[zubro]

Hi all,

I will buy a dual g5 soon and a 30" to go with it.
I was first thinking of a dual 20 first but why bother? more pixels for the "same" price so why not going 30?
I want to know if any of you has one (two) and how it is to work with those:
1. not too big?
2. what is your job? (wich apps are you using)
3. how far do you need to sit from the screen (I had the feeling to be lost facing one)

I will do video work mostly and plan to start to use motion so a 30" would give me room enough for the 50 zillion layers I usually have in my comps!

[zubro]

noone?

[Jupeman]

I can "kind of" answer your question...

I have a 30" sitting in its box on the floor in front of me as I type this. I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of my ATi X800 XT card to drive the monster monitor. That said, I have a friend with the 30" (driven by the nVidia Ultra card) and my impression from "being around" his is this:

The 30" is not big enough. No, seriously. I am writing on a 20" ACD (old style) right now and remember the day I first plugged it in. I was in awe of the size and felt I needed to adjust my computing style to make use of all the space. Now I clamour for more space as I edit photos in Photoshop CS and work video in FCP HD. I think in time we become like fish: we grow to our environment and always want to eat more!

My friend with the 30" was complaining to me about an hour ago, "I have 8 applications running and I can only really see three"...

Keep in mind that one 30" is MORE space than two 20" together... The footprint of the 30" is not THAT much larger than the old style 20" with the larger side bezels (which is what I have, thus I'm not expecting to experience significant real estate shock).

To specifically answer your questions:

1) Not too big, eventually it will be too small (thus the rumors about Apple making a 40-44" within the year - didn't stop me from buying the 30" now).
2) My monitor is for home use, but I do a lot of photo work (Photoshop) and video work (Final Cut Pro).
3) 2-3' is my normal distance, though even with my 20" I lean forward to look at detail once in a while.

[angelmb]

thanks for the advice jupeman, I had the same doubts about the 30 inches that zubro had, I am in front of a 21 CRT and I feel it kinda small

[Cadaver]

My only concern about getting a 30" is not being able to easily see the edges of the screen - like sitting in the front row of a movie theater. I don't know if I could be far enough away from the screen to feel comfortable, but close enough to read normal text.

[Rev-O]

I've had my 30" display fro 3 months now, and I love it. The only issue I have with it, is that it is very easy to lose your cursor on all that real estate. Pinpoint or a simple ctrl+click works as a handy cursor finder, tho. I typically sit about 3 or 4 feet from it. Allows for comfortable typing, and full view of the screen.
The size of it is nice (okay, understatement). I can run a full page of Safari, full window of Mail and have a nice sized window for iChat all up at the same time, and still have access to my HDs on desktop without resizing or using exposé. Works great with iMovie and iPhoto. Don't have Photoshop, but I do use Elements on it regularly, and it works like a champ for that as well.
It really is a very functional display. I like it much better than the 23" display it replaced.

[CIA]

Since you are dropping all the dough for a 30", why not go "all-in" and get the
200" model?

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by CIA:
Since you are dropping all the dough for a 30", why not go "all-in" and get the
200" model?

Not enough vertical resolution.

[angelmb]

"The only issue I have with it, is that it is very easy to lose your cursor on all that real estate."

I think this piece of software is going to help you

http://www.boinx.com/mousepose/

[Rev-O]

Originally posted by angelmb:
"The only issue I have with it, is that it is very easy to lose your cursor on all that real estate."

I think this piece of software is going to help you

http://www.boinx.com/mousepose/

Thx for the suggestion! I've downloaded and tried PinPoint, and it works pretty well.

[Link]

I have a 22", and while I can say "It's not enough", I won't say I *need more* -- with photoshop, a bunch of text editors, word (work!), IRC (to monitor my net!), terminal, browser window(s), consoles, etc.. it can get to the point where I could easily use 3 cinema displays to display *everything*

Thing is, I don't really care to have most of that open.. console? Not that often, IRC and chat? They can be stuck in one corner and I can just dump stuff on top, browser? Hidden, photoshop? Only if I'm actually using it (certain times of the day), other stuff? Always, but usually hidden or out of the way in some way..

The only thing that gets on my nerves is the way finder icons on the desktop are spaced so far that I EASILY fill up the screeen with icons.. I'm a desktop whore!! Damn! I love that space.. but yeah I can live with it.

One big display > Multiple displays in that you have the menu bar and dock on that one screen vs having to switch between the two.

OTOH, multiple screens can be turned off when not being used.

The one problem I can see is simply the 30" being *TOO BIG*. If it's resolution you want, IBM makes a monitor that's about 22" and offers an even higher res than the 30", but still, thing is that widescreen monitors tend to take up so much space you feel engulfed in your computer when you're using it, whereas with a small 4:3 you feel like you're sitting in a room, at a table, enjoying the environment.

*shrug* oh well, tradeoffs.. the big screen rawks.. I'd love a 30" if I had $2800 laying around to drop on one. Of course, as college goes (and university nears), I could damn well use a laptop

[zubro]

Thanks guys!
I had a feeling about this "damn where is my cursor" thing as it happened to me on dual screens so often, but if that is the major issue there, who would complain!