Best monitor for Video Editing and Creative work

[StevieBee]

About to push the button on a MacStudio M2 Ultra.

27" Apple 5K Retina is coming in at £1200, and I need two of them. I know it's a good monitor but I'm reading good reviews about others at much less cost.

Any recommendations?

I'm using for pre-end video, photography and creative work.

[Mr Pointy]

Macs are fussy about monitor resolution so maybe stay with the Mac monitors if you can afford it.

[AB]

I have a couple of screen I use with Macs, my Studio has the 5k and I dock my Macbook with either a BenQ or a Samsung at home.

The 5k Mac screen is absolutely worth the money, it's lovely working on it. I'd stick with that tbh.

[Whataguy]

I have a BenQ 27 inch 4k that's calibrated, cost around £500 but you can pick them up for less now.

It's a decent monitor, but the Apple ones are better. When you look at the trade in value for Apple kit after 3 years, they don't actually work out as expensive as they first appear.

[Burny16v]

I'm a graphic designer and the only non-Apple monitors I found that did a good job with my Mac (particularly with matching the colour profile) are BenQ. However, by the time you're at the upper end of their DesignVue range a bit of creative maths might get your budget not far off an Apple display - they're really very good and obviously there will be absolutely no problems or setup issues.

[mmm-five]

The alternatives I was looking at were the 27" 4K USB-C LG Ultrafine and Dell Ultrasharp options.

LG 27UP85NP-W (£300)
https://www.lg.com/uk/monitors/uhd-4k-5k/27up85np-...

Dell Ultrasharp U2723QE (£500)
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-ultrasharp-27...

Would have also considered the 5K LG, but it was discontinued.

I went for the Studio Display as I liked the glossy finish, and fancied but ruled out a 4K OLED due to concerns of burn-in on static images from a screen that's on for 12 hours a day.

Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 16th October 16:52

[C n C]

I recently got this BenQ 32" monitor for a reduced price of £430, but it's now back to around £500, the equivalent 27" one is just under £400.

Whilst there are higher spec ones available, this one has 99% sRGB colour space and is calibrated. I checked the calibration and it was spot on.

I use it with both an old 2009 Mac Pro with 4Gb Nvidia graphics card, and a 2018 Mac Mini i7 (the monitor has a built-in KVM switch which is really useful in my use case).

Although I don't do much video, I use it an awful lot for photography, and it's been really good.

It'll happily run at 3840x2160 resolution, but due to my eyes, I normally have it on a lower resolution. No issues with Mac compatibility on resolutions or colour profiles.

I guess an Apple screen may well be better, but for me, I couldn't justify the significant cost differential, despite usually tending towards using man maths to go for the highest spec things in many cases.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

I bought one of these 2 years ago, pricy but it has been ace for productivity - way more real estate that the 2 monitors it replaced.

https://www.lg.com/uk/monitors/ultrawide/40wp95cp-...

[Mr Whippy]

Whataguy said:

I have a BenQ 27 inch 4k that's calibrated, cost around £500 but you can pick them up for less now.

It's a decent monitor, but the Apple ones are better. When you look at the trade in value for Apple kit after 3 years, they don't actually work out as expensive as they first appear.

I've got big BenQ screens here and they are indeed pretty good VFM. And I do coloury kinda important work and I'm happy with their srgb and adobe colour spaces/accuracy. I use on PC though and like their flexiblity of inputs and other features.


However, if using with a Mac, and having used the cinema displays really early on when they first arrived and the first few generations, I'd go with them for the kinda money they are now.

A good screen will last you for years and years, is the interface for all your work, and part of your work if doing colours, and the cost soon disappears into irrelevance.

Plus Apple hardware is generally very good in my experience, better than equivalent priced stuff from other manufacturers... and I'd say that will be true in the monitor space still (not had any recent experience)


So yes, just get the Apple displays and enjoy!

[wyson]

Eizo ColorEdge series.

I can only cast furtive, jealous glances at the professional graphic designers at work who get these, when I walk by their MacPro workstations, while I make do on a budget 27 inch monitor.

My friend is a professional photographer, he swears by them as well.

They are somewhat of a default choice for anyone trying to make money from the sort of work being described by the OP.

Was umming and ahhing about getting my Mrs one for her graphic design work, but settled on a UP series Dell monitor, which was not cheap, but a fair bit cheaper than the equivalent Eizo. You get what you pay for mind.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-ultrasharp-27...

As its Dell, you should be able get something like the above refurbed, or on some kind of deal for less money. I couldn’t find any deals on Eizo screens when I was looking before.

I use a P series office orientated Dell monitor. Her UP series screen is noticeably higher quality.

Edited by wyson on Friday 18th October 10:14

[StevieBee]

Thanks everyone.

I think it has to be the Apple option.

I have seen the Eizo ColorEdge ones but the price for comparable spec ones isn't that different and reviews elsewhere seem to suggest the latest generation Apple monitors are slightly better.

[Mr Whippy]

I’ve had plenty of high end non-Apple screens and they’ve all been solid and aiui are all still in duty with their current owners.

I had a fair few Dell and all were superb.

I just think on the Apple devices that Apple screens are pretty solid and if I bought an Apple I’d buy an Apple screen.


Quite often I’ll sense check my work (srgb) on my iPhone.


I’d definitely be getting an Adobe RGB and sRGB range screen though. Chances are if it covers both those ranges it’s got enough coverage to be calibrated well enough for most photo and video.


I get headaches thinking about HDR now though.

I think the entire colour space paradigm needs a rethink really as so much was set up around the matching 2ish gamma both ways for human eye response and CRT outputs, and storage optimisations.