Looking for a new 24 inch lcd for media and photography work

antc

antc

antc

Associate
Joined
23 Jun 2005
Posts
1,773
Location
Nottinghamshire
Evening,

I have been pondering which 24 inch displays are currently best for the above tasks. So far i have come up with the following 2, whoch are exactly the same price, the only way i can seperate them is the contrast ratio.

Samsung SM-245B 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-054-SA&tool=3

and the

Dell TrueColour E248WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-020-DE

Can anyone offer any advice on which is best or are there other monitors i have overlooked?

Thanks
 
both models there are TN Film based and so are not ideal for photo work really, mostly due to their viewing angles. You may be better considering a VA / IPS panel if you can stretch the budget. If you do stick with one of those models, the Dell might be favourable since it offers an enhanced colour gamut as well.
 
Anything in particular you would recomend Baddass??

Edit: just read through this - http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/samsung_245b.htm and im not sure now, i did think from other reviews i had read this screen looked really good!!

Edit 2 : im currently working on a dell 2005fpw if this helps in anyway

Edit 3: After using the tft selecter it seems to be recomending me the BenQ FP241W and the Dell 2407WFP-HC.

What are peoples opinions on these screens?
 
Last edited:
Baddass said:
both models there are TN Film based and so are not ideal for photo work really, mostly due to their viewing angles. You may be better considering a VA / IPS panel if you can stretch the budget. If you do stick with one of those models, the Dell might be favourable since it offers an enhanced colour gamut as well.
Click to expand...

160 degree viewing angle is good enough for anyone doing photography work imo... that means that you can't view it in the little 10 degree angle at the far sides of the screen - who would want to look at the photo at that angle anyway?

The only thing that would put me off getting a TN for photo work is the colour gamut.

The best 24" on the market for photo work is the NEC Multisync, without a question - it has the best colour accuracy.

Then, between the two that you've listed... the dell has more input lag and that's about the only difference... other than that the screens are preactically the same.
 
crowhorse said:
160 degree viewing angle is good enough for anyone doing photography work imo... that means that you can't view it in the little 10 degree angle at the far sides of the screen - who would want to look at the photo at that angle anyway?

The only thing that would put me off getting a TN for photo work is the colour gamut.

The best 24" on the market for photo work is the NEC Multisync, without a question - it has the best colour accuracy.

Then, between the two that you've listed... the dell has more input lag and that's about the only difference... other than that the screens are preactically the same.
Click to expand...


Yeah, the sammy has a 72% colour gamut, which is good also, not as high as the dell. Another thing thats crossed my mind is the Dell 30 inch screen, not that much more than a pair of sammy 245bs or dell 2407 hcs. Wondering if its better to have one big screen or a pair of smaller ones. With whatever monitors i get they will be colour calibrated with a spyder or huey pro device, so hopefully doing that will bring out the best in them!
 
antc said:
Yeah, the sammy has a 72% colour gamut, which is good also, not as high as the dell. Another thing thats crossed my mind is the Dell 30 inch screen, not that much more than a pair of sammy 245bs or dell 2407 hcs. Wondering if its better to have one big screen or a pair of smaller ones. With whatever monitors i get they will be colour calibrated with a spyder or huey pro device, so hopefully doing that will bring out the best in them!
Click to expand...


Well - I had a 3007WFP A04 (last one before the HCs came out)... I loved having the huge monitor for general work & for working on a photo it would be fantastic with the huge resolution and low dot pitch.

atm - I'm on a 24" monitor and in a couple of weeks I'm going to have three of them.... nice change from the dell & it's a heck of a lot easier to get games running at native resolution on this one.

As for the 3007... while it looks amazing at the native resolution - it really doesn't scale well - so if you want to game on it - you will always have to keep your hardware at cutting edge spec.

Hope that helps :)
 
Indeed it does, thanks very muc for you help so far. Currently after reading multiple reviews on the 3007, 2407 and 245b monitors i "think" im erring towards the a pair of sammys due to a few reasons.....

1. colour gamut of sammy is very close to dell
2. have had a sammy 172x before as well as my current 2005 fpw and in my opinion the colour was slightly better on the samsung
3. Ther is well over £200 quid difference between a pair of sammys and a pair of dells
4. i would need to buy a new gfx card by the look of things to run the 3007 (i have an x850 xt platinum)

Im actually finding this quite a hard decision as i want to make sure i get it right, im not too worried about gaming as 99% of my gaming is done on my 360 on my hdtv. The main use for the monitors will be photo/media work.
 
My personal preference.... would say get the 2 sammys.

I nearly bought the sammys myself - but because I needed one for yesterday - I ended up buying the hyudai 241d... same panel as the samsung, but nicer looking bezel... not worth the extra 40 quid tbh.... but like I said - needed it for yesterday :s

I really don't like the input lag on the 2407s... whereas the samsungs have practically none.

Plus like you said, the colour gamut is quite close.
 
Ive got 2x 24" Dells 2405+2407 and if I was to buy again id be getting the Dells, Dell have a better new monitor Pixel Policy than Samsung (21day cooling off period makes this less important) and ive had no issues at all.

Im unsure what Crowhorse is getting at with Input lag? not seen any stats about that, but ive not noticed any lag like issues.

As for viewing angles this isnt really an issue as if you doing any photo work you will be sat directly in front of the monitor, i suppose it only comes into play if your showing customers the onscreen shots and they are off centre...

For the spec of the monitors id say 2x Dell E248WFP are the best bet, but personally id get 2x 2407-HC simply for the additional Component and USB sockets (as you have a HDTV for gaming the components may not be important to you)
 
antc said:
Anything in particular you would recomend Baddass??

Edit: just read through this - http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/samsung_245b.htm and im not sure now, i did think from other reviews i had read this screen looked really good!!

Edit 2 : im currently working on a dell 2005fpw if this helps in anyway

Edit 3: After using the tft selecter it seems to be recomending me the BenQ FP241W and the Dell 2407WFP-HC.

What are peoples opinions on these screens?
Click to expand...

the Samsung SM245B is good, but is let down by it's viewing angles imo. It's still very well priced, and capable of some good colour accuracy with some calibration. However, for photo work i would not really recommend TN Film, especially at this size.

crowhorse said:
160 degree viewing angle is good enough for anyone doing photography work imo... that means that you can't view it in the little 10 degree angle at the far sides of the screen - who would want to look at the photo at that angle anyway?
Click to expand...

you cannot rely on the quoted viewing angles to give you a true idea of how a TN Film panel would perform for photo work I'm afraid. Some are listed as 170 / 170, some even list their's as 178/178!!! either way, it is all down to measurement techniques. In pratice, you will see obvious contrast shifts and often colour tone shifts with even a slight movement up or down from a central field of view. This is not good for photo work at all, and is even obvious for movies and internet use. For instance, a TN Film panel could easily show darker and lighter areas on the background of these forums, and the larger the screen, the more apparent this is because of the screen real estate. Don't rely on 160/160 quoted figures to give you an indication of how it will perform in pratice. For any proper colour or photo work, TN Film is not recommend!


The only thing that would put me off getting a TN for photo work is the colour gamut.
Click to expand...

I don;'t think you mean colour gamut here do you? you mean colour depth, i.e 8-bit vs 6-bit+FRC? Many TN Film models offer a wide colour gamut of 92% of the NTSC colour space, just the same as VA/IPS models do (eg Dell E248WFP)

The best 24" on the market for photo work is the NEC Multisync, without a question - it has the best colour accuracy.
Click to expand...

which one? and are you meaning colour accuracy out of the box without calibration, or with calibration?

Indeed it does, thanks very muc for you help so far. Currently after reading multiple reviews on the 3007, 2407 and 245b monitors i "think" im erring towards the a pair of sammys due to a few reasons.....

1. colour gamut of sammy is very close to dell
Click to expand...

Colour gamut is not the same between the SM245B and E248WFP. The Samsung uses standard CCFL backlighting and only covers 72% of the NTSC colour space, and the E248WFP uses W-CCFL and covers 92%.



If you are concisous of the cost, the Samsung SM245B may still be a good bet, but be wary of the viewing angles as I've said before. TN Film is not well suited to colour work, as contrast shift is just too obvious. There is minimal colour shift on the SM245B at least, but you will find you need to keep moving your head to make out shades i think on a screen that size. That is from my personal experience of quite a few 24" models
 
Samsung have zero dead pixel policy ^o)

As for the input lag.... I've played with the 2407 (non-HC) next to the hyundai (same panel as the sammy) and noticed the input lag difference.... there's a graph somewhere that displays the input lag of various 24" monitors - although I can't seem to find it atm.
 
Baddass said:
the Samsung SM245B is good, but is let down by it's viewing angles imo. It's still very well priced, and capable of some good colour accuracy with some calibration. However, for photo work i would not really recommend TN Film, especially at this size.



you cannot rely on the quoted viewing angles to give you a true idea of how a TN Film panel would perform for photo work I'm afraid. Some are listed as 170 / 170, some even list their's as 178/178!!! either way, it is all down to measurement techniques. In pratice, you will see obvious contrast shifts and often colour tone shifts with even a slight movement up or down from a central field of view. This is not good for photo work at all, and is even obvious for movies and internet use. For instance, a TN Film panel could easily show darker and lighter areas on the background of these forums, and the larger the screen, the more apparent this is because of the screen real estate. Don't rely on 160/160 quoted figures to give you an indication of how it will perform in pratice. For any proper colour or photo work, TN Film is not recommend!




I don;'t think you mean colour gamut here do you? you mean colour depth, i.e 8-bit vs 6-bit+FRC? Many TN Film models offer a wide colour gamut of 92% of the NTSC colour space, just the same as VA/IPS models do (eg Dell E248WFP)



which one? and are you meaning colour accuracy out of the box without calibration, or with calibration?



Colour gamut is not the same between the SM245B and E248WFP. The Samsung uses standard CCFL backlighting and only covers 72% of the NTSC colour space, and the E248WFP uses W-CCFL and covers 92%.



If you are concisous of the cost, the Samsung SM245B may still be a good bet, but be wary of the viewing angles as I've said before. TN Film is not well suited to colour work, as contrast shift is just too obvious. There is minimal colour shift on the SM245B at least, but you will find you need to keep moving your head to make out shades i think on a screen that size. That is from my personal experience of quite a few 24" models
Click to expand...

Thanks for this info, its most helpful mate. Can i ask if you were in my situation what monitors would you be looking at?
 
Baddass said:
the Samsung SM245B is good, but is let down by it's viewing angles imo. It's still very well priced, and capable of some good colour accuracy with some calibration. However, for photo work i would not really recommend TN Film, especially at this size.



you cannot rely on the quoted viewing angles to give you a true idea of how a TN Film panel would perform for photo work I'm afraid. Some are listed as 170 / 170, some even list their's as 178/178!!! either way, it is all down to measurement techniques. In pratice, you will see obvious contrast shifts and often colour tone shifts with even a slight movement up or down from a central field of view. This is not good for photo work at all, and is even obvious for movies and internet use. For instance, a TN Film panel could easily show darker and lighter areas on the background of these forums, and the larger the screen, the more apparent this is because of the screen real estate. Don't rely on 160/160 quoted figures to give you an indication of how it will perform in pratice. For any proper colour or photo work, TN Film is not recommend!




I don;'t think you mean colour gamut here do you? you mean colour depth, i.e 8-bit vs 6-bit+FRC? Many TN Film models offer a wide colour gamut of 92% of the NTSC colour space, just the same as VA/IPS models do (eg Dell E248WFP)



which one? and are you meaning colour accuracy out of the box without calibration, or with calibration?



Colour gamut is not the same between the SM245B and E248WFP. The Samsung uses standard CCFL backlighting and only covers 72% of the NTSC colour space, and the E248WFP uses W-CCFL and covers 92%.



If you are concisous of the cost, the Samsung SM245B may still be a good bet, but be wary of the viewing angles as I've said before. TN Film is not well suited to colour work, as contrast shift is just too obvious. There is minimal colour shift on the SM245B at least, but you will find you need to keep moving your head to make out shades i think on a screen that size. That is from my personal experience of quite a few 24" models
Click to expand...

I see what you mean about the viewing angles... I start to notice a shift in colour @ about 50 degrees either side of the perpendicular (horizontally at least).... so that would be 100 degrees of the quoted 160.

TBH - because I sit directly infront of the monitor... it doesn't affect me.

antc - it depends on where you will be sitting in relation to the monitors & if you will need other people to view your work at perculiar angles.

As for the NEC, I was referring to the Multisync LCD2470WNX.

They set it up at the factory for you, so it's properly set up out of the box.

The downside of it, it's hard to get ahold of, not many places stock it and it costs ~ 520 quid, whereas the dell is 420 and the sammy is 305.
 
crowhorse said:
Samsung have zero dead pixel policy ^o)

As for the input lag.... I've played with the 2407 (non-HC) next to the hyundai (same panel as the sammy) and noticed the input lag difference.... there's a graph somewhere that displays the input lag of various 24" monitors - although I can't seem to find it atm.
Click to expand...

there's a graph in the sticky, but it's from TFT central anyway:

input_lag_comparison_2.jpg


but yes, the Samsung SM245B has, on average, a lower input lag than the Dell 2407WFP-HC:

input_lag.jpg


not an issue anyway given the uses here...
 
antc said:
Thanks for this info, its most helpful mate. Can i ask if you were in my situation what monitors would you be looking at?
Click to expand...

well you have mentioned the Dell 3007WFP-HC, and if you can afford it, that might be very well sutied to your use. Massive screen size and huge resolution. S-IPS panel technology which is the choice of nearly all pro graphics users due to it's excellent colour accuracy (calibrated), 8-bit colour depth, and widest viewing angles of all the techs. It doesn't suffer from the off centre contrast shift you can spot on VA panel, and certainly miles better than TN Film. Also, the 3007WFP-HC has the enhanced colour gamut....all in all, might be a good bet.

If you're looking for a 24" screen, and don't want to break the bank, the Dell 2407WFP-HC is an excellent screen. Review here which goes into more detail about colour reproduction capabilities etc. That would be a good bet as you won't suffer from the obvious vertical contrast shift of TN Film models (imo it's obvious on a screen this size, not so big a deal on smaller models). Also 8-bit colour depth, wide gamut and good colour accuracy both out of the box and once calibrated. Would be a good bet imo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom