Mac and monitor

[zvia_shever]

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I am currently working on a 24" iMac and have been happy with the monitor, although I do get a little eyestrain. After traveling to the Grand Canyon for a photo workshop without a laptop, and therefore missing out on editing help, I've nagged my poor husband into buying me a laptop. I'm going with either a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. I'm leaning more toward the Air for ease while traveling (I plan on traveling to 3-4 workshops a year), but the 13" display will be a killer for editing at home as I'm used to 24". Unfortunately, my 24" iMac cannot be converted to a display.</p>

<p>I'm looking for a really good 20"-24" monitor that will give me a similar look to a MacBook Air screen. I don't want to see 2 completely different variations of the same photo, that would drive me crazy. I do plan on calibrating the monitors with the same software, so that should help....Spyder 3?</p>

<p>I looked into getting the 27" Apple Cinema Display, but at $1,000 it's too expensive, plus I read it has a lot of glare and can cause major eye strain. I've reviewed a ton online (NEC, Viewsonic, Dell, HP etc...) and found the NEC LCD 2490wuxi is very highly regarded. It's still quite pricey at $675 (Amazon) but definitely more affordable than the 27" Apple. The Apple guy at my local Apple store said I should look for IPS technology and an HDMI connection. The NEC doesn't have an HDMI connection, only DVI and VGA...is that a big deal?</p>

<p>I always get great advice from this site, so thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Zvia</p>

[leighb]

<p>I'm using a 13" MacBook Pro with an Apple 24" LED Cinema display, and love the combination.</p>

<p>I can take the laptop anywhere for tethered shooting, and still have a very large screen for editing.</p>

<p>- Leigh</p>

[steven_p]

<p>At the moment the new 4-core MacBook Pro 15-17" is one of the fastest portable's available. The only difference between DVI & HDMI is the former doesn't carry an audio signal. There are adapters available for any configuration.</p>

<p>The difference between the pro and air is a price/performance/portability decision that only you can decide. It's kind of rare when Apple pulls the plug and almost doubles the processing power of their Macbook Pro line, especially with keeping prices somewhat in line.</p>

[zvia_shever]

<p>Leigh....Apple 24" LED Cinema display has been discontinued. Can't even get a refurb.<br>

Steven....Still haven't decided between the two. I really like the Air, great to travel with. I may end up buying more RAM for my 24" iMac (Crucial sells 4GB for $67) and dump a lot of my big raw files onto an external hard drive. Hoping that will make my iMac faster. Then I could just buy the Air for travel and move files back and forth between the Air and iMac via an external hard drive. Maybe that would give me best of both worlds....portability for travel and a large screen for editing at home.<br>

Your thoughts?</p>

[steven_p]

<p>Zvia,<br>

It pretty much matches my setup. I have a 13" hooked up to a monitor and a 15" by my living room. They pretty much "mirror" each other, especially photos. I abandoned the idea of a desktop quite a few years ago. Both computers are several years old, and get backed up often.</p>

<p>I had a few surgeries, a while back and couldn't get around well, so easy chair computing became my norm. I'm not sure what camera you are using, but I have found the 6 to 12mp raw file lag to occur. Playing ahead, with 20+mp on the horizon, I'd really consider the performance factor. Also, go to a retail outlet and see what a 13" screen feels like, as it's 1/4 of your 24".</p>

<p>Happy hunting. If needed just ask. There is a wealth of information here.</p>

[zvia_shever]

<p>Hi Steven,<br>

Thanks for your response. <br>

I'm now shooting with a 5D, Mark II....the raw files 20-30MB, so I'm sure that's part of my problem. <br>

I went to Apple and looked at the 15" MacBook Pro and the 13" MacBook Air. Really preferred the Air but both screens were too small to do anything more than normal adjustments. The problem is, I really want something to travel with to get critiques and minor editing help in the field, but love working on my 24" desktop.<br>

I just got off the phone with an Applecare guy who suggested the following:<br>

Buy a new 21" iMac (updated version with Lion should be out in the next couple months) and use for full-fledged editing.<br>

Buy a new Macbook Air (again, a new version should be out this summer) and use it for the road.<br>

Buy an external hard drive to store raws I'm not currently working on, so they won't slow down either computer.<br>

Can edit on the Air while away and then move those masters and version to the external hard drive or to the big screen for further editing.<br>

So now I just need to come up with $3,000+ for that set up ;)<br>

Thanks again,<br>

Zvia</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>Talk to your optometrist about a prescription for glasses to use with your computer. Getting a pair of glasses for this made a big difference for me.</p>

[PatrickMP]

<p>Zvia, there is no real difference between DVI and HDMI for your needs. My understanding is that, at a high level, HDMI carries an audio signal and the necessary links for DRM (digital rights management). As far as you are concerned, a DVI connection to the NEC should be fine.<br>

As for monitors. I run two LaCie monitors myself and think they are great. You may also want to look at the used market. I picked up a LaCie 324 screen for less than half of the NEC you quoted, and it is a dream to work with.<br>

Calibrating will also save you a lot of headaches, but be sure that the system supports independent calibration of both screens. I've read that in some systems, you cannot have two different profiles running at the same time (I believe this is a limitation of the graphics card - you may want to confirm with Apple that the minidisplay port will do what you need).<br>

Good luck.</p>

[Hector Javkin]

<p>Hi Zvia,</p>

<p>My wife has the 11-inch Macbook Air, which she uses for teaching, with PowerPoint, other presentation software and clips of films. It is incredibly fast to come up because reading and writing to the SSD is so fast. Image editing is demanding of disk input-output, but also makes demands on the processor for some operations, such as correcting lens distortion. Overall, I think the Air can handle it very well, despite the relatively modest processors available in it. My wife loves the portability, function, everything. She has Imacs in her universitiy office and at home, and it's very smooth to move between them with external drives, or sometimes flash drives. The portability should be diminished very little in the 13-inch.</p>

<p>Closely matching the calibration between a large screen (whether on your Imac or external) and a laptop may be difficult, I think, and I'm not sure how worthwhile it is. The variations in ambient light falling on your screen and directly on your eyes when using a laptop -- in a hotel, an airplane, outside on the grass -- are huge, and will affect what you see.</p>

<p>I agree with Ellis that dedicated computer eyeglasses, with a prescription adjusted to your distance from the screen, can make a big difference for eyestrain.</p>