burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

1) Before you buy software other than Adobe Photography Plan, check out Apple's free/included suite of apps. Some come pre-installed, while others are free downloads. I use most of them.

> Safari web browser
> Apple Mail (you get several free iCloud mail accounts if you want them)
> Contacts (address book/electronic rotary card file that syncs with your iPad/iPhone)
> Calendar (shareable with family members; syncs with your iPad/iPhone)
> Calculator (simple or scientific)
> Text Edit (basic text editor that is surprisingly powerful. I use it to put thoughts down quickly, then open in Word for formatting if needed.)
> Dictionary/Thesaurus
> Preview (image viewer/simple editor, PDF reader/merger/markup tool, etc.)
> Voice Memos (High Fidelity "Dictaphone" that works with built-in mic on MacBooks and iMacs, or plug-in mic on other Macs)
> Notes (Note pad that syncs with your iPad/iPhone)
> Freeform (freeform graphics tool/sketch pad)
> Reminders (text version of an alarm clock; surprisingly powerful. It syncs with your iPad/iPhone)
> Apple Maps (3D Map app same as on iPad/iPhone)
> Messages (iMessage and Text Message reader/composer that syncs with your iPad/iPhone)
> FaceTime video calling tool
> GarageBand (EXCELLENT simple multi-track music production/audio recording tool)
> QuickTime Player (Simple media player... I prefer VLC Media Player, an open source app for Mac/Windows/Linux)
> iMovie (EXCELLENT simple video editing tool for 4K video and slide show production; works with GarageBand and Photos)
> Photos (Apple's still image curator, parametric adjustment tool)
> Image Capture (simple scanner driver, image downloader for use with digital cameras/iPhones)
> Pages (Page Layout and Word Processor)
> Keynote (Presentation tool similar to PowerPoint)
> Numbers (Simple spreadsheet)
> News (Apple News reader)
> Music (formerly iTunes; curates your music files, burns CDs, etc.)
> Podcasts (player for Apple Podcasts)
> Apple TV (player for video content)
> Books (reader for Apple Books)
> App Store (buy and download apps, or download free software

There are some others I don't use, but you get the idea. It's all pretty decent and I just added FireFox (free), VLC Media Player (free), Handbrake (free video downsampling tool), Epson Scan 2 (for the V600 and other Epson Scanners), Graphic Converter (Mac only file converter/slide show tool/image editor worth its $40 price), Adobe Photography Plan, Acrobat Reader, and Microsoft 365 (Office subscription). I also bought Final Cut Pro for pro-grade video editing.

2) MacOS has built-in or downloadable printer drivers for just about any printer made in the last decade. If you go to the Epson/HP/Brother/Canon website, you may be able to download a driver installer package for better feature compatibility.

3) The Mac is now a 100% 64-bit operating system, so older *software* like the Digital ICE feature of the V600 absolutely will NOT work on the Mac. But the Excellent SilverFast drivers will work on the Mac to drive your V600 and will use the infrared scratch and dust removal feature of the scanner. Hamrick VueScan is another driver option, but it may not work with the infrared scratch and dust removal feature. I've never used it.

The new Macs use Apple's own ARM-based systems on chips. Apple's been developing these since the early iPads. They are lightning fast and use about 1/3 the power as Intel chips for similar performance. Battery life on laptops is phenomenal.

Buy the Mac with as much memory and storage as you think you will need over the life of the machine. IT IS NOT UPGRADEABLE AFTER PURCHASE. For most models, the sweet spot for maximum performance is about 16GB Unified Memory and 1TB of SSD storage. The base M2 and M2 Pro and M2 Max models run a bit slower because they don't have a RAID 0 array in them.

External ThunderBolt 4/USB4 (40 Gbps) drives are the fastest external storage you can get, topping out at around 2800 to 3000 MB per second. USB-C drives with USB 3.2 (10Gbps) are still pretty fast. I use Samsung T7 drives on the road.

You may need an external hub or dock for peripheral connectivity. CalDigit, OWC, and Anker make good ones. For portability, I got this:

https://www.charjenpro.com/products/ultimatedock

If you choose Mac, I hope this helps. These new machines are phenomenal. They run circles around all the old Intel Macs, and many Intel PCs.

bobfitz Loc: Kendall-Miami, Florida

I started with Adobe in 1992 when Adobe was 2 years old. I used Mac until, for whatever reason, they stopped supporting Mac for a time, probably while bringing PC onboard. I went to PC and never looked back. If you are familiar with the windows operating system, stay there.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The grass is never greener when it's a Mac.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

Turn up the saturation 🤫

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

You meant when it's a 'Canon'!!!

Tim Canavan Loc: Central Connecticut

Bill, I am familiar with many of these apps from my iPhone and iPad Pro. Thanks for taking the time to provide all this info on the apps and peripherals. I really appreciate it.

Tim Canavan Loc: Central Connecticut

I appreciate the advice Minniev. Thanks for the input.

coullone Loc: Paynesville, Victoria, Australia

[quote=TriX]Three issues to be aware of:

1) for identical performance and resources, the Mac will cost substantially more.

This is just not true. The cheapest Mac Mini M2 with no extras will easily out perform a i7 or lower i9 and costs less than $1000 even with Australia's inflated prices. If you need an extra spend it on an extra memory module. An external Thunderbolt 2 TB drive (not hard disk but M.2) is almost as fast as the internal drive and will cost just a little more than the extra 256GB from Apple can be added as you require it. You can use your existing Display but a 4K display is available quite cheaply.
I use a Mini with M1 processor and it is at least twice as fast in Affinity than my i9 system from 3 years ago and it only cost half the money.
Just recently bought a Mac Studio and that really screams.

Just ask around your friends you will probably find a few of the who will let you 'have a play'.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

[quote=coullone]

I couldn't agree more! Best of luck!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

[quote=coullone]

https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-apple_m2-vs-intel_core_i9_12900k

https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/intel-core-i9-12900h-vs-apple-m2

And don’t kid yourself that an externally connected Thunderbolt SSD is as fast as an M.2 socketed NVME drive you’ll find on a newer PC MB. My Samsung 980 Pro (there are 3 m.2 NVME slots on my MB) Benchmarks at 9,000 MBytes/sec on reads and just under 7,000 on writes. That’s over 3x the speed of the fastest Thunderbolt SSD benchmarks - that’s the downside of non expandable HW except with external I/O.
https://machow2.com/thunderbolt-drives-mac/

Josephakraig

I agree completely with Paul. The minor differences will drive a Windows person insane. Why take on a new operating system if you are happy with Windows. Remember all your other programs will be subtly different in MAC OS and you will probably have the same issues with them.[/quote]

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The biggest problem is dollars spent. If you spend the same amount of money on either set up you will get a much faster machine on a windows platform. I work on Mac machines and the people whos machines I have to get working for them keep spending tons of money to get them to do what they want.

The OS's are different, although they do basically the same things, you will like best what you get used to. If you already know Windows you have no learning curve while if you switch from either Mac to Windows or Windows to Mac you will have months of frustration until you finally get used to it.

I would recommend getting the fastest Ryzen machine with a minimum of 32gigs of memory if you go Windows. All your add ons will be cheaper in Windows but plug and play is better in Mac.

HatsuoHiga Loc: Hawaii

2 weeks ago I went to best buy and I bought a 24" imac along with a epson 2850 ecotank printer. My late 2012 imac started having lines across, and I couln'd see anything. BestBuy had a open box for $1,000, so I bought it. It has only 2 usb-c ports in the back, so I ordered a hub from Amazon that also have a card reader. Best Buy transfered the data from the old imac to the new, and it took about 5 days. The imac, has only 256gb ram storage and I like to add more. I want something small that I can umplug and carry around, or connect to my 2 ipads or my samsung galaxy s22. Any suggestion.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You cannot add anything into any M1/M2 Mac after you buy it. You have to buy what you need up front. If you need more storage, it can be Thunderbolt 3 or 4 or USB 3-USB4 with USB-C interface only.

HatsuoHiga Loc: Hawaii

Thank you Burk, I will just use for using the internet. I have most of my photos in the sd cards and flash drives and it works perfectly with the hub that I purchased from amazon.

HRoss Loc: Longmont, CO

MrBob is dead on, as in Paul. I have years of PC experience, but in 2009, for my home use (photography and music), I purchased a 27" Mac. It took me a while to develop an understanding of the philosophy differences between IOS and Windows. Once I got past it, I moved all my hardware to Apple based. One big advantage in moving away from Windows: No more Blue Screen of Death!

Bottom line, the units available today are all fine and you need togo with what you're comfortable with using.

Good Luck