Taking My First Bite of the Apple

Well I have given in!  After many years of fellow photographers telling me I needed a MAC and MACs were the best, I have finally turned to the dark side and ditched my Windows desk top PC for a shiny new 27" iMac.  So why have I decide to this now I hear you ask?

Well it has a lot to do with the direction that Microsoft have gone with the Windows platform.  I like Windows 7, there is nothing wrong with Windows 7 and all of my other work is supported by Windows software (MS Office, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements etc) and I have invested a lot of money into this.  So, like buying into a camera system, changing from PC to MAC is a big step. 

I had to make a decision because my 5 year old desktop PC needed to be renewed.  I had specced it to the hilt when I bought it new but age was starting to creep in and it had started to slow down.

My options were to buy a new PC running Windows 7 like my laptop or go look at Apple for the first time.  The problem I have is Windows 8 - I hate it, it isn't user friendly and now Windows 10 looks to be about the same.  I could get Windows 7 but with version 10 about to be launched the question for me is how much longer will Windows 7 be supported.  A new computer is a significant investment so I can't afford to be left high and dry by Microsoft in a years time.

So I started investigating the iMac.  Well all the horror stories about the OS being difficult to understand and operate are so much BS.  I visited the Apple Store in Edinburgh and thanks to the friendly and helpful staff I was soon finding my way around the different applications and comparing the different options.  There was no pressure selling either, the staff let the products sell themselves - nice!

The other thing I was blown away by was the size of the screen.  The 27" iMac is amazing! The high resolution screen makes editing images a doddle.  I did look at the 27" 5K Retina screen, which is stunning, but at £500 more than the standard screen I couldn't justify the extra money.  

Anyway long story short, I decided that the iMac was the best option, even though it was more expensive than an equivalent spec PC.

I did add a 1TB Fusion (hybrid flash / ATA drive) hard drive and an extra 8GB of memory (16GB in total) to speed things up.  Because I configured the iMac to my specs I ordered it online at the Apple Store.  I also added a Magic Trackpad instead of a mouse.  This did take a bit of getting used to but after a few hours I didn't miss the mouse at all.

I ordered the iMac on Friday and it arrived last Wednesday, one day earlier than the Apple Store had told me, so that was even better.  It was very easy to set up and I was soon sitting in front of my new iMac.  Apart from the size of the screen, the main difference between my old desktop PC and the iMac is the lack of a tower.  Everything on the iMac is contained inside that big screen.  So the footprint on my desk is actually smaller than with the old PC. And talking of footprint, the stand, like the small keyboard and track pad, is machined aluminium - the quality is superb.

Well all of this build quality and beauty is all very well but it also has to perform.  The iMac is lightning fast, it boots up in no time at all.  I did a quick test against my work Dell laptop running Windows 7 and the iMac was up and running before the laptop had powered up and asked for my password.

Setting up the iMac was easy as well.  I set the printer up, downloaded the new versions of Lightroom and Photoshop, and set up my other preferences all in the space of a couple of hours.  Navigating the OS is a bit slower because items are in different places but they tend to be in obvious locations and the 'Help' files are just that - helpful - if you get stuck.

The only issue I have had is accessing my external hard drives, which contain my archive of images.  The iMac will read the files but I can't write to the same disk.  I had to back up the files on the newest 3TB USB3 drive and then format it for MAC OS.  Things ar enow OK but that did have me scratching my head.

I've now had the iMac three days and I am very happy with the transition.  Using Lightroom and Photoshop is a doddle because the MAC versions are identical to the PC versions I have been using. also that giant 27" screen allows me to have several windows open at the same time and flip between them.  Editing images is also a lot easier on that screen.

The only items I might have to look at is buying a MAC version of MS Office.  The iMac has 'Pages', 'Numbers' and 'Keynote' which are 'Word', 'Excel' and 'Powerpoint' and these can save files in Office compatible formats.  The MAC versions are very easy to use (I've used Pages and Keynote so far) but for compatibility with my colleagues Microsoft Office 365 might find its way onto my iMac in the near future.

Moving from PC to MAC is not as painful as some people make out, in fact I found it very painless.  I find the new Yosemite OS system on the MAC a lot more user friendly and easy to navigate than Windows 8 in every department.  So it's bye bye Windows and hello iMac.  

I will report back in a couple of weeks.

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