They’re Wrong - 5 Reasons The Mac Studio is a good for Photographers
Since the Mac studio was released by Apple a few weeks ago, we’ve seen lots of enthusiasm around the product from many creative professionals. However, we’ve also seen the obligatory round of “You don’t need it” posts from people about why the Mac Studio is “too much computer” for many folks. This has been particularly prevalent in the photographic community, with some prominent pundits in articular lecturing their readers as to why they shouldn’t get the Mac Studio for photography.
The gist of their argument is that “Lightroom is fine on an intel Mac, so don’t bother getting a new Mac“
What? Ever?
I have to strongly disagree with the sentiment behind these pieces. I think it’s incredibly short sighted to tell photographers not to get the Mac Studio because old computers are “fast enough”. And below I’ll explain why.
I mean obviously don’t upgrade if you don’t need to or if you have only recently bought a new computer - but if you’re in the market for a new Mac, here’s why the Mac Studio is a good option.
Incidentally, I don’t know what it is about punditry in the photographic community but they sure love to tell people not to buy stuff. (“You don’t need a new camera” says the photographer holding the latest most expensive camera) It’s a personal pet peeve of mine, and when I was reading these articles, it triggered me, hence the rant!
(And no, I’m not being paid by Apple or anything. I wish I was!)
Reason 1 - What’s the alternative?
So if you shouldn’t get the Mac studio because it’s “Too Fast” then what are your alternatives if you’re in the market for a new Mac? Well, you could get an M1 based system, either an iMac or a Mac mini, or a Laptop. But all of those have limitations that you might run into, including a ceiling on 16gb ram, and 2tb drives. So then the other alternative is the M1 Pro MacBook Pro. But then you’re stuck with a laptop. What if. You want a desktop?
At the moment, if you want a desktop, you’re options are an M1 based Mac mini, M1 iMac or Mac Studio. (Or intel Mac Pro, but don’t get one of those right now as they’re about to be obsolete and they’re insanely expensive). If you go for the Mac mini or iMac, you’ve got pretty big limitations that have nothing to do with the processor. Limits on ports, limits on ram and limits on storage. In the case of the iMac, limits on the screen size. (And this may change with the M2 models hopefully coming later this year - but don’t count on it)
The Mac Studio on the other hand, has far less limitations. If you get the M1 Max version, it’s much more flexible than even a fully specced M1 iMac Mini. It’s faster, has more ports, has a built in SD card reader, and can have more internal Ram and Storage.
Reason 2 - There’s more to a computer than the processor
Even if you buy the argument that the processor is “too powerful” for Photographers, there’s more to the Mac Studio than the the processor. As I’ve already mentioned, the additional ports alone might be worth it for some people.
I’ve been running an M1 MacBook Pro for over a year now as my main computer, and the lack of ports is a total pain, even with a good hub to have stuff hanging off it, it’s still really messy. Another issue that I’ve come across is the 16gb ceiling on the RAM. While it doesn’t come up that often when just using Lightroom, if I’m using Lightroom, Photoshop, some plug-ins and some other software, occasionally I’ve run into Ram issues, especially working with huge files. Even the difference between 16 and 32gb on the base studio model will be significant.
Another thing is the drive speed. The internal SSDs on the Mac Studio are crazy fast. They’re nearly twice as fast as the ones in the M1 Macs. If you’re woking with a huge library, or very high megapixel images, this can make a difference.
But another thing that people may not have considered is the running cost. If you’re still using an older intel computer, particularly a Mac Pro, the running cost of the Mac Studio should be substantially lower as it uses far less power. With energy prices rocketing up, this may be something that you notice, especially if you have a studio with multiple computers.
Reason 3 - Exporting and Conversions
Even if you’re fine with the speed of Lightroom (Or Capture One) while interacting with the software, there are still times when Lightroom needs to do some heavy processing. If you’re importing lots of Photos and want to make 1:1 previews, or if you’re planning to export lots of photos, then the software will absolutely take advantage of the extra processing power of the M1 Max. The M1 Ultra might be overkill here (in terms of price/reward) but it’s not like there’s going to be no difference compared to older intel Macs or even an M1. If you’re a professional who is on a busy schedule, time is money.
Reason 4 - Software Doesn’t Stay the Same
Even if you’re happy with the performance of the software you use today, software is constantly changing and becoming more demanding. We’re already seeing more and more software use AI and machine learning in their image processing. Photoshop has been using more and more AI filters, and it’s only a matter of time before they adopt these in Lightroom. What about other photography applications, like DXO Pure Raw or DXO Photo Lab? They use AI to process and even on a M1 Mac they’re still slow as they use heavy machine learning. What about things like Luminar that’s based around AI?
If you’re considering a new computer, you’re probably not just thinking about how it will be better with the software you run today, but how it will perform in the future. You want some degree of future proofing. If it only lasted until the next update, it would be a bit of a bad investment.
My last computer, was a Mac Pro. I bought it in 2012 and it was my main computer until 2021. One of the things about Apple computers is they generally last pretty well, and while you may not get the same longevity out of a Mac Studio, you should at least get several years out of it until new software makes it feel slow.
Reason 5 - Every Photographer is Different
The one thing I’ve learned covering photography for several years, is that Photographers aren’t a monolith. They’re not one single group that you can define with one easy assumption. That’s another reason that these proclamations annoyed me so much. Saying the Mac Studio isn’t suitable for Photographers implies that photographers are all the same, that they’re simple to define bunch and no one has any needs different from anyone else.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Commercial photographers have different needs from real estate photographers. Wedding photographers might have to dabble in video as well as stills. Journalists too might do a little of video editing and photography. Sports photographers might have a ton of images they need to process at speed. Some photographers might shoot with a high megapixel medium format camera and multi megapixel images. Others might shoot mostly with their phone.
So sure, some people might not ever need the power of the Mac Studio. A hobbies or amateur might be just as happy with the 24” iMac or a Mac mini. But what about the high end commercial photographer, who spends hours in Photoshop? Or what about the multimedia photographer who also shoots video?
Just because one person doesn’t need something, doesn’t mean others in the same broad field won’t.
And even if you don’t need it, what if you want it? Should some faceless pundit on the internet get to tell you that you shouldn’t have something because they’ve decreed it so? No, of course not.
Conclusion
I really hate these kinds of articles, and they’re all too common in the photography community. I get that the negativity sells and powers search algorithms, but I will never get the need to patronise your own audience. It just never made sense to me.
At the end of the day, you’re the best one to decide what you need and what you want in a computer. If some pundit tells you it’s too much for you, then just ignore them. The same goes for any camera gear or other technology. You’re the best one to decide for you.
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