The newest iMacs - suitable for Photoshop work?

[Henry Ambrose]

I went by the local Apple Store recently and saw the latest iMacs. I was particularly impressed by the 24 inch version. Its fast! Its big! The screen looked great - its very bright and seemed huge compared to my 19 inch CRTs. The Apple site claims 700:1 contrast ratio for the 24 and 800:1 for the 20 inch model. The 24 is rated at 400cd/m, the 20 at 280 cd/m.

Anyway, the new iMacs seem like a lot of computer for the money and generally very capable according to the specs. Does anyhone here have an informed opinion about the goodness of these latest flatscreens for Photoshop work?

[Frank Petronio]

Why not? Unless you routinely need to work on 500 mb files for professional jobs, any recent Mac will work. Just remember to allow enough money to get the most RAM possible. It is better to have a lot of RAM and a slightly less expensive Mac than getting the top of the line and then not putting enough RAM into it.

(I still use a G4 Powerbook with moderate sized files (under 100mb).)

Photoshop will not take advantage of the power of the new Intel-based Macs until the Intel-optimized CS3 update comes out this Winter. So it may be more strategic to wait until then because the Macs will either get slight performance upgrades or the prices will go down. But if you need a new computer today, the 24" i-Mac looks like one of the best values out there and it certainly would be a great platform for the next several years.

FWIW, I figure on getting 4 years out of a Mac before feeling the need to upgrade - if you buy from the upper range of the model line, along with lots of RAM and a good sized hard drive. Unless my current 4 year old PB has a dramatic failure, I am aiming to get a loaded up but inexpensive MacBook (not the "Pro") along with a 20 or 24 inch monitor this Winter when CS3 launches. But I rarely work on huge files.

Now if I were Paul Butzi or Jack Flescher or one of the hardcore serious pros with their own Epson 9800 and drum scanners and all that noise, then yeah, I'd get a Quad Tower with 8gb of RAM. But for mere mortals like myself - who rarely print over 16 x 20 (except for the occassional commercial 14 x 40 billboard) a lowly iMac, Mini, or PB will do just fine!

[Ken Lee]

What Frank said: RAM, RAM, RAM.

Photoshop needs as much RAM as you can give it. Every time you make another layer, perform certain adjustments, they are cached, and the size of the file multiplies.

If you scan large format images, then whatever number GB of RAM your machine can handle, get that.

[Capocheny]

Henry,

I've been working with a G4 Tower for the past several years and was also looking at the newer iMac systems (as a backup.)

FWIW, I fully agree with Frank and Ken... load up on the memory!

Great computers!

Cheers

[Marko]

I got the iMac, 20" and the PowerBook, both first generation Intel Core Duo 2 GHz. Both maxed out on memory.

Photoshop works correctly even now, under emulation. Which is to say no crashes, no coffee breaks but not fast either. That will change when CS3 comes out in a few months' time. Officially March or April, but I wouldn't be too surprised if they rush it out for Holidays.

Basicaly, what Frank and Ken said - May be better to wait for CS3, but if you need it now, buy it and don't loose any sleep over it. Either way, defnitely get all the memory you can. If you're under budget, scale down the screen and use the difference for memory.

Memory is cheap these days and represents the biggest and most visible upgrade you can get.

[Henry Ambrose]

Thanks for responding guys!

I'm a long time Mac and Photoshop user so I got the part about lots of RAM, etc. years ago. My old G4 can still put out the work even though to some a 400mhz G4 with 1.5 gig of RAM may seem puny. My iBook ain't that bad either and its a G3.

What I was wondering about is the quality and resolution of the screens on the newest iMacs. They looked great in the store but thats a long way from actually running day to day production work and counting on the results. Do the flat screens calibrate OK? Can I count on them to do color correction and retouching?

I think the answer as far as flat screens have been concerned over the past couple of years has been "no" but starting to become "well kinda" to maybe even "the very best are quite good".

So does anyone have an idea about doing serious, professioinal PS work on this new generation of flat screens like the new iMacs? Its the screen I'm asking about.

[paulr]

I've had a chance to work on a bunch of the new imacs in various design studios. They have plenty of power for most photoshop use, but they wouldn't be my first choice if photoshop was the primary use of the machine.

Besides the Intel issue, they have a couple of shortcomings. One is hard drive performance and expandability (which is an issue if you plan to spend a lot of time with huge files). The drives they come with are fairly slow compared with the mac towers, and upgrading is a huge pain. No possibility of an additional internal drive. I'm not sure if the busses present a bottleneck to drive performance if you upgrade the drive ... that would be worth looking into.

The more serious shortcoming, in my experience, is the screen. It's a great screen for graphic design and web surfing, but I don't like it for photography. It sufferes from too much shift in contrast when you look from different angles. And it exhibits a phenomenon that I see to one degree or another on all but the most expensive LCDs: the pixels are too separated from each other, and appear to be outlined. This creates an artificial sharpening effect, which makes some things look great, other things harsh and jagged. It's not accurate. And I find it fatiguing. Some people look at me like I'm crazy when I mention this, but I see it plain as day. Right now I'm on someone else's 23" Mac desktop LCD. It suffers the same shortcomings, but not nearly to the same degree.

For photography, I prefer either a late model high end CRT (like LaCie or Sony) or a fabulously expensive LCD (eizo). I'm sure this will change over the next couple of years as LCD technology matures, but right now, imac level screens bug me too much for photography.

[Marko]

Do the flat screens calibrate OK? Can I count on them to do color correction and retouching?

I think the answer as far as flat screens have been concerned over the past couple of years has been "no" but starting to become "well kinda" to maybe even "the very best are quite good".

So does anyone have an idea about doing serious, professioinal PS work on this new generation of flat screens like the new iMacs? Its the screen I'm asking about.

FWIW, Apple's LCDs are SWOP certified, have been since the second generation, I think.

I have been using (and calibrating) them for the last two years, mostly for web work and I know several graphic designers and photographers who use them as well. We're all happy campers.

[Gordon Moat]

You can do colour correction on some fairly crap screens, it just might take you longer. With a couple really expensive LCDs as the exceptions, nearly every monitor out there only covers the sRGB (or less) colour space. The sRGB colour space clips many CMYK commercial publication or commercial press capabilities. The way to work within those limitations is the same as it was ten years ago: look at the numbers and channels, then print a hard copy proof.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

[Ted Harris]

I sorta disagree that the new iMac's are a good machine for image editing using Photoshop. First, the bottom line model is limited to 2 GB of RAM and the other three to GB. Three GB is not too bad but you are not using all the power of CS2 which can recognize and address up to 3.5 GB of RAM. I'll bet that the RAM addressing capabilities of CS3 will be even further enhanced so, unless price is the primary consideration, why lock your self in with such a RAM limitation?

If I had the $$ I'd go out and buy the top of the line Intel Tower and pack it with 16 GB of RAM. I am saving the pennies and will likely do it when CS3 comes out. Until then chugging away with my G5 and thinking of adding more RAM here.