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Monitor
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I’ve decided to buy a decent monitor or two of them to make life easier, have more space when working with photos and get better colours. I’m looking at dell monitors as they are relatively cheap. Do you have any suggestion, what would be a best buy in ROI at the moment if I wanted 20-24 inches (or two of them) and good quality below say 800-1000 euro.
i have a dell flat panel that i had to get replaced under warranty. it came with my computer. sorry i don’t know the model, its packed up from school. i love both of the flat panels i’ve had from them, very sharp and great color. when i sent the old one back i got an invoice for $350 (just in case i didn’t send the old one back..). not sure if that helps you, but i do love my dell monitor (now the computer is a different story).
bethI use a pair of NEOVO F-419 monitors and they are great. and actually quite cheap
Sheldon from sheldon photographic was at our club last night and he mentioned the new LACIE ones (they can display 97% or Adobe RGB colourspace)
The cheaper the monitor generally the width of gamut goes down.
Dell have a 24 inch with a true HD panel in it, but its like 1K but it is ment to be very good, and also has component video etc inputs, so your XBOX 360 or Playstation would look great, he he
By all accounts, certain monitors within the Dell Ultrasharp range appear to be favoured by photographers, but you’ll have to do a bit of web research to find out which ones are good and which ones are bad. It seems that a lot of FP (Flat Panel) monitors use screens made by Samsung and then they put their own electronics package around it and this can make or break a monitor (even with identical screens). It’s definitely worth doing some detailed research on this before you buy.
I got rid of my 2 CRT monitors last year and got 2 LaCie 319’s instead. Expensive but the eyes are much better since.
They are great quality without doubt but certainly they are much easier on the eyes.actually there is other factors at work in terms of Gamut of a monitor too
The graphics card you use, some ar better than others, but also the cable between the card and your monitor some of them act as a high frequency filter and roll of some of the top end of the signal and so that detail never gets to your screen
Thorsten
Dell use various manufactures for the LCD panels, for example the 24″ is made by the same people that make Benq
also i know that over time there are different revision of the monitors, actually most of the time its because they got a better deal on the next however many thousand panels from a different manufacturer. ie two copies of the same monitor may not have the same panel in them
stcstc wrote:
also i know that over time there are different revision of the monitors, actually most of the time its because they got a better deal on the next however many thousand panels from a different manufacturer. ie two copies of the same monitor may not have the same panel in them
I had pretty much gathered that was the case from the various user reviews that I’ve been reading. Whether you get a good one or not is down to a mix of good research (to find out when they have a good batch) and luck :(
or buy a priemium monitor where they dont change in the same way because the margin is much higher so they can stick to the same components
stcstc wrote:
or buy a priemium monitor where they dont change in the same way because the margin is much higher so they can stick to the same components
Yes, that’s certainly a safer option for sure. But I must admit, I can’t help wondering what are you really getting for your money, apart from the peace of mind that you have batch to batch consistency. It can be a bit of a minefield. I mean I’ve read reviews where Dell monitors have been compared with Apple Cinemascreen monitors and the Dell’s have come out on top. On the other hand I’ve probably also read an equal number of reports where Dell monitors are nothing but c..p! I personally think that some of the more expensive monitors out there are expensive not because they are any better but simply because you’re paying for brand recognition. I suppose at the end of the day that’s no different to any consumer product really :(
At the end of the day each individual will have to make their own choice as to whether or not they can justify the cost of an expensive monitor (taking into consideration what their final output is going to be). I don’t think there’s any sense in spending silly money on a monitor when all you are producing is work for display on the WWW but if you’re shooting advertising or fashion, then the silly money no longer looks so silly! Like so many other aspects of digital imaging, it’s very much a case of horses for courses.
Thorsten
when in the consumer world of computers etc the margins are small.
When you buy professional equipment, the margins are much higher
The fundemental thing about monitors, that actually is generally not shown on specs, it the width of the gamut . on a pro monitor for imaging thats what your really paying for.
The secret to finding a good monitor without just throwing money at it, is to download the colour profile for the monitor from the manufacturers website, and get to look at it visually against an ADOBE 1998 one
the easy way to do this is on a mac using coloursync, i guess there is something for a PC but not sure what
this will give you a visual representation of how much colour reproduction you will get. this is a good starting indication for howgood the monitor is
I just got a new Dell FP2007 model 20″ ultrasharp. It’s mega. But I was worried about the type of panel it might come with – do a google for Dell LCD lottery. Mine came with the good panel S-IPS, and for photographers that’s the panel you want.
S-IPS is the way to go. Stay away from TN panels for photo editing.
TN panels dont have true 8-bits per channel (6-bits i think) so cannot display true 16.7m colours.
The S-IPS panels have true 8-bit.
There is also a S-PVA panel but not sure how good it is.Go here:
http://www.flatpanels.dk/panels.phpand type in Dell in the search and see which ones are TN, S-IPS etc.
Thanks for all the comments, opinions, infos and links, useful stuff. I’ve read in a review that the 20 inch dell lcd monitors came with two types of panels and the later are the s-ips, which is what i would need for quality.
I’m not making money of the photography and I think, I don’t want to make money of it… this is an expensive hobby and I know that. I’m not sure if I need an Eizo or similar display, but I would throw money out the window if I bought a low spec monitor like the one on my laptop. A calibrated middle range display should do for me.
What about the size? Any experiences on what’s enough what’s too small? Do you need two 20 inches for Photoshop or would I be better off with one 24 inch and higher resolution?
You should seriously consider the LaCie range. We still have our show prices from PhotoFest until the end of May which represent significant savings over their web pricing. Check out the LaCie web site for info and recomended prices.
http://www.lacie.com/ie/index.htm
Sheldon wrote:
You should seriously consider the LaCie range. We still have our show prices from PhotoFest until the end of May which represent significant savings over their web pricing. Check out the LaCie web site for info and recomended prices.
Thank you for the offer. These monitors are over my budget I’m afraid. I’m usually ready to pay for the quality and I think, I will wait with the purchase in this case. Also, I’m about to move flat, so it’s not wise buying heavy and big stuff… I’ll keep this offer in mind.
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