Dave Amirault @ozskier-blog - Tumblr Blog

Apple Watch Update: I put in a big day, strapped it on around 7:30 AM and didn't look back until just past midnight. After well over a hundred notifications, showing it off for half a dozen people, and using the fitness tracking for a 2 hour mountain bike ride, the watch still has 13% left without any mid-day charging. The battery would have far more left in it had it not been for that 2 hour MTB adventure. Fitness tracking appears to consume the battery faster than anything else, probably because it is constantly sampling your heart rate. Did it make me ride longer, faster, etc? No. But it was great to have notifications on my wrist - not that it's anything new since I've been wearing a Pebble smart watch for over a year. Over and out.

Back to back sunset pics. Who am I, @vitalfilms?! #LakeTahoe #Sunset #California (at Tahoe Keys Beach)

#california #sunset #laketahoe

Nobody uses the #Toaster filter, so I figured I'd venture off to the right side of the filter spectrum and give it a whirl. Thoughts? (at Lake Tahoe Beach)

#toaster

iMac with Retina 5K Display - Initial Impressions

I had the chance to get my nerdy little hands on the new 5K Retina iMac this past weekend in Boulder. Initial impressions...

The screen is absurd. It's like you're looking out a window, not staring at a computer. The color reproduction is gorgeous, and there is no doubt in my mind that this is where we're headed. I've got two 25" 2K displays attached to my MacPro and they look like dogshit compared to this thing. (Apple - please, please, please make a 4K or 5K monitor that will work with my 2015 MacPro. Just take my money.)

Editing 1080p video on this thing is a joke. Check out the image, I made a white box that is 1920x1080 - that's how many pixels your HDTV has compared to this baby. You'd be able to edit at 100% and full HD quality with just about every single toolbox open in Premiere if you wanted to.

It has no problems playing / scrubbing / cutting 4K ProRes footage. The demo unit didn't have any on it, so I logged into dropbox and transferred some of my own and started hammering away on Final Cut X. Would I prefer this over my MacPro for a 4K workflow? Aside from the screen, probably not. (Using Final Cut X still feels like I'm editing with oven mitts on. It's iMovie Pro, I wish the floor model had the Creative Cloud loaded up on it so I could have tested realtime effects with Premiere CC 2014.)

The unit I was using was FULLY LOADED at a cost of $4,399. If you're considering one, the base model probably isn't going to be that rad if you're working in a 4K or 5K (RED) workflow. Working with photos? Bump a spec or two here and there and you'd probably be plenty satisfied.

When using simple OS things like Safari and Finder there was a little lag and stutter, probably a software issue or firmware update to be ironed out in the coming weeks.

I would wait for the next iteration of this thing. Why? Because next generation Intel chips (Broadwell) will easy be able to drive the kind of performance this display commands. To be honest, Apple probably planned for this bad-larry to come packed with Broadwell chips, but they've been delayed by Intel.

The Verdict

+ The display is absurdly gorgeous. + Seriously, all this power in something the size of an iMac. + Price. Honestly, a 4K monitor costs about $2k. This is $500 more and comes with a computer.

- Gets really, really expensive when you kit it up. $4,399 to fully load it. - Should have the Broadwell guts. - Probably not powerful enough for uncompressed 4K and 5K editing junkies.

#5K iMac #Retina iMac #Apple

Testing out my new Sony QX10 smartphone camera. It SNAPS ONTO YOUR PHONE and has an 18MP sensor and 10x zoom. Hell yeah!

It handled last night's sunset quite well.

#Sony QX10 #Sunset #Aspen

Rudy is a little stoked on the new snow.

#labradoodle #australian labradoodle #puppy

Glad I walked to the store tonight. Fall in Aspen, whoa.

#aspen #fall

Fruita, Colorado. What a crazy beautiful place.

#sonynex #fruita #colorado

Spent the weekend in the desert mountain biking. Sunset from my campsite. Whoa.

#fruita #colorado

Getting ready for ski season with the Aspen Valley Ski Club on their super trampoline.

#trampoline #aspen

Another amazing fall morning in Aspen.

#SonyNEX #Aspen #Fall

Headed up to the Maroon Bells for sunset armed with my Sony NEX 5-R. I was the only person there, it was amazing.

#maroon bells #sonynex #aspen

I noticed Pyramid Peak looking rather majestic so I drove up to the Aspen Rec Center and shot this with my Sony NEX from the baseball field. Winter is here.

#pyramid peak #fall #aspen #sonynex

Instead of taking cabs to all my meetings in San Francisco I rode my bike. So awesome that offices have secure bike storage. There's no way I'd leave is baby outside locked up.

#BMC #RoadRacer SL01 #twitter #san francisco

Visiting. Learning. Plotting.

It's snowing, so we're shooting. That's how it goes around these parts.

Fall and winter are currently engaged in an epic battle around these parts.

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Dave Amirault