iMac

I used to have an iMac G5 and I loved it. I broke. All by itself. That's very sad...

 

I got a new iMac, but am confused by the monitor. I can live with the glossy monitor, although I loved the matte one ...

BUT

the colors look faded. When I tilt it so that I look a bit from below colors get stronger.

Come on...

What do others think about it? I'm very unsure about workinb with such a monitor

What would be a good choice for an external monitor?

 

Thanks for any hints, Chris

I also have an iMac, but with the matte screen. The iMac is a beautiful machine - wonderful for processing photos. I've just had to adjust to the monitor's characteristics by setting the angle high (so that the center of the monitor would have a perpendicular line right to my eyes). In time maybe you could forget about what happens with the other positions.

You don't say which iMac you have. The 24-inch iMac's screen is superior to that on the 20-inch iMac. Many believe that the latter is not suitable for serious photographic work. Here's the technical explanation:

 

http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2007/09/an_imac_display_dilemma_20inch_value_or_24inc.html

look like a 20inch? if it is, the monitor itself is in fact not that good..vs the 24inch i mean. Or you just sit i a akward position and youre not looking at your monitor corectly : )

I actually used to have a similar problem with my first generation matte iMac G5 (17"), and this was the main reason I paid

the extra for the 24" on this go around (plus, it's like working on an HDTV).

 

Nevertheless, it took some getting used to. The two things that helped me out were to sit as far back from the screen as

possible, as that seems to minimize the effect of the variation in contrast between the top and bottom of the screen. You'll note that if you

open two identical photos, and position one near the top and one near the bottom, they will look different. Tilting the screen so that they

look as close to each other as possible will help you find a good working angle.

 

Second, in the calibration setup, I set the "Target Gamma" to the notch between "Mac Standard" and "PC Standard," as it

tends to yield a bit more contrast overall.

 

While it may sound a bit redundant, if it becomes an insurmountable problem, consider getting another display for the

machine, though if I'm not mistaken, it will only work in video mirroring mode.

 

Hope this helps.

 

TMC

1_you dont have toset the "Target Gamma" to the notch between "Mac Standard" and "PC Standard,"..what you need its a external device to calibrate properly your monitor, imac or not. Use a eye1 display pro or spider3 pro for that.

 

2_the new generation Imac that let you plug a external monitor, do so as a second totaly different monitor..no mirroring.

 

3_the Imac 17inch was in fact a laptop screen..nothing to do with the newest 20 or 24inch for sure..the 17 had the worst screen ever, i mean for a non laptop computer.

Patrick, I agree the 17" was the worst screen one could have on a non-laptop. The new 20" glossies are better, but still have

that cast which makes accurate color, at least from human perception, tough. That iMac was a champ for performance, but I was

constantly fighting with it from a color standpoint. I had spent a few hours setting up a friends 20" Glossy, and I was very curious about

the change of the display, since this 20" matte I have is quite good (as is the 24" glossy BTW). Perhaps they belong on Apple's "WTF"

list, along with the "biscuit" mouse.

 

While the screens are different technically, the effect, sadly, is the same. The "notch between" was meant to be

something of a band-aid for the faded look Christian mentioned. Properly calibrating the display is, of course, best, but

unfortunately that won't help with the shift in color one sees when viewing from a different angle.

 

The good news is that you do have support for true dual displays (without mirroring). Probably one of Apple's cinema

displays for the external would be your best bet.

Last week I just eyeball calibrated the 24" iMac at Best Buy's Mac demo station using Apple's Calibrator located in Display

Preferences. Got a perfect picture over using Apple's canned iMac and other supplied monitor profiles which all made the screen

look bright and washed out. This calibrator will suffice if on a budget AND if take your time making all raster targets blend as one

with regards to neutrality and density. Gorgeous screen.

 

There wasn't a 20" iMac available so I can't tell you anything about it.

Sorry, but no one i know could 8eye ball* a calibration..on a mac or not.

 

I mean if you only want pleasign result, sure you can get by..but if you want to see the *real* image nothing, nothing, nothing beat a decent hardware calibration device, cost around from 100$ for a spider express, to a real best thing like a spider3 pro or a eye1 display pro.

 

What is a perfect picture? perfect where? have you print it? dowst look like your perfect monitor?..a calibration for me is more than a good image on screen..its also something i can rely on to *predict* how it will print.

As for the color shift..i have a brand new Imac24inch and i dont see any major color shift when working normally, a bit more if someone is standing on my back, i mean he see some slight variation, but nothing too critical for sure.

 

calibration take around 3-5min, give consistent result EVERYTIME. If you depend on what you see before printing..dont be cheap and buy one of those..or do it by eye and keep wasting time, money and paper until you learn.

I agree with Patrick, I use the Spyder 3 Pro to calibrate my 24" iMac, and it's spot on.

From what I know by now the 24'' screen is different from the 20'' technically.

I could handle the latest 17'' G5 screen quite well, so I might get used to my 20'' screen for my purposes (although it seems

to be completely unacceptable for a pro!) - if not, what monitor well under 1000€ would you recommend?

The 23" Apple Cinemas are US 899 (660 EU as of 10/14/2008), with the 20" models at US 599 (439 EU). It would stand to reason that

you're less likely to have any other problems buying another Apple product. Obviously, try to get in front of any display you might choose,

and see if it's going to be acceptable. I took a memory card of photos in before I bought my 24" and just played around in Aperture for a

bit, to really get a sense of what I would be getting. After about 10 minutes, I knew the 20" was not going to be the choice.

 

You'll still want to follow Patrick's advice (something, I admit, I need to do) at some point and get a calibration device to get it spot on. But

for now, if you're looking for a consistent display without the color issues that you're getting from the iMac, these displays will do nicely. I

had 2 of them at the last place I worked and they were nothing short of beautiful, and extremely accurate.

 

Maybe it's Apple's secret plot to get you to buy the more expensive stuff! ;)

Patrick,

 

Perfect picture? Sorry for not using a more accurate description.

 

I can nail eyeball calibration on my 2004 20" G5 iMac so close that I can barely see a difference switching back and forth

between my i1 Display profile. The only difference is the i1 profile opens up shadow detail between 12-24 RGB and 250-253

RGB in the highlights of a 21 step grayramp.

 

If someone doesn't photograph a lot of grayramps, is on a budget and has a good eye and a lot of patience they can get just

as good results on any S-IPS panel iMac using the Apple's eyeball calibrator. I've been doing this for ten years now so I know

something about eyeball calibrators and hardware calibration packages.

 

My prints match using either profile.