Retina Macbook Pro with Cinema Display?

[Josh Kahane]

Hi

I'm considering replacing my 2010 27" iMac with a 15" Retina Macbook Pro, this is my first tricky decision.

However, mainly, I currently have a 27" Apple Cinema Display, if I was to get a Retina Macbook Pro, would my eyes go crazy when using my cinema display (with my Macbook connected)?

I know it will work fine, however my past experience with retina displays, iPad, iPhone, going back feels horrible. For those who use a Cinema Display with their Retina Macbook Pro, does it feel fairly unusable after adapting to the retina display?

Just wondering how you feel about it, if you dropped one display for the other or manage find with both.

Thanks.

 

[snoylekim]

Hi

I'm considering replacing my 2010 27" iMac with a 15" Retina Macbook Pro, this is my first tricky decision.

However, mainly, I currently have a 27" Apple Cinema Display, if I was to get a Retina Macbook Pro, would my eyes go crazy when using my cinema display (with my Macbook connected)?

I know it will work fine, however my past experience with retina displays, iPad, iPhone, going back feels horrible. For those who use a Cinema Display with their Retina Macbook Pro, does it feel fairly unusable after adapting to the retina display?

Just wondering how you feel about it, if you dropped one display for the other or manage find with both.

Thanks.

I hop between the retina , A Cinema Display ( 27") , and one other non Apple display all day long ..sometimes the non-retina text looks a bit fuzzier for 10 seconds or so, but I tend to adapt .. All my displays are calibrated to the same color space, and I do a lot of photo work ( which all look the same) , so ..I guess it depends on your eyes.. As far as handling the scaling, etc, the rMBP is fine with a Cinema once you set the proper resolution ..

 

[Joshophett]

Colors

I hop between the retina , A Cinema Display ( 27") , and one other non Apple display all day long ..sometimes the non-retina text looks a bit fuzzier for 10 seconds or so, but I tend to adapt .. All my displays are calibrated to the same color space, and I do a lot of photo work ( which all look the same) , so ..I guess it depends on your eyes.. As far as handling the scaling, etc, the rMBP is fine with a Cinema once you set the proper resolution ..

How were you able to get the colors to match up. I have a Retina 15 Macbook Pro and a 27" cinema display, and no matter what i try the cinema display ends up having a much cooler white point than the retina display. The retina almost has a Pinkish tone to it. I prefer the look of the cinema display as it matches up 100% to the colors of my iMac, but when used with the macbook pro Retina, the whites are very different.

 

[PosterNutbag.]

Can you get your hands on a spectrocolorimeter? Back when it was important to me, I used one from Gretag Macbeth.

If you are just looking to do color profiles for monitors, you can get them at reasonable costs. I recall an inexpensive one called Spyder. Search BHphoto for it.

Good luck.

 

[PatriotInvasion]

I went from a 27" iMac to a 13" rMBP. The one thing I noticed is that the 27" iMac's 2560x1440 display (same as your Cinema Display) somehow looks decent even compared to Retina MacBook Pros.

It's certainly not retina, but the quality of that 27" IPS LED backlit panel, combined with the distance you sit from a screen that size, makes the display still more than acceptable.

When you are using a smaller screen on the notebook, its nice to have that added pixel density, but the size of the 27" display more than makes up for the loss in density IMO. I plan to get a Thunderbolt Display once the current models are updated in the coming months in-line with the new iMac panel designs.

 

[thekev]

Can you get your hands on a spectrocolorimeter? Back when it was important to me, I used one from Gretag Macbeth.

If you are just looking to do color profiles for monitors, you can get them at reasonable costs. I recall an inexpensive one called Spyder. Search BHphoto for it.

Good luck.

You seem to have merged spectrophotometer and colorimeter. Spyder 4s and ColorMunki display colorimeters are decent here. I just hate the way X-rite brands their devices. It's confusing unless you're familiar with their product line. Also on that note, the two displays will have inherently different behavior. Even if you profile both, you may not get an exact match between the two.

 

[nontroppo]

For me it is just acceptable, but I definitely notice the lack of resolution at my sitting distance from my 27" Cinema display; I now prefer to read scientific articles (dense text and images) on the rMBP, though for comparing several documents the 27" can't be beat even at its low resolution.

Much less glare is the other advantage of the rMBP, especially if you can't control lighting carefully (i.e. in a shared office).

 

[snoylekim]

How were you able to get the colors to match up. I have a Retina 15 Macbook Pro and a 27" cinema display, and no matter what i try the cinema display ends up having a much cooler white point than the retina display. The retina almost has a Pinkish tone to it. I prefer the look of the cinema display as it matches up 100% to the colors of my iMac, but when used with the macbook pro Retina, the whites are very different.

I calibrated both to the same white point (D6500) , luminance (120) and same standard (sRGB) using the Xrite Display1 Pro ..the colors are close enough for my work .. the delta e's from each calibration are a little different , but both average under 1% w/ the same patch .. Not sure they're 100.0000% identical , but they're darn close ..

 

[switon]

RE: 27" vs retina...

Hi,

...just my two cents worth of personal observations...

If you are concerned with the color matching, then you probably will require the same screen technology, same number of glass/air interfaces between your eyes and the LCD, same anti-reflective coatings, etc. You probably will not find an exact match between the 27" and the retina screen, color-wise.

On the other hand, if your usage is not severely sensitive to color matching, say coding or reading text, then the difference between the 27" screen and the retina screen will not be that noticeable. I personally use both, and for certain tasks I really appreciate the extra real estate afforded by the 27" screen. When I do read text on the 15" retina screen I do notice a difference, but I usually say, "wow -- what a nice screen". So, even though the retina is definitely better in my eyes, the real estate gain on the 27" more than makes up for the resolution disparity for certain tasks that require multiple pages or windows to perform. In other words, I don't say "yuck...what an ugly screen" when I switch to the 27" from the 15" retina, as the 27" screen from typical viewing distances is still fairly nice. The difference between the two screens, while noticeable, is not distracting to me.

Switon

 

[Keanaw]

macbook pro and apple cinema display

I hop between the retina , A Cinema Display ( 27") , and one other non Apple display all day long ..sometimes the non-retina text looks a bit fuzzier for 10 seconds or so, but I tend to adapt .. All my displays are calibrated to the same color space, and I do a lot of photo work ( which all look the same) , so ..I guess it depends on your eyes.. As far as handling the scaling, etc, the rMBP is fine with a Cinema once you set the proper resolution ..

I have a new macbook pro retina display and an old late 2007 apple cinema display. I have an spyder4 pro. How do I calibrate my display to look like my macbook pro?? MY display is too orange and my macbook looks great, and this is after calibrating my display..

Thanks, Keana

 

[carmona]

It's quite impossible to match them as they use different backlight types.

Check out this video, it explains the metamerism failure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5iAYzai3ZI

Your options:

A: Buying a new external display
B: Calibrating your Cinema Display and close your laptop so your eyes can work with the colors of one screen, otherwhise you can't be sure if your eyes are doing the white balance for the right screen.

 

[thekev]

I have a new macbook pro retina display and an old late 2007 apple cinema display. I have an spyder4 pro. How do I calibrate my display to look like my macbook pro?? MY display is too orange and my macbook looks great, and this is after calibrating my display..

Thanks, Keana

You don't. The reason your old display looks too orange is that it's old. The backlights were quite different from the start, but they also shift in temperature over time. CCFL displays from that time often take on a yellowish or amber tone. I have one like that, but it had over 10k hours on it.