Photo Editing Monitors

Hello all,

I hope this is the correct forum for this discussion:)

I am looking for advice on a new pair of monitors for photo editing, no video. I currently have a 2010 Mac Pro setup with an AMD Radeon HD 7950 3072 MB video card. CPU has been upgraded to 12 core 3.33 gHz.

I am using Lightroom and some Photoshop.

I have a pair of now ancient Apple 30 inch Cinema displays which are losing brightness. They have served well, but are getting tired.

I am considering Eizo, NEC higher end monitors, but open to suggestions. Do I need 4K monitors?

I will probably replace the Mac Pro if Apple gets their act together in 2019, although, for what I do, I have no real complaints with my existing tower. I just upgraded it to OS Mojave, so nine years on, it is still current!!!

ian

You have a Mac so that will make using 4K simpler as they handle it better than Windows. I'm not sure if it works properly with CS6 and older versions (non CC) of photoshop.

Having said that I'm quite happy with my NEC PA302W, very nice display. However in Australia at least they downgraded their dead pixel policy so the place I bought it from stopped stocking them.

This may be useful: https://imagescience.com.au/knowledge/colour-accurate-monitors

and this: https://imagescience.com.au/products/monitors/monitor-recommendations

This is the shop I bought my monitor from, I think the advice they give is good. Maybe the range available is different where you live but should give good guidance.

Thanks for the input Chris.

The NEC is one of the monitors on my short list. Looks as good as the Eizo, but less money. Still not cheap, and not 4K. Not sure if the 4k piece is important?

BenQ comes looking good on paper with it's higher end models, but I do have some concerns about build quality and sample consistency.

I also do medical imaging to pay for all this, and need the monitors to be DICOM compliant, which the NEC is. It might be my go to:)

ian

just read the dead pixel warranties, you don't want to be stuck with adead pixel in the middle of the screen. I don't think 4K is required unless you are doing 4K video, others may have a different view point

Thanks Chris

I purchased a pair of NEC PA302W monitors. Calibrated beautifully and are identical to one another afterwards.

One dead pixel near the edge of one of them. I got them for a great price from B+H camera in NYC.

Lack of 4K NOT a problem

Couldn't be happier for my needs:)))

ian

yep they are nice monitors well worth the price.

Have used NEC PA241W for 12 years and recently added new W271Q. The older monitor has been a true work horse. More importantly, whenever I reached out to NEC support to tie in a new computer or whatever, a human being answered the phone & gave immediate advice that was always the correct needed information.