FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (142.7mm, f/11, 1/240 sec, ISO250)

About 15 years ago I finally switched to Mac. After a couple of days my only thought was “What took me so long?”

When I switched I got all in. I got a 15 inch MacBook Pro with an SSD hard drive. Today it’s standard but back then it was a costly option. I also got the 27 inch cinema display. It was a revelation. Finally a fast and silent computer with a fast and silent hard drive. The MacBook Pro was silent most of the time but when forced the fans start to spin fast and it was like a jet took off.

The MacBook Pro was big and heavy and also because it was so expensive I wanted something small (and cheaper) for traveling. I got the 11 inch MacBook Air when it came out. Wow! No fans at all, a totally silent computer. And the smallest laptop ever. This thing looked crazy not only compared to my big MacBook Pro but next to any laptop. This thing was made for traveling.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (132.9mm, f/8, 1/500 sec, ISO250)

Unfortunately it wasn’t made for photographers. Back then my main cameras were the Canon 5D and my new Fuji X100. Both only 12MP and Fuji were still using a Bayer sensor. With those files Lightroom worked but it was slow. When I finally got the X-Pro1 with its 16MP X-Trans sensor it was game over. At that point it was only a hard drive on which I dropped my images when traveling, there was no chance to meaningfully work in Lightroom. In 2013 I bought a 13 inch MacBook Pro. Much bigger and heavier and with a noisy fan but practically as quick as my main computer.

Fast forward to now. I finally replaced my 13 inch Intel i5 MacBook Pro from 2020 with a 13 inch MacBook Air M4. Wow! That’s what I call an upgrade. The same happened when I replaced my 15 inch MacBook Pro (from 2015) with a MacMini M1 in 2021. Unfortunately I was not brave enough to go for the M1 chip when I bought the MacBook Pro the year before. I don’t think that I would have bought a new laptop now if my old laptop was already equipped with Apple silicon.

Of course I also considered to get a 14 inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro to replace both: MacMini and my old laptop but I prefer to have a tiny desktop on my desk. And I got used to a silent computer. My MacMini M1 is totally silent. Even if it renders thousands of 1:1 previews when back from a vacation it never gets loud. When it finally will get too slow I will replace it with either an even smaller MacMini or if I go crazy with a MacStudio.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (37.6mm, f/9, 1/450 sec, ISO200)

Back to my new laptop. The bad news first. This is not crazy compact and also not crazy light. It’s practically the size of the MacBook Pro it replaces and just a little lighter but it is still a radical computer. It still doesn’t have any fans so it is totally silent in operation but it is also really fast. There is no compromise in performance and its screen is even bigger than that of my old MacBook Pro. OK maybe there is one small compromise: Because there is no fan there is only one way to prevent the CPU from overheating: to reduce its speed. But this throttling only affects tasks that take really long i.e. when I render hundreds or even thousands of 1:1 previews at once. But if do that I don’t wait in front of the computer anyway.

I already mentioned that this laptop is totally silent and you might think, well my laptop is very quiet too and I can only hear the fan when it is working hard. There is a difference in between silent and quiet and it’s a big difference. I can’t say how much I enjoy the fact that this laptop is absolutely silent. It really has to be experienced in person. Apple has achieved something truly special since they left Intel processors behind and it completely transfers their laptops especially their MacBook Airs.

Regarding interfaces the MacBook Air has even less interfaces than my old MacBook Pro but I don’t care. My Nikon Z8 uses CFexpress cards so I would need a card reader anyway even on a MacBook Pro. MagSafe is back! I never understood why Apple got rid of it as it is such a great feature. And one more thing: The stupid touch bar is gone! Finally, I just hated that thing as it was completely useless.

My MacBook Air is close to entry level, I only upgraded the SSD to 512GB because 256GB is way too small. I would prefer a bigger hard drive like 1TB or 2TB but Apples pricing when it comes to those upgrades is ridiculous. The base model is a steal but tick a couple of boxes and you end up with a rather pricy computer.

Conclusion: 

Modern times! An entry level laptop from Apple is easily strong enough to deal with the RAW files of a 45MP camera in Lightroom. Even more impressive: it’s totally silent no matter how hard it works, it hardly gets warm in normal use and its battery lasts forever. This is an amazing piece of hardware. At least regarding cameras and computers we live in a very good time.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (35.3mm, f/8, 1/800 sec, ISO200)