New 4k displays

Question

New 4k displays

I have a MacBook Pro - late 2013 model with retina display. (and I hadn't realised my photos were so sharp!).

I am thinking of getting one of the new sub-$1,000 4k displays (Dell, Asus, Lenovo): Do any of you know of any constraints that I should be considering in using one of these for photo editing?

Thanks,

Hugh

And I would much prefer Apple to come out with a new thunderbolt display - but there seems no sign of that on the horizon.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), Running Lightroom and Photoshop

Posted on Feb 3, 2014 3:05 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

clintonfrombirmingham

Level 7

30,100 points

Feb 3, 2014 3:27 AM in response to HughGriffiths

See -> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6008.

Good luck,

Clinton

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Answer 2

Dr.Mac.

Level 3

650 points

Feb 3, 2014 3:41 AM in response to HughGriffiths

The main constraint in using P2815Q, Pro2840m, and/or PB287Q for photo editing is that they use twisted-nematic (TN) panels. TN displays suffer from limited viewing angles, especially in the vertical direction. Colors will shift when viewed off-perpendicular. In the vertical direction, colors will shift so much that they will invert past a certain angle, and colors are more washed out, and it inherently can't reproduce as wide an array of colors, so it's not accurate enough to use for photo or video editing. The color gamut is also far lower (perhaps 30-40% of the sRGB gamut instead of 70-100%) so there are a lot of colors it just can’t reproduce. The other issue is that they are limited to 30Hz refresh rate when using the full 3840 x 2160 native resolution. 30Hz produces a choppy and jumpy image and limits the frame rates in videos quite considerably. That’s going to make it less ideal for any sort of photo or video work.

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Answer 3

Feb 3, 2014 6:12 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Oh bother. Does that mean that at 3840 x 2160 my MBP will not be able to work at faster than 30 hz. Or does it mean only that the HDMI port has that limitation? What about the Thunderbolt 2 / Display Port on the machine - can I use that to connect to these displays?

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Answer 4

Feb 3, 2014 6:14 AM in response to Dr.Mac.

Bit of a downer that information. I would guess that any new Apple display will be IPS. ANd I will have to wait a while until that type of display comes down in price.

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Answer 5

Feb 3, 2014 11:30 AM in response to HughGriffiths

The Mac Pro late 2013 can connect to the Dell P2815Q monitor using hdmi and/or thunderbolt to displayport to minidisplayport . It did not connect using just an thunderbolt cable.

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Answer 6

markieg

Level 1

5 points

Feb 11, 2014 3:17 AM in response to HughGriffiths

Yes you can use a Dell 4k screen but it connects using HDMI not thunderbolt

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Answer 7

Wolfii

Level 1

21 points

May 14, 2014 5:12 AM in response to markieg

With 10.9.3 (beta) (publicly available) you can use the DisplayPort cable that comes with the P2815Q and get full resolution output at 30Hz. No need to buy an extra HDMI cable.

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