4k Monitor for photo editing

I'm in the market to get a new monitor and have read many reviews online but wondering what others are using or have experience with. What do others recommend as well? Pros and cons? Size? My desk is not ideal for a 32" like the NEC but I guess I could always get a new desk too!

Also if you use Canon DPP 4, what is response time with making a sharp image on the 4k monitor. I have a new HP with the following specs.

•32GB DDR4-2133 DIMM (4x8GB) RAM

•3TB 7200RPM SATA-6G Hard Drive

•HP Wireless 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 with Bluetooth M.2 Non-vPro NIC

•SuperMulti DVD Burner

•Windows 10 Pro 64-bit OS

•6th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K quad-core processor [4.0GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]

•4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 [DL DVI-I, HDMI, DP, DP, DP]

•512GB 3D SSD

All thoughts and suggestions welcome and appreciated.

I use NEC PA322UHD 4K 32" screen. not cheap but it is the best in its class.

This is a 10Bit screen so I'd recommend upgrading your video card (I had GTX 1080 when I had a PC) or something with 6GB RAM to handle multiple desktops.

thanks for the quick reply. I am well aware of this monitor, but not sure I want to spend that much and also have the room for a 32". Really was looking for a 24" or a 27". Any other suggestions? I know NEC has a 27" version. Any thoughts on that one?

You mentioned 32" above. 24" is a very small screen and 4K is too much for it, the fonts and text will become too small and strain your eyes. if you want 4K you better get a 30+" otherwise stick with standard HD and save $$$. I have no experience with smaller NEC's but I bet they are great.

Sorry if I was not clear about that. Desk is not ideal for 32" meaning I probably need to go less and not more. I thought I read that with windows 10 that they have somehow solved that font size issue with the smaller monitors but not 100% sure how it all works. Thanks again.

Win10 hasn't really solved the issue, it lets you to change font size independent of the resolution but not all programs support it. It will become an ugly mishmash of different font and icons sizes....

You might check out this NEC monitor if 4K is really important to you. Or this one if you can do without 4K but are concerned with wide color gamut. I own the wide color gamut monitor that I linked to, and I love it. I'm not sure that 4K is all it's cracked up to be for photo editing on a 27" monitor.

Hi Doug , NEC has no real 4k monitor .... only UHD ! Resolution is 3840 x 2160.
Cheers Andreas

It does Andreas

There are two kinds of 4K

4K UHD for imaging that is 3840 x 2160

4K DCI ( for cinema) that is 4096 x 2160

The first one is the standard for imaging and TV's because it is 2X the size of HD (1920 x 1080).

Thanks for the reply. It really is so confusing to know what to get. Big investment and not sure I have the space or budget for the 32" NEC. I have read great things about BenQ monitors. They are coming out with this that seems really good but it is not out yet, no price and no reviews. Think I will wait and see about this one and then make a decision. If 32" is best then maybe will have to take the plunge. Just not sure.

http://www.benq.us/product/monitor/sw320

The BenQ 32" is going to be the same size as the NEC so if space is your concern it is not going to make a difference. If your concern is mostly cost then it is cheaper.

The BenQ looks good on paper but one thing that caught my eye is the delta_E or color error, it says <=2 in the advertisement. Well this is not good at all, the delta_E for NEC < 0.3 which is a factor of 10 better... I guess you get what you pay for. If it were me I'd buy a refurbished smaller NEC with a proven name and track record vs. an unknown. Or you can wait for a while until some credible reviews are out...

Thanks again Arash. I have never heard of delta_E or color error so would never know to check it or know what it really means. Very helpful. At this point I think it best to wait and see if reviews come out and make a decision. I did call NEC and ask if they had any refurbished monitors and they said no.

Understand of course about the size. I would prefer smaller but as you explained, if the 32" is better than perhaps I will have to make do.

Could you explain why you use a 4k as opposed to say the type of monitor that Doug uses?

Hi Arash thanks for the explanation ... of the general difference between the two .
Would you say the NEC panel is better for image editing than the EIZO CG 318 4k DCI ?
If yes why ?

Cheers Andreas

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Isaac Grant

Thanks again Arash. I have never heard of delta_E or color error so would never know to check it or know what it really means. Very helpful. At this point I think it best to wait and see if reviews come out and make a decision. I did call NEC and ask if they had any refurbished monitors and they said no.

Understand of course about the size. I would prefer smaller but as you explained, if the 32" is better than perhaps I will have to make do.

Could you explain why you use a 4k as opposed to say the type of monitor that Doug uses?

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Hi Isaac, I had a non-4K 30" monitor for about 6 years after switching to a 4K there is no going back. The images look so much richer in detail, crisper and naturally sharp without needing much sharpening. I still have a 30" Dell screen at work and in comparison it looks dated, crunchy and coarse, to the extend that I don't have an appetite for viewing my photos on it anymore...

the only issue with 4K is that if the screen is small the fonts will become tiny and unreadable. You will need to run the screen in scaled mode which somewhat defeats the purpose, you can still run some programs like PS in native resolution but overall it dulls the experience having to view the images in your browser etc. with scaling.


hope this helps

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andreas Liedmann

Hi Arash thanks for the explanation ... of the general difference between the two .
Would you say the NEC panel is better for image editing than the EIZO CG 318 4k DCI ?
If yes why ?

Cheers Andreas

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Hi Andreas, I have no experience with EIZO, here in the US most people use NEC and that's what I have

best

This is looking like a great monitor. Think it will be what I buy unless something comes out that is contrary to this.

http://www.canonrumors.com/reviews/r...e-rgb-monitor/

Let us know what you think Issac after you purchase and use it

Josh has a lot of experience with all the the expensive monitors so reading his review linked to from CRs is a good place to start. Although not sure if he has used the NEC ones but he does have lots of experience with the Eizo and BenQ ones. He does a lot of home printing and printing courses and owns the Canon IPF6350 24" wide printer so he is invested in printing and monitors.