iMac & Cinema Displays

[Anonymous]

I am going to switch from Windows to Mac, I already have a MacBook, but am undecided between an iMac and a Mac Pro, the Mac Pro seems like overkill to me but I am uneasy about an all in one system.

The thing I am most curious about is, is there any difference between the quality of the screens on the iMac and the Cinema displays, also I have read that there have been some problems with colour shifts on the 23" model which Apple has not been keen to rectify, has anybody experienced this.

The nearest Apple shop is about 600 miles away so I can't wander in and look.

If I go for the Mac Pro should I go for a Cinema display either the 20" or 23" which are quite elderly in specification terms or am I better to go for an Eizo or some other up market model with a more current spec.

Thanks

Chris Dennehy

[Anonymous]

Well I took the plunge and bought a 24" 2.4GHz iMac without any extras except Applecare based on the theory that the performance gain in going to a 2.8GHz processor was out of line with the premium asked and put the savings into additional Crucial ram and a 500GB external backup drive, trying to make up my mind between a Seagate Free Agent and and a LaCie d2 quadra, any comments ?

Am also wondering about Aperture which seems to have fairly mixed reviews on the Applestore.ie site

Many thanks for your comments

Regards

Chris Dennehy

[Thomas Holm]

Chris wrote:
... any comments ?

You did the right thing!
About the drives - we have a bunch of LaCies. No problems at all. We also have some Seagates. No problems there either. We have had problems with Hitachi/IBM drives though, but that was a while ago and we stopped buying them so I don't know their quality these days. So it's up to you!

[Rex Maximilian]

Chris wrote:
Am also wondering about Aperture which seems to have fairly mixed reviews on the Applestore.ie site

I tried Aperature for a bit. It was... nice. But Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is the BOMB! It is incredible. My favorite thing about it is to include PSD files with your RAW files in the collections. AND, keeping yourr PS files with 16-bit pixel size allows you to further edit the PSD with RAW controls in Lightroom. Plus, it has GREAT web gallery exportation capability using Flash or HTML from many templates.

[Anonymous]

im hearing good things about pixelmator.

its based anopen source app but has a good mac look and feel,utilises core technology too.

although i think it is more of a photosop replacement rather then aperture

http://www.pixelmator.com/

[Rex Maximilian]

Lennox wrote:
although i think it is more of a photosop replacement rather then aperture

Don't look for a Photoshop replacement... 'cause their ain't one!

What Aperature and Lightroom do is differernt than what Photoshop does. LR & PS together is the way to go... LR's advantage over Aperature is its tight integration with PS.

[Anonymous]

Well after ordering my iMac on Friday I had just got back from a meeting on Monday when it arrived about 4.30 which surprised me as Apple deliveries here usually take about a week, then when I went for my compulsory walk I noticed that the delivery guy lives about half a mile down the road.

I didn't get around to setting it up until about 9.30, straightforward enough except that I had to root around to find a power lead to connect it to the UPS, fair enough the supplied lead plugs straight into the mains.

First surprise coming from windows the internet connection was picked up straight away, no hours spent fishing around for connections, second surprise it came with Tiger Installed and a copy of Leopard in the box, will wait to install that until GS gives the ArchiCAD OK.

The keyboard is quite nice but is very low off the ground compared to my Gateway 2000 programmable model I have been using since I bought one of their 486's back in 94 ?, still works perfectly.

I tried the mighty mouse and gave up simply because, even after adjusting it in preferences, I found I was having to wave my arm all over the desk top to get it to travel the screen and it was very slow to travel as well. I downloaded drivers and plugged in my Wacom Graphire tablet which I have had for years, very much faster and just a slight wrist movement and it covers the entire screen. I think I might lash out and by an Intuous 3, it should look more the thing with iMac, its kind of grubby and held in place with globs of Blu Tack

The iMac picked up my HP DesignJet 500 plotter and HP 1700 A3 printer no problem, it picked up my Canon Pixma copier as well but I will have to install drivers for that. Vista see if it works utility a few weeks ago picked up all 3 as unknown

One other thing that surprised me was that the power supply is integral with the unit, for some reason I had it in my mind that as it is basically a large laptop it would be a separate power brick, top left hand corner gets quite hot, the top right hand corner is warmish and the boom corners don't fell warm at all, wonder if expansion/contraction problems will occur later on.

I have been trying to download the latest ArchiCAD upgrade but the site seems to be asleep.

Regards

Chris Dennehy

[Anonymous]

Opps sorry about the double entry

Chris d

[Stephen Dolbee]

Chris,

I appreciate your input, especially from an ex-windows user. I am jealous since I plan on making the switch also, but can't justify the cost until my Dell workstation fails-or becomes too slow. In the meantime, maybe i'll go buy an iPod.

Steve

[Eduardo Rolon]

Stephen wrote:
Chris,

I appreciate your input, especially from an ex-windows user. I am jealous since I plan on making the switch also, but can't justify the cost until my Dell workstation fails-or becomes too slow…

turn off the firewall and the antivirus…

or install Vista

[Erika Epstein]

Chris,
I have so missed your slice of life writing. Just in case you can't see this far, I have a huge grin on my face from reading your post. It's wonderful having you back!
Erika