Best 4k/5k monitor for photography

[islade]

Hi guys,
I've had a Dell UP3212Q since launch in early 2014 on my trash can.
It's been great but I feel like after 5 years of use the contrast and color accuracy isn't quite as good as it used to be.

What's a good monitor that is compatible with 2013 Mac Pro in the 27-32" range with a 4K or better resolution that has great color accuracy.

I believe I can't run an output higher than 4K so if i use a 5k monitor it needs to be one that accepts 4k input right?

Thanks,

Isaac

 

[majus]

What's a good monitor that is compatible with 2013 Mac Pro in the 27-32" range with a 4K or better resolution that has great color accuracy.

Take a look at the Viewsonic VP series. They have some designed especially for photographers, including one that can use an X-Rite hardware calibrator.

 

[chrfr]

Hi guys,
I've had a Dell UP3212Q since launch in early 2014 on my trash can.
It's been great but I feel like after 5 years of use the contrast and color accuracy isn't quite as good as it used to be.

What's a good monitor that is compatible with 2013 Mac Pro in the 27-32" range with a 4K or better resolution that has great color accuracy.

I believe I can't run an output higher than 4K so if i use a 5k monitor it needs to be one that accepts 4k input right?

Thanks,

Isaac

You should be calibrating your display with a hardware calibrator if you’re serious about color. These calibrators will also tell you if your display is no longer achieving the color you want. I’d buy one of those before I replaced the display.

 

[islade]

You should be calibrating your display with a hardware calibrator if you’re serious about color. These calibrators will also tell you if your display is no longer achieving the color you want. I’d buy one of those before I replaced the display.

Okay, guess I'll buy one of those first. I was just noticing that my iPhone X and iPad Pro 11" made the colours and contrast pop so much more than my current monitor

 

[orph]

'best display 4K' EIZO CG319X https://colorconfidence.com/collections/monitors/products/eizo-cg319x-hdr-4k-monitor
£4K
looks legit, did you have a budget in mind?

 

[islade]

I'm in Australia but hoping to get something with a budget of up to US$1500.

I've just purchased a Spyder 5 Express and done a calibration but it seems to really reduce the contrast when i'm looking at photos in lightroom or finder preview worse than it already is.

When looking at a JPEG on my mac the blacks don't seem very black, almost like there is too much backlight or something so there is nowhere near the contrast that i'm seeing in the same image on a new iPad Pro or iPhone X, that's the issue i'm trying to solve. I'm blaming the monitor being a 2014 model and 'worn out' but i'm not sure that is even a thing.

 

[frou]

I believe I can't run an output higher than 4K so if i use a 5k monitor it needs to be one that accepts 4k input right?

Don't do that... we want to avoid non-native-resolution and monitor scalers at all costs.

I've just purchased a Spyder 5 Express and done a calibration but it seems to really reduce the contrast when i'm looking at photos in lightroom or finder preview worse than it already is.

When looking at a JPEG on my mac the blacks don't seem very black, almost like there is too much backlight or something so there is nowhere near the contrast that i'm seeing in the same image on a new iPad Pro or iPhone X, that's the issue i'm trying to solve. I'm blaming the monitor being a 2014 model and 'worn out' but i'm not sure that is even a thing.

Maybe something is wrong (16-235 RGB range, aka HDMI/TV, rather than Full?).

But it's also possible that what you're seeing now is technically as accurate as that monitor can muster, and that what you're craving isn't necessarily accuracy but rather a particular look.

 

[orph]

did you look at the calibration report for your display?
can you post a screenshot ?
what calibration target did you use when calibrating?
what brightness did you set to?

this may just be a calibration problem not a display problem !!!!

im trying to look up your display on google but cant find it, do you have a link to it so i can see what it is?

edit
i use https://displaycal.net/ for calibration with my colour monkey display
i have not used a spider so do not know the software well, you are using i think a high end display (i found a reference to it being GB-LED backlight & 99% AdobeRGB)
so i suspect this may just be a calibration problem

edit 2
thats odd looking on google and cant find any info on your display 'UP3212Q' is that the correct model name?

 

[islade]

Thanks for the help, it's a UP3214Q
https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/dell-ultrasharp-up3214q

I'll give DisplayCal a go as I just used the Spyder 5 Express software which was very much a wizard that walks you through the process with no real options or configuration or output other than generating the profile (i believe that functionality is reserved for the more expensive Spyder's).

I'll try that tonight or tomorrow and report back. Hopefully it works so I can get a few more years out of this mac pro and monitor <3

 

[orph]

ok thanks for the correct display name
https://www.dell.com/ly/business/p/dell-up3214q/pd
Colour Gamut (typical): Adobe RGB 99%, sRGB 100%
1.074 Billion colours (10 Bits)
3840 x 2160
hardware look-up table (LUT)

thats a high end display that cost £3K~ and it's a real 10-bit display !

https://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_up3214q.htm
looks like a relay nice display and dell has some custom calibration software for it so worth spending some time calibrating it before you buy a new display, if you care about display quality then corect calbration is a must as you will have to do that with a new display any way

you may want to look at this section closely
https://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_up3214q.htm#hardware_calibration

 

[islade]

Okay, just ran an 'auto' calibration in DisplayCal and it seems better than it was. I've uploaded graphs here if that's any help at all. I've just accepted that my display has much less contrast than the new ipad and iPhone that most people will be viewing on. I check my photos/videos on the iPad after i finish editing them to make sure they aren't looking too different on the devices most people will be using to view them (most clients just want photos/videos for web/social media rather than physical prints or whatever).

Thanks for letting me know about DisplayCal, it's epic!