New monitor time

[Scatterbrained]

The degree of obsessing over minor details here is amusing. But then again, the high-end audio background and all the imagined confirmation bvias that exists in that field explains a huuuuge amount of this fascination.

It's not a minor detail. Maybe you have this misconception of sitting in an 18% grey room with daylight balanced full spectrum bulbs at a $3000 monitor that gets calibrated every third day. . . . .not so. My wife has a rather expensive laptop that is uncalibrated. My images look quite different on her machine, and the prints certainly don't match her screen. My daughter has a $1000 HP Envy. Her screen also is uncalibrated and while it looks good, the images look a bit off. Not too much, but enough. Enough to annoy me, and enough that while many images look fine, some can end up looking quite odd.
It's funny, people quibble over lens quality, sensor quality, etc. but heaven forbid you talk about the quality of display, then you're just mental.

 

[Scatterbrained]

Just get a monitor already. Your prior experience in selling high-end audio gear (the single largest snake oil business since, well, snake oil...) to saps that believe in golden ears, but who could not tell a 128Kbps .mp3 file from an uncompressed .AIFF file has made you worry about all sorts of imaginary boogeymen.

Wait, he sold audiophile gear? Ok, they he's going to need this:

A) a proper monitor:http://www.amazon.com/Eizo-ColorEdg...8&qid=1444778798&sr=8-7&keywords=eizo+monitor

B) a proper calibration system: http://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-EODIS3...1nov1fCgdL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL70_SR70,69_

C) a proper print viewing station: EVS Executive Viewing Stations - GTI Graphic Technology Inc.

....and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

 

[Derrel]

Laptop = 1975 AM radio single-ear corded "earpiece".

 

[Scatterbrained]

Laptop = 1975 AM radio single-ear corded "earpiece".

Meh, I would say it's more like the tinny earbuds from the original ipod, where my daughters Envy (HPs top of the line All-In-One) would be like the older Bose IE2s (the older open back in ear monitors) and my NEC would be like a pair of AKG K702s. Meanwhile, the $200 Dell would be like a pair of VModas. A solid sound, but a bit bass heavy with repressed mids.

 

[soufiej]

Personally, I'm a firm believer in monitor calibration, if you are printing. I've printed from uncalibrated consumer grade monitors shipped off to Sams Club, and I've printed from a calibrated, pro level monitor to a pro lab. The differences are definitely there. However, if you're not trying to make large, gallery quality prints then I'd say the pro level monitor and high end calibration and printing are going to be overkill. I've found that for anything smaller than an 8x10 (and even 8x10s most of the time) Costco offers great quality.

For what you're looking for I'd go with Dell. They're known to be pretty consistent and I've seen nothing but good reviews from other photographers who were looking for a budget monitor.
I would however, still get it calibrated. I can see a difference in my images across the four different monitors in my house, as well as with tablets and phones. What really matters however, is that my images look exactly the same from my screen to my prints. As they say "the proof is in the prints".

Thanks, Dell comes up on a few recommended lists. Generally at larger screen sizes than I can accommodate though.

I assume you mean Costco "offers great quality" when I hand them a file to print. OK, this is my level of ignorance about such things. If I hand them a file to print, do I not have to first arrive at the image I want printed? In other words, don't I have to perform some amount of editing before I hand over an image to an outsourced printer? Therefore, wouldn't I need a basically agreed upon standard to ensure what I expect to get is what I actually get?

 

[soufiej]

my $150 monitor doesn't need "correcting"

I have no friggin' idea what that means other than "I don't give s***!"

 

[tirediron]

Laptop = 1975 AM radio single-ear corded "earpiece".

Meh, I would say it's more like the tinny earbuds from the original ipod, where my daughters Envy (HPs top of the line All-In-One) would be like the older Bose IE2s (the older open back in ear monitors) and my NEC would be like a pair of AKG K702s. Meanwhile, the $200 Dell would be like a pair of VModas. A solid sound, but a bit bass heavy with repressed mids.

Say what?

 

[soufiej]

Just get a monitor already. Your prior experience in selling high-end audio gear (the single largest snake oil business since, well, snake oil...) to saps that believe in golden ears, but who could not tell a 128Kbps .mp3 file from an uncompressed .AIFF file has made you worry about all sorts of imaginary boogeymen.

WITH ALL due respect - and that comment is due none - I didn't expect this thread to bring out the a'holes in this group. I wasn't looking to be insulted when I asked what I feel is a pretty simple question.

Look, Derrel, maybe you don't like audiophiles, but what's the point of taking a swipe at me (and others) in this thread? Maybe you think a 150 Pioneer AV receiver with 0.001% THD is all you need. Fine, I won't tell you what I think of your opinion of music reproduction. I see no need to get down to your level on this.

So you got this piece of crap receiver. Do you or do you not run the surround calibration tests?

If you really don't care to help, just go away. Go find a thread about which camera to buy.

It seems several people have poopoo'd the idea of anything more than using a old monitor from the discount store. Calibration is waste of time.

No one has said just what I would need to spend to meet your standards of monitor quality. You've mostly just said, "Go'way, kid, you bother me."

Really, folks! If you don't want to help, just don't post anything.

 

[Scatterbrained]

Personally, I'm a firm believer in monitor calibration, if you are printing. I've printed from uncalibrated consumer grade monitors shipped off to Sams Club, and I've printed from a calibrated, pro level monitor to a pro lab. The differences are definitely there. However, if you're not trying to make large, gallery quality prints then I'd say the pro level monitor and high end calibration and printing are going to be overkill. I've found that for anything smaller than an 8x10 (and even 8x10s most of the time) Costco offers great quality.

For what you're looking for I'd go with Dell. They're known to be pretty consistent and I've seen nothing but good reviews from other photographers who were looking for a budget monitor.
I would however, still get it calibrated. I can see a difference in my images across the four different monitors in my house, as well as with tablets and phones. What really matters however, is that my images look exactly the same from my screen to my prints. As they say "the proof is in the prints".

Thanks, Dell comes up on a few recommended lists. Generally at larger screen sizes than I can accommodate though.

I assume you mean Costco "offers great quality" when I hand them a file to print. OK, this is my level of ignorance about such things. If I hand them a file to print, do I not have to first arrive at the image I want printed? In other words, don't I have to perform some amount of editing before I hand over an image to an outsourced printer? Therefore, wouldn't I need a basically agreed upon standard to ensure what I expect to get is what I actually get?

Yes, what I mean is that when you're done editing your image and you're ready to print, Costco is about the only local "1 hour" lab I've found to offer any decent quality. Just make sure that you send them a file in sRGB colorspace and that you select "turn off auto correction". Their system will try to auto correct every image to match some perceived ideal histogram and contrast level. If you send a low contrast, high key image to them you'll get back an image that has been toned down with the contrast boosted. Better just to get the adjustments right at home and rely on them just for printing, not correcting.

 

[Scatterbrained]

Laptop = 1975 AM radio single-ear corded "earpiece".

Meh, I would say it's more like the tinny earbuds from the original ipod, where my daughters Envy (HPs top of the line All-In-One) would be like the older Bose IE2s (the older open back in ear monitors) and my NEC would be like a pair of AKG K702s. Meanwhile, the $200 Dell would be like a pair of VModas. A solid sound, but a bit bass heavy with repressed mids.

Say what?

I'm translating monitor quality into headfi terms.

 

[SquarePeg]

I got this one earlier this year and totally love it:

ASUS ASPA248Q | B&H Photo Video

 

[soufiej]

I got this one earlier this year and totally love it:

ASUS ASPA248Q | B&H Photo Video

Thanks, it pushes my budget slightly and my allowable space equally. It would be a close fit in the space I have and require some rethinking of the cabinet.

 

[Dao]

Before I bought the monitor calibrator, when I printed photo from Walgreen and couple times from online, they were kind of dark. But now it is much better.

As for monitor, I'd a bad experience with Asus monitor, especially their RMA. I bought a Asus 27 inches IPS screen last Nov, in May or June this year, it started to have issue. Got an RMA from Asus, but that replacement (refurbished) was bad. Has ghost lines and not as sharp. My original monitor was better. So get another RMA, the replacement had a cracked screen (note: the shipping box has zero damage). It appeared their RMA department did not even bother check the monitors they shipped out.

Contact them again for another RMA, they said they were going to pay for the return shipping and escalated it. But after 1 weeks later, still have not heard from them. So no monitor for over a month. So I emailed Amazon let them know how bad I was treated. Within 2 hours, Amazon email me back and let me choose Next Day air Advance new monitor replacement with Free Return shipping or Full refund and free return shipping. Since I did not want to deal with Asus RMA again, so I choose refund.

Now I still kind of hesitate to buy any Asus monitor. I understand monitor will break, but shipping 3 defective monitosr back for a single RMA was just too much. (Of course Fedex made all the money from Asus and me for shipping 27 inches monitor back and fro).

Now I have a ultra wide 29 inches 21:9 LG IPS and that is kind of nice. Especially I do not need to have a dual monitor setup, I can have 2 LR screens from one single monitor. (Bought it for $199 +tax onsale a month or so ago from Bestbuy, now is $299)

I think if you can wait for a month and a half, you maybe able to get some good deals in Black Friday on monitor.

 

[Dao]

Also Dell Outlet has refurbished monitors with 90 days warranty. And they often had coupons to make the price quite attractive. I bought 8 to 10 refurbished monitors from them couple years ago for the office. People did not know they were refurbished. Of course, not sure if I was just lucky or not.

 

[The_Traveler]

I use two Dell wide-screens, in PS with the image on one and the menues on the other.
My limited experience with mid quality LCD screens is that they don't drift very much - and since I do my own prints, minor color discrepancies aren't important.
I've looked at my own stuff on different monitors and iPads and it looks good so I'm happy.
I went from calibrating once a week to calibrating when I think about it - which isn't often.
So my impression is that decent lcd monitors don't drift much.

If you have a friend with a calibrator, just borrow that once in a while and see how much change there is in your monitors.
The reason that Costco makes good prints is that they run big nice pro-grade printers and there are downlable printer profiles Google

In regards people who want to one-up you, and everyone else, with technical stuff about the only right way to do it - which amazingly coincidently is their way - ignore them.
They don't really want to help you as much as they want to burnish their own reputation as a savant.