Screen real estate

[Dave00]

I'm looking into getting a new mac (right now have a pismo 400). A main concern for me is screen real estate - I'll be doing alot of photo editing and possibly eventually video. I think I'll probably want 2 displays, as you tend to be able to get more real estate for less with 2 monitors.

The PM G5 has two monitor ports capable of 1920x1200 (digital) or 1600x1200 (analog), according to the tech specs - so you could theoretically get up to 3840x1200, correct? Problem is if I want to get two DVI monitors, I have to get an ADC->DVI adaptor (right?) The Powerbooks can have a 2nd monitor at 2048x1536, along with the included monitor, giving up to 4.44MP, almost the same as G5. eMac has mini-VGA out, also requiring an adaptor, that'll do 1280x960.

The iMacs have a video out but it seems to support only video mirroring. (Why?)

Which seems to make the most sense in terms of usable real estate?

Second question - I love my pismo, but the color fidelity important to photo editing is lacking - tilt the screen even a few degrees and the brightness/contrast changes dramatically. Has this changed in the newer lcd's, or would I be better off going with a CRT?

Thanks!

 

[AngryAngel]

Not certain about about the PowerBooks, but the outputs of the G5 will support any resolution a current monitor can use. Any (mainstream) current LCD's native (max) resolution will work on a digitial connection.

Any comfortable CRT monitor resolution will work. You can run a 21" at 1900xsomething (or even higher- despite what the tech specs say), but it will be hard to see an individual line of pixels (when cropping photos, for example)- so most people run them at 1600x1200.

If you want 2x DVI, you'll need an adapter. if you want 2x ADC you'll also need an adapter. If you want ADC and DVI, you are of course fine. If you want ADC and VGA, you are also fine as there is a DVI to VGA adapter included. If you want DVI and VGA, then you need either a ADC to DVI ( and use the DVI to VGA included) or get a ADC to VGA. If you want 2x VGA, you'll need to buy an adapter for ADC to VGA, as well as using the included DVI to VGA.


I would still go for CRT over LCD if you are on a budget, as you can get a lot more for your money.

My set-up with 2x 19" CRT:
http://micklem.com/pmg5.html

 

[blue&whiteman]

I would stick with crt myself. you could get 2 19" for the same price as a decent lcd. I don't see how lcd is better as all the ones I have seen look too bright or not vivid enough compared to crt. for design purposes anyway crt is far beter. I run 3 crt myself, my entire desktop is 4160 pixels wide. now thats real estate