Should I buy the new IMac 27"?

I am new to digital photography. I have limited processing experience/skills, and I need a computer. Thoughts on the new 27" IMac? It seems pretty good price-wise for the mac option, but I have concerns about the glossy screen. Opinions? Also, does anyone have advise on configuring an IMac - e.g., should I get a quad-core and, if so, the i5 (adding $300) or the i7 (adding $500)? A 1 TB hard drive or a 2 TB (adding $250)? Thanks for your time. It's greatly appreciated.

Caution

I've had problems calibrating my display on my 24" iMac. The last generation iMac displays are too bright and you can't turn them down to an acceptable level without using a 3rd party app. Makes it very hard to get prints that match your display. Don't know if the new ones allow you to properly calibrate but I would hope that Apple fixed this problem. Ask around on the Apple forums about calibrating the display. One nice thing (other than size) is that they are LED displays and use WAY less energy!

I use Macs exclusively. I have a Mac Pro with a 24" Cinema Display and a 2008 iMac with a 24" glossy LED. I calibrate both with a Spyder3Pro. I haven't seen the brightness problem Phillip describes; on my 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo the brightness control takes you all the way to grey. The glossy screen doesn't bother me. I really like the color richness on the iMac.

Unless you are going to be working with truly huge files, the dual core should be completely adequate. On the Mac platform, PS CS4 doesn't even really take advantage of multi-cores yet (unlike Windows), and it's still at 16 bits. I processed a large series of historical photos at 48" x 72" on my dual core Mac Pro, although even with PS tweaked for speed it was tedious.

Storage is another matter. I'd spring for the 2TB drive. Photos shot and saved in RAW are very large, and there's this tendency to shoot a lot, bracket and otherwise create a very large number of photos very quickly.

HTH.

I use a Mac book and am very happy with it. I will be purchasing a 24" Cinema Display very soon. With the Mac LED screens I also use a Spyder3Pro to calibrate and it works great. Agree with Jim on the 2TB drives. I have two. Check out the G-drive brand. I use one to photo edit with and the other as a back up drive. Don't forgot to back up - you don't want your computer crashing without any back ups.

- DMP

The glossy screen has always been a deal breaker for me because I absolutely hate the glare that comes with the glossy screen. Go to one of the Apple stores and compare the glare coming off an imac screen with that off a matte screen of a Cinema display.

I have an iMac 20 that is about 4 years old. It has the 20 LCD screen. It used to be able to reach optimal luminosity (120) using the iOne calibration system, but has changed over the years so that at the brightest setting the maximum luminosity is only 99. Obviously it can no longer be used for color managed workflow. For this reason alone I would recommend the Mac Pro if you can afford it, or (hold your breath) the high end Mac Mini and a 24" display. That way, when your monitor goes south (Apple is known for that, especially the 30" Cinema I have on our Pro), you don't lose everything else like you will in an all-in-one. I'm not kidding about the mini either. We have two in our studio that are CS3 workhorses. You'll probably need external storage (we use time capsules).

Here's a couple discussions regarding the brightness issue with iMacs:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/285093
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24564
http://fotografx.blogspot.com/2008/12/calibrating-imac-for-print-matching.html

I've been using ScreenShade to dim the display and then an Eye-One to calibrate. Not the best solution, but workable.

There are also problems with variable brightness/contrast across the display on iMacs. Bottom line is, for critical color work, you would be better off with a Mac Pro and a display built for a color-managed workflow.

I use one of the latest Mac Minis for all of my photography/graphic design needs. Don't rule out this option, along with a really nice NEC monitor - for about the same price as an iMac. I run my system off a large external drive - which I can also use to boot my laptop.

A Core 2 Duo is more than adequate for digital photography, considering the state of software right now.

Thanks for your time. I really appreciate it. I am going to reconsider my options.

I don't want Phillip to have to carry this brightness issue all alone. He is absolutely right. This previous generation of iMacs have had a chronic problem of being too bright for photographic work, with very few profiling systems available to correct for this. We've had a lot of customers come to us with this issue and generally point them to ColorEyes Display.

http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/My_Printer_Is_Too_Dark

I'm looking forward to hearing if they give us more adjustment ability in the new 27" iMacs.

-Patrick Herold
www.chromix.com

I must have been remarkably lucky. At the lowest brightness setting, my 24 inch iMac clocks in at at a luminosity of 85. It's an iMac8,1, with an Intel Core 2 Duo, at 2.8GHz, running Mac OS 10.5.8. I don't usually win lotteries; go figure. If you are having trouble with your brightness, I'd suggest trying the following:

1. In the System Preferences -> Display -> Color control panel, select color and then turn off the checkbox for "Show profiles for this monitor only" and try on the Adobe RGB or sRGB settings. They have lower default brightness values.

2. Try deleting the monitor preference file in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost. Sometimes the plist files get corrupted.

3. If those don't work, there's a tool called Shade that most folks seem to like.

4. The Spyder3Elite ships with a nice Custom Black and White Luminance Control; alas, it's not in the Spyder3Pro and the Elite is $pendy.

Easy answer - no, buy one from the NEC Spectraview series. Mac displays don't have the hardware control to do precise color work.

And don't use Spyder; X-Rite Eye One is the only way to go.

I've been on a 24" iMac since April of this year. The glossy screen can be a bit hard on the eyes but aside from that nit, I love it. I had some initial calibration issues but I resolved those pretty easily with the right software and hardware. The machine is wicked fast and having such a large screen is great for working on large images from the 5D2. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to recommend an iMac.