Eye Fatigue on 27" iMac

[danthespaceman]

I'm looking for feedback from people who use their 27" imacs for the majority of the working day. I've looked at one in person at the Apple Store and I was really impressed with what I saw. However, I'm a little concerned after reading this Gizmodo article where the author states:

"But my eyes feel like the pictures are being delivered by a land shark holding a laser pointer straight into my corneas, and I can feel the strain within minutes. I would have to jack up as many font sizes as possible or sit as close as I do to my MacBook to make it work for long long periods of time."

Any feedback from people with real life experience would be much appreciated. I'm currently used to working in front of a 15" Macbook Pro (Standard Res) for 6-8 hours a day, with a few breaks here and there.

 

[killmoms]

Any feedback from people with real life experience would be much appreciated. I'm currently used to working in front of a 15" Macbook Pro (Standard Res) for 6-8 hours a day, with a few breaks here and there.

The 27" iMac actually has a slightly lower DPI than your MacBook Pro's standard res screen (~108 vs ~110, respectively), so actually elements will be an indiscernible amount larger on the iMac. So I think that reviewer is suffering some sort of placebo effect (the screen is so large he THINKS the text is smaller?).

Based on my experience with a friend's 27", the only thing striking about the iMac's screen (to me) is how freaking bright it is. He turned it down quite a bit on the brightness so it wasn't too hard on the eyes.

 

[HLdan]

Well as you know all humans are different with different perceptions and this is why some of us wear glasses and some of us don't. Everybody's eyes are different so you can't take an article, blog or even a forum and allow them to decide the fate of your purchase. That being said, I've never experienced any eye fatigue with my 27" iMac and I use it everyday for work and personal. I'm sure you'll get other posts of people saying that they do get eye fatigue due to the glossiness or how bright the screen is. That being said, you need to use it yourself to see how your own eyes conform to it.

 

[dagomike]

Sit closer and/or get your eyes checked. Also proper lighting and desk/chair setup.

 

[rnb2]

No issues for me after a little over 4 months with my i7 27", and I'm on for 12-15 hours/day (eek!). I do have a second monitor (a 21" Samsung 215tw, rotated to portrait orientation) that I keep Safari in, so a lot of my reading is on a lower DPI screen, but I do keep Mail, Echofon, and just about everything else on the iMac screen.

I don't have any issues with the glossy screen, but I have things arranged so there are no windows behind me, so that helps.

 

[appleman108]

i find the 27" imac sits higher than i'd like...
i can only raise my chair so much and because i wear bifocals, i'm sorta lookin up at this 27 incher
which strains my neck and eyes
but that's a ergomonic problem i need to sort out

as for eye strain, i read an article once that said we're not meant to stare at the brightest thing a room,
and advised placing a light brighter than the monitor off to the side a bit

it sounds weird, but i tried it and it worked.

 

[X1Lightning]

i find the 27" imac sits higher than i'd like...
i can only raise my chair so much and because i wear bifocals, i'm sorta lookin up at this 27 incher
which strains my neck and eyes
but that's a ergomonic problem i need to sort out

as for eye strain, i read an article once that said we're not meant to stare at the brightest thing a room,
and advised placing a light brighter than the monitor off to the side a bit

it sounds weird, but i tried it and it worked.

I don't buy this thought process, In my office i have bright light on the ceiling just behind my monitor so i see it and my monitor at all times, and it really stresses out my eyes.

 

[appleman108]

yeah, i guess every environment and light source is different
my computer was the only light on in the room other than window light
so particularly when it got darker my eyes would get tired
now i have a halogen light the shines right up against the wall directly behind (and slightly to the side) of my monitor
when it's on, the screen seems less severe and easier on the eyes.

probably more meaningful is the length of time staring at these things

 

[adammjenkins]

My eyes are horrible, and yes, I have some issues with small text on my 27" iMac. The screen real-estate is awesome, but sometimes I don't need/want it. For example, When I am in my web browser just surfing, reading articles, etc., I want THAT to be my focus, not everything else that happens to temporarily be on my desktop or the inactive windows underneath the active browser window. I like my browser full screen, and I've found a few tricks that make this process more manageable, at least until Apple integrates resolution independence into OS X. [Please take a minute and send Apple some feedback regarding your interest in resolution independence: http://www.apple.com/feedback/imac.html]

-The first thing I did is download one of the few available extensions for Firefox that enable me to zoom the entire page, pictures included, instead of just the text as most browsers' options allow. I am currently using the extension "Default Full Zoom Level." "No Squint" is another suitable option. There are some serious drawbacks to this, though. I have mine set to zoom 150%, and sometimes when thumbnails are blown up, they look pretty terrible. Also, some annoying flash-based sites are thrown off by the zooming and mouse hovers/click aren't always accurate. (This drives my girlfriend crazy when trying to play the games on Facebook). No trouble to me, though, as I couldn't care less about those games.
-The second option you might want to consider if you do much online reading of news/articles is check out Readability: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ I use it almost every day, and it allows for color customization and text size, which is great.

I am still holding onto hope, though, that Apple will eventually give the option of resolution independence, which theoretically will allow the user to decrease the overall resolution while maintaining the same clarity that the monitor has at its native resolution. The deal would be even sweeter if they allowed this process to be application-specific, so that you could adjust the DPI of each individual application.

 

[djc6]

I had eye strain/headaches/etc when I first got my 24" iMac.. I then read up some articles on ergonomics and found that I had my display TOO CLOSE. I had placed the iMac where my old 17" monitor was, but it needed to be much further back.

http://www.office-ergo.com/viewing.htm

 

[Btom]

I'm looking for feedback from people who use their 27" imacs for the majority of the working day.

Will sound like sacrilege, but I returned one of my two non-yellow, quietly-running 27" i7 iMacs. I still have one at my secondary working location that requires the machine to be used relatively little, but my home iMac (also my prime work machine as I have a home studio) has now gone back to Apple. I received a full credit for it. A fine machine, but...

Quite simply, the screen has proved to be way too much hard work for my eyes. The wall of light that irradiates one's face when sitting at a reading distance is overwhelming. Great for movies when sitting back at a comfortable distance, but for up-close work, it's like sitting with my face a few inches from a TV.
Interestingly from my point of view, I never had this problem with my former 24" Apple LED display. I used it with a Macbook Pro and for whatever reason, viewing was entirely more comfortable.

So, yesterday I went back to a (newly bought) 24" LED display and MBP combination. I regret having sold the earlier setup to get the iMac, but at least the MBP is a newer version than the one I had so it isn't a 100% step backwards.
Having used this latest pairing, I am absolutely certain that this 24" LED display screen is doing something very differently to the iMac's screen. Whether it has to do with the size or the technology used, I have no idea, but I definitely feel much, much more comfortable with the 24". It's not that one is brighter than the other, but more a case of the 24" feeling less like the light is being "thrown" at you. Less "hot" on the eyes even at what appears to be the same brightness level.
Anyway, it's enough of a difference to have made me spend more money rectifying it.

Would this one help? It was posted on Apr 17, 2010, 04:25 AM

Tom B.

 

[danthespaceman]

Would this one help? It was posted on Apr 17, 2010, 04:25 AM

Tom B.

Thanks Tom. That was helpful. I guess I'll just have to take the plunge and try it myself as there's no way of really telling in the Apple Store whether it's going to be an issue for me. My main concern is pixel density / size of text on screen and straining to read it. My eyes are generally good with things up close but I don't want to create an issue either. The Imac would probably sit 20" away from my face in my current setup. I guess I could try using my Macbook at that distance for a few days.

 

[opera57]

Personally for me its the opposite, I get eye strain when using my 13" Macbook, but my iMac is a pleasure to use! The Bigger the better

 

[Bham Mom]

Eye strain on 27" iMac with headaches

I have had my iMac 27" for two days, and the headaches at my temples are so intense I keep taking breaks. Just after a few minutes of use, I get the headache/eye strain. I have experimented with the brightness, and still trying that out. This happened to me the first couple of weeks of my iMac 24" but eventually went away. I also get these headaches under florescent lights and the new fangled CFL light bulbs, so I know I'm sensitive. This site recommends the fix of removing the glass, but I don't want to damage my new EXPENSIVE computer: http://www.fireandknowledge.org/arc...y-to-make-your-glossy-imac-screen-glare-free/
and risk losing my warrenty. Seems to me Apple needs to address this problem. Maybe I'll have to return it if they let me?

 

[TMRaven]

The iMac's screen is led backlit, and led lighting tends to have a piercing effect compared to regular backlighting. Also note the iMac screens have a refresh rate of only 60hz, and the lower the refresh rate, the easier it is to strain your eyes. I can even see a very, very slight flickering of the screen when it's booting up into osx with the gray screen.

 

[kazmac]

I had a terrible time with 24"

Which was why I returned it, but I'm okay with the new 21.5".

I wound up getting the new 21.5" because I was worried the 27" would be the same kind of overwhelming that the 24" was.

I have the brightness setting really low (five or six steps from the lowest setting). Some folks have mentioned Shades, F.Lux and Black Light as free software to help with the brightness.

I think there was a thread called Screen Too Bright...or something to that effect that offer more information.