30" cinema Flat Panel display vs 24" LED cinema . Both apple

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Olix23

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Looking at buying a new monitor and not sure whether to go with the older but bigger or smaller but newer and "better" quality. I will be using it along side my Macbook Pro retina and will be hooked up to that, or along side a 21" iMac as a dual display, or in a few months i may purchase a mac mini. Will also be used in the studio or on studio location or even at events to show the images a little bigger and will make life easier. They both seem to be around the same price, but looking at second hand as i haven't got a lot of money at the minute. But does anyone have any agreements for or against either one, as i will be interested to see where to spend my money. Thanks

NB. will be used for editing photos and movie's and showing images in the studio as said.
 
Glossy is a nightmare for reflections. Some disagree.... you'll have to decide for yourself.


Why an Apple display? They're pretty crap compared to better alternatives.

As for size, so long as it's 2560x1600 ( or 2560x1440 for 16:9) res the bigger screen is well worth it. I love my 30" Eizo.

I'd not bother with Apple... look at the Dell U3014. Hardware profiling (if used with the Xrite I1 Display Pro), 2560x1600 full fat 16:10 IPS goodness. Same price as the Apple display and SOOOO much better... if only because it can be hardware profiled. Do NOT under-estimate what a difference profiling at the hardware level makes. Better connectivity, better ergonomics, better stand... better everything. If you want to buy things for what they look like.. carry on with Apple products, but the Dell U3014 kicks it's ass into next week. We just got a couple for the darkroom at work, and as much as it pains me to say it, based on visual assessment alone.. it appears to be as good as my £2500 Eizo CG303W :( Measure it, and you see why this is so expensive, but visually, there's not much in it. It's like Hi-Fi gear... you reach a sweet spot where quality and value achieve a max, and if you want better, the price goes up exponentially for small increases in quality: It's like this with my Eizo... it's better, but it's not £1300 better.

Get the Dell... I was blown away by it. Best value 30" screen out there at the moment without any shadow of doubt... and it takes a lot to impress me with monitors.

Budget for a Xrite i1 Display Pro though.... no point having such a nice screen and not make use of the 12bit level hardware profiling.


If funds can't stretch to both the screen and the calibrator, then go for the Dell U2413 (24" - 1920x1200 16:10).. also another great screen.. can also be hardware calibrated with the X-rite i1 Display Pro. These are the only two Dell screens that can be (albeit only with the X-Rite i1-Display Pro). The only other choices are the proper top end NEC and Eizo screens.... that cost almost twice as much.

You'd have to be actually mad to get the Apple screens in comparison.... you'd be doing it just to have an Apple product.. just to buy into a brand... no other reason. I've used both and there's no comparison.
 
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Hi Pookey

I have a Huey Pro calibrator - would that work as well as the Xrite? Or is there a functionality difference?

Cheers
 
The two Dell screens I mention above, can only be hardware calibrated with the X-Rite i1 Display Pro. You can software calibrate it with any other calibrator of course... but that kind of misses the point of buying such a screen in the first place :)
 
Retina display..... all day long best money I have ever spent! But I agree with the others here apple cinema displays are overpriced....until they make a retina one :P
 
Pookeyhead said:
Glossy is a nightmare for reflections. Some disagree.... you'll have to decide for yourself.


Why an Apple display? They're pretty crap compared to better alternatives.
Click to expand...

Those are exactly my thoughts. Dell U2711 here on the desk...

Danny8oy said:
Retina display..... all day long best money I have ever spent! But I agree with the others here apple cinema displays are overpriced....until they make a retina one :P
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good luck finding a 27" version of that (at the moment)
 
Whilst I've got a Dell 30" and have been very pleased with it for a long time now...If I had the MBP Retina I'd got for the Apple Thunderbolt display screen. It is a great screen, and also you can charge your laptop from the same cable that connects to the screen and provides you with a whole series of ports as well through that single cable powered usb, gigabyte ethernet, firewire, more thunderbolt etc...

And the screen itself is pretty darn good as well....Sure perhaps you can get a minute bit of extra out of another screen, the convenience is just not the same...
 
Pookeyhead said:
Glossy is a nightmare for reflections. Some disagree.... you'll have to decide for yourself.
Click to expand...

Agree, it looks great at night but in the afternoon with sun coming through my window I can hardly see what is on the screen.
 
Danny8oy said:
Retina display..... all day long best money I have ever spent! But I agree with the others here apple cinema displays are overpriced....until they make a retina one :P
Click to expand...

There's be no point in a retina display that big... the whole point of retina is minute pixels and hi res on a small screen... because it's sometimes only inches from your face.

Anyway... 4K monitors will be here soon... then they'll all be "retina" anyway :)


dejongj said:
And the screen itself is pretty darn good as well....Sure perhaps you can get a minute bit of extra out of another screen, the convenience is just not the same...
Click to expand...

It uses the LG LM270WQ1-SDB3 panel, which is only standard sRGB gamut, and has a pretty poor 14ms g2g response rate.. so is very poor for multimedia and moving image.


As for connectivity... it has USB2.0, not 3.0, and how many people still have a firewire device? Not sure how useful the ethernet connection can be though.. what exactly is that for? No DV-I, (let alone a second one like most decent screens) no HDMI either, so time to stock up on those DP to DV-I adaptors!, no analogue input should you need it. No height adjustment, no rotation... Pretty poor actually.

Sorry... I don't get the whole Apple display thing... it's £800. For £90 more you can get the 30" Dell U3014... a proper high end hardware LUT equipped professional monitor.
 
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Apple in overpriced hardware shocker :)

I still like Apple products though as I am the shallow user they are aimed at.
 
Pookeyhead said:
There's be no point in a retina display that big... the whole point of retina is minute pixels and hi res on a small screen... because it's sometimes only inches from your face.

Anyway... 4K monitors will be here soon... then they'll all be "retina" anyway :)
Click to expand...

Think again. I always sit back between 70-120cm away from my Dell or I can see all individual pixels and that is bloody annoying. There is nothing specific to mine, every single one of them is like that. Retina will be a big improvment for high end editing.

P.s. retina-ness depends on viewing distance. TVs need a lot less pixels when you are on the sofa 2-3m away.
 
Thanks Pookeyhead. I now understand the hardware profiling bit.

Cheers
 
daugirdas said:
Think again. I always sit back between 70-120cm away from my Dell or I can see all individual pixels and that is bloody annoying.
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You can see individual pixels on a 2560 res screen from 1.2 metres away? You have amazing eyesight... I can't, and yes, that's with my glasses on.

Like I said.. 4k is on the way. Retina is just Apple's name for a hi-res screen.. 'nowt special. I'll wait for proper manufacturers to make a proper high end 4k screen I think. Knowing Apple, there's will look good, but be useless.... and cost 40% more.
 
Pookeyhead said:
There's be no point in a retina display that big... the whole point of retina is minute pixels and hi res on a small screen... because it's sometimes only inches from your face.

Anyway... 4K monitors will be here soon... then they'll all be "retina" anyway :)

It uses the LG LM270WQ1-SDB3 panel, which is only standard sRGB gamut, and has a pretty poor 14ms g2g response rate.. so is very poor for multimedia and moving image.

As for connectivity... it has USB2.0, not 3.0, and how many people still have a firewire device? Not sure how useful the ethernet connection can be though.. what exactly is that for? No DV-I, (let alone a second one like most decent screens) no HDMI either, so time to stock up on those DP to DV-I adaptors!, no analogue input should you need it. No height adjustment, no rotation... Pretty poor actually.

Sorry... I don't get the whole Apple display thing... it's £800. For £90 more you can get the 30" Dell U3014... a proper high end hardware LUT equipped professional monitor.
Click to expand...

Lol come off it, perhaps get your head out of the spec list and use one :) poor for multimedia and moving image, give me a break. You don't know what an Ethernet connection is for, lol. Sure I assume you know what Ethernet is and you most likely mean you have wifi so why use Ethernet. Well if you have to ask, there really is no point explaining, oddly contradicting considering you are so concerned about a 14ms panel being too slow for multimedia and moving image.

Ps. As the op has got a MacBook Pro retina and no mention about other needs is VGA or other analog needs really that important?
 
dejongj said:
Lol come off it, perhaps get your head out of the spec list and use one :) poor for multimedia and moving image, give me a break. You don't know what an Ethernet connection is for, lol. Sure I assume you know what Ethernet is and you most likely mean you have wifi so why use Ethernet. Well if you have to ask, there really is no point explaining, oddly contradicting considering you are so concerned about a 14ms panel being too slow for multimedia and moving image.

Ps. As the op has got a MacBook Pro retina and no mention about other needs is VGA or other analog needs really that important?
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Yes.. I know what an ethernet connection is for... (sigh)... I'm just not seeing the need for one on a monitor... no I do not use wi-fi... all hard wired here.

That's 14ms grey to grey... and yes, that's pretty pedestrian. That exact same panel is used in other Apple screens that I've used extensively, and no, they're not great with fast moving media. That may or may not even be important, but others may like to know.

If he's using other Apple products, then the lack of DV-I may not concern him, but the lack of quality should, when for pretty much the same price you can get a proper high end 30" monitor.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Yes.. I know what an ethernet connection is for... (sigh)... I'm just not seeing the need for one on a monitor... no I do not use wi-fi... all hard wired here.
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But obviously you aren't using a MacBook Pro retina then ;)

But even if we pretend that what you say is possible ;) docking at your primary place to work with just a single cable to plug in and nothing else is quite attractive to many. Granted if I'm totally honest I'd prefer a full docking station to just slot it in, but just a single cable will do as an alternative opposed to at the very least power, display, ethernet and I've not even started on peripherals yet :)
 
Thanks for all the help. I actually ended up buy a new thinktank airport international v2, as I thought I would get much more use from that and have needed one for a while. But hopefully in the next few months if I get the job I'm looking at I might be able to buy a monitor then, but please keep discussing the pros and cons of all the screens as I'm finding it very interesting. Cheers and I'm sure this is helping others as well
 
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