Computer Monitors...

smeat said:
Eizo also makes/made some less expensive CRT's you can probably find on a one year old used market/back stock that again, are larger, but have better color than even their best lcd's and are good at pretty much any angle. I mean if you're honestly looking for a "price/performance ratio" then that's the way to go.
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This advice hasn't really been right for about 6-8 years. Except for the cost bit, but then paying for something second hand that isn't made anymore nor desirable to own is always cheaper.

Nearly all oldschool CRTs had a standard sRGB gamut or close to. Even early this decade research was going on trying to increase the gamuts of them, last I heard there was some Mitsubishi CRT which almost managed to cover the AdobeRGB gamut!!! Wooo Exciting back then, but these days many top of the range LCDs can be bought with the same or wider colour gamut than that, which are also good to use at pretty much any viewing angle.

Frankly LCDs are nicer to work on, easier to calibrate, don't drift, hold a consistent calibration from only a few minutes after powering on, and more importantly are still being made. Old CRTs suffering from phosphor burn, dark displays and gamut shrinking doesn't exactly lend itself to the ideal second hand solution. The only real benefit CRT has these days it they are brighter (were, LED backlights are amazing for those few who have them), and could scale to any resolution without looking any worse thanks to the layout of phosphors on the screen.

/Edit: I couldn't sit still so I found it. The Mitsubishi Diamondtron RDF225WG released in 2004 had an amazing 97.6% AdobeRGB coverage. Shame NEC announced a prototype LCD that did 107% coverage at the same time and later delivered in the form of NEC MultiSync 2180WG-LED.
 
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(sorry if this has been asked elsewhere, I found this post through search).

I am also in the market for a monitor. Currently using my 31 inch Toshiba tv that is connected to a mac mini (the tv is an extra one). I see people linking monitors and what not but my biggest question is how do they know that they are good for photography?

Is it the brand? A certain word in the title? The contrast ratio? I was talking to someone and asked if this NEC AccuSync AS191WM-BK 19" LCD Widescreen AS191WM-BK B&H was a good monitor since he was talking about NEC and this is fairly cheap. He said he suspected that it was a TN monitor because of the price and to pass it up. What I saw was the number of colors it can generate. I thought 16mil was the high point and it has the same viewing angel hori and vert.

So that is where I currently am. I want a monitor as I am getting into photography and know that my temp tv (which is hooked up through hdmi) isnt the best for that but I don't want to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars as I am still buying my camera and else which will put me back probably another thousand.

So yeah, can anyone just give me advice on what to look for / at when I am checking out these monitors? Not all of them talk about their gamut or color production.
 
Yes, IPS is what you'll want for the best color reproduction and viewing angle from an LCD monitor.

Personally I couldn't justify spending the amount for a new one right now, and ultimately just bought 3 x 24" Samsung P2450 LCDs. Good color reproduction, for what they are, but still no IPS :)

You may be able to find a good deal on a used one, but the backlights don't last forever.
 
The Dell U2211H (1920x1080 e-IPS LCD) has recently been offered for as little as $180+tax with free shipping from Dell. That's not much more than you'd pay for an ugly TN LCD. I haven't used it or the slightly-larger U2311H, but I've been well-pleased with my other Dell UltraSharp monitors (3007WFP, U2410, 2001FP and 2000FP).

The Hewlett-Packard ZR24w or Dell U2410 (24" 1920x1200 e-IPS) are better-sized with more features, but they'll run $400-$500 + tax.
 
I actually have an HP ZR22w as a second monitor and its an amazing value for the price--I bought it for less than $300. You'd never have found anything like it a few years ago. It has an S-IPS screen made by LG, which isn't quite as good as the H-IPS on the Cinema Displays but it's pretty close. Calibrate it regularly and it's good enough to spec print.
 
Hmm alright.

So if I go for a monitor that has at least good brightness and contrast, with 16.7 mill color I should be okay for a starter monitor if I calibrate it? Will a calibrator work on a TFT TN monitor? I only ask because I don't have much money left over after a camera and lens purchase but want to use something other then my toshiba 32 inch LCD screen. For example, there is this monitor: http://www.all-monitors.com/monitors/manufacturers/pos/lg_flatron_w1934s It's listed price is 359 bucks but its on superbiz for 119. The site I linked it from (all monitors) doesn't list what panel type it is specifically (merely that it has a TFT matrix) but it does have 16.7 million colors and the same viewing angle.

For now I will be doing primarily "internet" editing. IE I won't be printing many pictures at all and most of my work will be viewed online. I have a mac mini and would love to duel monitor so maybe I could get a cheaper monitor now that works and does decently, and then get a second monitor with the IPS stuff?


Also, my TV is hooked up to my mac mini with an HDMI cable and is running 720p. It does have a blue PC monitor connector on it. If I connect the tv to the mac through that will the picture quality be any better? I don't have a spare cable so i'd rather not go buy one if the answer is no.
 
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I used to have a Viewsonic TN panel on my PC and it was nearly impossible to color calibrate. It just did not seem to have enough adjustment range to bring it into any semblance of color accuracy that was required by my calibrator. Of course, that was a few years ago. Not sure how far TN panels have come.
 
Offhand said:
I used to have a Viewsonic TN panel on my PC and it was nearly impossible to color calibrate. It just did not seem to have enough adjustment range to bring it into any semblance of color accuracy that was required by my calibrator. Of course, that was a few years ago. Not sure how far TN panels have come.
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Do you know offhand (no pun intended lol) if it had the 16.7 million colors? I remember reading an article on a webform saying that one problem with TN's in the past anyways (the article was old) was that they couldn't get the good color range of 16.7 mil or something. Now it seems though that a lot of them have the 16.7mil.

Just curious. :)
 
 
Nikato said:
Now it seems though that a lot of them have the 16.7mil.
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Nope. A lot of them *claim* to have 16.7million colours. TN is a 6bit technology. That was the tradeoff for fast response rate. What they do is process an 8bit input, then produce a 6bit dithered output.

I have not yet heard of an 8bit TN panel, and a quick google search brought up similar pessimism.
 
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