2016 MBP upgrade from 2012 MBP

[mikef]

And maybe a USB-C native card reader rather than an adapter - I'm using this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01NCHMKCW

As an aside, I don't care for dongles or adpaters, so am moving to USB-C native cables, thumb drives and card reader, and carry a portable USB-C hub for everything else

[ashleyman]

Make of this what you will! Very confusing...

Tethering to EOS Utility 3 & the latest Lightroom CC. Canon 5D MKIII + 24-70 F2.8 Lens. Shooting RAW + S JPG to a 120MB/s card. Pointing the camera into 3 set places so all of the photos are roughly the same with the same data.

For the first test I'm shooting RAW but telling EOS Utility to only move over the JPG to the computer. Got Auto-Import on the go in Lightroom so I can apply a preset/metadata on Import. Do this with most shoots just to clean up the exposure, contrast and add tags as I shoot - helps clients to visualise things.

Time from pressing shutter to preview showing in EOS Utility. (Lightroom is shut)

iMac: 2.35 seconds
Old MBP: 1.65 seconds
New MBP: 2.27 seconds

Timed from pressing shutter to preview showing in Lightroom.

iMac: 8.56 seconds
Old MBP: 5.38 seconds
New MBP: 5.50 seconds

For the second test I'm shooting RAW but telling EOS Utility to only move over the RAW to the computer.

Preview showing in EOS Utility. (Lightroom is shut)

iMac: 2.99 seconds
Old MBP: 3.4 seconds
New MBP: 2.5 seconds

Preview showing in Lightroom

iMac: 12.10 seconds
Old MBP: 9.9 seconds
New MBP: 9.5 seconds

The length of the USB cable doesn't really make much difference. The old MBP seems to be the best at processing the JPGs but the new MBP seems to be the best at processing the RAW images faster than my iMac or old MBP.

The difference in performance is not that great when used with my current 5D3 but I'm unsure if I'll see any performance benefits when shooting Phase One.

Edited by ashleyman on Saturday 1st April 15:19

[ashleyman]

Tethering directly into Lightroom shooting RAW

Timed from pressing shutter to preview showing on Computer.

iMac: 7.5 seconds
Old MBP: 8.1 seconds
New MBP: 8.8 seconds

[dmsims]

Firstly - good job on the benchmarking - it helps you understand that the tethering and LR is the issue

It would be interesting to try it on a PC with some real horsepower

Did you try turning off all the processing in LR ?

Can you open a support issue with Adobe?

[Vaud]

Part of it might be that the Canon 5D MKIII will only tether at USB 2.0 speeds so you aren't getting any gains from 3.0.

Odd that it is slower though.

[ashleyman]

dmsims said:

Firstly - good job on the benchmarking - it helps you understand that the tethering and LR is the issue

It would be interesting to try it on a PC with some real horsepower

Did you try turning off all the processing in LR ?

Can you open a support issue with Adobe?

Lightroom is without doubt what's slowing it down. The times in my previous post are all without processing, sorry I should have said that. Processing doesn't add much at all, but it's something I do on set to make images a little more presentable!

The problem with Lightroom is when you're shooting with EOS Utility and uploading just the JPGS from the camera, they get saved in a folder. Lightroom then 'watches' that folder and Auto-Imports them to your collection/folder wherever. BUT when it imports them there's no way to set it up without Lightroom wanting to 'MOVE' those folders on the hard disk. For example, EOS Utility will save files in User/Ash/Picture/Tether. Lightroom will watch that folder but then want to move the files so you end up adding a processing step for no reason. It's impossible to tell Lightroom not to move files too. Lightroom then copies the files from User/Ash/Picture/Tether to (for example) User/Ash/Picture/Tether/NewFolder

The other issue is cutting out the EOS Utility step means you're stuck with transferring over full RAW files and not just JPGs. That really shows up the slowness of USB2 on the 5D3. So although there's less 'steps' going into getting something from camera to Lightroom there's more data involved as you're moving whole RAW files. I guess this is where USB3 would be handy as those transfer speeds would be faster.

Thinking about the laptop on it's own - the screen itself is a MASSIVE step up from my 2012 MBP. I can now see more tools down the right hand column and also view files in better resolution. Colours look nicer and more 'true' although it's not totally configured yet it's a beautiful display.

The speakers are awesome on this thing. Not as good as my iMac ones but a massive step up from the 2012 model.

The touchbar is fantastic and annoying at the same time. My middle finger on my left hand tends to rest on the Escape button and as it's a touch screen it tends to freak out sometimes. However, in apps it has awesome customisation and after using the machine all day yesterday and then sitting at my desktop today I did miss it! Safari shortcuts, volume and brightness sliders, finder buttons and even unlocking the computer with TouchID all cool. The Photoshop tools are great but I would welcome an option to display standard F keys too. The keyboard is nice but not as nice as the wireless desktop keyboards I'm used too. The trackpad is massive and the pinch and zoom tricks are fun!

I didn't think the dongles would bother me but I was getting frustrated as I kept going to plug the bare USB cable into the 2016 MBP and then remembered I needed the dongle. Wouldn't be too bad in a real life situation but as I was doing lots of switching around it was noticed. Forgetting a dongle would be a disaster. If I do keep this machine I'll need to buy a couple and keep them in different places just in case. Perhaps even leave one in the car as an emergency option.

I've got a morning of Phase One training so will see if I can have some time to plug the Phase into both laptops and record the differences in performance. I guess anything with USB 3 is going to outperform USB 2. The fact the new MBP is quicker when dealing with the RAW files makes me think it will also be quicker when using USB 3 cameras and processing Phase files. Will be testing on Monday.

If I do end up keeping the current MBP (looking likely) then I'll have to start tethering with just EOS Utility. Never really experimented with it before and being able to see photos within 2 seconds is much better than waiting 5 for it to be in Lightroom. The only downsides are no processing on import and no way of looking back at previous photos - it only displays the most current.

[mikef]

ashleyman said:

I didn't think the dongles would bother me but I was getting frustrated as I kept going to plug the bare USB cable into the 2016 MBP and then remembered I needed the dongle. Wouldn't be too bad in a real life situation but as I was doing lots of switching around it was noticed. Forgetting a dongle would be a disaster. If I do keep this machine I'll need to buy a couple and keep them in different places just in case. Perhaps even leave one in the car as an emergency option.

I'm doing it the other way around. I only have two or three USB devices I'm likely to use with the MBP so I bought a few of these at sale price and keep them attached to the cables: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B015Z7XE0A

[Vaud]

Would the Canon 5D MKIII be faster over Gigabit ethernet and a small switch?

[ashleyman]

mikef said:

I'm doing it the other way around. I only have two or three USB devices I'm likely to use with the MBP so I bought a few of these at sale price and keep them attached to the cables: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B015Z7XE0A

I bought the Apple ones as they were £9 each. I'll probably just buy another CF reader and have 1 in my kit bag and 1 on my desk. When they release an iMac with USB-C only that will make it easier as it'll all be consistent!

[ashleyman]

Vaud said:

Would the Canon 5D MKIII be faster over Gigabit ethernet and a small switch?

I'm not sure. Depends how the data gets from the camera to the ethernet. If it's using USB to Ethernet the it'll still only be as fast as the USB 2.0 port.

[dmsims]

Vaud said:

Would the Canon 5D MKIII be faster over Gigabit ethernet and a small switch?

Assume a raw is 33MB

Simplistically (remember frictionless pulleys )

USB2 time about 0.5 second

[ashleyman]

dmsims said:

Vaud said:

Would the Canon 5D MKIII be faster over Gigabit ethernet and a small switch?

Assume a raw is 33MB

Simplistically (remember frictionless pulleys )

USB2 time about 0.5 second

My point was if the ethernet switch plugs into the USB 2 port. It would still be limited to USB 2 as thats the speed the image is coming out of the camera.

[Vaud]

ashleyman said:

My point was if the ethernet switch plugs into the USB 2 port. It would still be limited to USB 2 as thats the speed the image is coming out of the camera.

It would seem that it does come from the same port, and needs the WFT-E7, so if anything, slower overall.