Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: Barossa.1 on June 20, 2014, 09:01:04 am
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Heres the situation. I have an Eizo CG19 bought in around 2007. The internal colour calibration software is now out of date and won't work with the Mac OS system but thats not really a problem. My Mac Pro is also circa 2006 and works fine with the Eizo. It runs OS 10.7.5 Lion and can't be further upgraded as the computer internals won't support anything newer. At some time in the near future it all needs changing. I used to shoot high end architecture with a Leaf Aptus but have moved to the other side of the world for a quieter life and now shoot wine on a simple Nikon DSLR.
So, heres the question. How good is the iMac 27" screen compared to the aged Eizo? Will it be fine for simple studio work and just how bad is the reflection problem with the gloss Mac screens?
Thanks
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If the qualities and abilities of the calibration system are important, I suspect the Eizo is going to still be the champ here. There's nothing at all special about Apple displays and when it comes to calibrating them, you're 'stuck' using 3rd party solutions that don't have full control over the electronics as 'smart display's' like Eizo and SpectraView have.
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The latest Macs do not have the reflection problem.
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Hi and thank you both for the replies.
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"How good is the iMac 27" screen compared to the aged Eizo? Will it be fine for simple studio work"
i think you'll find it to be more than adequate. Not quite as good as the current Eizo CG and high end NECs, but very good. If you have an older colorimeter such as the i1 Display 2 or Datacolor Spyder 3 (or older) , you'll need to update/upgrade to the i1 Display Pro or Spyder 4. Of the two I prefer the i1 Display Pro.
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To expand on my earlier remarks. I just finished by regulary scheduled profiling of my early 2010 manufactured 27" white LED backlit iMac using the new update of Xrite's i1 Profiler software with the i1 Display Pro colorimeter.
As you can see from this composite (fig.1) comparing the iMac's display to Adobe RGB(1998) and sRGB where the iMac is weakest is in the deep blues and cyan but over all is better than sRGB. This composite was made from screen shots of ColorThink 2.3.
This is confirmed by i1 Profiler where one of the green patches of Xrite's ideal values for a 24 Patch ColorChecker is slightly in the "yellow" zone and one of the blue patches is slightly into the "red zone". (Fig. 2)
There is also some slight fall off in illumination in the corners of 27" iMac's screen (Fig.3 also from i1 Profiler)
However overall the display has been very stable over the past 50 months I've been using it as you can see from the trending report (fig.4)
My real world experience is that the iMac is fine for general portrait, commercial, and landscape work. If you were working with very specific brand colors like Pepsi Blue or Coca-Cola Red, or for high end fashion work you will be better off with a new Eizo CG or a high end NEC.
My other display is an Eizo CG222W with CCFL backlighting from 2010 that had the screen and backlight assembly replaced (under warranty) by Eizo in 2012 and has about 1900 hours on it since the rebuild.
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Thanks Ellis, thats very comprehensive. I pretty much figured that if an 8 year old Eizo is OK then anything half decent new would be a step up. The Mac screens get a bit of a slating in reviews and I had been considering a Dell + Mac Mini. However, my work isn't really colour critical - I'm in a big wine producing area and shoot bottles. For me its important that images leave my office colour correct (or as close as I can without spending $$ and hours starring at graphs) but then clients stick then on crappy old laptops!
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" For me its important that images leave my office colour correct (or as close as I can without spending $$ and hours starring at graphs) but then clients stick then on crappy old laptops!"
That is the competent professional's dilemma: work hard to make sure things are as close to perfected as you can get them when they leave your hands and then pray the client knows the difference and notices the care and craft you put into the work you did for them.
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Ellis, would you also consider the iMac 21" fine for general portrait, commercial, and landscape work?
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That is the competent professional's dilemma: work hard to make sure things are as close to perfected as you can get them when they leave your hands and then pray the client knows the difference and notices the care and craft you put into the work you did for them.
Not really a big deal. Check your iPhone. If it looks good there, it is as good as it gets.