Leica M11 workflow on MacBook Air M2 base model

[Meisyong]

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Hey folks, just wondering any of you have used the MacBook Air M2 base model for your M11 photos workflow. Just wondering if the 8GB ram can provide sufficient memory to import, process and export the 60MP raw photos. Appreciate any advice

[jaapv]

It should work - just, but it may run out of memory if you use Photoshop heavily. Scratch disk access will slow things down. My Mac Mini  M1 has 16 GB of memory and has no problems, even on Gigapixel-enlarged files.

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[maxpower]

My 24gb M2 has no issues with this, but not sure about the base model, might be fine. tbh I don't think I would buy a computer with soldered 8gb memory in 2022/2023 myself, but they still get away selling it as the base for a reason so it must be usable enough for most scenarios you'd hope. Also depends if you are doing other things whilst working on your photos of course. It does feel a little more sluggish when I'm using CaptureOne it with the 6K XDR Pro Display attached. If it reaches the point of throttling I do find it annoying to work with, changing sliders will have noticeable delays, but I haven't had that happen that often and when it did I just wait a little bit.

[MyLeicaWorld]

My father uses MacBook Air M1 8gb for his Nikon D850 camera files and has no problems.. M2 would be better even with 8gb rams ..

[6bit]

My son has a base model M1 MBA. No issues whatsoever. Go for it. 

[tom0511]

I have not used a 8GB version, but if I could choose I would get 16GB just to be on the safe side. My MBAir M1 16GB works quite good with M11 files. 

[hmzimelka]

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The swap memory is fast enough that the perceptible slow down from running out of memory with Lightroom is hardly noticeable. Lightroom will use most of those 8GB for video acceleration, so I switched that feature off in LR Classic.

I used an M1 Air with 8GB for several months and loved it, but ended up with 18TB written to the systems SSD drive within 6 months of use. At the time I was using mostly LR Classic with D810 and D850 files. Now I use a M1 Pro MacBook with 16GB and the swap memory has almost completely gone away unless I'm working in photoshop on a big file for a long time or building panoramas in LR Classic. 

Recommendation is to get 16GB.

Edited November 28, 2022 by hmzimelka

[Meisyong]

Thanks everyone for your insights and advice. I’m will not be having complex post production and also not a professional photography (hence small volume of photo each time). But I am worried that 8GB ram is insufficient to handle the 100mb+ raw files from M11. Ideally I want to go for 16GB ram but I have a good offer for the base model (8GB) currently. 

[hmzimelka]

1 hour ago, Meisyong said:

Thanks everyone for your insights and advice. I’m will not be having complex post production and also not a professional photography (hence small volume of photo each time). But I am worried that 8GB ram is insufficient to handle the 100mb+ raw files from M11. Ideally I want to go for 16GB ram but I have a good offer for the base model (8GB) currently. 

It'll be perfectly fine... Even with swap memory, it'll be absolute years until the SSD would wear out, and the speed of editing M11 files is still good with the 8GB model. If you have a great deal then go for it. 

[sdk]

I have a base model 2020 MacBook Air from work, an M1 processor version. It's OK at M11 and D850 files. Did have Lightroom CC classic freeze on me this afternoon on that machine, trying to compare two M11 DNG files at 100%. I forced quit, restarted the MBA, and it didn't happen again. Compared many other files fine. So a newer Mac or more memory would probably be better than the one I use. But at home I have a MacPro from 2020 that has oodles of memory, and it's only a bit faster. The main difference is in building previews for lots of new DNG downloads, with the tower being faster. But of course it's got better quality GPU, etc. too. It's amazing the M1 laptop is actually pretty close in casual image processing performance. 

[Crem]

On 11/26/2022 at 9:20 AM, Meisyong said:

Hey folks, just wondering any of you have used the MacBook Air M2 base model for your M11 photos workflow. Just wondering if the 8GB ram can provide sufficient memory to import, process and export the 60MP raw photos. Appreciate any advice

How long do you plan on keeping the Mac? I’d go with 16GB if you plan on keeping it for years. Future software updates from Apple and Adobe will no doubt benefit from more RAM. Amortized over say 4 years the extra cost is well worth it.

[Photoworks]

M1 processors are all the same performance at 8 core.

Most adobe product and many others just use 2-4 cores. in many cases you see only benefit in very few cases.

Sticking panorama  is where you need more fire power. 

With the RAM and Memory been on the same bus you get just a little benefit most of the time to max it out.

the biggest different from the AIR to Pro is a missing cooling fan on the lower models, that is ok for smaller processing spikes, but if you are rendering something big on the AIR , like a movie , the processor start to slow down a bit to stay cooler.

I like the MacBook Air M2 for travel. and the MacBook 16 Pro Max for location work and as replacement of the iMac Pro of all other editing.

[Meisyong]

13 hours ago, Crem said:

How long do you plan on keeping the Mac? I’d go with 16GB if you plan on keeping it for years. Future software updates from Apple and Adobe will no doubt benefit from more RAM. Amortized over say 4 years the extra cost is well worth it.

Yes I intend to keep it for at least 4 years. I’m in a dilemma to pay for the base model customised with 16gb or use my card rewards point to redeem a (free) base model. Unfortunately, the card redemption doesn’t allow customisation. From all of your advice, it does seem like the M2 base model is sufficient for light-moderate usage to process M11 raw files. 
 

Thanks everyone.

[thrid]

The M2 is plenty fast, but make sure you get enough RAM. 

I have a 14 inch M1 MacBook Pro and really wish I had gotten more than 16GB, once I started to work with a lot of layers in PS.
The biggest problem with the new machines is that you can't upgrade the RAM. You're stuck with what you bought.

Edited November 30, 2022 by thrid

[nicci78]

Get 16GB at least ! 
Leica Q2 47MP DNG can crush MacBook Air M1 with 8GB only. But fly on Mac mini M1 with 16GB. 

 

[Tailwagger]

If you stay in LR and deal with a limited number of files, you should be okay.  OTOH, if you export for work in PS, Topaz, SFx, what have you, the returning tiffs will balloon 10x or more. What was 50 odd MB, becomes half a gig which I suspect would become untenable pretty quickly. 

[nicci78]

There is no miracle inside Apple Silicon. Unifies memory is still RAM if a software requires 10GB alone, 8GB total won’t cut it. No matter how fast swap is. 
M1/M2 swap is way slower than M1 Pro/Max/Ultra by the way. Even with the fastest chips you’ll need 2TB+ storage to get 7 Gbit/s speed. 
 

Actually 16GB on M1 Pro is just ok for batch processing Q2 files. M11 files are 30% bigger ! Maybe 24GB is be the sweet spot. 

[Meisyong]

10 hours ago, nicci78 said:

There is no miracle inside Apple Silicon. Unifies memory is still RAM if a software requires 10GB alone, 8GB total won’t cut it. No matter how fast swap is. 
M1/M2 swap is way slower than M1 Pro/Max/Ultra by the way. Even with the fastest chips you’ll need 2TB+ storage to get 7 Gbit/s speed. 
 

Actually 16GB on M1 Pro is just ok for batch processing Q2 files. M11 files are 30% bigger ! Maybe 24GB is be the sweet spot. 

 24GB? Ok now you are scaring me 😅

[nicci78]

Don’t forget that the Mac is multitasking! 
You can edit photos, watch a video, browse the web, write an email, etc… all at once. 
 

Some huge panoramic photos merging can be happy with 64GB or 128GB with Apple Silicon  

 

As usual with any computer especially with Apple : buy as many RAM and as many storage as you can afford. 
You won’t be able to upgrade any of them later. 
 

Personally I switch from : 
MacBook Air 13.3“ M1 4+4 CPU 7 GPU 8GB 256GB 
+ Mac mini M1 4+4 CPU 8 GPU 16GB 1TB 
to : 
MacBook Pro 14” M1 Pro 6+2 CPU 14 GPU 16GB 2TB 
+ iPad Pro 11” M1 4+4 CPU 8 GPU 8GB 512GB 

Edited December 6, 2022 by nicci78

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[Knipsknecht]

Reading this thread I feel kind of relieved because I opted for a M 10-R instead of a new M11. With "just" 40 MP I am still able to work on my photos using just an iPad Pro.