Going from 30 inch to 27 inch. Thoughts?

[OSXphoto]

Considering move from 30” HD Cinema Display to 27” Studio Display XDR. To folks who did, have you missed the 3” extra display area?
I’m doing mostly photography (Lightroom and photoshop) and work from home.

Thanks!

 

[Fishrrman]

Have you considered "going the other direction"?
As in, from 30" to 32" 6k ??

 

[OSXphoto]

Hi @Fishrrman thank you for your reply! And yes I have. Fierce HDR performance is on my list, so this new 27" XDR is a serious competitor. There are other HDR displays but not of this quality.
I'm not in a hurry, so there may be larger Apple or other brands XDR displays around the corner.

 

[dmccombs]

Considering move from 30” HD Cinema Display to 27” Studio Display XDR. To folks who did, have you missed the 3” extra display area?
I’m doing mostly photography (Lightroom and photoshop) and work from home.

Thanks!

I've done photo editing on 30" and 27" monitors using photoshop and lightroom. The tools take up some room as you know, but I found a 27" monitor still works great for photo editing.

I think getting a monitor with the brightness, color accuracy, color space, calibration, etc. that you need is more important. If you are calibrating for print output you won't even need a high amount of brightness. If you work in a bright room, you may want a monitor with more brightness.

Anyway, I didn't see an issue going from 30" to 27".

 

[FreakinEurekan]

30" HD Cinema Display I think is 4:3-ish, vs 16:9-ish for the 27"

What is the aspect ratio of your photos? If they fit the 30" better, then yes - you're losing usable space. If they're wider - you're probably not, really.

 

[OSXphoto]

30" HD Cinema Display I think is 4:3-ish, vs 16:9-ish for the 27"

What is the aspect ratio of your photos? If they fit the 30" better, then yes - you're losing usable space. If they're wider - you're probably not, really.

The 30" HD Cinema Display is certainly not 4:3-ish: it's 64x40 cm usable display area, which would equal to 16:10.

 

[OSXphoto]

After posting the above I spent a few working days aware of the 30 vs 27 debate. I carefully covered the right and bottom edges of the screen with black bars, leaving 27" working area to deal with. My findings are:
- Photoshop and Lightroom work is perfectly doable with the 27" working area
- Doing my other work (my actual paid job) from home is another story: I regularly place two documents next to each other ( | | ) or even a large document and two smaller ones ( | : ) and reach for the resize corners of app windows to spread everything out comfortably. Sometimes I even add a window on the laptop display below.

So historically, coming from dual 17" CRT monitors, a 27" display is already a big step up. But I noticed I got used to the 30" width after almost 20 years. So I am going to stay put for now and see what the market brings. The Apple 2019 Studio Display Pro is 32" which would have been great for me, but the price difference is enormous.

For now, the old lady is still going strong so there is no rush.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

The 30" HD Cinema Display is certainly not 4:3-ish: it's 64x40 cm usable display area, which would equal to 16:10.

4:3.33 is “4:3-ish” 😉

 

[OSXphoto]

4:3.33 is “4:3-ish” 😉

This is very true. However, 16:10 does not equal 4:3.33.