Buying a monitor

beans

Afternoon all,

I'm finally upgrading from my ex-office CRT pile of poo to something a little thinner and with better quality. The tones on the CRT are awful, everything looks way too dark.

Any recommendations? I know very little about monitors, and were it not for my interest in photography wouldn't give it a second thought. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for, or avoiding? Stats such as Image Contrast Ratios and Aspect Ratios mean nothing to me. DVI vs VGA?

Thanks

Oriel

Apple Cinema Displays, best buy.

quilmore

No LCD (except for rare and expensive exceptions) can compete with a calibrated CRT

dell 3007wfp will be nice thou

Roen

I got the Dell 20.1" ultrasharp widescreen, and after checking serials etc it's the same as the Apple cinema display, just a hundred quid cheaper (you have to check serials on the dell as they sometimes change panels mid run).
Be sure to get something with a SIPS panel rather than a TN.

Best of luck, I agonised for a long time and I have to say I'm happy with what I have.

beans

Thanks, that's the kind of juicy stuff for me to add to the list of considerations

Yeah, it's not going to be a snap decision (oooh walked into that one)

WizZard

What's your budget?

beans

Well I'm not sure. I guess I would like to spend 200€ given Xmas around the corner and all that, but I'd be willing to go up to ~500€ if I thought the cost would be worth it.

There's an LG 19" jobby on Komplett for 205 which has caught my eye, Linky. But mine is an uneducated eye, so I'm conflicted.

Placebo

CRT display the best possible colour compared to a budget slim LCD, even the high priced "ultra sharp" DELL ones. There often too sharp and images appear darker and much richer in contrast, They are a definate no no for graphics, which is why i myself use a CRT.

stcstc

actually


CRT monitors - even the top end ones have a much smaller colour gamut than decent LCDs.

yes a lot of LCDs, particulary cheap ones are out of the factory set tooooo bright and sharp etc


but as far as something that will come close to a print, a decent LCD will be closer as they can show much closer to the AdobeRGB colour gamut. most CRT monitors have a colour gamut closer to sRGB.

311

Roen wrote: »

I got the Dell 20.1" ultrasharp widescreen

I got one of these myself ,nice tidy size and lovely colours on it too

Placebo

Color gamut range depends solely on the manufacturer, i was sure there were CRT monitors available for the adobe standard? which is as old as 1998 as this stage, even with the wider variety of shades the picture itself will still be too sharp and contrasty.
From my own personal experience, editing photos on a CRt and then viewing them on CRT make them look completely different. I feel a print would be closer to CRT than your average LCD.

CONMIKE12

I calibrated my smasung lcd with a spyder pro, set up lightroom correctly, and now get prints matching pretty much exactly ehat i see on the screen.And that is with a 4 year old printer. I have 2lcds, one of them cheap theother expensiove... basically, same as always, you get what you pay for and the difference is incredible.

JMcL

stcstc wrote: »

yes a lot of LCDs, particulary cheap ones are out of the factory set tooooo bright and sharp etc

Very true. In calibrating my monitor, I had to turn brightness down to around 10%! It looks odd initially, but you get used to it quickly

Roen

JMcL wrote: »

Very true. In calibrating my monitor, I had to turn brightness down to around 10%! It looks odd initially, but you get used to it quickly

Too right, I brought mine down from the default of 50% to about 22%, then when it was calibrated it needed to be dropped down to 7%. It is odd as JMcL says but you do indeed get used to it. Cheers by the way, I still owe you a pint or two J

magicbastarder

how much heed do people pay to the working conditions when using their monitor?
for example, i have my work monitor set brighter than my home monitor - the former is used in a well lit office, the latter usually used in an unlit room in the evening.

magicbastarder

or do those monitor calibrators take ambient light into account?

quilmore

magicbastarder wrote: »

or do those monitor calibrators take ambient light into account?

why will they?
huey is meant to do it
but a monitor is self illuminated
so the only you should worry is to have it's backlight calibrated
and that's something any calibration thingy will do

mathias

CRT's are dead , you get really buy them any more and the ones you can buy are not very good ,
Take a look over on adverts.ie in the free stuff section , you cant even give them away ...


A good lcd calibrated with a spyder or a huey does an excellent job , doesnt take up as much space , and is ergonomically better for you.
You can calibrate most lcd's but SIPS are the best , I spoilt myself with an apple 23 inch , its a beaut , the Dells are nice too.

beans

There are currently 5 CRTs down by the bins in my complex, and there were 3 others there last week... and i'm sure any of them are probably better than this one :rolleyes:

May liberate a few tomoro and see how they pan out, as a stop-gap

magicbastarder

our place have thrown out literally hundreds of CRTs; i'm currently using a 22" trinitron which was going in the bin, before i found a home for it.

311

Is there any reason why komplett and Elara don't sell calibrators ?
Are they prone to breaking or something ?

JMcL

Roen wrote: »

Cheers by the way, I still owe you a pint or two J

Hee.. must take you up on that sometime. If you ever get that LF gear you were wavering over, you can treat me to a pint in Downes during a nice long exposure on Velvia 50 (or can you get ISO 25 emulsions any longer?)

magicbastarder wrote: »

how much heed do people pay to the working conditions when using their monitor?
for example, i have my work monitor set brighter than my home monitor - the former is used in a well lit office, the latter usually used in an unlit room in the evening..... or do those monitor calibrators take ambient light into account?

I normally just use task lighting with a desk lamp and usually keep the blinds closed (the good reason for this other than keeping glare to a minimum is that my office is at street level) , so there isn't much ambient light.

As somebody else said, the Huey measures ambient light and adjusts. My EyeOne Display can do so as well (it has a translucent cover which doubles as protection for the sensors), but I never bother - I really don't think it makes that much difference, and I have enough crap on my desk as is. Dunno whether the Spyders do anything

quilmore

_Brian_ wrote: »

Is there any reason why komplett and Elara don't sell calibrators ?
Are they prone to breaking or something ?

probably they aren't popular enough
I've got mine on ebay from USA, luckily I wasn't punished by VAT

daedalus2097

Nope, the Spyder doesn't consider ambient light... I do however try to keep the lighting consistent in my room when I'm working on images. I have an old Digital 21" CRT and it's nice and refreshing after working on LCDs all day. Granted they're not calibrated in work, but the richness and detail when calibrated, coupled with the 1600x1200 resolution and the fact it cost buttons a few years back means there's no way I'd justify spending a lot of money on an LCD at the moment!

Peteee

Oriel wrote: »

Apple Cinema Displays, best buy.

If you wanna waste your money on silver trim, sure. :rolleyes:

The Dell SIPS panels are exactly the same monitor and are a good bit cheaper.

quilmore

I knew I've read all this somewhere and only now I came across it again:
http://textblog.anands.net/archives/11
basicly what it says is:
spend a G+ on an Eizo, Nec, Lacie or Apple

if not (like in my case), find the most suitable monitor for your budget and check it out here:

http://www.flatpanels.dk/panels.php

quick selection: If it's a "TN", leave it

more good reading regarding this:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=231339&highlight=ips

Dinarius

Interesting thread with a lot of useful info. Thanks.

Considering these two monitors on the basis of what I've read.

http://tinyurl.com/5gvfal

and.......

http://tinyurl.com/69n96d

The first is S-PVA, the second is S-IPS.

Any views either way?

Thanks.

D.

challengemaster

HP 22" widescreen ftw.

Also I've the spyder3 - it takes into account ambient lighting.

AnCatDubh

lol - i started reading this thread, got to the second post and gasped didn't realise it was from a year ago.

Dinarius

challengemaster,

Are you recommending the HP 22"? It's not clear from your post.

If you are, could provide a link?

As to using the Spyder: I think that's fine if you you're into gaming and you don't want to play in a darkened room. But, for photo editing, I prefer as little daylight as possible.

I use the Eye-One Match instrument, but not with the Eye-One match software. Instead I use basICColor. In my opinion it's the best available. In fact, it's outstanding.

http://www.basiccolor.de/english/Datenblaetter_E/squid_E/squid_E.htm

D.