imac and photo editing

THC_SsSsSnake · 10 Jan 2014 at 00:03

one of my customers is well into photography and says the iMacs are not a good screen for photo editing versus his Dell 2020 i think it is.
Ive always found the iMac screens look really clear.
what do you guys use and why>
thanks

Raymond Lin · 10 Jan 2014 at 00:06

It is really clear...why? Because I have 2 and they are both clear.

GTRacer · 10 Jan 2014 at 00:33

iMacs have good quality Samsung/LG IPS panels in them. I've always found them nice to work on and aren't too far off from proper calibrated settings out of the box.

THC_SsSsSnake · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:31

yes thats my point ,i love them but this guy really thinks the opposite,i think he's just anti apple.best screen I've ever had anyway,glad you guys agree,ill show him this thread lol

Phate · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:40

THC_SsSsSnake said:
one of my customers is well into photography and says the iMacs are not a good screen for photo editing versus his Dell 2020

Does this customer always wear rose tinted glasses as well?

About a year and a half before I got my iMac in 2012 I bought a 24" IPS Monitor made by HP. It's a stunning piece of kit and set me back £340 at the time. Which, a lot can agree that £340 is a lot for a monitor.

When I had this, any other monitor was just terrible in comparison.

Put it this way, that monitor doesn't even compare to the screen in the iMac.

The iMac has much better blacks, truely beautiful colours throughout and the 27" runs in a 4k resolution as well (it's either 4k or not far from it)

The Dell won't even touch it.

Columbo · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:49

While I hate my iMac at work and much prefer Windows there is no doubt that screen quality on them is pretty much the best there is.

Has he messed around with the screen preferences at all?

spoffle · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:49

iMacs have good screens, however I hope you haven't been caught up in the hype of "you must use a Mac to do photography/graphic design work" that I see people spouting off so much.

Phate, your iMac display isn't 4K or even near it, the 27" ones have a display resolution of 2560x1440, which is far off 4K. It's actually half the pixels of a 4K monitor.

That specific Dell monitor won't touch it, sure however the panel used in the 27" iMacs are also used in Dell's 27" monitors amongst other monitors (I have 4 monitors that use the same panels).

spoffle · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:52

Raymond Lin said:
It is really clear...why? Because I have 2 and they are both clear.

That's not why they are clear, they are clear because they tend not to use any anti-glare coatings and have a glass front to them, which results in higher clarity as the anti-glare coating isn't diffusing the light from the monitor and smearing the pixel sharpness a bit.

Phate · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:56

spoffle said:
Phate, your iMac display isn't 4K or even near it, the 27" ones have a display resolution of 2560x1440, which is far off 4K. It's actually half the pixels of a 4K monitor.

Aha

- I don't know the exact resolution of 4k but I remember playing a 4k video on the iMac and it filling the screen.

My baaaad. Ignore that line of hogwash from my post

spoffle · 10 Jan 2014 at 09:00

Phate said:
Aha - I don't know the exact resolution of 4k but I remember playing a 4k video on the iMac and it filling the screen.

My baaaad. Ignore that line of hogwash from my post

I'm sure you've played plenty of 540p and 720p videos that filled the screen too...

Brain fart!

Phate · 10 Jan 2014 at 09:08

spoffle said:
I'm sure you've played plenty of 540p and 720p videos that filled the screen too...

Brain fart!

I wouldn't know anything of the sort.

That's another benefit, glass front for easy wipe/cleaning....ehem...

spoffle · 10 Jan 2014 at 09:14

Phate said:
I wouldn't know anything of the sort.

That's another benefit, glass front for easy wipe/cleaning....ehem...

In all seriousness though, the glass has been great for me on my displays (not iMacs but they use the same panels with tempered glass).

You can use harsh chemicals on them to clear any crap off, which came in very useful when I had to clean gloss black lacquer paint from my monitors.

Raymond Lin · 10 Jan 2014 at 09:17

spoffle said:
That's not why they are clear, they are clear because they tend not to use any anti-glare coatings and have a glass front to them, which results in higher clarity as the anti-glare coating isn't diffusing the light from the monitor and smearing the pixel sharpness a bit.

I didn't actually say why they are clear, I just said I have 2 and they are both clear.

It's like saying I have 2 pair of Jeans and they are both blue...

spoffle · 10 Jan 2014 at 09:21

Ah but what you actually said was that they are clear because you have 2

THC_SsSsSnake · 10 Jan 2014 at 10:22

I read it was 21/2 k

Logsi · 10 Jan 2014 at 15:50

Personally i think they're great. I have a second monitor which is a LG 27EA83 which has something ridiculous like a 98-99% Adobe RGB gamut. I find the iMac to be better and my main monitor!

Mp4 · 11 Jan 2014 at 08:42

So what monitor not IMac would be ideal for editing?

Amp34 · 11 Jan 2014 at 09:05

THC_SsSsSnake said:
yes thats my point ,i love them but this guy really thinks the opposite,i think he's just anti apple.best screen I've ever had anyway,glad you guys agree,ill show him this thread lol

It may very well be he's talking about the gloss/shiny finish on Apple displays. It makes things look great but has its downfalls.

Firstly reflections, which can be mitigated by using them in darker rooms with no direct exposure to either daylight (ie not facing a window) or lights.

Second, the same thing that makes everything look so nice on the screens is also the biggest problem. Glossy screens give an artificial lift to contrast and colour. What may look great on a glossy screen but flat when printed. This is why most/all professional screens marketed at the creative industry have either a Matt or satin/lustre.

The iMac screens use the same high quality IPS screens as many other higher end monitors (Dell 2713 for example) but sticks a piece of glass in front of it so it's no better or worse than its well priced compatriots, other than the gloss issue. Unfortunately the gloss issue is one of the main reasons I'm always deciding against an iMac.

On the other hand I doubt a cheap Dell all in one will have a screen remotely comparable to the iMacs, even with the gloss issue...

Amp34 · 11 Jan 2014 at 09:12

Mp4 said:
So what monitor not IMac would be ideal for editing?

Dell 2713 (either version), the Samsung 950 PLS display and a number of others. If you want to get silly there ar e plenty of professional monitors you can buy for £1k + as well. At the 27" size you're looking at at least £500 for a good one.

spoffle · 11 Jan 2014 at 09:41

Amp34 said:
Dell 2713 (either version), the Samsung 950 PLS display and a number of others. If you want to get silly there ar e plenty of professional monitors you can buy for £1k + as well. At the 27" size you're looking at at least £500 for a good one.

It's not at least £500 at all for a good 27" 2560x1440 monitor. You can get displays that use the iMac panels for less than half of that.