But, what is your final output? Do you make prints, or have them made by another party?
yes I make my own prints (up to 24 inches wide) and for larger ones I use a lab.
Or just show others your images on that screen?
Sometimes I do that , when I take the iMac on a location shoot.
Some of my commercial and advertising clients are extremely picky about color and neither they or the production houses they use to prepare images for printing have a problem with the color and file quality I deliver. The production manager at of those production houses asked me what my set up was because my files come in so color and tone correct. With that particular client before they started using me, getting the color correct files from photographers has has been a constant problem. I know a couple of those photographers and I know their hardware set up is far more elaborate than mine, and from my clients I've seen the files that other photographers delivered. That client makes high end frames for art ranging from natural wood to high gloss painted wood to handmade gold and silver leaf. The metallic ones are really tricky to get right especially as leaf is hand applied over a special red clay base that sometimes (deliberately) shows through in places.
no If it's the former, sorry, but, you need a different screen that can be calibrated seriously to a print output. Sorry, and I'd like to believe the IMac is appropriate for my needs, but I've concluded that I have to spend 5-6000 for a MacPro/Eizo setup, if I want accurate color on the screen represented for output.
To each his own I guess. An argument with a stranger on the internet won't settle that. All can say is that my tools allow me to do the job the way I want it done
I have seen older MacPros (previous generation) on Craig's and elsewhere going for pretty cheap, relative to a new one. Besides hard drive wear and tear, how exactly can an older machine get "long in the tooth" and necessitate a newer one, if relatively lightly used?
Speed increases with newer generation machines ( why I tend to skip two to three generations between hardware updates0; and sadly components in computers can breakdown over time. Also how can you know if something you buy on craigslist or eBay has actually been "lightly used"? A lot of the Mac pros I have seen on those sites have been used for music and video production work.