Best monitor for photo editing?

[intruderruud]

Good day Mac grandmasters,
I made my first steps in to the Mac world (after 30 years of living in a hate and love relation with my different kinds of pc’s “started with a trs80 with 16K”)) I just bought myself a used Mac pro with two 2.26 GHz (E5520) Quad-core Intel Xeon "Gainstown" processors and 8gb internel. I just upgraded him with a 2 terabyte internal drive and the next upgrades will be a ssd and a graphics cards but my first concern is the monitor. I am in doubt, go for the new apple 27” led display or the old apple 30” hd display or maybe something totally different, any suggestions? For the time being I am using a HPw2408h.
I bought the Mac Pro mainly for my photographic hobby (and off course I was getting sick and tired of crashing and reinstalling drivers on my pc) I shoot in raw and sports in jpeg the other stuff I used it for is general stuff like surfing, some admin. work, most properly will start doing some movie editing and my son will use it for music and maybe a bit of gaming. The budged would be around a thousand (€/$/£) they just tend to replace the dollar sign with the euro one here in euro country.
Much obliged for any helpful tips.

 

[toxic]

out of the Cinemas, I'd go with the 30"...but why stick with Apple? take a look at NEC monitors, like the PA series.

 

[harryjackson]

Good day Mac grandmasters,
I made my first steps in to the Mac world (after 30 years of living in a hate and love relation with my different kinds of pc’s “started with a trs80 with 16K”)) I just bought myself a used Mac pro with two 2.26 GHz (E5520) Quad-core Intel Xeon "Gainstown" processors and 8gb internel. I just upgraded him with a 2 terabyte internal drive and the next upgrades will be a ssd and a graphics cards but my first concern is the monitor. I am in doubt, go for the new apple 27” led display or the old apple 30” hd display or maybe something totally different, any suggestions? For the time being I am using a HPw2408h.
I bought the Mac Pro mainly for my photographic hobby (and off course I was getting sick and tired of crashing and reinstalling drivers on my pc) I shoot in raw and sports in jpeg the other stuff I used it for is general stuff like surfing, some admin. work, most properly will start doing some movie editing and my son will use it for music and maybe a bit of gaming. The budged would be around a thousand (€/$/£) they just tend to replace the dollar sign with the euro one here in euro country.
Much obliged for any helpful tips.

One of your best options will be Apple Thunderbolt display MC914LL/B. It is one of the best for photo editing and photography.

 

[Apple fanboy]

One of your best options will be Apple Thunderbolt display MC914LL/B. It is one of the best for photo editing and photography.

If you like a glossy screen, narrower colour gamut and not great uniformity.
Or if you want to do what the Pro's do spend the same amount of money on a NEC Spectraview or Eizo Colour Edge CG series.
Another cheaper alternative is the new BenQ SW2700PT. A nice monitor for a good price.

 

[righteye]

As Apple fanboy said, i would add that if you intend to do your own printing a monitor that is designed to have a low brightness and contrast is nearly essential otherwise a WYSIWYG set up will be difficult (the Mono neutrality is excellent on my Eizo and would expect it be the same with NEC) If you are using a monitor for displaying your images then an Apple monitor would be ok but i doubt it would be as good for B&W work.

 

[phrehdd]

If photography is the main target for selecting a monitor, then the advice from others here are spot on.

The Eizo and NEC PA series are ideal candidates. I have had Apple's 30" monitor and several others over the
years and quite frankly, while 'nice,' they simply don't compete with real graphic monitors.

Above all, I strongly suggest you investigate the practice of calibrating whatever monitor you acquire. Typical monitors do a soft calibration which is nothing more than a "profile." True calibration may be done on graphic monitors such as the NA PA series (Spectraview).

All said and done, given that I do digitized photo restoration and work with native digital images, I'll take my 24" NEC over the 30" Apple offering any day of the week. As for the entire discussion of Thunderbolt, it is a non-issue as I can always get a docking station, plug direct or whatever. I do like the retina displays but not for serious photo work.

 

[Apple fanboy]

If photography is the main target for selecting a monitor, then the advice from others here are spot on.

The Eizo and NEC PA series are ideal candidates. I have had Apple's 30" monitor and several others over the
years and quite frankly, while 'nice,' they simply don't compete with real graphic monitors.

Above all, I strongly suggest you investigate the practice of calibrating whatever monitor you acquire. Typical monitors do a soft calibration which is nothing more than a "profile." True calibration may be done on graphic monitors such as the NA PA series (Spectraview).

All said and done, given that I do digitized photo restoration and work with native digital images, I'll take my 24" NEC over the 30" Apple offering any day of the week. As for the entire discussion of Thunderbolt, it is a non-issue as I can always get a docking station, plug direct or whatever. I do like the retina displays but not for serious photo work.

My NEC has built in USB hub, and on the BENQ (which we have at work) you get an SD card reader which is nice.
But agree regular calibration should be part of every photographers work flow. I do hardware calibration on my Spectraview, but software calibration is also worth doing regular with an i1 Display, ColorMunki or Spyder.

 

[dimme]

I agree the Ezo and NEC are the best choice but if you budget does not allow for those. The DellTM UltraSharp U2413 is a great contender for the money

 

[campyguy]

One of your best options will be Apple Thunderbolt display MC914LL/B. It is one of the best for photo editing and photography.

Where were you 5 frickin' years ago when they were posing their questions? BTW, the Apple TB display is an old, scruffy, one-eyed dog compared to the Dell and BenQ displays available today.

 

[JDDavis]

How the heck does one dig up a post from 5 years ago and answer it like it was asked yesterday? The mysteries of the internet continue to confound me. Internet forums are ripping a hole in the space time continuum.

 

[dimme]

I see no one suggested a 4K monitor. Is 4K the next big thing or is it just marketing to sell/replace monitors. I am very happy with my 24" 1920 x 1200 and I can imagine having the resolution smaller.

 

[MCAsan]

Got my Dell UP2415Q for $350 on eBay. It is 100% sRGB and 99% AdobeRB. If you are a casual photographer and output only jpg files to the web or your local printer, then sRGB color space may be enough. If you want seriously accurate color and print with high quality printers or external print labs, you want a AdobeRGB capable monitor that is calibrated.

 

[shaunp]

After years of using a Dell U2711, a wide-gamut 1440p display, I recently moved to a Dell P2715Q. It's a 4K 27" display with a matte screen. While it covers 'only' 99% sRGB and ~80% AdobeRGB it is very sharp and once calibrated it has good accuracy and much better uniformity than my previous monitor. Yes Eizo and NEC make more colour accurate displays, but at a cost. Be honest with yourself (only you know your true requirements). Would you prefer 4K? Do you work in the AdobeRGB colour space at all? If not then stick with sRGB. How colour accurate does your work really need to be?

To be honest I really like the P2715Q, it's a good balance between cost and performance. It's around £500 and when I've prints come back from the lab they look good. Alternatively it's around £1600 for an Eizo display with hardware calibration built in and around £3700 for their 4K display with hardware calibration - both have around 99% Adobe RGB and over 100% sRGB. If I ever get to the point where my work needs that level of colour accuracy I know that I will need to spend over £3000 4K monitor (1440p looks fuzzy now), but for now I'm glad I've gone with the cheaper option.