Does anyone have thoughts on this? I am hooking up my Mac Book Pro to a display. Do I really need the 30"

Since you'll be able to use both screens at once while working, I would say the 23" should be enough. But if you're planning on using it to WOW clients with their images, then the 30" may be worthwhile.

Are you using a second monitor now?

No, just have my laptop...

30" for $1600

Are you planning to use it for customer presentations?

I guess I might. Do you think the 23" would be too small- granted I will have to take your male-ness into account. My husband is begging for the 30"-- why are men obsessed with big screens???

Anyway, what do you think I really need?

Thanks for the help.

They also have the 23" for $750. A big difference....

I'm not saying not to buy the 30", it's awesome, I wish I had one, but for the same money you could have 2 23" models...

I work and display stuff to my clients on a pair of 19" LCDs (These). It works for now, but when I set up a real client showcase area it'll have a 42" or bigger LCD mounted on the wall. Worthless for working, it'll double as a TV/Movie screen when not being used for business.

I also have a 21" Philips CRT that color corrects much better than any reasonably priced LCD.

Not sure if I'm being helpful, maybe someone who actually owns a 30" CD can chime in and say if they think it's worth the extra $$.

If you can afford it, you can't really argue about the Wow! factor of the 30" vs 23". The thing I like about the 30" is you can compare more images on screen at one time and have them bigger for fast editing. Keep in mind my eyes seem to be heading south in a hurry! Also...I'm a man...so go with the 30"!! It's cool.

Just found a 23" used with apple care for $700 and a 30" used with some of the 1year warranty on it for $1050. mmm....




You are helpful and you are in Olympia! I am up here in B-ham. cool!

Go with the 30"... you'll be glad you did. Trust me. It's awesome to actually have spare room on the monitor when working with images. Plus, when you zoom in to touch up details and whatnot, you can really see every little detail.

Just my two cents. Best of luck in choosing the right one for you!

That sounds like a good deal on the 30". If you go 23" I'd spend the extra $50 to get it new/refurb from apple.

Too bad you didn't make it to the GTG in Lynnwood, we'll have to do another one of those soon.

~Bill

I was very bummed I couldn't go. Are there any posts about it?

I have a couple blog posts on it and so do a lot of the others. You can read the post-GTG thread starting here.

We'll run into each other one of these days....

~Bill

Get the 30" for sure if you can afford it. TONS of real estate to work with. My Sony 23" looks tiny compared to this thing.

I also suggest the 2 23" setup, though I'm not sure if you can do that on a macbook or not. Not sure now many monitor outputs, etc. I keep all my toolbars, other open files, bridge, etc in one window and use the whole other monitor for the photo itself - it's awesome.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=3459184

prices of new 30" dropped $200 today!

Yes.


I was right there 6 moths ago. I figure an Apple Cinima is going to last a good few years - I'd be surprised if you replaced one in less than 3 years - it'll probably go longer. It's your primary interface with everything you do so less cramped is always better.

You can certainly run "both screens" with your laptop being a second screen, that works in theory but in practice it's kind of hard. You always need the MacBook open and taking up desk space. If you've got a huge clean desk, that may work but for most people, it'll be more cramped that it's worth. Plus it's hard to see the little size writing on the MBP screen when it's sitting 5 ft away on the table next to you.


On my 30", I can edit a full portrait 8 MP image at 50% without loosing any of it off the bottom.

On the (slightly) down side - Lightroom seems to chug a bit when I have the monitor hooked up - it runs faster when it's just my MBP. I think it's having to re-draw larger versions of images due to screen size, even if I "render 1:1 previews". It's not as bad now with the production version of LR though.

Anyway, it's a few hundred dollars extra for a screen you're going to spend a few thousand hours looking at over the next few years - seems like a pretty good invesment.

30"? Yes yes yes. I've only had it for about a week and I can't imagine not editing on it now. Think of the 30" as a workflow enhancement. It's so awesome to see all the images, you're editing down, on the screen at once (at big enough to see).

The 30" is VERY much worth it.

Cheers,
Michael

Dude! you just saved me $200. I purchased on 23 Mar so I called Apple up and they adjusted the price. Sweet. And no, I'm not sharing the savings with ...sorry

Does it have to be a Mac display? I'm at work so I don't have the brand right now but Mac displays are sRGB but there are some out there that will display Adobe RGB if you work in that color space.

I may misunderstand what you're saying - but sRGB and Adobe RGB are just color spaces - they have nothing to do with what monitor you're viewing.

The color space basically says "this amount of this color in proportion with this amount of this other color equals this final color" or "what color we interperet a certain sequence of 1's and 0's to represent". Any monitor will display any color space.

Dell has a NEW 30" screen. It looks even better than the old Dell which used to be in line with Mac.
I'm toying with the idea too.
Dell 30"

awesome! now only if i could afford one ... or two!

I have a 30 hooked up to my 17 MBP.....V-A-R-Y NICE!