Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Glossy iMac disappointing, back to waiting...

I think it's just that, for most people, colour accuracy is less important than colour vibrancy. Which is fair enough.

Doesn't stop it being rubbish for some of us, and disappointing given how there's traditionally been such a strong correlation between Apple and the graphics and creative industries. People from this segment who want a Mac desktop now have to choose between the Mini or the Pro.

And contrary to what's being written elsewhere on this forum, I've worked in several small London design agencies and can vouch for iMacs being used in a number of them. (That's saying nothing of the student designers, the freelancers, photographers, and everyone else on limited budgets as well).
 
I work at an electronics store and 9.9/10 customers never mention anything about not liking glossy screens. I am in the 0.1 --> I really dislike them and I understand your concern. I doubt apple will ever go back to the matte, though. which is weird because steve himself said the new iMac appeals to both pros and consumers.
 
Okay, so how many of you people complaining have actually seen the new iMac? LYK OH EM GEEZZY! IT"Z LYK 0.0001 PARCENT LESS ACCURET!! Give me a break. No one uses their computer staring at it from the side, so you're not going to see any glare unless you have a 7 megawatt lamp behind you. Can anyone remember CRTs? WAAAAY less accurate for colour and equally as glossy and reflective. for crying out loud, if you don't like it, get a refurb for cheaper or just dont get an apple.
 
atari1356 said:
It's seriously disappointing to me that the new iMac screens are all glossy... I've been waiting for this update, and if it weren't for that - I'd probably order the 24" model this week.

I don't think the glossy screen would work very well since I do a lot of photography as a hobby.

So, I guess I wait for a Mac Pro update now, even though it will be much more expensive and has more power than I need... time to start shopping for an external monitor. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You've managed to miss the point about the nice glossy screen that you just made ;)

You do photo editing, you will buy a Pro, even if it's more power than what you need, and you use it Mister! iMac is NOT for professional work! Apple doesn't intend it that way! (Even if the iMac is, by now, more than enough power for your needs.)

Okay, so how many of you people complaining have actually seen the new iMac? LYK OH EM GEEZZY! IT"Z LYK 0.0001 PARCENT LESS ACCURET!! Give me a break. No one uses their computer staring at it from the side, so you're not going to see any glare unless you have a 7 megawatt lamp behind you. Can anyone remember CRTs? WAAAAY less accurate for colour and equally as glossy and reflective. for crying out loud, if you don't like it, get a refurb for cheaper or just dont get an apple.
Click to expand...

Dustman's right you know. I must agree. Just live with it and stop whining/whinging! (Standard words to shut up dissenters.)
 
Dustman said:
Can anyone remember CRTs? WAAAAY less accurate for colour
Click to expand...

Eh. Not at all. LCDs are just catching up to CRTs in color range, accuracy adjustability. Until quite recently if you needed very accurate color, you got a (high end) CRT.
 
The notion that CRT's are old hat and not any good any more is wrong i'm afraid. While LCD's are catching up, they are definitely not there yet. I have worked in the film industry (post-production) for 15 years in London, and still to this day, any system, be it Shake, Inferno or whatever is hooked up to a CRT. The people who are on LCD's are normally juniors who are doing jobs like rotoscoping, pulling keys etc., where accuracy of colour is not needed. It is a cheap option. The CRT's are not perfect, but to date, there is not another option. The main reason LCD's are not used is because they cannot be calibrated in the same way, and to the same degree, as a CRT.

In regards to the glossy screen, if you are doing a job(or hobby) where the grade/colour of your work is very important, you would have your system set up in a room with very low ambient light BEHIND your monitor, not in front. To complain about glossy screens because they give you bad reflections and that you can't do your SERIOUS photo editing etc., is ridiculous, because if you were that serious in the first place, you wouldn't be trying to do it in a room right in front of a window and/or various bright light sources.
 
TeddyBlack said:
because if you were that serious in the first place
Click to expand...

Most aren't, otherwise they'd know that. I use both, LCDs and CRTs. Same with at work. We're upgrading some things to LCD, but CRT is still the de facto for anything serious.

But glossy isn't that bad if you've got good lighting, and as I said, if you want one instead of a Mac Pro, for ~$20 you can get an adapter and hook up a real screen.
 
atari1356 said:
It's seriously disappointing to me that the new iMac screens are all glossy... I've been waiting for this update, and if it weren't for that - I'd probably order the 24" model this week.

I don't think the glossy screen would work very well since I do a lot of photography as a hobby.

So, I guess I wait for a Mac Pro update now, even though it will be much more expensive and has more power than I need... time to start shopping for an external monitor. :rolleyes:

EDIT: can't imagine editing photos on this:

new-imac-keyboard-01.jpg
Click to expand...
I feel your pain!
Lucky i got a 20" matte.

Hopefully apple will be working on a remedy for that!:apple:
 
I hate the new design, specially the backing, but I think you should really try and see one of these in person rather than rely on pictures taken by other people, the glossy screens on the macbooks aren't bad.
 
stevo1 said:
Haha, oh dear.
Admit it, you have no idea what you're talking about, do you?
Click to expand...

That was based on me reading somewhere that CRTs can only cover something like 89% of colors accurately while LCDs can cover something in the 90s. My point is that most people won't notice the very small change in accuracy, and i severely doubt that their world of photo editing would be over because of it. Apple isnt a stupid company, they know what they're doing. It's the people here that are the ones making themselves look like idiots because they're dissing a product that they've never touched, or probably even seen before.
 
You can hardly compare a 20"/24" glossy (glass) monitor to a glossy filter on a miniscule 13" macbook. For one, on the macbook, the display is pretty much on the desk and your body hangs over it eliminating most if not all of the reflection from any lights behind you. Now we have the 20"/24" iMac's that are easily 6"+ above the desk leaving much more room for light to get pass the shadow of your body. So I can still imagine that there's a handful of light getting by causing reflection.
 
Dustman said:
Okay, so how many of you people complaining have actually seen the new iMac? LYK OH EM GEEZZY! IT"Z LYK 0.0001 PARCENT LESS ACCURET!! Give me a break. No one uses their computer staring at it from the side, so you're not going to see any glare unless you have a 7 megawatt lamp behind you. Can anyone remember CRTs? WAAAAY less accurate for colour and equally as glossy and reflective. for crying out loud, if you don't like it, get a refurb for cheaper or just dont get an apple.
Click to expand...

That is why CRTs are still used by some pros for editing. :rolleyes:

While glossy, it produces nearly perfect colors. The iMac on the other hand (the 24" at least) uses a crap TN panel (6bit + dithering) with horrible angles and it is glossy. Two wrongs... are more wrong!

And, on the glossy. No, it is garbage. I can have a huge light behind my 24" panels and I see nothing. My Macbook (which I sold) was very reflective, basically unusable outside.

And on viewing angles. The glass will reflect higher at even a slight angle. The 24" for example is not entirely in out field of view assuming you sit about 3' away from the computer. So any not in the field of view will reflect higher and possibly back into your face.

Whats more, since the 24" is a TN anything not in the field of view will have color shift. Which means you will have reflective and less color accurate portions of the screen.
 
jblodgett said:
I never knew there were so many professional photographers..

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Color accuracy can be important to professional photographers and amateur photographers alike... so I'm not sure what point you were trying to make.

I'm still interested in the new iMac - I may be able to live with the glossiness, but not if it oversaturates the colors. From that iMac disassembly that showed it's essentially a piece of glass on top of a matte screen, it may not be affecting colors much. I'm not sure yet.

I'll wait until some reports come in from people who have tried to calibrate the screen - and have successfully matched what they're seeing on the screen to prints - before deciding if I'm buying one or not.
 
Dustman said:
That was based on me reading somewhere that CRTs can only cover something like 89% of colors accurately while LCDs can cover something in the 90s. My point is that most people won't notice the very small change in accuracy, and i severely doubt that their world of photo editing would be over because of it. Apple isnt a stupid company, they know what they're doing. It's the people here that are the ones making themselves look like idiots because they're dissing a product that they've never touched, or probably even seen before.
Click to expand...

Only wide gamut LCD panels can produce 92% of the sRGB color gamut. Typically, LCDs are 72% while CRTs are 85% and higher when you get into premium CRTs.

LCDs are also limited in terms of contrast ratio due to the backlighting used. CRTs produce nearly perfect blacks and white whites. Whereas LCDs produce blacks that are washed out (more gray) and whites with a yellow tint (typically, without calibration).

Also, CRTs can be viewed from VERY WIDE angles. The argument of "No one looks at it from the side," is irrelevant. Because, as I mentioned above, as we move towards larger displays our FOV cannot take in the whole thing. So there is a slight sngle on the extreme ends of the display (most horizontally due to the widescreen trend). So, a wide angle allows you to have accurate colors regardless. Not to mention, what if you are looking down at something and give a look up to look at a color. On a TN panel, those colors will not be accurate.

LCDs do not compare to CRTs even the wide gamut panels. Not even close, due to the other things I mentioned. Whats more, adding glossy makes it even worse.

In a print enviroment, an LCD is murder, which is why many do their work on an LCD with a smalled high quality well calibrated reference monitor, to reference, before going to print.
 
I've worked with my photos on both a glossy Macbook and my matte Macbook Pro and never noticed much of a difference. Photography is just a hobby of mine though so maybe I don't have an "eye" for those kinds of details.
 
suneohair said:
The iMac on the other hand (the 24" at least) uses a crap TN panel (6bit + dithering) with horrible angles and it is glossy.
Click to expand...

suneohair said:
Whats more, since the 24" is a TN ...
Click to expand...

Where have you read that the 24" is using a TN panel?

I know that the 20" uses a TN panel, based upon findings from the 20" iMac disassembly posted on Kodawarisan. I haven't seen anything about the 24" yet though... aside from Arstechnica reporting that it has a 178 degree viewing angle (whereas the 20" only has a 160 degree viewing angle).
 
I saw them today on Regent Street. The glass reflections are a big problem. This is nothing like the MacBook glossy. It is highly reflective even when turned on with strong images and colours on the screen in much the way that the MacBook is a mirror when the computer is turned off. Somewhat alarming.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back