Has anyone used a Luna Display to connect 2023 M3 Pro MacBook to Late 2014 iMac

For anyone who might be considering connecting an iPad or Mac to your MacBook here's an update on connecting a Luna Display to an M3 Pro MacBook Pro:

I purchased the Luna Display primarily to use my working Late 2014 Retina 5K iMac as a 27" monitor for working with InDesign and Photoshop files. The latest versions of these Creative Cloud apps don't work well on the old iMac. To keep cord clutter under control I wanted to connect only one Thunderbolt cord to my MacBook.

In my desktop setup I have a 4TB Time Machine backup drive, a hard drive enclosure with 2 4TB drives and a Nikon slide scanner. In addition to the Luna Display, which is a tiny piece of hardware that uses a Thunderbolt ports on my MacBook, I purchased a Thunderbolt 4 dock from Other World Computing (OWC). All the peripherals except the tiny Luna Display are connected to the dock. This includes using a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter to connect the dock to a Thunderbolt 2 port on the iMac. I installed the Luna Display software on my MacBook and iMac, plugged the Luna Display to the MacBook and used one Thunderbolt cord to connect the MacBook to the dock. The iMac's monitor instantly recognized the MacBook. In InDesign and Photoshop I have all the panels I need open on the MacBook and the document at full size on the iMac. Latency is not an issue with this setup. When connected my iMac shows no menus of its own and I use the keyboard and trackpad on the MacBook for my work. So far I'm very happy with this setup. If you have questions feel free to message me or reply to this thread.

ScoAus1 wrote:

I am considering this setup. I use my Mac for mainly Lightroom and some photoshop. No gaming, but I do watch some videos, like you tube. I OCCASIONALLY edit some videos, but hardly ever. I have a 24" M1 iMac now, but want to upgrade to Mac Studio, but DON'T want to pay $2500 in Australia for the studio display. So would this be a good enough setup, or are they delays or any other problems associated. I can buy a 2015 iMac for $350 and the Luna display for about $150. Everything in Australia is expensive, haha. Any advice would be appreciated, as its very difficult to get an honest unbiased opinion.

As I mentioned previously I did purchase and install the Luna Display. I don't edit any video. While I do follow some folks on YouTube, I generally watch videos on my 50" living room television. Given those caveats I will say that the Luna Display has been very useful when editing photos (Photoshop mostly) and working on large InDesign projects for my wife.

Thanks Allan for your comments. I did note that second bullet point and have perused Luna;s website pretty thoroughly. My considerations for the Luna Display is to be able to take advantage of a 5K 27" screen I already have on my late 2014 iMac. I agree that a Studio Display would be an ideal option and I might go that way eventually. However my purchase of the MacBook at over $2K prohibits me from purchasing a large screen. And I do have the 27" 5K screen already on my desk.

My primary uses for the proposed setup is to use InDesign and Photoshop in my production work. That work does not include video at this time. Since that is the case I'm not too concerned about the problems with video.

I'm using a Thunderbolt 4 cable from Other World Computing (OWC). I'm sure a Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable from Apple would work as well. I'd recommend that you use the shortest cable possible without putting stress on the connections.