What's new
Welcome to South Africa's Audio Visual community!

Welcome to the home for South African audio and visual equipment owners and enthusiasts. Whether you are an audiophile or a hobbyist, feel welcome to join us in the exciting discussions about amplifiers, turntables, receivers, speakers, projectors, screens, restoration and new projects, product reviews, accessories, classifieds, and so much more!

  • The image upload funtion has been upgraded! Enjoy!

Best Monitors For Photo/Video Editing

Cowboy

Cowboy

Administrator
Joined
Jul 9, 2023
Messages
647
Location
Durban
If you're not using the outrageously expensive Apple Studio monitors, I believe the next best things are the Eizo or BenQ brands. However, where in SA can you find such things? Are there even any importers?
 
Cowboy said:
Are they actively operational in SA now? Hasn't been any fanfare that I am aware of. Alas they do not have any of the kind of monitors I would need on their site.
Click to expand...
Yes they are. I would wait a little as they need to get stock into the warehouse.
 
Currently mostly just Dell and other generic LCD monitors, nothing you would want anyhow for Colour accuracy.

Groetnis
 
Sarel.wagner said:
Currently mostly just Dell and other generic LCD monitors, nothing you would want anyhow for Colour accuracy.

Groetnis
Click to expand...

This is the problem. Apple want something like R58k for the 27" Studio Display and I don't think that includes the stand, which will add another R10k or so to the price. I swear that company has the balls of a dragon when it comes to pricing things, and yet they keep finding customers in the millions...
 
David Morris said:
Will this work? I seem to recall someone somewhere said these are the same as in the iMac - 27MD5KL-B


Evetech Custom Computer Systems, Gaming Computers, Desktops Gaming PCs

www.evetech.co.za www.evetech.co.za
Click to expand...
There are 2 brands of electronics I won't touch. LG is one of them and Dell is the other. Horrendous after sales and seriously sketchy QC in the case of LG. I know that in the past a lot of the 5K iMacs were using LG panels. These have not held up over time and in my case I bought 2 used 27" iMacs, both of which had very problematic screen issues. Pink edges, ghosting and very pronounced burn-in.

What I would really like is one of the BenQ high gamut IPS monitors, but they don't seem to be sold here.
 
The Dell ultrasharp range is very reasonably priced in SA, and comes calibrated from factory with a report (though, if you are really serious about color accuracy you should calibrate it for your ambient conditions). There really isn't anything locally that compares in terms of price/performance so your anti-dell policy will likely impact your pocket.

(I came here to argue about why you would need studio monitors(as in speakers) for editing photos)
 
The issue I have with Dell is that once the warranty is over (3 years), that's it. If anything goes wrong you have a large piece of landfill material that you can get nothing out of. This was my experience with one of their high end monitors several years ago. They simply refused to even look at it as it was about 5 years old.

At the moment I am using 2x27" Apple Thunderbolt displays, as well as an older 27" Cinema Display. These are all over 10 years old and still working fine, but... for how much longer, I wonder. Hence I need to look at alternatives.

Something interesting I have discovered in researching future monitor options for my needs is that Apple computers do not like 4K monitors. Apparently the macOS scaling options are not compatible with the resolution. They need to have a 5K resolution to work effectively, otherwise they are doing a whole lot of graphics processing that impacts the performance of the computer in a negative manner.
 
Cowboy said:
The issue I have with Dell is that once the warranty is over (3 years), that's it.
Click to expand...
If you ever find a monitor that's not like that, please let me know. Pretty much any affordable monitor is not economical to repair if it fails. I have 2 Dell Ultrasharps that are 13 years old, and still working (albeit with some non-uniformity from the backlights), and other less-old ones in perfect condition.
 
DACMan said:
If you ever find a monitor that's not like that, please let me know. Pretty much any affordable monitor is not economical to repair if it fails.
Click to expand...
I just don't expect them to fail within 5 years and not be useful. It causes me to call into question the ethics of companies who have this policy. The Apple hardware, while crazy expensive, carry support for many years, even if Apple themselves simply replace them with new ones. They then recycle the faulty ones, so I can give them some credit for that policy.
 
Cowboy said:
I just don't expect them to fail within 5 years and not be useful. It causes me to call into question the ethics of companies who have this policy. The Apple hardware, while crazy expensive, carry support for many years, even if Apple themselves simply replace them with new ones. They then recycle the faulty ones, so I can give them some credit for that policy.
Click to expand...
I agree with your sentiment, (while I have not experienced a failed Ultrasharp myself), but you can probably buy a box full of Ultrasharps for the price of an Apple...
 
True. I'm just looking at the cost of the Apple Studio Display on the US store and it's a $1600 item. Amazing how the local price is over R50k when the current exchange rate works out at under R30k. So we are paying a serious premium for that item in ZA. Taxes, shipping and handling for over R20,000?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top