In the words of Nick Wheeler, if you keep at this digital thing, it’ll make an ass out of you sooner or later.  In my words, “I’ll have a little salt with my crow, thanks…”.  But ever since the gloss displays came out, I’ve been raving up and down about how they are the best thing since sliced bread, and far better than the matte displays. 
 

In my defense, the first thing I did when I got my hands on one was to run out and look at it in the sun, next to a Powerbook matte screen.  Well, it was awesome.  If you’ve ever looked at a Powerbook outside, you know what I mean- they’re all but unusable.  My big mistake was to not revisit that comparison with a new Macbook Pro display, and this past weekend I got the chance to do just that. 
 

See my "Shoot Diary” piece on the D3X  for the whole story, but the basic idea is this: we’re shooting outside, with a black “floppy” so we can see our workstations.  Here’s Lucia Prosperi in the work area, with her Macbook Pro with a new matte screen, and my slightly older Macbook, with a gloss screen.  Once again, I’m eating my words. 
 

Here's our little tent-
 

Here are the two laptops side-by-side. 
 

The Macbook gloss-
 

The Macbook Pro matte-
 

Even here, reflecting only the black tent, you can see the difference- the midtones are much more defined and the highlights are brighter on the matte Macbook Pro screen. 
 

Now, look at this. 
 

This is with me sitting in front of the display.  The Macbook is unusable.  Without cranking the screen around to a painful angle, all I see is my own reflection.  A black t-shirt is a must.  
 

Here is the Macbook Pro matte screen in the same position, with me sitting just as I would while at work.  (“A loose nut behind the keyboard…”  - my favorite tech support explanation for strange “issues” with computers.) 
 

OK, I was wrong.  There, I said it.