Help me find a monitor...

[noimmunity]

...that won't break the bank.

I'm not doing any printing on my own, but do like to send files out for professional printing.

I'm running a 2009 MBP 15" on Lion 10.7.5 😱

Would like to keep running this computer for several more years.

Don't do games. No video. Just CS5, LR 4.4, C1Pro 7.1, color photo editing...

 

[noimmunity]

What is your budget? $300? $500? $1000? $1500?

Euros, that would be. 😛 I guess I was thinking of something under 800 euros, but there's a certain flexibility there. But if I could spend half that that would be swell.

Can't I approach things the other way around? How much capability do I really need? I need something that gives me reliable color management for prosumer usage. Do I really need to aspire to an NEC or an Eizo?

I've spent the last day researching and reading. It gets awfully...complicated.

 

[wintoid]

I got a NEC Spectraview 231 from Warehouse Express for about £550 a few months ago. Works well with my Mac. I specifically didn't want wide gamut. I'm not a calibration believer, and the NEC didn't change that. I'd have been just as happy with the NEC PA231W which is the same monitor without the calibration stuff.

 

[Godfrey]

Euros, that would be. 😛 I guess I was thinking of something under 800 euros, but there's a certain flexibility there. But if I could spend half that that would be swell.

Can't I approach things the other way around? How much capability do I really need? I need something that gives me reliable color management for prosumer usage. Do I really need to aspire to an NEC or an Eizo?

I've spent the last day researching and reading. It gets awfully...complicated.

I keep it simple: Apple Cinema Display 27" LED should work beautifully for your system. That and an Xrite display calibration tool is the simplest and one of the best setups for you.

G

 

[Rogier]

I keep it simple: Apple Cinema Display 27" LED should work beautifully for your system. That and an Xrite display calibration tool is the simplest and one of the best setups for you.

G

+1

Yep one more for the 27" Apple Cinema display.

 

[noimmunity]

Much appreciation for the responses here, Godfrey, Wintoid and Rogier.

Why not choose a Dell u2713H over the Apple Cinema display? The difference here in France is about 200 euros--the cost of a calibrator.

Or to go non-wide, why not a Dell U2713HM, which is nearly 400 euros less than a ACD. Then there is the NEC Spectraview 232, which is over 200 euros less than the Cinema display.

Questions abound.

 

[wintoid]

The cinema displays are great if you don't mind reflections. I was once told that if you wear a black polo neck jumper, like Saint Steve Jobs, it helps minimise reflections.

 

[noimmunity]

The cinema displays are great if you don't mind reflections. I was once told that if you wear a black polo neck jumper, like Saint Steve Jobs, it helps minimise reflections.

I don't mind reflections (my workspace is illuminated by a skylight) and since I sold the M8 I can wear black again 😀

 

[noimmunity]

Sure would be nice to save a few hundred euros though.

But then as I read around, there are so many complaints about using the Dells with the MBP...

So perhaps it would be a choice between the NEC 241 spectraview and the ACD...

 

[wintoid]

In your position, if you're confident about the reflections, I'd choose the Apple screen. And I say that as a very happy NEC user.

 

[noimmunity]

In your position, if you're confident about the reflections, I'd choose the Apple screen. And I say that as a very happy NEC user.

Presumably that's because the Apple screen offers ease of use and compatibility, not because it's fun to spend an extra 200 euros 😕🙂

 

[willie_901]

Weeks ago I started to use the Apple Thunderbolt 27" monitor as my primary display and an Asus 24" PA248Q LED-LCD monitor for my secondary screen.

The ASUS PA models are their pro line and each one comes with it's in-factory color calibration test data. The ASUS can display in the sRGB color space. It is non-reflective. This display also supports three USB-3 out ports. I think it would be a economic alternate to Apple display (I paid $326 US) if the smaller screen size is acceptable.

The Thunderbolt Cinema Display is excellent as well. The reflective surface does not bother me when I'm working on photos.

My workflow is more efficient now that I'm using these monitors.

 

[noimmunity]

Weeks ago I started to use the Apple Thunderbolt 27" monitor as my primary display and an Asus 24" PA248Q LED-LCD monitor for my secondary screen.

The ASUS PA models are their pro line and each one comes with it's in-factory color calibration test data. The ASUS can display in the sRGB color space. It is non-reflective. This display also supports three USB-3 out ports. I think it would be a economic alternate to Apple display (I paid $326 US) if the smaller screen size is acceptable.

The Thunderbolt Cinema Display is excellent as well. The reflective surface does not bother me when I'm working on photos.

My workflow is more efficient now that I'm using these monitors.

Thanks, Willie.

I don't think I can run the Apple TBD on my 2009 MBP. Grrrrh!

24" is fine with me. The price of the Asus in France, however, is 400 euros (about $500+). Only half of what the Apple Cinema Display costs, though.

Then the next question would be, how is its compatibility with the older MBP?

 

[Ronald M]

Eizo sold at Chromex is what my printer told me to purchase.

 

[Godfrey]

Much appreciation for the responses here, Godfrey, Wintoid and Rogier.

Why not choose a Dell u2713H over the Apple Cinema display? The difference here in France is about 200 euros--the cost of a calibrator.

Or to go non-wide, why not a Dell U2713HM, which is nearly 400 euros less than a ACD. Then there is the NEC Spectraview 232, which is over 200 euros less than the Cinema display.

Questions abound.

Ease of installation, ease of use, ease of adjustment, build quality. Like all Apple hardware, it's well integrated with both all the other Apple hardware and OS software.

I don't find the glossy surface to be any problem at all. It presents a crisp image to work with. I calibrate mine to 110 luminance, 1.8 gamma, and 5500K white point—the fidelity of display to print is almost perfect with a color managed printing workflow.

The Thunderbolt Display is not compatible with your MBP, but the LED model is.

If I were doing pro video work, I'd buy an EIZO, but for still photography it's way overkill.

G

 

[noimmunity]

Ease

＋10000000000000

 

[noimmunity]

http://www.largeformatphotography.i...-photo-editing-and-viewing-suggestions-wanted

Read. Undigested.

 

[Rico]

If I were doing pro video work, I'd buy an EIZO, but for still photography it's way overkill.

I'm partial to overkill (and Eizo), so I got the SX2762W. While not part of the (very expensive) ColorEdge line, it's impossible to determine what I gave up. The color quality and general performance of this 27" panel is awesome.

 

[wintoid]

Presumably that's because the Apple screen offers ease of use and compatibility, not because it's fun to spend an extra 200 euros 😕🙂

This may be more info than you want to read. I'm not trolling against Apple here, I am a pretty happy Mac user now...

I'm new to Apple. I've had a computer of my own for 35 years or so, and only switched to Apple in January 2013. My experience so far is that you have a better time with Apple if you do things "the Steve Jobs way", and don't try to buck against what you're being gently forced into. I'm running a lovely clicky PC keyboard off the Mac here, but things get interesting when I need to press a non-standard key.

In January I bought a MBP, my first Mac. I sent it back within 10 days. Somehow the graphics (particularly fonts) weren't crisp on my NEC. They also weren't crisp on the built-in non-retina monitor (which is lower res than the NEC).

I replaced it with a Mac Mini, thinking the MBP had a graphics card issue. The Mac Mini also didn't seem crisp on my NEC. I tried thunderbolt, HDMI, DVI, my telly as a monitor, my old monitor from the garage, and so on. All still blurry fonts. THEN I started to run Windows inside of the Mac Mini, and I realised that Mac Mini + Windows was super-sharp on the NEC.

In the end it seems that Apple does things to its fonts which makes them look blurry to me (no one talks about this, but they have a completely different way of rendering fonts). I think Apple try to render fonts for print, whereas Windows renders fonts for screen. The result is that the pixels in fonts on Apple machines sometimes fall on the lines between the pixels on the screen, resulting in a double-fat half-intensity line, aka blurriness to me. My impression now is that the higher resolution monitor you get, the less blurry Apple's horrible fonts will be. For that reason I would choose the Apple monitor. I also would never buy a non-retina MBP again, personally.

I still don't like the way Apple does fonts, but I'm getting used to it. Graphics, such as photos in Lightroom, are pin sharp on the NEC, and that is what matters to me.

 

[Rico]

wintoid,

I believe you can disable the blur in preferences. I have the latest MBP with Retina, so the blurring appears as smooth, which looks great.