ShapeshiftingFish

I got an 11 Pro more than a month ago (October 6), a day before a 3-week trip to Japan. I took it as my only camera, so it was quite a leap of faith. (I had my previous trusty iPhone 8 as a backup, with couple of clip on lenses; never had to use it). I am quite happy overall. I love the ultra wide camera, but I wish it would shoot RAW (I use Lightroom and Halide apps for that, a lot). Also, the photos and videos taken with it are visibly grainier, but it's not critical. With video, the quality drop is most noticeable when zooming in or out, the lens switch itself is super smooth, colors and exposure stay spot on, but suddenly the grain decreases or increases). I also wanted the tele camera (lot's of interesting food and details to shoot) so the regular 11 was not an option. Night mode works very well, I took quite a few stunning night shots of temples and architecture and they came out printable at 11x14 (an example below: in person I could not see most of the details in the roof and the sky was pitch black). Battery life is OK in regular use, but for tourism traveling (constant camera use, Google maps and translator on all the time) I would often run out around 6 p.m. (starting the day around 9 a.m.), so I am eagerly awaiting the Apple battery case for my next trip (have one for the model 8, works great). In the meantime, an Anker fast charging powerbank does a good job, charges to 80% very quickly. The 11 Pro is noticeably faster than the model 8 when processing photos and videos, which is great since I like to do some quick edits for sharing during downtimes (trains, planes and automobiles). It also seems to overheat less than the model 8 when processing HDR RAW and long exposures in the Lightroom app.

I actually had to stand in line in front of the 5th Avenue store for about 30 minutes and another 20 inside when buying the phone. It was the only shop that had the model I wanted in stock (256 GB Pro) and only in black (I wanted silver). It made me feel silly, but I really needed it on that day before the trip and it was a sign of a good demand (and nostalgically harking back to iPhones heyday and overnight lines, but without too much suffering . When I bought the new model 8 two years ago, there was of course zero waiting. I also got a new Meyer Lemon (yellow) leather case from Apple. I don't even consider 3rd party accessories for such expensive hardware. So far it's holding up very well (traveling around with a bright yellow case sounds like quick tarnish, but so far it's spotless). Leather is much better than silicone I used before (too much friction in and out of pockets) and clear cases (too slippery, my partner has one on the regular 11 and it feels very high quality, but very slippery).

 

dysamoria said:

I’ve been saving tax rebates to buy a new Mac Pro to replace both my old Macs and my old PC, and then Apple went and changed the introductory price of the Mac Pro to frelling $6000, twice what it used to start at, and all non-plutocrats who can’t afford an overkill machine are expected to keep using storage & RAM-unupgradable & thermally deficient all-in-one laptops, iMacs, or similarly stupidly compact & unupgradable Mac Mini (while also suffering whatever display incompatibilities there are with third party displays because Apple only makes a $5000 display now).

If you really need a Mac Pro, you can afford it. Otherwise, you can produce a whole album or a feature film score on almost any Apple machine. Logic doesn't need uber-hardware to run smoothly. If you look at the videos or photos from most music producer's setups, it's mostly a MacBook or an iMac of some kind running the DAW. Unless you're Deadmau5 and need to render videos in real time while running a truckload of equipment, then sure, get a Mac Pro and cover the cost in one show. Same goes for video, unless you're Marques Brownlee and shoot 8K RED RAW daily, any MacBook Pro or higher-spec iMac will do the job for a 4K workflow, not to mention full HD. I do both audio and video and my current machine is a 13" MacBook Pro with an eGPU, but I also actively use a 2015 27" i5 iMac. I yet have to see either machine reach 100% CPU usage in Logic or Ableton. Plus, you can upgrade an iMac's RAM or add a Thunderbolt 3 SSD and eGPU to any modern MacBook.

As for the iOS 13 on 1st gen iPad Pro, I'm using the combo and it still flies with any regular task.

Beats said:

I highly disagree with adding an SD card when they could have added an extra USB port. Why please 2% of your users when you can have pleased 98%? This is Apple
going backwards post-Jony.

You can always find a USB-C to SD adapter but try to find an SD Card to USB-C Cable.

You are talking about the Pro. Air doesn’t have the SD slot.

Most of the SE users I know would love the same chasis size, with an all display front. That would effectively bring the display size close to series 8, without the unnecessary bulk added by the bezels.

I don't mean to generalize and it's probably a short lived glitch in the case of the card, but I tend to trust Apple's services less and less. iCloud is very messy for me with erratic syncing (drive, photos), needing several sign ins and outs on numerous devices; Music is crappy comparing with, say, Spotify, borderline offensive in recommendations and discovery; TV+ is mostly dull with original content seemingly committee based (more so than the competitors), like "let's be edgy, but at all cost inclusive and not offensive". The hardware is mostly still well behaved, so I'm still all in on that front, but I am actively eyeing the alternatives for the first time in several years, just to have a quick backup option. I now a have a second (Android) phone and am using duplicate services (contacts, calendar, notes, photos etc.). And for work, learning the alternative options that work on Windows (Premiere vs. Final Cut, Ableton vs. Logic). I love the idea of tight integration, Apple style, and until very recently I was exclusively Apple-everything. But lately I've been feeling uneasy with that approach. Always have a backup plan and a redundant second everything (romantic partners not strictly implied in that scheme).

I work in photography and graphic design. I used to use exclusively 27” iMacs since that size became available (it’s very hard to beat the display quality for the price), but last year I decided on a laptop + external monitor since I started traveling very often. I decided that 27” 5K standalone monitors are too expensive, so I got a 32” 4K LG IPS monitor. Wonderful size. For anyone wondering, MacBook’s scaling function works just fine on it, no bothersome artifacts (native 4K is too big for my taste, so I do one scale down and it’s perfect). The monitor calibrates OK, offers adequate gamut. I love the fact that I can regulate the height, I like my display pushed way down and angled slightly up, greatly reduces the neck strain (I feel the 27” iMac is to high for me, and I am 6’1”). The biggest gripe? Quality control. Display panel started fading around the edges in less than 4 months and now it’s really bad, but I can’t send it for repair since I can’t afford to be without large display for more than couple of days. Apparently it was a frequent and known issue with that series of LG monitors that I somehow missed while researching online. 

lkrupp said:

Sounds like a talented individual. Has he done anything productive that improves the world or makes a dent in the universe?

It totally did make a dent for me. It has reminded me of how far we came since I started my visual media adventure on system 7 and Photoshop 2.5. And how mindblowingly new system 8 and Photoshop 3 felt when they came out. How bright and promising the future seemed. And look at us now.

omasou said:

Other than parents. Do people really use inkjet printers to print photographs? Unless time is an issue seem like this is a very, very, very expensive way to generate a picture, especially anything larger than 4x6.

I never really understood inkjets vs. lasers. Yes lasers are/were more expensive than inkjets though my latest HP Color LaserJet wasn't. Consumer inkjets didn't do what "I" needed very well. Printing 4x6 pictures were horrible and easier to just send to Walmart (again not pro quality) and shipping labels had to be covered w/packing tape to protect them from bleeding and fading during shipping.

To each their own.

First of all, you can get decent results with any inkjet printer, much better than laser, but only on specially coated photo paper. Unlike laser, where toner / ink sets on top of paper surface, plain paper inkjet prints will look pale and washed out because ink gets absorbed INTO the paper. Inkjet photo papers have a sticky, dense surface coating that traps the ink droplets and allows for great color reproduction. But, consumer inkjet printers use dye-based inks, water soluble on top of that. They give you nice colors, but are not very resistant. Even if you handle the print properly (frame it under glass or put in an album), it will fade relatively quickly as the dyes degrade and evaporate and if the print gets wet, it will likely smudge. Pro photo printers on the other hand use solid pigment-based inks; if you use them in conjunction with special high quality papers (you still can’t use plain paper), you will get a color reproduction other printers can’t touch (especially laser prints that are very contrasty), with fade resistance for decades. It is crucial if you’re going to sell your prints as fine art and expect to build a reputation for a long time. You are most definitely not going to buy a pro inkjet printer and use it to print labels and such…

So if the resolution and file sizes go up, the Lightning port will feel even more outdated and slow. Will Apple be kind and introduce a better port, at least on Pro models, for 8K video footage? USB-C is not likely, according to everyone, but what other options are there? Faster Lightning? Some talk about a portless iPhone, but is there a viable wireless option for this scenario? Or an updated Smart Connector standard?