Best Monitors For Photo/Video Editing

[DACMan]

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?

Yup, that is the big issue with Apple not distributing their items directly, but through the Core group. Asbis recently also became a local distributor, but I doubt that would get prices down much. It's similar to how Canon handles distribution in ZA, and Nikon works through a 3rd party - the result is that Nikon is 30% more expensive than Canon when you compare the local prices to US prices.

 

[mygoggie]

$1600 + $100 shipping = $1700 -> ZAR = R 31,291.39 + 15% VAT = R35 985.10 + 37,5% import duties and tax and costs = R49 479.51 + 5% profit = R51 953.48

This is more or less ...

 

[Cowboy]

This begs the question as to why the US doesn't have all these auxiliary charges in their economy? The products have to still get to them from China, or are Apple now fully manufacturing in the USA? Gotta be honest, not much of this makes economic sense to me.

 

[Cowboy]

Nikon works through a 3rd party - the result is that Nikon is 30% more expensive than Canon when you compare the local prices to US prices.

Nikon SA's former management (circa 2006) and myself clashed on this big time. In those days they were selling the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 lens for (IIRC) about R120k, where it only cost about $5000 in the USA. In those days the USD/ZAR rate was around 6:1, so there was a massive price gouge going on. I took it upon myself to write to Nikon HQ in Japan about this and what happened next astonished me.

I got a call from the (then) MD of Nikon SA who literally started tearing strips off me as if I was one of his employees. Who did I think I was to call into question their business, blah blah blah. At that time I owned one of the biggest international Nikon forums but I got zero support from the South African representatives. Not even an item for review purposes.

The lens price did come down a little bit after that, but it was still cheaper to fly to New York, visit B&H and come back with your own copy for less than what the SA price was.

 

[DACMan]

I got a call from the (then) MD of Nikon SA who literally started tearing strips off me as if I was one of his employees.

Ha! I believe that is a friend of mine's father in law .

 

[David Morris]

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?

Local duty 25%
Luxury duty an effective 12,6%
VAT effective 22.14%

I bought stuff at US Amazon and had it shipped to a friend in Miami, I think 56% sales tax was added

 

[kolakidd]

Apple OLED studio monitors displays are manufactured by Samsung.

Honestly, I think you can get away with a good 4k monitor with a decent refresh rate. For colour correction you could look at an external calibration tool that can generate an apple colour profile.

I actually work with editors quite a bit, and I haven’t seen an Apple Studio monitor in a few years. I think the reality is they are just not worth it anymore. The rest of the mac eco-system is though.

However… however… personally I would just post this question on the macrumours forum. You’ll get plenty of responses.

BTW, what hardware and editing software do you use?

 

[Cowboy]

I'm using Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and CapCut for video (rarely, most of the video we shoot is edited by the customer). Hardware is outdated now, 2018 Mac Mini.

I have heard that there are some issues with graphics resolution using 4K monitors on silicon chip Macs. The Apple system requires 5K to be operating efficiently so if the machine is dropping res to 4K it has to work harder which impacts the overall performance. I'd probably not notice this in my work, but would prefer not to have a compromise.

I have been seriously considering buying the M1 MacBook Air, which can be had very cheaply now, but then I discovered that it will not power a dual external monitor setup (I have 2x 27" Thunderbolt displays), so in my case the only feasible option now is to get the M3 MaBook Air, which can be had for R25k from TaL.

Decisions, decisions...

 

[ron g]

i used to work for a company doing air traffic control systems. (we did the caaats system currently used by atns).
standard spec monitors were eizo, but i can't remember the specs or supplier. i think we may have operated directly with the importers in terms of a worldwide agreement.
you have probably already found the range from senetic - it is pretty consistent with what we paid. as i say, i can't remember the exact models that we used, but the information / observer screens were 4k, & in the region of r15k to r20k.

prior to eizo we used barco screens which were hideously expensive.

 

[kolakidd]

That's funny. I used to turn up my nose at CapCut, but then I saw what my daughter was doing on her phone. It is amazing. She is making 2-minute high-quality edits. I've stopped trying to teach her Premiere. One thing to remember, though, is that Adobe has some really nice AI tools that can save you money and shorten your workflow.

You are right about the M1. My wife has one. You can run dual monitors with a capable dock. I have a pluggable desktop dock on my M2 Mac (M2 Max with 32Gb RAM) running an additional dual screen. So I'm running three screens. My screens are 2k because I don't do do stuff for TV anymore, but I do edit at 4k anyway.

The M2 is excellent for video editing. I use Adobe Premiere and After Effects and am dipping into DaVinci Resolve, an all-in-one workflow. It's very cool but quite a steep learning curve. It would eliminate Lightroom from your workflow. The M2 is highly capable, and the M3 is a marginal improvement over it. If you can get an M2 at a reduced price, it would suit your needs. Get a decent amount of RAM and the M2 slices through content creation.

Having said this, I only create or edit movies for my presentations now, Manifesto's or Case Films. I am an extremely heavy multi-tasker, though, and it amazes me that the M2 can handle editing, design, presentation, and tons of other software simultaneously without breaking a sweat.

For colour calibration, I am trying out a new app called TRUHD. It's an app that uses your phone and Mac. It seems pretty good. You can get people to come in and do professional monitor calibration for you.

 

[Cowboy]

Thanks guys, good input here.

@ron g I had not heard of that company so I will check out their offerings for sure. Clearly they need to fire their webmaster as they don't come up on any of the search terms that I used for Eizo monitors.

@kolakidd the M1 Mac Mini came out 6 months after I had bought the 2018 Mac mini (at half the cost of my Intel machine!). I had been very tempted to buy one but now having discovered this limitation for external monitors I am very glad I didn't. The M1 mini does have an HDMI port but that is useless for Thunderbolt displays.

That said I did see that you can get docks that will handle the video output for more than one external display. Which one are you using and where can I find it?

 

[kolakidd]

My dock is this one: Amazon Plugable. It's a beast and does exactly what it says on the tin.

It runs two external monitors and a bunch of audio and data backup peripherals. It also charges my mac.

I had an OWC dock that didn't perform as well.

 

[Cowboy]

I don't buy anything from Amazon, but thanks for the link. I'm still thinking about my options.

 

[David Morris]

Thanks guys, good input here.

@ron g The M1 mini does have an HDMI port but that is useless for Thunderbolt displays.

I am not sure about the above, I do have the M1 Mac Mini 512gb with the extra graphic's core and as far as I know, the two USB C out ports can drive monitors if you want a thunderbolt connection?

The M1 is limited to two monitors, I wonder if the iPad will still work as an extended display then?

 

[Cowboy]

I am not sure about the above, I do have the M1 Mac Mini 512gb with the extra graphic's core and as far as I know, the two USB C out ports can drive monitors if you want a thunderbolt connection?

The M1 is limited to two monitors, I wonder if the iPad will still work as an extended display then?

The M1 and M2 Mac Mini can't output to 2 daisy chained Thunderbolt monitors. It can output to 2 monitors, but one of them has to be connected via the HDMI port (which is useless to me as my monitors use Thunderbolt connectors.

The only Silicon Mac that can support the daisy chaining is the M3 series.