Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

For the Doubters...a perfect iMac Screen

T

Trout74

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
277
0
I have read the critics, and I have viewed many screens, I have even purchased a 24" iMac myself. Then I had my wife, who is a professional photographer take some photos with her Canon 30D Digital SLR, ( a $1500 camera without lens for those of you that dont know) and I proclaim to the haters that this is a perfect screen and there are many more like it.
Problem is, the photos are too big to import, so how do I import them to macrumors?


Judge for yourself.

Trout
 
Can your wife shed some light (pun intended) on the potential impacts of uneven ambient room lighting on the photos? How did she photograph it to ensure the image represented the performance of the screen only, and not other effects from the room lighting?

As far as posting pics, you should reduce it in size, and then post it somewhere to host it. If you don't have hosting, PM it to me, and I will post it on my .mac account.
 
If you photograph it in total darkness, and don't blow the exposure, it should provide solid proof.

Let the games begin!
 
Trout74 said:
I have read the critics, and I have viewed many screens, I have even purchased a 24" iMac myself. Then I had my wife, who is a professional photographer take some photos with her Canon 30D Digital SLR, ( a $1500 camera without lens for those of you that dont know) and I proclaim to the haters that this is a perfect screen and there are many more like it.
Problem is, the photos are too big to import, so how do I import them to macrumors?


Judge for yourself.

Trout
Click to expand...

But nothing in the world is perfect!!
 
I pM CZACH once he tells me how to send him the photos he will post them
 
I have sent the photos to CZECH.

the ISO was set to 400
F-Stop 8
White balance set to automatic
All lights turned off

agreed the screen is not 100% totally perfect, as that is impossible, but SEVERE light and color gradients, I do not see, again, judge for yourself, im just reporting,
thanks

trout
 
I resized to 1000 pixels wide to make them more forum friendly:


alum_imac10.jpg


alum_imac11.jpg


alum_imac12.jpg


alum_imac13.jpg


alum_imac14.jpg
 
They look good.

I am sure Leon will photoshop them, and lay the edges side by side, show that there is a slight gradient that is about the same as his own white iMac and my Apple Cinema display, and then draw the false conclusion that all iMacs are defective.
 
Looks pretty ok to me. Some of them look like they have a blue thing happening on the upper left, some don't. I bet the screen looks a lot better in the flesh too.

No doubt this will be picked apart by those who want something to pick apart.

Photographing screens just is never going to be the ideal way to prove something like this one way or the other.
 
gorby said:
Looks pretty ok to me. Some of them look like they have a blue thing happening on the upper left, some don't. I bet the screen looks a lot better in the flesh too.

No doubt this will be picked apart by those who want something to pick apart.

Photographing screens just is never going to be the ideal way to prove something like this one way or the other.
Click to expand...

I too can see increased brightness (a more blue white) in the top left. What I really do not know is if this is better or worse than the average screen from Apple. I've seen some pretty ropey ACD's but then again I've seen some great ones. I guess the real question is, are we ever going too see better uniformity in these screens or is this as good as we should expect - I think these pictures show one of the better screens and I cant even notice the increased brigtness in some of the pics.
 
Well I'm glad there are good screens out there. I visited a couple of Apple Stores in town the other day and the demo model screens seemed very nice.

:( UNFORTUNATELY my screen is now having issues. Since I work a lot with open documents the uneven gradient, yellow tint and mesy darker patches are starting to bug me, a bit like Chinese water torture. I tested my partner's cheaper Sony flat screen and it certainly did not have these issues. So tomorrow my iMac goes back.
I have also noticed a quite a problem with backlight bleeding and it seems to be getting worse. I have to argue will this problem just continue to get worse or is it better to get the invonvenience and hassle out of the way now?

The important thing I believe is that one must be satisfied with one's tools. I have been trying to convince myself that the screen is okay, but then when I think that I have paid good money for a so called top of the range product, one I wil probably be spending a lot of time in front of for the next 3 or 4 years, then the least I can expect is a quality machine. In every other department it is flawless and I think it is a beautiful machine. No problems with freezes, glare, it is fast, games run like lightning in XP, it is fanstastic.

Returning this custom iMac is going to be a real pain, since this model replaced my old PC, so I'm going to be sharing my partner's.

My message to the likes of Leon on here would be to take all his information and evidence and instead of trying to sell his arguements on here, he should send it all to the press and see if this issue is worth following up. Thankfully Apple seem to have a good returns, warrenty, etc. policy. Everyone I have spoken to connected to Apple has been very helpful. So now I'll see what they do and say.
 
All those pics demonstrate the same left-to-right gradient that is common among imac screen shots posted here. Not saying it's bad, but I'm guessing it's just a way LCD's are made. Mine exhibits the same characteristics (a very slight brightness difference).

EDIT: Just took a pic of mine. Does have a gradient, though not as much IMHO and compared to others i've seen.

dsc03149.jpg

dsc03147.jpg
 
wakerider017 said:
Wow uncalled for...

For some people screen quality is very important...
Click to expand...

true his comments a bit rough,
but for all those people obsessed with screen quality.. WHY are you buying an imac!! too many people claim to be PRO level users but only want to buy an imac, if people are so serious about screen quality there are professional grade screens you can buy that will be perfect. hell you can even dual monitor it on your imac.

an imac is a consumer level computer for the masses, if you use it for professional work you have to expect a trade off on quality for the small price tag!

I have an ALU 24" and i use it for pro level work (money made my decision), i sit in photoshop and illustrator everyday all day, and yes i can see a small gradient, noticeable with flat colour in illustrator, but it hardly affects my work, as a whole the colours coming our of the screen are awesome (have brightness turned most of way down too). I also sit beside a window and have no problems with glare. however the MBP 17" (matte) sitting beside the imac does. too much bright light makes the MBP screen useless, looks like it has a layer of tracing paper over it. sure there is no striking glare spots, but thats cause the screen coating makes the whole thing look dull.

now that i have gone to the ALU imac and the glass over the screen i wont go back, its awesome for photo work. definition in blacks is amazing.

dont confuse the glass imac screens with the plastic macbook screens, there is a big difference!!
 
stracky said:
true his comments a bit rough,
but for all those people obsessed with screen quality.. WHY are you buying an imac!! too many people claim to be PRO level users but only want to buy an imac, if people are so serious about screen quality there are professional grade screens you can buy that will be perfect. hell you can even dual monitor it on your imac.
Click to expand...

No one is expecting it to be as good as a $1500 screen, however I'd say that we should expect it to be at least on par with the cheaper 24" displays on the market. The "hey it's a consumer machine" just doesn't cut it. The quality of consumer LCD displays has gotten a lot better. Sure none of them are perfectly lit, but I've honestly never seen a mid priced consumer display this bad over the past two years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back