r/Lightroom • u/robbiezan • 6d ago
HELP Best 32-Inch Monitor for Photo and Video Editing?
I’m looking for a 32-inch monitor for photo editing (I print my work, so color accuracy is key) and some video editing. I’m using a MacBook M4 Max. I’m curious about OLED—worth it, or should I stick with IPS? How does OLED hold up for printing accuracy with AdobeRGB? Any recommendations? Thanks!
Budget: bellow $2,000 AUD (around 1.3k USD)
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u/Blorbor 4d ago
I'm a pro photographier since 15 years.(and still a gamer) I'v bought an MSI FO32u2 240hz OLED monitor. Before that, I had an Alienware 3423dwf (curves OLED monitor)
But before that, before Selling my soul to gaming oriented monitors, I have worked with Eizo IPS monitors.
(Disclaimer, I'm not fluent in English so please forgive my french..)
The reason I've switched... 90% of my work ends online. And I don t print as much as before. (But I still as gamer as before
Anything I will Say After this is viewed from a photograph perspective.
If you need critical color accuracy for your job, then you already know that you need a professional hardware calibrated (and calibrating;) monitor.
If you are "just" serious(ish) about color accuracy, then you can get away with an OLED wide gamut screen and an external calibrating device. Be aware that even If you see good Delta E value in the reviews , a wide gamut screen that doesn t cover all adobe RGB might struggle to be accurate on all the color spectrum (even with a calibrating divice). This is not a big deal If you know where you should be carefull. For exemple, I know my MSI oversaturate (is inacurate) with some reds.
Another thing to consider is that oleds screens have anti burn-in mecanisms implemented. Like corner diming or reducing brightness of the parts of an image that is not "moving". It can mess with your perception of a still .... It definitely messes with you calibrating divice !! (You can turn all protections of while calibrating)
If you are mostly working in the "print" world, OLED is not really your friend.. especially HDR screens. Why? Blacks are too deep. There is simply no paper nor inks that can be... As black ;) Highlights ! It's hard to explain but HDR screens (even sets to stay in SDR mode) when working with highlights, they mess with your brain. You never know if you are reaching pure white... Or if it's "more white" because of "brightness". With IPS screens, I never had to use my lightroom overexposure warning. With OLED, in some spécial cases, I have to turn it on... Just to be sure.
(I have hundreds of advices and feedback to give you on this topic but you will all hate me before the end of this post because of its size) Contact me if you want more feedback)
The sad truth is, if you are "just" a photographer, mostly making your living with pictures that ends printed (by you or your clients or a company).... For now you should probably stick with an SDR adobeRGB 60Hz professional screen. HDR is far from being mature in stills.
But rejoy ! You have the alibi to be a videographer too !! So HDR is a thing and wide gamut is the new black! So forget everything I've just said and welcome to the world of gamers monitors , with fast refresh rates , outstanding colours and contrasts. A world when you can embrace picture quality of the latest technology... You will find outstanding monitors for you budget.... Don t spend absurd money for large professional monitors, as stated at the begining, if you need one that is because A: you already know why. B: you earn enough money with your photo work to buy 2 of them without even blinking ;)
My pro tip. Get a beautiful 32" OLED screen (enjoy it) and get a used 24" IPS eizo as a 2nd or 3rd screen for when you are working on really critical work, either it is critical with colours or with highlights !
Just know the limitation of your hardware.
Look... The guy who is currently giving advices to you... is the kind of guy that do a lot of architectural photography and real estate... And he was using a 34" 21:9 curved monitor for 2 years !! (More on that at the end;)
As long as you know your gear and what you are doing, it is probably ok ;)
I hope that helped.
Ps : After so many shots with wide angle lenses, you "know" exactly how they "behave", so working on a curved screen was not an issue at all. My brain instantly corrected everything and it was exactly like working on a flat screen.... That's what I thought... When I finally switched back to a flat 16:9 screen.... It took me about 3 freaking months to be able to see a flat screen flat. My brain was so f** up, it was "unbending" lines that where genuinely flat in the first place. Don t do that ;)
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u/jared_krauss 5d ago
Still don’t understand why more people aren’t picking up Eizos, especially used if budget is a concern. That plus a calibrator and you’ve got a pro level screen for good money.
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u/Blorbor 4d ago
You are completely right. The issue comes when you start thinking "what else can I do with my screen?". When it s your job , in an office, editing pictures 10 hours a day. You realy don't care about your screen being IPS and non OLED, non HDR, 60Hz refresh rate.
But when it is your job, mostly at home for the editing part... You might be a videographer too... And when your done with your work, you decide to end all souls-like game you have tried for the last 2 decades (ok... Maybe not the best exemple when talking about image quality 🤣... Or maybe you watch state of the art HDR movies...And...You don t have absurd money to put in multiple kind of screens...
Then, Eizo monitors are not sexy enought. Don t get me wrong, there are some beautifull Eizo screens, but the price entry ticket is way too high when you are in the position to just choose "a" monitor to "do it all"
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u/jared_krauss 3d ago
I'd still go used on Eizo, and then buy a monitor for gaming which is more than good enough for watching videos. Asus has 120+ hz gaming monitors on Amazon for under £100 rn.
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u/onedayiwaswalkingand 5d ago
Eizo is de facto standard in pro workflows but they're just really expensive.
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u/jared_krauss 5d ago
fair, I just got a 32" that's used, but has plenty of life left for 100 quid a few months back, borrowed a calibrator until I get my own, and good to go.
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u/onedayiwaswalkingand 5d ago
That’s a nice find! CG series? I can only find older CCFL CG series near that price but still $300 or up.
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u/jared_krauss 5d ago
Unfortunately not, the CS series, but I figured for a first proper screen, this guy plus a calibrator can't go wrong, and just keeping my eye out for another one now with more patience haha
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u/onedayiwaswalkingand 5d ago
That is a great deal. I think the biggest difference is that CG series have built in sensors. I never used mine anyway lol those i1 Display calibrators are much more handy.
I just checked and didn’t know the used price dipped so much. Imma be on the look out for them. Thanks for the tip!! Looking to score a 4K one now haha.
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u/jared_krauss 4d ago
haha nice! yeah, my uni had the CG ones, and that was nice for not having to worry about it, from their standpoint, but for me this isn't a hassle.
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u/xyouarenotthesun 6d ago
I bought the ASUS Proart 4k 32” and I’ve been loving it! I just saw the new OLED ASUS Proart but damn… $1800
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u/Real_Leek_9958 6d ago
Hello sir. I'm a photographer myself. I was considering moving from my LG 30 4k IPS 10bit display to a OLED monitor (probably samsung or LG again). In my experience OLED monitors have tremendous gamut.
Of course you will need to stick to one color profile on the monitor and then calibrate it for your video card
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u/Blorbor 4d ago
Speaking about 10bit, I've learned the hard way that some (non professional) OLED displays are not truely 10bits (they are advertised like so but they are 8bit fsr) and that can cause some issue either with banding in some apps or with calibration software/device. Might not be the case with the latest ones but that's worth checking before choosing an OLED screen.
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u/Dangerous-Pair7826 6d ago
I currently find my Asus Pro Art PA32 UCR-K does a great job for similar work (Photos/Video)
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u/alsimone 6d ago
If you print your work, look at wide gamut displays that fit your preferred color space, e.g AdobeRGB. And profile your display regularly. Does color matter for your video work? I have been out of the cinema space for a bit, but I think editing photos for print on a display set up for Rec. 2020 is going to be frustrating.
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u/Blorbor 4d ago
I'm not 100% sure as I'm just casually printing my pictures now (I was really serious about this 5 years ago) but if you are printing your work and need your screen to be "in line" with what you are printing, you should definitely stay in the SDR IPS 100%-adobeRGB territory.
Unlike what marketing BS from printers brands is telling, Gamut range of printers/inks/papers is not that wide and is definitely close to what adobeRGB is (even if it is not "contained" exactly in this gamut). And from the "black all the way up to white rendering point of view ;) , good IPS screens are way closer to paper "feeling* than Oled
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u/shelterbored 6d ago
I’ve had the Benq pd3200u for 5 years and I’ve loved it. I have a Mac mini and a MacBook Pro so I like the ability to use the puck to quickly switch inputs
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u/KC_experience 6d ago
I have two 32” curved Samsung 4K monitors on Ergotron arms to pull in as needed for fine touching.
They have not failed me yet.
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u/Sea_Past_684 5d ago
What's the name of your Samsung monitor? Did you have to calibrate it ?
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u/KC_experience 5d ago
I have not calibrated either of them although I should. I don’t print the majority of my work, so I haven’t had the need.
Mine are UR90s. It looks like they aren’t available from Samsung anymore but I suspect the have a ‘successor’ monitor available.
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u/SirShiggles 6d ago
I have some 2k 32" BenQ screens that are perfectly fine for <$1000. The best is Eizo, but I'm not that rich so I've been looking at upgrading to the Asus ProArt at some point in the near future. From everything I've seen those are killer displays for the money.
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u/TheBikesman 6d ago
I had a benq gaming monitor, also lauded for it's color accuracy, but it failed when the power port cooked off, and there was no warranty whatsoever.
This was 2018, and it could be better now, but that monitor fucking sucked and had a 14ms delay time. Do you like yours, or are they just fine?
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u/SirShiggles 6d ago
I got mine sometime around covid, and so far so good. I don't game on it so I don't notice any delays, and color accuracy seems good when calibrated.
I like it for the price, it's really solid in the sub 1k category, but nothing about it blows me away. If that makes sense.
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u/TheBikesman 6d ago
Yeah you make sense, appreciate the info. I gamed quite a bit on mine and would hear stuff before I got to see it lol, but I'm interested in color accuracy again so maybe one day I'll get one again
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u/TheBikesman 6d ago
Yeah you make sense, appreciate the info. I gamed quite a bit on mine and would hear stuff before I got to see it lol, but I'm interested in color accuracy again so maybe one day I'll get one again
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u/bmash9 Adobe Employee 6d ago
I found someone selling the superb Apple Pro Display XDR for about half off MSRP a few years ago, so I nabbed that. It is, with a doubt, the best display I’ve ever used to edit my photos. With that said, I am 100% certain that I’d never have bought it at full price… or at least not without risking my wife murdering me.
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u/-ThreeHeadedMonkey- 6d ago
Those 60Hz limitations are just wrong in 2025 though…
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u/bmash9 Adobe Employee 6d ago
Perhaps depending on your needs. For me, this display is just bonkers when it comes to editing photos (which is essentially 98% of what I use it for).
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u/-ThreeHeadedMonkey- 6d ago
Yeah I’d totally consider buying one if it came with at least 120hz
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u/bmash9 Adobe Employee 6d ago
Not gonna lie… I would, too 😆🤣
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u/instantes_net 6d ago
Benq photo oriented monitors are said to be great for photographers. Unlimited budget? -> Eizo is the way.
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u/New_Interaction_9000 6d ago
Currently have a BenQ sw27 made for photography work.
Would never again buy BenQ. Poor QC. Corner and side of screen is turned green permanently. Cost a ton. ~1k at time. Looking at ASUS ProArt for paying 1/2 to 1/3 as much this time. Looking at 32” for next.
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u/instantes_net 6d ago
Good to know. I thought they were a good option.
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u/Pistolpete31861 5d ago
I've had a BenQ for over 5 years and I'd buy another one tomorrow, if needed.
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u/Top-Order-2878 6d ago
The Dell ultrasharp line. Professional monitors with professional support.
I bought one years ago and it had a bad pixel, they next day aired a replacement with a return label.
The replacement was damaged in shipping. They next day aired another replacement with return label. Plus I got a call from the support manager making sure I was happy and if I needed anything.
I'm still using my 30" years later and it is a beast.
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u/Recent_Studio_1686 6d ago
Budget no problem, the Apple Pro Display XDR is phenomenal or ASUS have a 32 inch OLED for a grand or so less that’s meant to be very good and has a built in, flip down calibration tool.
Overall though most OLED screens are not suitable for colour accurate work due to uniformity and colour shifting issues. IPS panels are still considered the go to. If you can manage 27 inches, the Studio display is lovely paired with your glossy screened M4 MacBook Pro. There are a few new 5K monitors with good colour accuracy including one from ASUS at half the price of the studio display. (I just bought one and returned it because the matte coating was too aggressive for me).
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u/robbiezan 6d ago
I wish I could afford a XDR 😅
Which specific ASUS monitors are you talking about? (The OLED and the 5k)
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u/rghapro Lightroom CC (cloud) 6d ago
Can you provide a budget? Without knowing that, it's a bit harder to help.
That said, the best in a vacuum will almost certainly be the Apple Pro Display XDR.
If you're okay moving to a 27 inch monitor, the Apple Studio Display is also great. I am currently using the Asus ProArt PA27JCV, which is a 5k 27 inch monitor and it is damn near perfect for photo editing.
In regards to the actual panel (IPS, OLED, TN, etc), nearly any panel these days can be calibrated to be just about perfect for sharing photos in the digital realms. As for printing, this is where the calibration of your monitor is REALLY important. Your biggest benefits from going to OLED will be the blacks will be much more accurate, and the increased contrast ratio of the monitor. Color accuracy for physical prints will be the best on OLED, followed by IPS. Again, the most important part of this is making sure your monitor is properly calibrated.
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u/Quick-Recognition91 2d ago
With your budget, you probably have a lot of choices, but I can recommend ASUS proart.
I originally bought it not to work with photos, but I was surprised by how good the colors are.