Touch screen PC for photo editing use

[pinholecam]

I am looking at the Lenovo Horizon 2 as a potential PC to use mainly for editing my photos.
http://shopap.lenovo.com/sg/en/desktops/lenovo/horizon-series/horizon-2/#tab-tech_specs


I can't say that I'm in touch with the stuff that has been out for the past 5yrs.
The touch screen intrigues me as I've tried this on a friend's Surface Pro 3 running LR5.
Being able to work on it as if its a small drawing pad especially with the brush tool seems to be the way forward.

So that brings my attention to the Horizon 2.
QHD, i7 or i5, 8GB ram; 27" of touch screen (enough specs I'd think)
It might just work like a big drawing block.
Again I would think its strength would be for the brush tool in LR and touch up, exposure blending in Photoshop (PSE 10 in my case)


Has anyone had experience with this sort of working method?
I can already think of scratches and fingerprints as immediate downsides.
Too smooth less tactile feeling using a scribe pen on the glass surface too.


Am I wasting money on QHD on a 27"? (would FHD be enough?)
I have looked at a 23" mac and I do think it looks good, so supposedly this 27" QHD would be a bit better.
I am also considering an alternative to this which would be a more typical PC+BIG UHD TV but the downside is no touch screen for the brush work.



Thoughts?
No "Mac and won't look back" type comments pls
TIA

 

[tengk]

Hi pinholecam,

I am speaking from personal experience as to how i would set up my hardware for image editing work.
The last time i bought a 27inch LCD from Dell , i had a hard time viewing the font sizes from the drop down list of photoshop. It is wonderful for pixel peeping though.

Recently i started printing some of my photos, once i did that idecided that a better calibrated monitor is what i need. So i bought the NEC PA242W-BK 24” LCD Monitor listed at $1899. (a good substitute for the eizo).

http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop-monitors/pa242w-bk

It has 100% sRGB gamut, 99.3% adobe RGB colour space. Has white balance , cd/m2 control etc.(the important stuffs for us the photographer) btw looking at a sRGB display at 5000k is no fun. i get teary eyes and it makes me feel hot!

So if u are going to spend a lot of money buying the touch screen PC, consider just changing a monitor to a much better one and using a wacom tablet (reduces incidences of repetitive stress injury to your wrist, i have substituted a wacom pen for a mouse for many years and it is for this reason alone)
Of course keep your old monitor and work with dual display.(you will need a compatible video card) and maybe just upgrade your old hard drive to SSD. Save some money by building a hood with black cardboard that you can buy from art friend. Constant ambient light, well that is another story. Gray walls, black curtains etc to go with your new setup.

As usual in this hobby of ours, no end to potential for upgrading.

As to why the colours of some of my posted pictures look yucky, i blame the light and maybe the spot metering i always use. That's the other reason why i wanted a good monitor.
In fact, recently i bought a colorcheckr card and am looking at calibrating the colours of the various sensors so that they are all consistent. That's what i mean by no end...

 

[kandinsky]

It might just work like a big drawing block.

Conceptually yes, but I think there are a couple of potential issues to consider.

When a tablet is placed flat on a table, it's ergonomically ideal for your hand/wrist, but not so for your eyes/neck. Unless the screen has a wide enough viewing angle, the colours/brightness may be compromised as well.

When it's tilted, it seems to be the other way around.

My guess is that you will definitely need a proper stand that can be easily adjusted. The Lenovo lists a 'Cart' that looks like it might work.

Another thought: One of the joys of using a 'real' graphics tablet is the pressure sensitivity. I'm not sure what the Lenovo Horizon offers. Wacom's tablets and cintiq displays have up to 2048 levels. If it's simple editing, you probably won't miss the pressure sensitivity though.

Check out this old wacom video with some tips on ergonomics:

[video=youtube_share;Tk0FWP9UeUY]http://youtu.be/Tk0FWP9UeUY[/video]

I can already think of scratches and fingerprints as immediate downsides.
Too smooth less tactile feeling using a scribe pen on the glass surface too.

There are screen protectors available for large LCD screens. E.g. http://www.amazon.com/Kuzy-Anti-Glare-Protector-Desktop-ANTI-GLARE/dp/B00BGDHHPQ

I imagine a matte one might help give a better grip for a stylus.

 

[pinholecam]

Thanks for the inputs so far.
Really appreciate it, for putting in the time to give me a detailed reply.


Certainly got me thinking, esp about color space (fidelity to it) and other options like the Wacom tablets.

Just to add to the info I have given, my PC is aged, motherboard can't go above 4GB and I somehow had incompatibility issues running 64bit Win8, so I am stuck at 4GB and 32bit Win8.
Was happy with it for 16mp files until 24mp came about.
Managed to put in a SSD for the OS and editing software and that mitigated most of the problems.
However, in the long run, I'd have to move up to 64bit as its getting harder to get 32bit versions of some software and I'm under utilizing their potential at 32bit ("maybe")



Pls keep the info, thoughts and suggestions coming.