pdk42
Moderator
Ha - I can recommend a 34" curved monitor - works really well for photo-editing (and pretty much everything else).I'm gonna need a bigger screen
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Apple M processors and PC monitor
- Thread starter pdk42
- Start date
I already own a Viewsonic VP2468 photography monitor, upstairs in it's box. I don't want a desk again, I use the lounge OLED and I might get another tablet again sometime.
ChrisM
Member
I am used to a 27” iMac that is soon to be replaced and worried about going to 24”. Not sure my eyes are big enough for a 34”!
I wouldn't go back to sitting at a desk though under any circumstances, never again for multiple reasons.
Pete_W
LMF-Patron
I use a 13" Windows laptop, on my lap while I am on the sofa.
I've a M1 mac mini attached to my 48" lounge OLED with wireless laptop keyboard and mouse as a coach potato desk alternative. It's not as good as my photo monitor but I may set that up on a kitchen table or something in my next house but that is still too much like a workstation so probably not.
LR impressed me on the phone, but that's too small so looks like a tablet with OLED type screen sometime again... Basically your idea of a laptop without a keyboard and I can use my bluetooth laptop keyboard/mouse combo and separate mouse with it anyway.
pdk42
Moderator
Here’s my justification for a 34” wide-screen curved dedicated monitor (not a TV).
- The display quality is superb. It’s got great gamut rendering and is colour calibrated.
- It’s wide, but the slight curve means the edges don’t recede too far.
- The resolution is 3440x1440 which means it’s not so high res that you need to scale it to read text.
- Full screen, it works great with LR etc - the wide aspect means that the size panels left/right do not intrude into the photo space, even if the photo is wide landscape format (16:9 etc).
- For general office and business use, you can display multiple docs in portrait format.
- For software dev, you can run the IDE and the app under dev side by side very easily.
- It’s better than two monitors since there is no dead zone as you slide windows, and the colour/brightness etc is identical across alll the display area.
Anyhow - it works for me. I like editing photos at a desk with a big amount of display area. It’s the best way to scrutinise quality and deal with the editing controls without them intruding into the photo itself.
- The display quality is superb. It’s got great gamut rendering and is colour calibrated.
- It’s wide, but the slight curve means the edges don’t recede too far.
- The resolution is 3440x1440 which means it’s not so high res that you need to scale it to read text.
- Full screen, it works great with LR etc - the wide aspect means that the size panels left/right do not intrude into the photo space, even if the photo is wide landscape format (16:9 etc).
- For general office and business use, you can display multiple docs in portrait format.
- For software dev, you can run the IDE and the app under dev side by side very easily.
- It’s better than two monitors since there is no dead zone as you slide windows, and the colour/brightness etc is identical across alll the display area.
Anyhow - it works for me. I like editing photos at a desk with a big amount of display area. It’s the best way to scrutinise quality and deal with the editing controls without them intruding into the photo itself.
Yeah, I should really dig out the Viewsonic again to properly see the brilliant IQ of S5ii FF. It also did auto portrait mode when swivelled 90° which was really something else for portrait orientation. Then when I switched to Mac there was no software to make the portrait mode work unless they released it since I packed it away a few years back.
It's also colour calibrated with LUT tables, 'only' 1080p but it didn't seem to matter on 24" as it looked fantastic. I think they still sell it but with newer connections but the screen being the same so it's obviously good.
Thanks for the unintentional kick up the backside, I'll get it out in May as I've something important to do this month.
It's easy to forget about gear you own if packed away and get lazy with convenience methods sometimes.
Jayneboo
LMF-Patron
The only time I bother with editing on anything other than my MacBook 16 (on lap) is if I'm going to print, then it's 27" iMac that's old though good enough for me, but most use it gets is when I have to sit at my desk to do accounts 
. I keep looking at various better Monitor options but know I would still be lazy. My husband thinks my photography OCD keeps me away from him enough already without extra hours in the office as well.
. I keep looking at various better Monitor options but know I would still be lazy. My husband thinks my photography OCD keeps me away from him enough already without extra hours in the office as well.
ChrisM
Member
And now I'm thinking Mac Mini with a large monitor, only downsides I can so far see is that they have not got the M3 chip and I'd need to go to subscription PhotoMechanic. What monitor can you recommend Paul?
You definitely don't need the M3 chip, I have the first base M1 Mac Mini 8GB/256GB from 2020 and it's brilliant. I waited years to get a fast silent PC and after 20 years of building my own PCs with Noctua & BeQuiet fans, fanless passive power supplies and other expensive noise reduction mods, Apple invented it's own super efficient lithography and SoC tech and finally a fast machine that ran silently was possible. It has a fan but I have never heard it and fan noise drove me crazy with PCs.
The M2 chip is absolutely great in the later mini, as is the M1.
I'd look at Viewsonic photography monitors, the VP range designed for it, colour calibrated out of the box, IPS and if you want to spend around £500+ on a 32" 4k monitor something like this but they have 27" and 24" too for less money. But make sure you get a VP model as the others are for gamers and other applications...
https://www.viewsonic.com/global/products/lcd/VP3256-4K
pdk42
Moderator
First thing I'll say is that the difference in performance between the M1, M2 and M3 isn't large, esp if you're not doing video editing. I wouldn't worry about the Mini not being M3.
As to monitor - I can't say that I'm an expert, and it's some years since I bought mine. However, mine is a Dell 3415W "Ultrasharp". I don't think they are maing them any longer, but I think the 3425WE is basically the same spec. It's not cheap - about £800, but it's got a high quality IPS panel (avoid the TN panels) and delivers excellent colour reproduction. There's an interesting article here about the different panel technologies and their use for photo editing.
How to Choose the Right Monitor for Photo Editing
Choosing and buying the right monitor for your photo editing is hard. Here is some information that will help you make an informed choice.
digital-photography-school.com
RuleOfThirds
Well-Known Member
I use 2 machines... a iMac 27" 5K (hexa core i5, 24GB memory, 512SSD, and 1TB external ssd) and a MacBook Pro M1, 16GB and 512GB ssd. It is more than fast enough for photo editing. I can hook it uo to my 42.5" 4K IIyama screen I use for it home office (work 4 of 5 days at home, one at the office), and got this one from my employer. It's not that expensive though. In my home office I also have a snap NAS, with internal sd-card reader.... so when I get home after taking pictures, I pop my card in, and it makes a backup of all the files not already on the NAS in a new dated folder within an Imports folder. After that is ready I import the photo's over the wired network within my home office.
Personally I would go for an 38" 3840x1600 ips screen, curved (we have those at the office from Dell, but others less expensive models exist). The extra lage monitor (or the 5K iMac) makes it very easy to work at 100% and see enough....
Both machines are more than powerful enough to do photo editing. For my work I use Windows....
Personally I would go for an 38" 3840x1600 ips screen, curved (we have those at the office from Dell, but others less expensive models exist). The extra lage monitor (or the 5K iMac) makes it very easy to work at 100% and see enough....
Both machines are more than powerful enough to do photo editing. For my work I use Windows....
You can get a Viewsonic VP2768a 27" 2k version for about £320 if that helps, otherwise if you like iMacs then get another modern M version (any M) of that and it's a nice and neat bit of kit.
The photography monitors typically gave a matte screen versus the glossy Mac screens.
After I tried the Mac mini on the lounge OLED I left it there.
BTW M1 8/256 Mini does video editing no bother and is faster in LR than the last PC I built: Ryzen 5 2600, GTX 1060, NVME SSD, 16GB. Don't listen to the amount of crap Apple hating PC nerds write about it all, I've owned one for more than 3 years.
Even more important... Total silence and I assume the same for modern Apple Silicon iMac and electricity use is miniscule compared to old gear.
I've more than 13TB sometimes attached to mine as I use it as a server as well, mixture of 5TB hard drive portables (silent), SSDs and NVMEs for performance.
I only use about 80GB of the Mac Mini SSD
Never liked the idea of fusion drives but that machine is not old and probably was the last Intel based iMac. You should be able to replace that fusion drive which you can't do with Apple Silicon SoC.
I only use about 80GB of the Mac Mini SSD
Never liked the idea of fusion drives but that machine is not old and probably was the last Intel based iMac. You should be able to replace that fusion drive which you can't do with Apple Silicon SoC.
Apple iMac 2021, Apple M1 Chip, 7-Core GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with P3 wide colour gamut
£799 
Binned 8-core chips i.e 7 core but this is quite a bargain includes magic keyboard etc.
https://www.costco.co.uk/Computers/...M-256GB-SSD-24-Inch/p/iMac24M18ccpu7cgpu256GB
CharlesH
LMF-Patron Gold
When it comes to photo and video editing the M1, M2 and M3 chips seem like miracles. I got the original M1 based 13 inch MacBook Pro, and was amazed it could just do things my Intel computer couldn't touch. In the meantime I've upgraded to a 16 inch 2021 MacBook Pro, still with an M1, but with quite a bit more capability than the original 13 inch.
I was in southwest Australia a couple years ago, way down on the Indian Ocean, shooting 8K video of the beaches and the surfers by day, and sitting on the couch with the MacBook easily editing HDR video by night. It is so portable, the batteries last forever, it doesn't get hot, it has an HDR screen and life is good. There's not another laptop in the world like this (except the newer M2 or M3 macs). Apple tunes Final Cut Pro to play well with the M chips and Blackmagic optimizes DaVinci Resolve for this. If you shoot hi res HDR video, get a new MacBook.
At home I hook this to a Pro Display XDR. This is 32 inch HDR display. I started out editing HDR by outputting to a 42 inch OLED TV, which worked well enough, but I finally broke down and got the Pro Display. So I use the laptop HDR screen when I travel, and the Pro Display at home.
For photography this setup is great. I use Lightroom Classic to organize and edit photos. I also use Lightroom, the non-classic version, for some editing, and I can then view and edit these phtos on my iPad when I travel without my laptop. (For business I use a Windows laptop and don't like to carry two laptops when I travel on business.)
I've mentioned (perhaps too often) that I'm enthralled with Adobe's recent incorporation of true photo HDR capability into their photo products. Or - we are shooting 14 bit or more RAW photos, why do we have to view them with 8 bit monitors? Because I have a good HDR video editing setup it is easy and natural for me to edit photos in HDR. And if I shoot photos to go along with videos I can have them in video HDR format so they fit right into an edited video. BUT, you don't need a Mac for photo HDR - if you run Windows you just need an HDR monitor. So, if you are getting a new monitor, my advice is to future proof it and get an HDR monitor.