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Author Topic: Which device for the new 27" iMac?  (Read 6972 times)

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Which device for the new 27" iMac?
« on: July 01, 2013, 03:20:54 pm »

I just got a new 27" iMac, the one with less reflective screen than the previous models, and was wondering which color profiling device /software will work good enough with the latest OSX and that screen? I have a rather old Monaco Optix XR and I assume it would not work with this combo.

Kevin Gallagher

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Re: Which device for the new 27" iMac?
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2013, 04:01:10 pm »

Hey Slobodan, did you get the Fusion Drive?


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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Which device for the new 27" iMac?
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2013, 04:58:46 pm »

No, just went for a 7200 rpm one.

I remember reading conflicting opinions on the fusion drive efficiency, so I decided to save $200. The way I work, I am by far the worst bottleneck in the chain, so a few seconds here and there do not matter much to me.

The worst time offender for me is not how fast a program loads (which, as far as I know, is the fusion advantage), but the time it takes for a Lightroom adjustments to become visible on screen (with which, again as far as I know, fusion does not help much, if at all). I am hoping that other system elements, like a jump from my current 3 GB memory (iMac 24) to 8 GB (with a planned jump to 16 or 32 at some point), newer processor, newer video card, etc., will create a more comfortable working experience.

Tim Lookingbill

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Re: Which device for the new 27" iMac?
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2013, 08:47:31 pm »

Quote
...but the time it takes for a Lightroom adjustments to become visible on screen...

What resolution is that iMac 27"? Is it a Retina display? I'm wondering if your current version of Lightroom previews have been optimized to work with Retina resolution displays.

Is it white LED backlit? You'll need current hardware calibration that takes that into account either with the filtering design in the hardware and/or the software to create profile matrices to do the same for color managed apps.

I just bought me an wLED 27" LG and went with the Xrite Colormunki Display I bought used on Amazon for $135. Its colormeter uses glass color filters instead of film based filters which my old original Xrite i1Display used. Tried i1Display on the LG with disastrous results. Believe it or not the red spectrum ended up outside the CIE locus model.

The Colormunki did much better and with a noticeable improvement to uniformity in rendering a neutral grayramp throughout its entire tonal scale compared to i1Display's CCFL calibration on my Dell.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Which device for the new 27" iMac?
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2013, 09:39:37 pm »

What resolution is that iMac 27"? Is it a Retina display?...Is it white LED backlit? ..

It is a non-Retina, 2560-by-1440, IPS LCD backlit, with 75% less reflectivity than previous iMacs.

Interestingly enough, Apple claims:

Quote
we put every single display through an exacting color-calibration process using three state-of-the-art spectroradiometers: one to measure gamma, one to measure white point, and one to check the work of the other two. This equipment is tuned to meet color standards recognized around the world for precision and accuracy.

Anyone able to confirm this, i.e., that new iMacs might not need calibration?

Tim Lookingbill

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Re: Which device for the new 27" iMac?
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2013, 01:02:18 am »

It is a non-Retina, 2560-by-1440, IPS LCD backlit, with 75% less reflectivity than previous iMacs.

Interestingly enough, Apple claims:

Anyone able to confirm this, i.e., that new iMacs might not need calibration?

Make a grayramp/gradient in Photoshop similarly pictured on my LG above. Look for neutral color uniformity throughout from black to white with no or little banding. Go a step further and Posterize the gradient setting it to 21 and see if each step shows the same neutrality.

Make sure you use the default profile created by the Apple OS which I'm sure they've built accurate enough matrices for displaying color managed previews by loading some test images you already know what they look like on previous calibrated displays.

I'ld trust Apple's factory calibration claims because my $330 LG 27ea63v-p came factory calibrated out of the box and the gradient was perfectly uniform but a bit on the green side and after measuring with the Xrite CM found their 6500K claim was off by 200K.

I adjusted the RGB gains just slightly to make it a bit warmer which delivered an XriteCM profile of 6500K as seen loading the profile in Photoshop's CustomRGB dialog box in Color Settings. The grayramp went a tad bit red brown after the LUTs were loaded. Not that much of a change. Made my Dell's uncalibrated state look pathetic.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2013, 01:07:10 am by Tim Lookingbill »
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