burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The Mac comes with so many little jewels of programs, and Apple offers others as free downloads for those who want them. I use:

Safari
Mail
Contacts
Calendar
Calculator
TextEdit
Dictionary
Preview
Voice Memos
Notes
Reminders
Maps
Messages
FaceTime
GarageBand (All the audio recording studio power I need)
iMovie (for quick, short-form, simple video editing projects)
Quicktime Player (video player)
Photos (for my iPhone photo sharing with family)
Image Capture (to download iPhone photos to named folders)
Pages
Numbers
Keynote
News
Music
Podcasts
Apple TV
Books (mostly for PDF reading)

Those are used often enough they stay in my dock.

I also use these enough to keep in the dock:

FireFox (free web browser)
VLC Media Player (free)
Handbrake (free video file compressor)
FinalCut Pro (paid video editor, worth every penny)
Fotor (free image editor with in-app purchases)
SpyderXElite (monitor calibration/profiling)
Epson Scan 2 (scanner driver)
Graphic Converter 11 ($40 Swiss Army knife of image file editing tools I've used since 1993)
Lightroom CLASSIC
Photoshop 2021
Acrobat Reader
Microsoft 365 Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote)

I have more in the Applications Folder, but don't use them often.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

I use it routinely and it's compatible with Affinity which is my chief post processing program. My only objection to Apples's Photos, is that it's a database, not a file system. If you want to find a photo and pull it off directly your hard drive, it's almost impossible because Photos assigns it's own convoluted number/letter system to each file.

That being said, it's easy to use and offers a lot of post processing capability although it won't work with layers and won't provide a few of the more advanced Photoshop or Affiinity capabilities.

grcolts

I have used Apple's Photos off and on for a number of years on my older IMAC...all in all for jpeg use I found it very useful, although it is limited on search capabilities. It is quick and easy. However, I could never get it to work well with RAW files. Now, that could be because of my older machine was a 2011 heritage which could only use High Sierra OS. Photos worked well with Affinity Photo, etc. This year I really wanted to get a new IMAC or mini m1 machine but after much research decided against it and bought a PC for photo editing, at least for the time being. My preference is for the Mac OS over Windows but I felt the m1 machines are not proven yet for longer term life. With the ram and hard drives not really upgradeable and no one knowing the life span of them I decided to go with something I could fix if I had too. I don't like the idea of a throw-a-way expensive computer. Plus, Apple removed the SD slot and extra USB ports, etc. while my new PC came bundled with it all, including an extra hard drive for backing up. Maybe down the road when Apple proves the m1 machines are reliable for longer periods of time I might pick another up. Right now, I am keeping my old Mac for wordprocessing, etc.

POVDOV

I too switched to Apples's M1 chip MacBook. It's faster than a speeding bullet and quiet as a mouse (no fan) and no overheating. I use LR in heavy editing my photos and it works flawlessly. I'll look at the Apple software just for kicks but won't switch.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The Photos File -> Export commands work fine. Choose to export a copy of the original or the current changes you’ve made. Or do both…

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Have you heard of any actual M1 failures? The latest 9-month reviews from independent review sites are extremely positive. My own experience (MacBook Air Refurbished with 8CPUis 95% positive. I found work around solutions for that other 5%. Most important is that ALL the software I use works flawlessly, either natively or using Rosetta 2.

MaxTech YouTube channel compares the M1 Macs against many PCs. Might be worth a look…

https://youtube.com/c/MaxTechOfficial

Also, Apple has an event on 9/14 at 10:00 AM PACIFIC Time. Watch live on Apple.com. Who knows? Maybe M1x Macs will be revealed.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

This is just a guess. Your description sounds like you use Photos to do the import directly from the camera or the camera's chip. Others have described first copying from the camera to the filesystem in their own organizing scheme. That scheme can be as simple as the date taken, for example. If you then import those files to Photos they will still be where you put them and Photos will be able to show them to you if you just right click on the item and tell it you want to see where they are in Finder.

You can find more detailed instructions on Apple's own support pages.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

I use the Photos app for certain applications, since I rather like its rotation and cropping tools + a few other features work well and are very easy to use.
You will just have to play around with it and see what you think. If you have some substantial software like LR you may not feel like its the go-to app. But it is plenty powerful.

whatdat Loc: Del Valle, Tx.

Not opposed to Mac; just don’t understand paying twice as much for a Mac over a PC. Course; I’m no computer wizard either so the PC does what I need.

grcolts

No, personally I have not heard of any major issue with the m1 Macs yet. They are still too new to know how they are going to do longer term. I have seen reports of the ssd's being wrote too much too often which could shorten their life span. I hope they work out as I mentioned before my preference is for the Mac OS but Windows is working out ok so far for me.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

What people seem to overlook is that Apple started making this series of Apple Silicon over a decade ago. They’ve sold hundreds of millions of them in iPhones and iPads. The M1 uses the same technology.

The worry about file swapping wearing out SSD storage is irrational. The last calculation I saw showed it would take between seven and ten years of hard daily use to significantly reduce the available memory cells. In seven to ten, I’ll want another one, anyway!