p.2 #1 · macOS storage demands: Capture One Pro and RAW still photography
I used an M1 Mini with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD when they first came out. I use Capture One. I do not do heavy editing. I use it to tweak exposure, crop, adjust white balance, organize and keyword my photos. I had no issues doing that. The base M4 with 16GB RAM will suit you fine.
With desktop Macs I always run my user folder on a separate disk from the OS and applications. I have done that since OS X first came out.
Due to portability needs I now run a MacBook Pro so I have my user folder on the internal drive but my photos live on an external drive. Capture One allows editing when the actual files are not available.
I have a couple of catalogs. Split by digital photos vs. scanned photos. I am working on sorting the 200,000 scanned family photos and organizing them. Many need some tweaking and the M1 did fine and the MacBook Pro of course does great too.
p.2 #2 · macOS storage demands: Capture One Pro and RAW still photography
tcphoto wrote:
No one needs that many images and should be offloaded to an NAS or multiple external drives, it sounds like an NAS would work well for you.
Once data is spread across multiple drives which may be offline, backing it up reliably becomes much harder.
A NAS may be necessary for some (especially if video is involved), but unless you’re made of money they’re hot and noisy, so there’s the setup cost of finding somewhere to put them and running cables. Those costs could be significant.
In my thirty plus year career, I've only kept RAW files on my primary machine long enough to cull, back up and then for a client to make their selects.
There are different kinds of photographers. Not all of them are professionals whose work mainly consists of shoots which, once done, rarely need to be accessed again. Think of a music photographer who might need to find back pictures of a band at a particular or any concert, or just about any amateur building up a portfolio of art shots.
p.2 #3 · macOS storage demands: Capture One Pro and RAW still photography
I would not go with the lowest spec mini for photography. Those are typically for people with truly minimal needs, such as students who may do word processing, email, browsing, etc.
At a minimum you would end up with almost no space to store your photographs.
For photography I would get a minimum of 512 GB and plan on getting attached storage for photos before long. In
Rainbow Chaser wrote:
Here's a question for more experienced Mac photographers. When shopping for a Mac mini, is there any chance that 256 GB of storage can be enough?
I had a really good time with Aperture back in the day. I haven't had a Mac for over a decade, and I've never used Capture One before. I'm thinking about getting back into RAW instead of only JPEG.
If possible, I'd like to make do with the least expensive Mac mini at 256 GB. Can this cause regret? I don't need to shoot a ton of images, I can be willing to delete, and I can make use of external storage and possibly a remote storage host. I'm not imagining other computing tasks that will demand a great deal of storage.
What do you consider to be minimum storage for a casual Capture One Pro workflow?...Show more →
p.2 #4 · macOS storage demands: Capture One Pro and RAW still photography
Has anyone tried MacBook Neo? People are saying surprising things about its ability to handle heavy workloads.
Hard not to wonder if a new Mac Neo could occupy the desktop low end at a lower price, especially if people like me can consider giving up Capture One or Creative Cloud for lighter software.
p.2 #5 · macOS storage demands: Capture One Pro and RAW still photography
Rainbow Chaser wrote:
Has anyone tried MacBook Neo? People are saying surprising things about its ability to handle heavy workloads.
Hard not to wonder if a new Mac Neo could occupy the desktop low end at a lower price, especially if people like me can consider giving up Capture One or Creative Cloud for lighter software.
It seems very unsuitable as a specialised photo processing machine. It has only one USB 3 port, which means if you want to attach a display and decently fast storage at the same time you’ll need some kind of dock or hub. You could attach an Apple Studio Display, which has an on-board hub and can also power the Neo, but those are expensive and the Neo can’t run them at the full 5K resolution.
If you do use the Neo’s screen, it isn’t P3 like every other Mac but just sRGB.
Apple don’t even list the SSD throughput, which can’t be a good sign.
p.2 #6 · macOS storage demands: Capture One Pro and RAW still photography
Personally, I don't think I'd edit photos on a battery-powered device of any kind. I brought it up just to consider the current or future possibility of photo editing with an iPhone chip.
melcat wrote:
It seems very unsuitable as a specialised photo processing machine.
Specs are good, but I'd rather see real-world outcomes, which is possible on YouTube.
p.2 #7 · macOS storage demands: Capture One Pro and RAW still photography
I have no experience with the Neo but I would be leery of that.
Apple segments their markets and produce machines targeting those segments., My impression is that the Neo is a fine machine for people like students who want something inexpensive for basic work processing, email and browsing.
It could be a great option for a certain kind of user, but that user is typically not a photographer using Lightroom or similar.
Rainbow Chaser wrote:
Has anyone tried MacBook Neo? People are saying surprising things about its ability to handle heavy workloads.
Hard not to wonder if a new Mac Neo could occupy the desktop low end at a lower price, especially if people like me can consider giving up Capture One or Creative Cloud for lighter software.
p.2 #9 · macOS storage demands: Capture One Pro and RAW still photography
Rainbow Chaser wrote:
Has anyone tried MacBook Neo? People are saying surprising things about its ability to handle heavy workloads.
Hard not to wonder if a new Mac Neo could occupy the desktop low end at a lower price, especially if people like me can consider giving up Capture One or Creative Cloud for lighter software.
tl;dr: this is not the machine you’re looking for unless you’re solely editing via the cloud and nothing runs local. Its only RAM option is 8GB, performance throttles very easily, and it has a very slow internal SSD.
