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Ready to pull trigger on monitor - need MR members expert advice

jonnysods

jonnysods

macrumors G3
Original poster
Sep 20, 2006
8,702
7,352
There & Back Again
Hey all, I have a business doing graphic design, web design, and print work. I have a 24 inch Samsung, which I foolishly bought without looking into the types of panels that work best for my type of work.

Right now I'm looking at a 24 second monitor - I have around $900 CDN to spend. I've had my eye on the refurbed Apple LED 24", because it has the IPS panel, and I hear that is best for print work and graphic design.

Of course with a purchase of this much for one monitor I'm terrified to make a mistake. I've been trying to search the forums here, but not finding much I went elsewhere.

I have one or two monitors in mind (one is the Dell UltraSharp 2709W 27" - which is going to be too big and the same resolution as the Apple display).

I really, really could do with some professional input. 24" is as low as I'd like to go because of the real estate it provides, but I'd really like a monitor that gives me way more accurate color displays so my printed work doesn't look completely different when the project goes to the printer.

I'm ready to buy now, so I'm all ears!

Thank you!
 
The Apple monitor would be kind of wasteful since it only has mini display port, there arent any female mdp adapters so youre stuck with only using that monitor with Macs that have MDP (which will probably go the way of ADC soon enough).
 
I have a Mac Pro with the mini display port so I'm not all that fussed about the MDP. It's mainly the quality of the monitor and it's colour accuracy that is my concern.
 
Good Luck

Im a photographer, graphic designer and website designer. I was a Tool& Die maker for 25+ years and Im a bit picky on some things. I see details most miss.
I settled on two of the 23" ADC when I got this Mac Pro. I hate them, the dot pitch is too large and the resolution is too course. Its like looking through a screen door. Even after all this time I still have to force myself to ignore it. I do lots of portrait work and its tough to get things looking right. Try editing some strands of hair out.
I just think its sad that we don't have twice the resolution and better quality choices. My old 21" Hitachi CRT's had .18 dot pitch and the 23"ADCs have .258. To me thats a big difference. I would love to see something better out there without it being medical field use and prices.
 
Professional Displays

Came back from an all-day professional workflow calibration seminar. In spite of the fact that I love the industrial design of Apple displays, EIZO ($5k) is the best but LaCie 700 series monitors are a less expensive alternative with key features:

+ RGB-LED backlighting (others use white-LED)
+ Wide gamut: 116% NTSC & 114% Adobe RGB
+ 14-bit gamma correction for smooth gradients

Problem is that even the 20" LaCie 720 monitor bursts your budget by 60 percent. Perhaps you could find a refurb.

Another contender is the HP DreamColor LP2480zx with 30-bit color. (Many reviews online.)
 
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