On Sep 5, 2010, at 10:19 , David J Brooks wrote:
One reason i am hesitant on the iMac over a new PC is, the calibration for photo work. I am comfortable using the PC and get great results with may antiquated set up as is. I'm just not sure about the Mac settings on my iBook for prints, they are off, and would be/will be, worried about the calibration on the iMac.
One thing you will learn about the iMac screen is that it is too bright under normal just turned on and booted conditions to make screen matching prints. As an example I boot my iMac, turn the brightness all the way down with the OS software, then adjust the Graphics card's separate brightness to 60% of the iMac's native dimmest brightness using a free piece of software devised just for that purpose. Then I calibrate it using DataColor Colorvision Spyder 2, not the newest hardware they sell, but "good enough" for anything other than Pro Print reproduction.
In real world terms what that means is my images from my K-7 look a stop to two stops too dark. Once I adjust them to look correct on my monitor, they will print perfectly on my Epson 1800, and (to me anyway) look fine on my Gallery.me.com/jomac. I do not adjust the K-7 exposure in the camera or when I shoot other than slight adjustments in exposure depending on the subject. If I tried to, the whites in all images would be blown.
I don't wish to get involved in the PC/Window discussion other than to say that many of the arguments proffered are in some ways minor and major, incorrect.
It's really the good old "my car's better than your car" bullsh*t that the boys throw around in the locker room. What's best in the long run is what fits your lifestyle, makes you comfortable, and doesn't tax your mind-space on a daily basis.
Main thing is the price, PC 1/2 that of a Mac, and now that i don't do a lot of shows and prints, may not need the Mac.
Maybe true. In both cases, determine what features you need in hardware and software and get that priced out either online or by visiting a few stores before you buy. The quoted price is usually quite a bit lower than the out the door price. My $1800 iMac (the prices have come down a lot and the upgrades less expensive) cost me $2500 by the time I added twice the memory, twice the hard drive size, and the best Graphics card they offered at the time.
Historically speaking, every Apple system I ever purchased directly from Apple, from my Apple ][+ in 1979 through my Mac Plus in 1985, my ||fx, my G3, G4, and this iMac, have all cost me $2500. And I've always kept them long enough that they had no intrinsic value, so were thrown away (after stripping them). The iMac model I have can only be upgraded by Apple, other than RAM. The newer versions can, I believe, have the hard drive swapped out by the consumer. Prior to the iMac, the desktop Macs were as configurable as any PC. Apple feels that their current designs are trouble-free enough to be a sealed unit. And I cannot argue that they were wrong from my experience. Rather than pay an Apple tech $100 to install a 1 or 2 TB hard drive in my iMac, I just keep adding external drives as needed. Current count is eight drives, all USB, varying in size from 500 GB to 1 TB. Sometime this week I'll receive a 2 TB drive via UPS to bring the count to nine drives. Many of these drives are used for backing up the other drives.
A trick I read about a year ago or so was how to install my OS X onto a keychain type solid state USB dongle of from 4 to 8 GB in size. I've never had to use it, but if my iMac won't boot some day, I plug it in and turn on the Mac. On a 8 GB version, there is plenty of room for a bevy of troubleshooting apps.
One last point in favor of Apple. When I have a software problem, they answer the phone, and a very qualified employee helps me get unconfused. 95% of the time, it's the user, ME, who is being stupid. Because, David, they make and support a capable but limited line of high end machines, and they write reasonable software to run on it. Which steps over the gazillion variations of components and software that the PC user must master themselves, 'cause no one else knows what's in there.
Aren't you glad I didn't delve into the PC/Windows debate? :-) Joseph McAllister [email protected] http://gallery.me.com/jomac -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
