moreover, the 460 GPU is a significant improvement and this will be taken advantage of. By your logic, there has been no reason to upgrade over the respective predecessor for the past 5 years.
2. No, it's not.
3. Not a problem. There are faster solutions and has led to a more portable computer for mobile use.
4. This is an improvement, it's hilarious you've listed it otherwise.
5. You win. One small sacrifice.
6. New tech is always more expensive. Not a problem. If cost is the issue, the OP wouldn't even be considering the 2016 model. Otherwise, it's a non-issue. 7. No, there isn't.

"An improvement is an improvement" is true, but to the extent that I would want to purchase the 2016 model over the 2015 one is subjective, hence why I say that it is not a clear-cut decision to pick either models.

The processor speed is increased by +0.1. I'm not really going to point fingers at Apple, because at the end of the day, Intel is severely lacking in upping the performance of these processors.

Next, anything will be a significant improvement over the M370X, which was just a rebranded 2XX card, which in it of itself was awful. So taking a below-average card like the mobile version of the 460 is nice, but is not something that I would seriously consider in spending at least $2600 in.

On top of that, I'll include one of the QC issues I meant here. The 2011-2013 models of the MacBook Pro were known to have a lot of issues concerning their dGPU's. I'm only specifying these, because even though the 2010 and 2014-2015 models were also affected, Apple laughably only acknowledges these three years of computers. I had my computers (2012 and 2015) affected as well, and one of the clear symptoms was when the computer screen froze, and I could do nothing but force shut down the computer. Well, we're already seeing reports of these things happening with the MacBook Pro 15", specifically the ones with the 460 card: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...and-new-mbp-2016.2015545/page-4#post-23939221.

Also, I'm sorry to say, but the battery life is shorter. But in terms of size and usage. The sizes of the batteries of the MacBook Pro's of the 13" and 15" variants are 74.9-watt-hour and 99.5-watt-hour respectively, from 2015. For 2016? 49.2-watt-hour and 79-watt-hour. That's a decrease of 34% and 20% respectively. That of course doesn't take into account the Skylake CPU's, which are more efficient, as well as the software-hardware integration. But how about the following reviews, which state the battery life is so-so compared to last year's?:

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/733392/MacBook-Pro-2016-Touch-Bar-review
https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/14/macbook-pro-review-2016/
https://www.wired.com/2016/11/review-apple-macbook-pro-touch-bar/
http://arstechnica.com/video/2016/11/the-2016-13-and-15-inch-touch-bar-macbook-pros-reviewed/

And let's add in personal experience from fellow MacRumor users:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/13-touch-bar-6-hours-battery-life.2015213/page-5#post-23944575

Let's talk about dongles and adapters now, because that's most of the complaints I have. Apple has a "vision" for the future. Well, professionals have a vision of keeping their jobs and doing the most effective that they can do now.

Well, let's say I want a USB-C to the following: Lightning (To charge my own phone), Digital AV multiport adapter, and USB adapter. The total for these three cables will be $83.16 without tax. Ah, I forgot the SD card reader. Another $29. So over $100 in accessories that I need to buy right now. What a future, am I right?

I must have these four cables with me at all times. I like to hook my computer up to a monitor at work, as well as the one I have at home.

I will make the argument of, well what if I forget one of these cables one day to work? How will I show a presentation I have on my MacBook Pro in a conference? The only option then would be to embarrassingly send the file to my co-worker, and use his computer because it has an HDMI port that I can easily plug into. A counter argument will be made that, "Hey, just don't lose the adapters!" But unfortunately as humans, we are all prone to making mistakes. Can you imagine if I lose an adapter and I absolutely need one right away? I will need to run to the nearest Apple Store or Best Buy. Again, what a future.

It's also an added hilariousness that some USB-C adapters won't work at the same time with WiFi. Why? Well I've read that because any of these ports can charge the computer, a very minuscule amount of current ripple can occur over the connections, and because of this, it's evident that Apple failed to test peripherals properly. In other words, not only could Apple's own peripherals not work (Feel free to read the reviews on their own website), but it's not a far stretch that the ones on Amazon won't either.

Here's a demonstration of that:

Next, let's talk about MagSafe. A "small" sacrifice, you say? Hm. I can't count the number of times someone tripped over my laptop charger, whether it be at a library, a conference room, or another public place, and the charger simply plopped off the computer. Equating the term "small sacrifice" to my $2000-4000 computer being damaged doesn't really make sense to me, but okay.

In addition, let's talk about costs. Again, you'll have to see the "full" picture. In this case, what I wrote up up above, and on top of that, the costs. So let me spell that out: The battery life (Which is better on the 2015 models), the fact that I don't need to ever worry about dongles because the 2015 MacBook Pro's come with HDMI and SD card slots, as good of a screen as this year's, a less controversial keyboard, MagSafe, AND costs.

Funny how you never mention the QC issues, but hey, enjoy your new computer. I said in the beginning that it's okay if you want to purchase the new MacBook Pro. It is in my opinion that if you have anything older than the 2012 retina MacBook Pro, it is a worthy upgrade. But if you're trying to make a clear-cut argument that, "OF COURSE the 2016 model is better than the 2015," then no. I disagree, and I find it sad that people like you are trying to make it a much more black-and-white distinction than it already is, for people who are about to pay thousands of dollars for a device they will use for t
 
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