While I previously ignored the MacBook Air series laptops due to their relatively poor performance and RAM limitations, the new MacBook Air M1 that Apple revealed earlier this year caught my attention. I tried out a number of different options in the past, including traveling with the Apple iPad Pro, but all of them had their issues and limitations. It barely fits into my camera bag, and the huge and heavy power adapter makes it painful to travel with when I really need to be productive on the road. While my 15″ MacBook Pro has been doing a fine job, it is by no means a travel-friendly machine. Shooting with a high-resolution camera can put quite a bit of strain even on the latest and greatest computer hardware, let alone a compact laptop. In this review, we will be taking a closer look at this machine and see how it compares to an older generation MacBook with an Intel processor. I recently had a chance to test out the new Apple MacBook Air with Apple’s M1 Silicon chip and I wanted to see how it compares to my 15″ MacBook Pro for photography and videography needs. While my camera gear has been getting slimmer and lighter, thanks to the advancements in mirrorless camera technology, my computer needs have also grown tremendously in the past few years.
Thus, the December updates to Camera Raw, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic can now import and edit images taken in the company’s new RAW file format.As a travel and landscape photographer, I want to be able to pack as light as possible. In addition, Adobe Camera Raw has been updated to support Apple ProRAW. You can, however, download Apple M1/Windows Arm native versions of Photoshop as a beta app through Creative Cloud. Lightroom Classic and Photoshop aren’t there yet, but both apps are now certified to work well with Apple Rosetta emulation.
“And if you’re on an Intel-based computer, don’t worry,” writes Adobe’s Sharad Mangalick on Adobe’s blog, “we’ll continue to invest in and improve Lightroom for you too.” That means the photo organizing and editing application will run natively on the new Mac Mini, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro, in addition to Windows 10 machines powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon. Lightroom has also been rebuilt for the Windows Arm platform. A month after Apple’s unveiling of the company’s new M1 chip for Mac, Adobe has-as promised-announced that the latest version of Lightroom is now a native app for the new Apple computers.