Leica M11 - Lightroom and Mac Mini M4

[CaZpeR]

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6 hours ago, Nick Lo said:

Don't get the regular  Mac mini M4. Get the Mac mini  M4 Pro with 48GB RAM and  512GB or 1TB SSD for $2000 or less. You can always add an external TB5 external SSD drive later for around 6kMB/s read/write speed. 

I wish. Here in Norway that specc (with 512GB SSD) goes for $2760. I'd rather grab a used M2 Mac Studio for that price.

Sadly, Apple refurbished isn't avaliable here in Norway, so that isn't a viable option.

Edit: Ebay is also not an option as everything going across the border gets added 25-30% taxes. But this is getting off topic 😛
 

Edit: I could find on a norwegian used market a Mac Studio M2 Max, 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD for approx. $1896. That could be a possability.

Edited March 30 by CaZpeR

[PhotoCruiser]

Oh, well then is a refurbished thru Amazon not a solution.
The Mac Studio you mentioned seems to be a reasonable solution for a acceptable price.

I just got a SanDisk Professional 8 TB G-DRIVE Project, slot PRO-BLADE SSD Mag, Thunderbolt 3, USB (10 Gbps), 7200 RPM, reading speed up to 250 MB/sek eternal Hard Disk and i like it, very silent and in many sizes from 6TB up available.
There are many "affordable" 4/6/8 TB SSD's on the market if you have big catalog, that would speed up opening the catalog, choose one with Thunderbolt 4 or 5 plug.
However if you don't want to fork out extra money for the faster Thunderbolt then USB-C 3 or 4 is almost as fast but can't be daisy chained.

Chris

[marchyman]

4 hours ago, CaZpeR said:

Edit: I could find on a norwegian used market a Mac Studio M2 Max, 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD for approx. $1896. That could be a possability.

Nice machine if you can live with the smallish internal SSD.  I use that machine with 1TB internal disk that is currently at 57% full.  My images live on an external SSD, mostly. I use LR and the LR catalog and the previews LR uses live on the internal drive.  I also do some software development that eats internal drive space.

[CaZpeR]

On 3/30/2025 at 7:21 PM, marchyman said:

Nice machine if you can live with the smallish internal SSD.  I use that machine with 1TB internal disk that is currently at 57% full.  My images live on an external SSD, mostly. I use LR and the LR catalog and the previews LR uses live on the internal drive.  I also do some software development that eats internal drive space.

Yeah, but the SSD in Mac Studio can also be user-upgraded. If I go the Mac Studio M2-route I think I will fork out for a 2TB SSD (the 4TB and 8TB options are a bit to pricey for my taste, can be purchased from Polysoft).
 

[RoySmith]

On 3/30/2025 at 2:00 AM, Nick Lo said:

Don't get the regular  Mac mini M4. Get the Mac mini  M4 Pro with 48GB RAM and  512GB or 1TB SSD for $2000 or less. You can always add an external TB5 external SSD drive later for around 6kMB/s read/write speed. 

That’s what I did - works great! My photo files are all on an external 4TB OWC Envoy Ultra TB5 drive. Not the cheapest option but works well.

[jaapv]

I recently settled on a M2 Pro, 32 GB, 1TB. Refurb by a refurb company ( not Apple) to replace my M1 16 GB 0,5 TB machine that was getting slow on AI editing. It resolved all issues. I keep my data on an external 8TB SSD.During my research I found that nearly all sites recommended the M2Pro for photo editing as performing close to the M4 Pro.

I tested with 96 MP files from the S5ii

[PeterHatt]

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Slightly off topic - I’m waiting arrival of a new Mac Studio & I’m considering a clean install (starting from scratch), can anyone confirm that once signed into my Apple account on the new machine  I will have access to my passwords

Edited April 26 by PeterHatt

[Derbyshire Man]

1 hour ago, PeterHatt said:

Slightly off topic - I’m waiting arrival of a new Mac Studio & I’m considering a clean install (starting from scratch), can anyone confirm that once signed into my Apple account on the new machine  I will have access to my passwords

If you've got saving them to iCloud turned on then yes.

[PhotoCruiser]

The only password you need in the beginning is your AppleID, if you saved your passwords with the Apple Password Manager then they will be available if stored in iCloud. You may keep your old mac for a few weeks to have a backup and be able to access it if something does not work or is missing.
If you use a password manager as i do, then you need this password too.
Once your new machine is set up then you need the installation keys or procedures to install the additional software and you are good to enjoy your new and virgin machine.
Download all software from Apple Store or manufacturer website and then activate it.
Chris

Edited April 26 by PhotoCruiser

[pedaes]

2 hours ago, PeterHatt said:

signed into my Apple account on the new machine  I will have access to my passwords

Not sure what you want your 'clean install' to be, but need to be careful that Apple isn't over helpful when you sign in and load stuff associated with your account automatically.

[Derbyshire Man]

On 4/1/2025 at 3:10 PM, CaZpeR said:

Yeah, but the SSD in Mac Studio can also be user-upgraded. If I go the Mac Studio M2-route I think I will fork out for a 2TB SSD (the 4TB and 8TB options are a bit to pricey for my taste, can be purchased from Polysoft).
 

That's great to see. I bought what I thought was a seriously future proofed studio m3 ultra with max ram but only 1tb internal drive as I planned to use external storage and I'd never had a problem before. It's become evident however that all of the photography apps like to keep their working files internally and hence as my collection become larger it become more apparent that the drive should have been 2tb. The cost of selling and rebuying was not good and this is a better option when they are out for the M3.

[PeterHatt]

I use Apples Password manager, that’s what I want access to so as to be able to download & install among others Adobe cloud & photoshop 

I will definitely keep the old machine till I’m confident I have everything I need 

[jaapv]

In general the type of chip is an even more important choice than internal memory or SSD. The Pro chips are best suited to photo and video editing; the plain vanilla ones are regular use ones and the max chips are meant to be able to calculate the future of the universe.