tobey bilek Posted November 1, 2014 Share #21 Posted November 1, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) iMac screens do not properly calibrate. I finally gave up and bought a 27" Eizo Color edge. Couple hints. Work in a dead dark room on a calibration that is best you can do. And brightness can be controlled in finer increments if you hold down the option key. Use the color sampler on a white or Whi Bal card to get the color balance correct. Do not rely on your eye which is easily fooled. Better to get WB correct in camera and that means using Whi Bal Card or at least Sun or tungsten rather than AUTO. On old pics, go to channels RGB and use the color droppers on the darkest shadow and brightest non specular highlight , Find the brightest and darkest with the threshold function. You need to go channel by channel. This a big pain, but it works and perfect WB is achieved. Lastly, set the black to point to 15 and whites to 250 with the color sampler tool. Commercial printers set their exposure using the BP, so you give them a file that is correct buy the numbers. If their process is in control, you get perfect prints. Divorce the monitor from the computer. Buy a good monitor and a Mac mini and replace each as required. Unless you are doing video editing, a super powerful computer is not required. Keep the HD clean by off loading finished work. This keeps the speed up because you do not need to write and read from RAM which takes time. People think more ram is the solution and it is usually not. It does help if the HD is over loaded and PS has no storage space. Think of RAM as external temporary storage and you will understand. The short answer is keep what you have until it fails and use it properly and you can get decent prints. The display will not help unless you do everything else correctly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted November 1, 2014 Posted November 1, 2014 Hi tobey bilek, Take a look here New Retina Display iMac. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
platypus Posted November 2, 2014 Share #22 Posted November 2, 2014 All pros and cons aside I will certainly be buying the Retina Display iMac. The timing of it's release coincides perfectly with the long planned for upgrade of my present (and much loved) 27" iMac.....which is really nice! A bit less guilt that way. Jennifer, I think if you want one you should go ahead....the happiness component is important! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
snooper Posted November 2, 2014 Share #23 Posted November 2, 2014 You obviously can be very happy with the new iMac 5K. Unfortunately, and for some odd reasons, the GPU feeding the retina display is the R9 M290X, with the R9 M295X offered as an optional upgrade. This GPU is an early 2012 release (an antique piece of equipment in the computer timeline). This card is not 10 bits if I'm not mistaking, but 8 bits per color channel, while 4K standards (not mentioning the 5K) are usually based on 10 bits /ch... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
platypus Posted November 2, 2014 Share #24 Posted November 2, 2014 Antoine, that is a disturbing piece of information and seems quite irrational! I am not all that tech savvy so maybe I'm missing something....but why would Apple be so slack?! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
snooper Posted November 3, 2014 Share #25 Posted November 3, 2014 Greetings Dee, Might want to check this... Checked and double checked Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stickan1 Posted November 3, 2014 Share #26 Posted November 3, 2014 So the new Imac 5k is not perfect for those who use it for computer games! But does this has any effect when you look at still images? You will be more limited by the rather small color gamut I think, so in any case you want a second monitor. I have a NEC Spectra view 241 and there is a difference between this and my 3 year old Imac 27. But if you compare the Imac 27 and the 5k model with the same spec the price difference is less than 300 euros so if/when you upgrade it is a no brainer, I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dougg Posted November 4, 2014 Share #27 Posted November 4, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) To the degree the Retina iMac is better than my 2009 27" iMac, it'll likely be very very good... I just returned from a 2-week trip during which I used my 13" MacBook Pro to examine DNG files in Lightroom to see how things were going, detect any problems with the image files. It was a bit of a struggle to adequately assess the files, of course partly because of the cramped screen. But, once home and these same files imported into LR on the old 27" iMac, they look considerably better... higher contrast, sharper, better color... the difference was clear and obvious. Very much looking forward to my new Retina 27 iMac arrival in a couple of weeks! How much better might it be than my current iMac? Doug Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
snooper Posted November 4, 2014 Share #28 Posted November 4, 2014 Well... This is the question. We should not need a screen "improving" our shots, but a neutral screen showing accurately what the picture is really, so that when you export a file for screen or printing, it will show the same than - or close to - what you had on your own screen. To get a neutral calibrated screen, it takes more than the feeling that the picture "looks nice". It takes proper hardware and settings. I'm not - by far - a calibration taliban, but if my pictures only "look good" on MY 5K screen but not anywhere else, then I would say something is wrong. A picture export should look about the same on any (calibrated) screen / print. Or I'm missing something there. What I've seen from the 5K iMac is far from being "neutral" as they deliver this computer with a very warm and colorful setting, showing colors close to HDR to impress the new owner, kind of GoPro settings I do not doubt you can get it down to more reasonable settings, but the question is... can you actually do serious PP work on this hardware ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
otto.f Posted November 4, 2014 Share #29 Posted November 4, 2014 Well... This is the question. We should not need a screen "improving" our shots, but a neutral screen showing accurately what the picture is really, so that when you export a file for screen or printing, it will show the same than - or close to - what you had on your own screen I can follow your story about the Mac's being over the top and I agree. One thing though: a screen will always have a larger contrast-range than a paper because a paper is just not transparent. That's why it was so difficult in the past to get a good print directly from a slide. You can see your screen as a slide, so you'll always have to reckon with one or two stop less dynamic range when it comes down on paper, Eizo or non Eizo, calibrate-taliban or not Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
snooper Posted November 5, 2014 Share #30 Posted November 5, 2014 Agreed ! Apparently rumors are spreading the word that Apple would soon release a 5K / 30" replacement for the cinema display. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stickan1 Posted November 5, 2014 Share #31 Posted November 5, 2014 I agree that the colours on all Mac's are over the top or unreal if you don't calibrate them. But this discussion raise another question, namely where is the original? We have grown up to regard the print as the final product and I still think in these terms myself. But if we see the image on a large hi res screen as the final product? What happen then? Modern cameras have an enormous amount of information in the raw files and it amaze me how you can change the visual apperance of a given file. The photographer can do a lot in PP. You see many awful examples of that, but also good work and remember that the old guys like Ansel Adams changed a lot aftrwards to get his vision of the scene in the final print! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
snooper Posted November 5, 2014 Share #32 Posted November 5, 2014 And this is all what photography might be about. Some will want to show accurately what they saw, some others will want you to see an interpretation of what they actually saw... This might be why you need a "neutral" piece of equipment to tweak some settings until you are satisfied with the result. If I only can show you my picture and share it with you on my iMac 5K because I don't like it when seen on anything else, then I would say it's a bit restrictive... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted November 7, 2014 Share #33 Posted November 7, 2014 I did have a look at an iPhoto picture on both screens the std 27" iMac and the new 5k screen No idea on relative settings or how well the picture was processed. But interesting all the same the 5k was noticeably better with considerably better detail it still appeared to look more analogue than some of these oversharpened 4k TV's with demo discs. It wasn't a demo I just hunted around until I found two copies of the same picture It also appeared to have a greater dynamic range and better contrast, it's still shiny and reflective. I look forward to the reviews, hopefully LuLa will torture it for us. My gut is hopefully calibrated it will be great. Printing mostly on matt paper I see more graduation in the low ire blacks on screen than on paper (just) so staying with the stock mac and do more B&W anyway so colour accuracy is for me good enough with the mac, if this is as good or better I suspect it will go on my want list ! Especially for B&W you need the best screen you can get to see the fine nuances in grey. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbbeyFoto Posted November 18, 2014 Share #34 Posted November 18, 2014 This thread raises many conflicting questions in my mind and I can't say I have a clear position. For the most part I create images for my own consumption and satisfaction. I can imagine the iMac 5k being valuable here. I share some images through prints on my walls but I need to improve my skills in making good use of the kit I already have, which includes an Eizo screen. I share some images through my iPad and many online. Ideally I would optimise images for each purpose but I am not sure the payoff to me - I have no business to promote - warrants a lot of time in that direction. So I guess I am saying it's horses for courses. A system that I can learn to calibrate for better prints and something like the 5k for a digital experience. It is likely the two avenues will give different "interpretations" of the same image and different images will work better with the two processes. As an after thought, I do wonder if prints will go the way of film and digital displays will push them out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
otto.f Posted November 18, 2014 Share #35 Posted November 18, 2014 Chris I love my Monochrome and I couldn't be without her but a good old wet Baryta print on the wall is unsurpassed by any modern inkjet print on the best available Baryta inkjet paper and the difference is: depth. Some people see a revival of analogue photography, if that is true, it goes very slow. But digital posters or paintings on the wall, it will come, but won't satisfy everyone for their interior decoration Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
otto.f Posted November 18, 2014 Share #36 Posted November 18, 2014 http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/film-forum/353120-sorry-more-good-news-about-film.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thighslapper Posted November 23, 2014 Share #37 Posted November 23, 2014 In my case, I'm using one of the earliest of the 27" iMacs, from late 2009, so it's 5 years old now. Some LR operations with large files from M240 and S2 Leicas are showing some slowness. But worst is the screen smudging, a problem others have encountered too, and which Apple seems not to be able to fix. I had the screen on mine replaced last year, and now smudges are growing ever darker on this replacement screen too. Apple will not replace it on repair-warranty and seems not to know the cause. Doug Ditto ......... I had terrible and worsening problems with smudging etc ..... till I read somewhere about running a random pattern screensaver for lengthy periods helps .... and sure enough all the marks have gone. I have it set to run for 30 minutes before the computer finally goes to sleep. No problems since. Unfortunately I invested in a new iMac only a few months ago so have missed the retina version ..... The old one is kept for boring pedestrian tasks and the new one for photos and graphics etc. Still runs fine, but noticeably slower in terms of loading files and programs ..... which is mainly due to the new one having a hybrid intelligent HDD/SDD combo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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