“I’m, just like the majority of photographers, confused about what Apple just released,” Martijn Kort writes for Niume. “Their MacBook Pro line was embraced by the creative users because of the very good software (the OS and how it works with other apps) and the fact that all ports were there. You didn’t [need] anything else. Just plug it in and it works. When you are in the field and what to backup your shots, just put it in the SD card reader and off you go.”
“Now things are different,” Kort writes. “‘Think different,’ right?!'”
“Starting off with the new touch bar. Will this change up or speed up my workflow? I’m not sure. If I can program all my custom keyboard shortcuts in photoshop to it and if I can have control over when they appear, depending on the selected too I use at that moment, then this could be a time safer,” Kort writes. “I’m really annoyed about the fact that Apple has removed the SD card reader. Sure a lot of camera’s feature wifi. But transferring large files over wifi can be a time consuming and battery draining task. So when I have a wifi enabled body, I’ll need even more batteries to be able to backup my work. Or again, use a dongle to connect my extra SD card reader.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, SD card users who eschew wireless SD cards or dongle will need to pick up a simple USB-C SD card reader (which are quite inexpensive).
“I want a display that uses as much of the color space as possible,” Kort writes. “Asus has a few good ones, but then again I don’t like windows… [Apple] made the retina screen even better and they are back at the top of the competition once again. So in the end the new Retina display together with macOS made me order a new MacBook Pro with the specs I want… In the end I want a machine on which I can rely and that can do the tasks I throw at it with ease. And for me, that isn’t a Windows machine, but an Apple MacBook Pro.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Smart choice.
One thing to keep in mind when change happens (longtime Mac users are used to this): Apple doesn’t make decisions, especially about hardware, without deep consideration. Without Apple leading the way into the future, we’d be mired in and held back by antiquated ports, storage media, UIs, and input devices.
SEE ALSO:
Apple significantly lowers USB-C adapter prices in response to MacBook Pro complaints – November 4, 2016
Headphone jacks, MacBook Pros, and the legacy of Steve Jobs – November 4, 2016
Apple places a big bet with the new Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pro – November 4, 2016
How Apple’s stock apps will use the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro – November 4, 2016
Hands on with Apple new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: Huge trackpad offers great palm rejection – November 2, 2016
Phil Schiller explains why Apple dropped the SD card slot but kept the 3.5mm headphone jack in new MacBook Pros – November 2, 2016
Phil Schiller: Apple has more orders for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar than for any other professional Mac notebook ever – November 2, 2016
The debate is over: IBM confirms that Apple Macs are $535 less expensive than Windows PCs – October 20, 2016
The key mission of Apple’s new MacBook Pros – October 28, 2016
TIME Magazine: Apple’s new MacBook Pro Touch Bar is an inventive new way to get work done more quickly – October 28, 2016
Apple does touch right and, as usual, Microsoft does it wrong – October 28, 2016
IBT: Apple’s MacBook Pro Touch Bar is the coolest thing ever; will change the way we use laptops – October 28, 2016
Wired hands on with Apple’s New MacBook Pro: It’s a whole new kind of laptop – October 27, 2016
CNET on the new MacBook Pro: Apple’s amazing strip show reinvents the notebook – October 27, 2016
Hands on with Apple’s new MacBook Pro: Looks and feels so good it’s unreal – October 27, 2016
Apple debuts three new TV ads for all-new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – October 27, 2016
Apple unveils groundbreaking new MacBook Pro with revolutionary Touch Bar and huge Force Touch trackpad – October 27, 2016
This is going to be the exact sentiment of a lot of people, that Retina display is the biggest advantage apple has. Also, with the price drop the other day, we just bought several 27″ 5k ultra fine displays which will be put to exceedingly good use. Again, this 13″ base model is quite remarkable in its performance and the 15″ should be phenomenal. This whining will pass as people get these into their hands and start using them in the field. Again, you’ll be shocked by the performance of these little guys.
As a pro photographer, Apple’s removal of the card slot really is a strange thing to mention. Most pro cameras don’t use them. The industry leaders in pro-level cameras–PhaseOne, Canon and Nikon either use CF or CFast cards. So the removal of the slot doesn’t really mean much unless you are using maybe a Sony or a Pentax, which is a very small portion of the pro community. The only thing I’ve been using the slot for over the years is extra onboard storage with a BASEQI card adaptor.
Pro bodies these days include SD and CF slots. I know a lot of pros who are shooting on (slightly slower) SD cards because they are larger, cheaper, and easier to transfer (just jam it in your MacBook).
Since they’re so cheap, instead of clearing the cards, they’re kept as a backup of the shoot (like a very large roll of film).
The new MacBook won’t change this, but does make it slightly less convenient.
“Yes, SD card users who eschew wireless SD cards or dongle will need to pick up a simple USB-C SD card reader (which are quite inexpensive).”
MDN, just add it to your suitcase full of cables and dongles…
Gary, it would work better if you added it to your camera bag/suitcase. Just a hint…
And Mel forgot the largest accessory you MUST carry, your MBPro AC charger!
So much for the bulk of an SD card reader …
Hey, my AC extension cord is about as bulky as the charger.
You guys are all missing the point. Many people left Windows because of “change for the sake of change”. Now Apple is engaging in “change for the sake of GREED”.
Removing ports that people still use daily just so you can take financial advantage of them by gouging them for adapters is morally and ethically WRONG.
Cook should be fired because this is not by accident, he’s been willfully gouging Apple consumers with adapters for the past 6-years. Eddy Cue just sold all his Apple stock the other day because Apple being ran by Tim Cook is a steaming pile of sh*t.
Cue knew if he waited even one more week that he would lose millions. That’s because Tim Cook has been a disaster for Apple. He’s lazy, incompetent, and greedy beyond belief.
There is no evidence that this change was made out of greed. In fact, there are plenty of third party options available. OWC has a really nice 13 port Thunderbolt 3 dock that effectively include everything, including the kitchen sink.
For that matter, you act like this is new behavior for Apple in some way. Do you recall the original iMac the eschewed all legacy ports and standardized on the USB port? Apple always builds machines that are forward looking without much consideration for legacy equipment. You may not like this approach, but this is and has been their design philosophy for a long time. It existed long before Tim Cook was in charge. Complaining about it now as if this is something new just makes you look foolish and unaware of history.
Is Apple always right?
Nope, doesn’t matter how much “consideration” they give their decisions.
Jony Ive does not use SD cards, probably, so he was happy to remove it.Did Phil or anybody near the top really care how much inconvenience they gave photographers? Nope.
Apple minimalism has become a mean streak.
Maybe this is why they won’t upgrade the Mac Pro. Their idea of a better “pro” desktop has nothing on it you can upgrade or plug in.
“Apple minimalism has become a mean streak.”
^^Best line of the weekend.
Four USB-C ports gives you so many options. Plug-in for power either side or even as a daisy change. Extra monitors, drives, ethernet, other devices. Whatever you need with the right adaptor. Even a multiport adaptor so you only need to plug in one cord at your office desk.
My comment back to Martijn Kort would be … Yes, better is better if it actually is better. Problem is, that’s dependent on circular reasoning.
Okay, so the clock is now ticking … please get back to us when Adobe actually deploys this hypothetical feature. Maybe it will only take them two development cycles (remember how delayed 64 bit was to OS X?)
One thing is for sure – competitors will be copying the Touch Bar concept in their laptops.
Maybe, but to be effective, Microsoft has to first add support in their OS. For that matter, given that Microsoft has bet hard on people reaching forward and actually touching the screen, I don’t know how fast they will be to copy. We’ll see…
Who wrote this article and where was the proofreader?
“When you are in the field and what to backup your shots,….”
——->WANT to backup…….
“..depending on the selected too I use at that moment,..”
——->TOOL I use…..
“….then this could be a time safer,”
——->time SAVER…….
“Sure a lot of camera’s feature wifi…..”
——->CAMERAS feature
🙁
Having a SCSI port and every other port and drive imaginable is nice, but the added weight is a big negative for pro photographers. As long as the ports they do include are blazing fast and backward compatible with whatever I need.
One more thing, pro photographers use XQD and CF cards.
The weight question depends on the trade off between a built in legacy port and a dongle.
Eyeballing it, I’d say that 1 dongle = 2 legacy ports.
—-
“One more thing, pro photographers use XQD and CF cards.”
Setting aside that CF’s replacements (XQD and Cfast) are incompatible with each other, this has been a moot point since Apple dropped ‘internal CF’ capability when they replaced the Expressport/34 back in 2009 with the SD slot.
The real point however is that the deletion of the SD card slot now too means that the MBP hardware is no longer supportive of _any_ photographer at _any_ level … with one exception: someone with an iPhone connected via WiFi.
—–
FWIW, what I expect that we will hear within six months is that it came down to PCIe lanes: the legacy ports figuratively “had to go” in order to have enough lanes for the four USB-C ports.
But the hypocrisy there is that the use case for people using MBP’s with all four USB-C’s running high end USB-C traffic (and not adaptors) is, and will be, zero. So we have a ‘feature’ that effectively no one will use on this new MBP.
-hh
Yea, but I carry the “dongle” with me only 5-2% when I need it.
The weight of the “legacy ports” I carry with me all the time.
Whereas Murphy’s Law says that you won’t be carrying that accessory with you when you most desperately need it.
You say this as if carrying a USB cable in your camera bag is such a burden for photographers. SD cards largely represent the consumer market, not the pro market as they’re also dependent on CF cards. Carrying an SD card reader or a USB cable is hardly a significant issue.
Broadly, the issue isn’t as much size as it is that it is just one more {blessed!} piece of loose stuff to try to keep wrangled.
FWIW, I did just recently get back from a ‘big’ (for me) shoot; I’ll have to lay out & photograph all of the little loose bits to illustrate: I easily had over 40 discrete “loose items” between four pouches/ditty bags. What a headache! And I was working within a bush plane flight weight limit, so this was the “critical items only” inventory.
Man, it must really hurt to be making so many excuses for Apple..
That touch bar is so inventive by the way.. Search on Microsoft “adaptive keyboard” and you’ll see that they invented a “touch bar on steroids” 15 years ago. Didn’t bother with it in their current products though, since their hardware is full touchscreen now. Sorry to pour salt in the wound but that’s the facts.
History is filled with examples of poor execution leading companies to believe the concept itself is flawed. As an example, Motorola did the fingerprint scanner on their Atrix phone before the iPhone. The abandoned the concept because of their incompetent implementation. You’ll see the same with Microsoft in this case. Don’t confuse a poor implementation with a poor concept.
I’m sorry, Apple really screwed up. I will never buy this MacBook Pro. Honestly they shoul have just included a single with a few legacy ports.
#TimCookIsCrazyForDongles
MDN: Apple doesn’t make decisions, especially about hardware, without deep consideration.
Oh, come on. Mac Pro trashcan. The phone that would hand up when you held it like a phone. The GPU recall in nearly every macbook pro they’ve released in the last 10 years.
The list goes on.