I am a professional photographer and also do some light video work on occasion. About the time the M1 MacBook Pro came out, my 2017 MacBook Pro keyboard started malfunctioning. It was during the middle of the pandemic and I wasn't able to go into any stores. I had to settle for the 8GB MacBook Pro because the shipping was 3-4 weeks at the time, and that would have resulted in around $10k in lost revenues. So I got the 8 GB. It has proven to be pretty worthless for me as it freezes a lot, especially in Adobe workflows.

My thinking is that I will keep the M1 MacBook for tethering work in the studio so I can continue to show clients their photos as we go, but then get either a Mac Pro, mini or Studio for my workflows in my home office.

I already have the LG 5K monitor that I purchased with the M1 MacBook Pro and love working with that. Assuming that would work with any of these options? I don't think I need the fastest computer on earth for what I do, even with video - I might be doing some light footage editing for short videos (1 minute or less). The biggest thing for me is storage. I have Synology drives at home and offload my photography work there, but it would be nice to have a little more storage on the computer itself. I do have a couple 8TB external drives as well.

Other than photography work, I play games and watch movies on my computer from time to time. I sometimes do some graphic design work as well.

Apologies for the book, but what would you do in my shoes? Money isn't too much an issue, but want to practical for my needs.