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iMac Suitability

NN634868107482711254UL
Hello,

We shoot high volumes of fashion for online content and need to upgrade our Hardware. Wondered what the general opinion is of the iMacs and whether they can handle the high volume. Would prefer to avoid buying towers as it will involve me trading in some internal organs!

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Matt
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • Andrew Holloway
    I have personal experience with the Nehalem generation of Mac Pro Towers, and with the late 2012 version of the i7 iMac. I have tethered the D800 and the P45+ back to both machines. I can't speak to usefulness of the iMacs with the IQ backs or with Canons. That having been said...

    The P45+ back will tether to an iMac, if you have a Thunderbolt-to-FW adapter. The DB will get no power from the iMac, so you will need a couple fresh batteries for the DB. Also, when the DB's battery is swapped, you will likely have to restart the software. When using the Thunderbolt adapter, the back is reluctant to reconnect while the software is running. And the P45+ back drains a battery more quickly than you would guess. If you are shooting with a P45+ back, or another DB in this generation, you will be much happier with a tower.

    For tethered shooting with the D800, the current iMac actually has an advantage over the Mac Pro. USB 3.0 is a wonderful thing when shooting uncompressed raw files. However, based on some weird camera behavior I observed on set last week, I would advise that the camera be the only USB device attached while you are shooting. If you have to use other devices concurrently, make sure the D800 is the first USB device plugged into the iMac. The USB bus on my machine seems very testy when slower devices are plugged in before the camera.

    The D800 works fine on the Mac Pro, but the transfer speed is noticeably slower than with the iMac.

    Hope this helps...
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  • NN634868107482711254UL
    Hi Andrew,

    Thanks so much for your reply, really appreciated.

    One more question with regards to calibration... I have heard that screen calibration is not possible with the newer iMacs for some reason. Is this a vicious rumor?

    Thanks again

    Matt
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  • Andrew Holloway
    I use a i1Pro Spectrophotometer with i1 Profiler software. Using this combination, I have made very satisfactory profiles for the iMac. I have been happier with the result when I adjust brightness manually, rather than relying on ADC. Of course, YMMV.
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  • NN634868107482711254UL
    Hi Andrew,

    Thanks for your time... looks like I can keep my kidneys after all! iMac looks the goods.

    Cheers

    Matt
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  • Andrew Holloway
    No problem, I hope the purchase works out well for you. One final note, we spend the extra $150 for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX. Relatively speaking, it's a bargain.
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  • NNN635017103892750955
    We have a bunch of 2012 iMac's and while the screens calibrate they aren't colour accurate. The glossy screen makes it all but impossible to judge colour accurately. The other problem is that the internal storage options are limited.
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  • Christian Gruner
    The newer imac's are pretty powerful, but as mentioned, they are impossible to calibrate right, as you have no manual control over RGB, contrast and so on.

    If you don't mind looking to "the other side of the river", a PC tower would give you a lot more punch for the same money, and/or give you the choice of monitor as well.

    Going for a powerful gfx adapter would be a must for a CO machine.
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  • Jonathan Gilbert
    I would just add that we've seen really poor consistency and reliability with the USB ports on the most recent two generations of iMac. We generally see this manifest itself as tethered connection failing after a couple shots. You might find one port is stable and another is nearly unusable to tether to. You might also find that both work great. We do recommend first connecting to a powered USB hub to strengthen the signal... just stay away from non-powered cable extensions.
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  • Rick Allen
    Cant believe I missed a chance to bash an iMac 😂 Insider joke.
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  • Brian Eaves
    I haven't had a issue with my 2012 iMac (X.8.3, 32 gig Ram, 2 Gig Video, 3TB Fusion, Capture 7.1.1), I agree when shooting tethered with a P back batteries are a must! Most rental houses give 2-3 batteries with a P rental.
    I'm not seeing the calibration issue that some are experiencing, I'm using a ColorMihki Photo at the start of each day.
    When I'm teching we're shooting to OWC Helios Thunderbolt 480 Gig SSD and backing up to a LaCie Thunderbolt hub connected to 2 eSata drives.
    Zippy and solid here.

    Brian
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