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need a monitor recommendation

To the OP. Do a little research and make your own decision. Here is one source to start with.
Monitors For High Quality Imaging Work
OP, you might want to just make a mental note of the fact that this source sells high-priced monitors. Not that it would influence how they talk about them or that they might try to influence people with any kind of bullspit that doesn't mean much in a practical way to human eyeballs, of course! Just sayin'...

Keep in mind, the quality you want and the quality you can afford may be at odds with one another. That is where you have to decide what compromise to make.
Also keep in mind that it would be good if you could actually discern those supposed differences in quality with your human eyeballs, the way the specialized measuring instruments used to discern the difference can.
 
I'll just chime in here with a few comments since I have a nice expensive screen at home, yet I have a cheap Dell IPS screen at work.

My home monitor (NEC Spectraview 2690WUXi) is pushing 8 years old and still looks as good today as it always did. After 4 years with my company I'm on my second Dell monitor and that one is also de-laminating now. At this rate in 6 years I could afford the monitor I've already had for 8. Score 1 for quality.

My home monitor has a builtin colour lookup table (yeah features blah blah blah). My Dell at work if I were to connect a calbrator to it, the more of a correct I apply the worse gradient banding will get as the video card output gets limited for the sake of colour correction. It's a very warm monitor so if I calibrate it to 6500k the result is actually a severely crippled red channel on the video card. This IS noticable. Score 1 for quality.

My home monitor is wide gamut. Photos involving sunsets and clear blue oceans I take look fantastic. They get quite a bit duller when I set them back to sRGB for display on the internet. Most cheap monitors are sRGB. This is only good for viewing your own images at home but hey that's what I do, that and print in which case wide gamuts also help. This has plusses and minuses but since I'm gunning for team good monitor I'll say again score 1 for quality.

I won't even comment on non-IPS displays. Suffice to say that my girlfriend edits on a laptop and then comes to my screen to fine tune and is usually not happy with the brightness of her original edits, no surprise given the viewing angle issues TN panels introduce.


Can I print an image for you that you will definitely say "Yes this one came from the good monitor?" No. Our eyes are great at comparing but horrible at noticing initial problems to begin with.
Can you compare prints to cheap and expensive displays and say one display does a much better job than the other? Yes.
Is it nicer working on an expensive display with perfectly even backlighting and accurate calibration? Yes.

Is it worth the money? Well that's the question of the day. If all you're buying is cheap Dells I'm going to go with No, but only you can answer that.

Is your doctor looking at your CT scans on a cheap monitor? Well then your choice of monitor won't matter since you won't live long with his medical advice :lol:
 
as much as I would LOVE to have the best equipment money can buy...that isn't usually economically feasible for me.
we used a 24" Gateway TFT LCD monitor for 6 years and it worked just fine. granted, the Asus Pro Art series IPS monitor we replaced it with is a much better display, and the wife definitely likes it better, but the old Gateway STILL works great and im currently using it on my computer. just remember that people were managing to do digital photography before these fancy LCD and IPS monitors were around and somehow managed to get the job done. its like any set of tools...there will ALWAYS be the next "best" thing, the next "newest" technology, and the next "must have" gear. the high end gear is usually more expensive for a reason. better components, better built, better warranty or service, better performance...etc etc. you just have to decide what level of equipment you can afford, and if it is sufficient to get the work you need done. Buying higher end gear than you actually "need" right now may be overkill, but I would never call it "wasted". you can always grow into better gear.
 
I have a 24 inch NEC MultiSync LCD 2490WUXi2 that I bought not quite 2 years ago and it is a great monitor. In fact, according to some reviews and articles, it gets better with age. I have had no problems with it and it is so very quiet, makes no noise at all, has no glare, & has great features.
 
Many of Dell's less expensive UltraSharp displays develop panel layer delamination issues in about a year's time.
I no longer recommend the low cost Dell UltraSharp displays for that reason.

A decent pro grade IPS display will cost quite a bit more - $1000+

$320 - Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" LED LCD Monitor - 16:10 - 8 ms
$240 - Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23" IPS LED LCD Monitor - 16:9 - 8 ms

Instead of the 2412, if you gotta have 24" - I would recommend the 2410 - Dell UltraSharp U2410 24-inch Widescreen LCD High Performance Monitor with HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort and HDCP

May I ask, what makes you recommend the 2410 over the 2412? I am looking to upgrade my monitor in the near future as well, and looking to save a few bucks in the process.

Does the 2410 not develop panel layer delamination as you had mentioned? Or is it the fact that the 2412 is an LED ?
 
On the difference between monitor cheap/costly and prints topic. Friend of mine is a pro and he used his laptop screen and still does for pp. None of his clients ever complained. Maybe he had great lab taking care of color accuracy before print. And on topic of monitors. I bought hazro hz27wa ips not only for photography. Angles are very good and it was best pick for <1k$ 1 or 2 years ago. I use it for movies web and games as well. I've been using ips since nec 20 wgx and would never pick tft over ips.
 

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