Apple MacBook Air

[David_Buzzard]

The MacBook Air is the Mac equivalent of a Mazda Miata. It's a cool looking, sporty little unit that's great for zipping around town. Just don't try and put any heavy cases of camera equipment into it, because it was never built to carry it.

If you need to surf the web, check your e-mail, write a report, or do a presentation, it will probably work great. I wouldn't want to run 1000 D2x NEF files through it, and there's no way you're going to be able to edit video, do any hard core rendering in the field with it.

David Buzzard's Technical Blog

[Jerry Skrocki]

More reviews of the MacBook Air:

Apple MacBook Air Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz - 13.3" TFT Laptop reviews - CNET Reviews

MacBook Air review - Engadget

Apple’s MacBook Air Is Beautiful and Thin, but Omits Features | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD

Jerry

[Jerry Skrocki]

The MacBook Air gets taken apart (literally)!

iFixit — MacBook Air

[Martin_Doudoroff]

I got to spend a few minutes with a Mac Book Air yesterday. The physical impact of the device is not subtle. It's an extremely light device, and the form factor is arresting, particularly when you shut the lid and heft it around. The feel in-hand is nice and solid, kind of like a nice cigarette case (for extremely long cigarettes).

The screen does indeed turn on instantly and my immediate impression is that it's the best-looking screen of any current Apple laptop. The backlighting seems most even, the colors are rich, and the directional non-linearity seems better controlled than the other current models.

The keyboard seems pretty identical to the Mac Book's and the new keyboards Apple ships with its desktop computers: perfectly adequate, but not one I'll ever love. The huge trackpad is clearly an improvement over the smaller ones on Apple's Mac Book Pros. I expect we'll see that new design on new MBPs within a month or two.

I cannot comment on performance other than to say that general purpose use of the device feels exactly like a Mac Book.

[JonSegar]

I would agree that nobody would try to use this as their only machine for photographic purposes.

I intend to get one, and I intend to use it for email, web and the like when away from base, but also (from the photographic perspective) at the end of a days shoot, load the CF cards to it, and do preliminary discarding of the trash, keywording etc. Then (assuming that one is in a location with wi-fi) use .mac to upload the good stuff back to the mac pro back at base (also gives me online backup of those images at the same time).

Dont need firewire, dont need huge storage (because the data has gone online/back to base), do need a decent size screen and a proper keyboard.

This fits the bill like no other

jon segar

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Results of a semi-formal heat test.

Insightful commentary on the design tradeoffs of the Mac Book Air.

[Martin_Doudoroff]

My wife and I picked up a MacBook Air (MBA) the other day. The machine will primarily be used by her for email and web surfing and by me for writing in cafés. However, I have just completed a straightforward experiment of installing Aperture 2, loading a 326-image shoot into it comprised of 12 megapixel EOS-5D raw files, and doing some editorial work and image adjustments. Here's what I can report:

The import process was noticeably pokey, as was the preview rendering. (Based on what I saw in the Activity Monitor, my suspicion is that Aperture is most constrained by the 2GB of RAM and slow disk access, rather than processor speed.) During the import, Aperture actually remains usable and tolerably responsive provided all you're doing is rotating thumbnails and doing IPTC-type metadata editing. Anything that requires Aperture to load full image data (such as the loupe or full screen mode) while rendering previews in the background will bring the machine to its knees. In practical terms, if one was going to employ the MBA for reviewing photography while traveling, one would probably set up the import and just walk away until it finishes.

Once all the previews have been rendered, however, all the features of Aperture seem pretty usable. I adjusted exposures, cropped and straightened and it all basically worked without more than a handful of beach ball moments. The new interface in Aperture 2 fits surprisingly comfortably on the MBA's 1280x800 screen, and even supports some of the new multi-touch gestures features Apple has added to the trackpad. By no means is the MBA an optimal platform for Aperture, but it clearly can work in a pinch.

The scenario I see with this computer goes something like this:
- take an empty Aperture library on a trip
- import the day's photos "back at the hotel" while eating dinner
- do as much or as little image review and editing as one can stand if there's nothing better to do
- when back at home, export the project(s) from Aperture on the MBA
- copy the exported project(s) to a primary Aperture system
- blow away all the images on the MBA, keeping its hard drive as empty as possible for the next trip

I look forward to trying precisely this in the future.

Obviously, I would never propose the MBA as a primary system for a photographer, but the MBA is a fundamentally different proposition than other portable computers, and continues to hold promise as a travel computer for some (like myself) whose needs are relatively modest and who would simply not be willing to lug a larger, heavier laptop to a shoot. The MBA weighs almost exactly the same as a Canon EF 100-400mm 1:4.5-5.6 lens, but its form factor distributes the weight completely differently, making the MBA feel even lighter. Meanwhile the computer takes up virtually no room in a backback or suitcase.

Moreover, the second generation MBA will undoubtedly reduce the severity of the compromises made to produce this form factor. What I would most like to see is a 4GB option for RAM, which should drastically reduce the pressure on Aperture.

[Pro Photo Store]

Visit the B&H Pro Photo Store for the best Gear Prices and regular specials!

Brilliant Color for any Digital SLR
White Balance Cap
The Pros Agree on ColorRight
What People Are Saying