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Category: apple

July 23, 2023

Why I Bought Apple’s Weakest Mac Studio over the Most Powerful Mac Mini

A beefed-up Mac mini costs the same as the entry-level Mac Studio. Here’s why I think Apple’s Mac Studio is still the better choice.

I just purchased a gleaming new M2 Mac Studio to replace my old 2017 27” iMac at home. And am I pleased with my choice? Well, before I can really answer that, I must reveal that I am still in a bit of shock over the complexities I encountered.

What was once-upon-a-time a seemingly straightforward purchasing process for Apple computers has now evolved into a mind numbing and wallet-crushing evolution of tech-spec choices.

I think part of my problem (and yes, I must consider the possibility) is that I wanted to re-up on a desktop solution. While it feels like many of us long ago moved on to laptops, I’m still stuck in my desktop workflow at home. What can I say… I’ve really liked my all-in-one iMac!

But Apple hasn’t upgraded the iMac line since 2021. Plus, that version only offers a 24” screen. (These eyes need something bigger!)

Why Not a Mac Mini?
What’s that, you say? I should have bought a Mac mini?

Sure, they’re wicked powerful now with the M2 chip. Plus, they’re relatively inexpensive, starting at $599.00.

Yes, that’s what I thought I would do too. But when I reviewed the specs, I knew I would need immediate upgrades to handle the editing of my family videos (many of my clips are 4K).

The Real Price Tag for a Mac Mini
I would certainly have to buy the upgraded M2 Pro version with 16GB of RAM.
That model costs $1,299.00.

But editing 4K video is much easier with 32GB of RAM.
Okay… That’s another $400.00.

512GB of internal storage is a joke. (My old iMac has 3TB!)
Bumping the Mac mini up to a 2TB SSD drive adds $600.00.

So now… that $599 Mac mini has suddenly grown to a price tag of $2,300.00!

Time to Consider the Mac Studio
I was actually about to pull the trigger and buy this super-sized Mac mini, when I realized that I should instead consider Apple’s ‘pro’ Mac Studio computer line.

Many reviewers out there say that the expensive Mac Studio is more than most people need and only for creative professional power users. These reviews then point the reader back to the very capable M2 Mac mini with some not-so-optional upgrades.

But the base-level Mac Studio costs almost the same as a maxed-out Mac mini and offers a bigger bang for the buck…

Price Comparison
For the $1,999 base Mac Studio model:

  • You get the better M2 Max chip.
  • The Mac Studio has the more powerful 12-core CPU and 30-Core GPU vs the Mac mini’s 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU.
  • 32GB of RAM is already included in the Mac Studio.

Of course, I would also have to bump up the silly 512GB of Mac Studio storage to 2TB for another $600.00.

Now we’re at $2,599.00 for my Mac Studio.

And had I totally maxed out the Mac Mini’s chip to the 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU for another $300…

That would make the cost of both machines exactly the same!

$2,599.00.

So, for the same price tag, you can get a maxed-out Mac mini or an entry-level Mac Studio with the same internal storage.

The Mac Studio is better. Period. It’s got more ports and an SDXC card slot. It’s got better specs.

Same price.

When you run the numbers, it’s clear that the weakest Mac Studio beats the most powerful Mac mini.

Same price.

So I Bought the Mac Studio
Sure, I know that a beefed-up Mac mini could handle my relatively simple 4K video editing into the future.

But I also thought about future-proofing my Apple purchases. So, for the exact same amount of money, why wouldn’t anyone not go with the Mac Studio choice…?

Well, that’s what I did.

Click.

Finding Clarity from Confusing Choice
This decision was not straightforward for me. It took time, research and some consensus building.

I learned that sometimes in the Apple ecosystem… less can offer more… for the same price. If this sentence is confusing, now you know how I felt along the way in my purchasing journey.

Happily, I had some help from an Apple Genius during a visit to The Apple Store as well as from a sales rep on the phone from B&H Photo. (Thank you!)

Apple purchases used to be simpler. (Maybe even ‘simple’)
But not anymore.

The good news is I believe I finally came to the right decision for me.
Yes, I am pleased with my choice.

You’ve just got to do your homework.

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May 28, 2023

How to Make a Bar Mitzvah Video

Here’s an outtake from the video I created to celebrate our son’s bar mitzvah. I followed a process that prioritized keeping it simple. Here’s how I did that.

Over the years, I think I’ve recorded hundreds (thousands?) of little family video clips. So if you’re wondering, yes, of course I created a video to celebrate our son’s bar mitzvah.

It was a highlights reel of sorts, containing some of his greatest hits to date… at least the ones that I happened to capture on video.

Fortunately, I’ve been diligent over these past thirteen years to label each of my family video clips and organize them into folders by month and year. (That’s a lot of folders!)

Over time, I’ve also created a variety of little ‘finished’ family videos that reflected different moments in our family’s story (birthday parties, vacation trips). These particular videos were especially useful to identify the clips I needed for the bar mitzvah video.

Not a Documentary
So years of good digital organization set me up nicely to begin my project. (I’ve got all of my video files stored in an external G-RAID drive.)

But really, any way I looked at my task, it was still absolutely overwhelming. (And I wasn’t even considering using any photos.)

So instead of trying to accomplish the impossible and somehow jam in every perfect clip to tell the ‘total’ story, I decided instead to enjoy my trip into the past and simply use what I uncovered in my digital archives over the course of several hours during three separate research sessions.

Capture the Spirit
Sure, there were a few video moments that I had specifically remembered and searched for. (My wife also had a few clip requests.) But for the most part, my process of rediscovery organically led me to the clips I used. If I had repeated my exercise the following month, I could have easily collected an entirely different grouping of clips that were just as delightful.

I realized as I went along that the video would mostly reflect these three factors:

  • Our son’s growth across the years
  • His family and friends
  • Some fun moments

It would never be a complete reflection on his life to date. And that was fine.

Keep a Simple Structure
This understanding freed me to focus on creating a video that was simply enjoyable to watch. And it was ‘relatively’ simple to make.

It ran seven and a half minutes. Each clip was 10 to 15 seconds long. And I organized them chronologically (using Final Cut Pro on my iMac) with a date stamp graphic in the bottom of the frame. I think the dates were useful to show the passage of time. I used a couple of his favorite pieces of music to support sections that were more visually oriented. And I popped in a title at the top and a ‘congratulations’ graphic at the back.

Finally, my wife and I recorded a short video message to our son that I included towards the end of the video.

Make a Few Drafts
That was it. I made three drafts before locking the final cut.

The first draft was a just a long string of clips in the right order. The second draft was a shorter version. (Everything can’t make it in. Always remember that less is more.) The third draft added a few more clips that my wife had remembered. (Don’t forget to collaborate!) And the final cut was where I polished it all up.

There are any number of ways to make a bar mitzvah video. This was the path I took.

A Video for the Past and the Future
We showed my finished video to our son, and I think he enjoyed it. He did smile a few times. To be fair, I can understand how he may not be as excited to see his toddler clips as we were. (My wife and I were delighted with the trip down memory lane.)

But beyond celebrating an important milestone for our son, I also see this video as a piece of family history that reflects our son’s first thirteen years. And I hope it’s something he can return to years into the future and enjoy.

My wife and I certainly will!

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April 30, 2023

How to Quickly Turn a Scanned Negative into a Positive Image on a Mac

If you think a 90-year-old negative is a lost cause, think again. Here’s how to bring it back to life.

Sure, photo negatives aren’t cool anymore. They represent 19th century technology. Most of us aren’t housing a roll of Kodachrome in our camera bags these days. I get it.

But there’s well over a century of family history locked away in millions of shoe boxes in the back of closets… all in those negative strips. There should be a way to rescue them.

Correction:
There should be an easy way to rescue them and quickly bring the negative images back to life into positive form.

I’ve been traveling that complex journey for the past months since I’ve taken ownership of all of my family’s photo archives (shoe boxes) after my father passed away.

Digital Conversion
So, I bought a slide and negative converter to handle the bulk of the work.

It’s fast. It’s a one-click solution. The results are mostly solid.

But the Wolverine couldn’t capture the full real estate of the larger negatives dating back to the 1930s (2 ½” x 3 ¾”).

I turned to my old flatbed scanner to handle the large negatives. But then I needed a way (an easy way!) to transform each negative into its positive doppelganger.

Adobe Solutions
There are any number of tutorials on YouTube that demonstrate how to do that in Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, and they all promote the concept of how easy and fun it is.

‘Fun’ is code for it’s not really that quick. Sure, it may be relatively easy, but it still requires about five minutes of fiddling to bring the image to life in the positive universe.

A few minutes may not seem like a lot of time, but fiddling is not a precise exercise, and five minutes can easily turn into fifteen.

Apple Photos (OS X):
As a Mac user, I wanted to see if I could find a native solution without having to rely on the muscle of Adobe. The good news is I found a couple good options.

If you already use the Apple Photos app on your Mac, you can do the conversion right there. It’s not quite one click. But it’s straight forward. Let’s give it a shot using a negative of my grandmother Rae from 1935 with my father and uncle. (My dad is the tiny one!)

  • Upload your negative into Apple Photos.
  • Select it.
  • Click on ‘Edit.’

Select the ‘Curves’ drop down.
You’ll see a histogram of the photo with a straight white line positioned diagonally from bottom left to top right.

To invert the negative image to its positive version:
Click on the bottom left of the line and drag it all the way to the top left. Then click on the top right of the line and drag it to the bottom right.

Voilà! Your negative image is now inverted and displays in positive form.

Then, you can continue to tweak the image from there as you choose. (And that’s where you can go down the rabbit hole of tweaking.)

Using Apple Photos to perform this trick is actually quite similar to Adobe Lightroom’s interface.

Preview App
You can also use Apple’s ‘Preview’ app to bring your negatives back to the positive universe.

It’s a near-identical exercise:

  • Select ‘Tools.’
  • Then ‘Adjust Color.’

Can You Invert a Negative Image in One Click?
Okay. None of these options are one-click solutions. So, Is there one? I figured any number of online photo management websites must have a negative-reversal filter built in.

I checked out Shutterfly, Google Photos, Amazon Photos and Canva.

Nope.

Yes, there are apps out there that promote the ability to reverse a negative in one click. But after giving it some more thought, I just didn’t want to add yet another piece of software into my workflow.

So, I canceled my adventure down this particular rabbit hole. Enduring a few clicks to turn a negative into a positive image will suffice.

Diagonal-Line Maneuver
The truth is I already do most of my photo management work in Adobe Lightroom. The diagonal-line maneuver in the Tone Curve section works just fine (just like with Apple’s ‘Photos’ and ‘Preview’ apps).

The good news is there’s a choice on the software to use if you don’t want to take the Adobe path.

And now I need to get back to work on my time machine. There’s still almost a century of negatives to go through.

I’m bringing the past back to life, one image at a time.

I’d say maybe that’s worth the five minutes.

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