Posted by Craig Thompson on February 1, 2007 at 12:55 AM
I'm about ready to make the decision to purchase an Intel iMac 24in.
I've been using a 5 year old G4 500 /w 756mbt RAM, with a 17 in Apple CRT monitor. Since my slide database & labeling program Apps. work only in OS 9, I want to keep the G4. I've recently purchased a cheap <$300 flat panel LCD monitor for the G4, which now leaves me enough space on my desk for the iMac. (That 17 in studio display was a monster) The 19 in. LCD has a much smaller footprint, but its not that great for viewing & working on photos. My intent is to use the iMac for all my digital photography needs and keep the G4 for back up & for all my OS 9 apps. (so I won't, and don't have room for a G5 tower. Much as I'd like one!)
I was interested in hearing from anyone who has one of these bigger iMacs just to get a feel for what they like about them or any drawbacks that they've experienced. I've been playing with the one at the local Comp USA for a while now. It seems plenty fast, although they don't have PS loaded on any of them. So I don't know how well it handles PS & large digital files. I'll probably max out the RAM to 2gig's. (config. comes /w 1gig.)
I also noticed that while playing with the iMac & looking in on the NPN galleries, it seemed to me that many of the posted images seemed,.. "Over sharp". Not like they had too much USM or anything, not sharpening halos or artifacts. Just,.. for lack of a better term, "Too sharp" Very contrasty in the fine image detail, maybe. I was wondering if anyone else noticed this or if it was just me being unfamiliar with using LCD monitors. (my studio display was sharp & images I worked on or viewed here looked great, smooth & sharp. Also I thought text looked better too on the CRT! IMO) One of the techies at the store was going on about "Virtual vs Actual" pixels in regards to comparing LCD's & CRT's. Didn't really get it myself.
I'll be jumping off the fence & into more credit card debt sometime in the next week or so. I would appreciate any feedback I could get from actual photographers who have experience with these Mac's.
Thanks,
Craig
Posted by Les Barstow on February 1, 2007 at 3:33 AM
I've run into the same situation on my Dell LCD screen; I create an image on my home, 20" CRT screen, then I get in to work and view it on my 17" LCD and it looks like I told PhotoShop to isolate every single pixel. The higher quality LCD screens don't seem to exhibit this problem quite as badly as the lower-end screens - but I can't imagine that the 24" screen on the iMac is a slouch.
Posted by Rick Dunn on February 4, 2007 at 11:47 AM
Craig,
I don't have direct iMac experience, but I recently purchased a Mac Pro and 23" cinema display. Regarding your question about over-sharpened looking images, when I first fired up my Mac and went to RMNP / NPN, I noticed the same thing. I pulled up some of my own images and again saw the same thing. I still had my old Dell w/ 19" LCD hooked up, so I pulled up NPN on that machine - everything looked "normal".
I had the same impression you did - although in my mind I saw it as very very subtle noise or grain. I can't say for certain, but I think it's the finish on the Mac's LCD displays. Colors and contrast were great, but the displays seem to have just a little more relief or "grain" on the screen surface than other LCDs. I figured I would get used to it. For better or worse, I never had the chance. The Mac kept blowing the 15A breaker in my office and it had to go back (I swapped towers at the Apple store, but that tower simply pulls a lot of amps when powering up). I now have a Dell with 24" Widescreen LCD.
Posted by Don Miller on February 4, 2007 at 12:13 PM
I can't comment of the new 24", but I have a few thoughts.
- When calibrating the imac, you will turn brightness and contrast down, this should help the grainy/pixelated/sharp look.
- screens with 'pop' sell. But apple knows these machinces are used by creatives, so that is taken into consideration. I'm confident the screen will adjust as well as any mid-priced LCD.
- performance will be ram dependent. The cpu ungrade will make little real world difference.
My concern with these machines are the ram limitations. I'm purchasing the tower and ram is the primary reason. For hi-res scanners or higher MP cameras, the 3gb max is a major limitation. A question I have with these machines is can PCI be extended outside the machine? I have a lot of swap and catch drives for photoshop and Bridge. Running these over firewire would be slower.
Posted by Russ Carlson on February 11, 2007 at 1:52 PM
The contrast is a bit more noticeable on this screen. I have been using a Powerbook G4 15” before upgrading to the 24” iMac. I prefer this snappier appearance, but it does tend to show up the fine ‘imperfections’ more than other screens. Part of the difference is the brightness of this screen. That is controllable, though.
If you decide to go with this, get either 2 or 3 gigs of RAM (I will handle 3 g, but that’s the max). Also I recommend upgrading the graphics card to the 7600. Makes a big difference in rendering time. I opted for the larger hard drive, but this unit does have Firewire 800, so a fast external will work well, too.
Posted by Doug Dolde on August 22, 2007 at 10:29 PM
I just had my real life look at a new iMac in an Apple Store. They simply must be seen to be appreciated. A real work of industrial design art.
Also I bought one of the new Apple keyboards. If you using the older Mac keyboard, run don't walk and get one. Absolutely the best $49 I ever spent. The old ones are a real kludge, complete with squeaky keys and poor action. The new ones are a radical flat design with great action and no squeaks. It also seems much easier to type on without hitting the wrong key. I'm typing on it right now.
Russ and Don, just for clarification: new iMacs have 4 GB memory capacity. Not a giant step forward, but decent. As for the screen, I don't know about the new glossy ones, but previous iMacs had screens indistinguishable from CinemaDisplay. On large format forum a bloke once posted colour spaces from both 23" CinemaDisplay and 24" iMac - the same. So if you don't like CinemaDisplay you won't like iMac.
Cheers,
Marko
Posted by David Bostock on August 26, 2007 at 6:21 PM
Make sure you go look at the new iMac in a store...the new aluminum iMacs are impressive, but they come only with a glossy screen. A lot of reflectivity. I have the Apple 23" Cinema for my Mac Pro and I love it. We recently got a 20" iMac for my wife. It's a great machine and I like the screen, although even calibrated, I don't think I'd want to use it for photoshop. I compared the 20" and the 24" in the store. The 24" is much better, colors look better and you don't get a color shift as you move around it. The 20" shifts colors pretty dramatically. It's not a big deal for my wife, she doesn't do heavy photo work.
I have only one experience with it, so my comparison could well reflect specifics of the images we were working with. I had a contract to prepare files for rendering as high res 9"x9" prints for use by a geologist on a stereoscope. The original files were color IR shots from NASA. As a test I prepped one file for printing using my older mac with its LaCie CRT monitor. I took the file to his house and we pulled it up on his brand new 24" iMac. On that machine the image definitely looked oversharpened compared to how it looked on my CRT. Comparing it with the original and another version that was simply resized showed that the original and the resized version looked plenty sharp on his machine, though they appeared soft on my CRT.
I subsequently shipped off the resized/unsharpened version and the resized/sharpened version for test prints. The print from the unsharpened version was just fine, while my version appeared oversharpened. Guess what workflow I subsequently used to finish the contract?
I'm not sure how the experience reflects on the iMac, but I have to suspect that my CRT has aged enough that it's time for a replacement. The experience has turned out to be specific to those color IR files and no others I've prepped for printing recently, but I have begun not to trust the CRT. Before buying the iMac as a replacement for my current system however, I'll be borrowing time on his machine for some test editing.
Long story short, I'd do my best to try the iMac for editing before making the investment. Work with a variety of images while you're at it. Any effort required in arranging that will be offset if the iMac turns out not to suit your needs.
Discussion
8 repliesI've been using a 5 year old G4 500 /w 756mbt RAM, with a 17 in Apple CRT monitor. Since my slide database & labeling program Apps. work only in OS 9, I want to keep the G4. I've recently purchased a cheap <$300 flat panel LCD monitor for the G4, which now leaves me enough space on my desk for the iMac. (That 17 in studio display was a monster) The 19 in. LCD has a much smaller footprint, but its not that great for viewing & working on photos. My intent is to use the iMac for all my digital photography needs and keep the G4 for back up & for all my OS 9 apps. (so I won't, and don't have room for a G5 tower. Much as I'd like one!)
I was interested in hearing from anyone who has one of these bigger iMacs just to get a feel for what they like about them or any drawbacks that they've experienced. I've been playing with the one at the local Comp USA for a while now. It seems plenty fast, although they don't have PS loaded on any of them. So I don't know how well it handles PS & large digital files. I'll probably max out the RAM to 2gig's. (config. comes /w 1gig.)
I also noticed that while playing with the iMac & looking in on the NPN galleries, it seemed to me that many of the posted images seemed,.. "Over sharp". Not like they had too much USM or anything, not sharpening halos or artifacts. Just,.. for lack of a better term, "Too sharp" Very contrasty in the fine image detail, maybe. I was wondering if anyone else noticed this or if it was just me being unfamiliar with using LCD monitors. (my studio display was sharp & images I worked on or viewed here looked great, smooth & sharp. Also I thought text looked better too on the CRT! IMO) One of the techies at the store was going on about "Virtual vs Actual" pixels in regards to comparing LCD's & CRT's. Didn't really get it myself.
I'll be jumping off the fence & into more credit card debt
Thanks,
Craig
I don't have direct iMac experience, but I recently purchased a Mac Pro and 23" cinema display. Regarding your question about over-sharpened looking images, when I first fired up my Mac and went to RMNP / NPN, I noticed the same thing. I pulled up some of my own images and again saw the same thing. I still had my old Dell w/ 19" LCD hooked up, so I pulled up NPN on that machine - everything looked "normal".
I had the same impression you did - although in my mind I saw it as very very subtle noise or grain. I can't say for certain, but I think it's the finish on the Mac's LCD displays. Colors and contrast were great, but the displays seem to have just a little more relief or "grain" on the screen surface than other LCDs. I figured I would get used to it. For better or worse, I never had the chance. The Mac kept blowing the 15A breaker in my office and it had to go back (I swapped towers at the Apple store, but that tower simply pulls a lot of amps when powering up). I now have a Dell with 24" Widescreen LCD.
- When calibrating the imac, you will turn brightness and contrast down, this should help the grainy/pixelated/sharp look.
- screens with 'pop' sell. But apple knows these machinces are used by creatives, so that is taken into consideration. I'm confident the screen will adjust as well as any mid-priced LCD.
- performance will be ram dependent. The cpu ungrade will make little real world difference.
My concern with these machines are the ram limitations. I'm purchasing the tower and ram is the primary reason. For hi-res scanners or higher MP cameras, the 3gb max is a major limitation. A question I have with these machines is can PCI be extended outside the machine? I have a lot of swap and catch drives for photoshop and Bridge. Running these over firewire would be slower.
The contrast is a bit more noticeable on this screen. I have been using a Powerbook G4 15” before upgrading to the 24” iMac. I prefer this snappier appearance, but it does tend to show up the fine ‘imperfections’ more than other screens. Part of the difference is the brightness of this screen. That is controllable, though.
If you decide to go with this, get either 2 or 3 gigs of RAM (I will handle 3 g, but that’s the max). Also I recommend upgrading the graphics card to the 7600. Makes a big difference in rendering time. I opted for the larger hard drive, but this unit does have Firewire 800, so a fast external will work well, too.
Also I bought one of the new Apple keyboards. If you using the older Mac keyboard, run don't walk and get one. Absolutely the best $49 I ever spent. The old ones are a real kludge, complete with squeaky keys and poor action. The new ones are a radical flat design with great action and no squeaks. It also seems much easier to type on without hitting the wrong key. I'm typing on it right now.
Cheers,
Marko
Good luck with your decision.
Cheers,
David
I subsequently shipped off the resized/unsharpened version and the resized/sharpened version for test prints. The print from the unsharpened version was just fine, while my version appeared oversharpened. Guess what workflow I subsequently used to finish the contract?
I'm not sure how the experience reflects on the iMac, but I have to suspect that my CRT has aged enough that it's time for a replacement. The experience has turned out to be specific to those color IR files and no others I've prepped for printing recently, but I have begun not to trust the CRT. Before buying the iMac as a replacement for my current system however, I'll be borrowing time on his machine for some test editing.
Long story short, I'd do my best to try the iMac for editing before making the investment. Work with a variety of images while you're at it. Any effort required in arranging that will be offset if the iMac turns out not to suit your needs.