Computer Monitor 4k or QHD

[Lottiesdad]

I will be upgrading my old 23 Dell monitor and looking for 27inch. I'm quite taken with the Benq SW270C or SW271 as they both cover 99% of Adobe RGB. The monitor will primarily be used for my photography work and making prints with very occasional use of a spreadsheet or Word. I don't do video.

Reading around the Internet there appears to be some debate between whether the 4k adds anything for photographers - some users say the 4k brings your work to life others that it gives a false impression of how much sharpening to apply. I understand the 4k potential rescaling issue for some applications but I understand this has been pretty much resolved now ?

Input from the collective minds here would be much appreciated please on which monitor to go for

 

[stevelee]

I can speak from the experience of using a 5K 27" iMac. Photoshop at 100% shows a high resolution image, which means it appears half the size it will be shown on the web. If you want to pixel peep, you need to look at 200% magnification in Photoshop and I guess Lightroom. That may be the view you want for sharpening. Or you might want to go back and forth or show it in two windows at different magnifications.

 

[Jethro]

Second vote for a 5K 27" iMac - fabulous screen and (in my limited experience) perfect for photo editing.

 

[stevelee]

Second vote for a 5K 27" iMac - fabulous screen and (in my limited experience) perfect for photo editing.

My iMac is six years old and still seems fast when using Photoshop, Final Cut Pro X, and Compressor. My tendency to max out components worked to give it a long useful life. The newer models have even better displays, but I don't know that I could tell the difference.

 

[Bdbtoys]

I use my computer for many things, with image editing actually being one of the lesser items, but one nonetheless (so take this for what it's worth).

For me the sweet spot is 3x 32" each at 2560x1440 (2.5k) (7680x1440 total approx 12MP). The DPI is perfect for me to use without any windows text/app scaling (can keep it true 1:1). In general, anything smaller than 32" @ 4k to me is not worth it. Ideally, if I went 4k I would bump up to 40" to keep the same relative DPI (yes I tried a monitor this size, and it was awesome... for a while). Note 4k is approx 8MP.

Here are things that's important to me,
Workspace size (I have many windows open at once)
High performance running an app on 1 monitor
High/Reasonable performance running apps (or 1 giant one) on 3 monitors
1:1 native pixel mapping (no scaling).

Lots of places have charts on resolution vs size vs viewing distance.... just google "monitor resolution size distance chart".

However first hand experience is best if able to see one in person.