Mark Dobson
Forum Replies Created
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One thing is clear from looking at the picture of the Sonnet Echo 15 Thunderbolt dock and that is that it wasn’t designed by Jonathan Ive.
Another thing is that at $400 it isn’t cheap but it certainly covers all the bases and even has space for a drive bay for a SSD or HDD.
If all one is after is to connect eSATA drives, the LaCie eSATA Hub at $199 is another option. One can also daisy chain onwards with this unit and it’s got a nice blue light on the front.
I use one of these to connect 2 GTech eSATA drives and an Apple USB SuperDrive when I want to import CD’s or burn DVDs.
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[Julian Bowman] “Ultimately it is horses for courses. For me, as a one man show working in a niche market, the new mac pro offers a great deal and the price is affordable. And anything that circumnavigates the crashes and lag I get on my current machine will be embrace with loving arms (apart from imacs, I have an inexplicable pathological dislike of them. Can’t say why, just glad I don’t have to buy one).”
I shared your dislike of the iMac breed of Macs but just couldn’t wait, this time last year, to take advantage of thunderbolt speed, so I’ve had a hassle free year of editing with FCPX, and to be honest I have to ask myself how I can justify the imminent and inevitable purchase of the new Mac Pro.
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[Herb Sevush] “While I think the Tube is a good deal financially what you are not getting for the money is flexibility. You cannot choose GPU’s, you cannot have PCIe, you cannot have multiple CPUs. What you can have is the illusion of excellent energy efficiency and sound reduction, because Apple has outsourced most of the elements that suck up power and increase noise. Of course once you start adding external DVD recorders, hard drives and PCIe expansion cases, the power requirements and sound go back up. As long as you are completely satisfied with exactly what the Tube offers without any Thunderbolt expansion it’s a smart choice.”
Yes, It would seem that what you buy is what you are stuck with – apart from memory. But I’ve already made this transition with switching from the Mac Pro to a new 27″ iMac.
At the moment I’ve got 3 GRaid Drives attached to my iMac via Thunderbolt and a LaCie Thunderbolt Esata Hub and these would be the drives I would need to attach to the new Mac Pro.
Can’t say they are that noisy or that I’m that concerned to monitor the power but see the point you are making about Apples claims of reducing energy consumption. And don’t forget the monitors and a kettle.
Ultimately I think that if one made the wrong Mac Pro processor of GPU it will be possible to sell at a good price and get a new one. Certainly at a better price than my 2008 Mac Pro is valued at.
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How about editor nap?
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[Dan Stewart] “It looks like Apple have priced one of their machines reasonably – no Apple premium. Does this mean it’s snowing in hell right now?”
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the affordability of the Mac Pro, the entry level unit is same price that I paid for my maxed out 27″ iMac earlier this year but no doubt I would probably go for the next model up.
And that’s where the detail of the pricing will start to get interesting. As you will have heard on the streamed presentation these machines come with a ‘quarter of a terabyte’ flash storage as standard. I think most people will opt for 512GB or 1TB storage and it will interesting to see how these are priced. They are specifically designed for the new Mac Pro and, unlike the memory, it doesn’t look at this stage like something that one could upgrade at a later date. ( I’m presuming one can upgrade the memory oneself )
But really the question I need to ask myself in these straightened times is how will the new Mac Pro compare with my 27″ iMac, will I really see a huge performance increase?
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[Rick Lang] “Have you considered the Blackmagic Design Production Camera”
Hi Rick,
I’d sort of forgotten about Blackmagic. I always pick up on their product launch news and then hear about huge delays before anything is available. I’ve got a lot of respect for the R&D they do and their understanding of the filmmaking community.
I’ve no doubt that this camera produces sensational images and I could use all the lenses I have built up to use with our C300, but to me the Blackmagic Design Production Camera looks like a lot work to use as a second camera with limited battery life and awkward ergonomics. I would see it as the kind of camera that would need it’s own little ecosystem, rig, viewfinder, etc.
The potential advantage of the Sony PXW-Z100 is it’s usability as a self contained unit. But I would wait to pick up feedback once it’s released and actually get to have a hands on demo, or maybe hire one out for a day before making any decisions.
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I get that lovely spinning ball when I open Event Manager X but it resolve itself after about 30 secs.
Even Episode is working!
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[Brett Sherman] “Given prices of other 4K monitors, I’m guessing around $3000”
Yes, that’s correct, the Sharp monitor the guy is using is a Sharp PN-K321 which retails at just a whisper below $4K !
Inextricably we are being gently led into the next period of elite big spending and should Apple launch a domestic TV next year I would imagine that have 4K capability.
Even with nothing to play the files back onto I’m tempted by the new Sony PXW-Z100 Camcorder although having just listened to an interview with Philip Hodgetts
on Rick Youngs Blog that might be a premature investment.https://www.moviemachine.tv/video/comments-on-4k-philip-hodgetts/77230136/
But that aside I do think that the Mac Pro looks very odd, a bit like a modernist flower vase.
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Happy to fly over from the UK, never visited the states and this way I’d get paid as well!
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Well that price sort feels a bit more attainable although they always hike things up for sale in the UK and then some with the 20% Vat.
My main impression of the show was pretty favourable although I still really miss Steve Job’s presence.