Are back-lit LED screens good for photo processing?

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
35,691
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Hi Guys,

Don't know if anyone will know, I'll create a thread in Monitors as well. But I've been eyeing up a 24" screen for a while now and my favourite company, Iiyama, have released, and is on deal at OcUK a 24" Back-lit LED screen.

Now...the temptation to buy this bad boy is high enough, basically I want to confirm if back-lit LED screens is good for photo processing/better than my current 17" TFT (apart from the obvious size gain) (oo-er)

If it's fine, I think I'll be ordering tomorrow :)

Cheers,
Jake

Screen in question - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-060-IY&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=
 
Last edited:
I can't comment on LED monitors but an IPS panel monitor will make a good difference. If you can stretch to the U2311H that would be a good buy, that's the one I have. :)
 
The problem is with a 16:9 24" screen is that you don't actually gain much height over a 1280x1024 monitor, it's only 1080 high so working with portrait photos doesn't actually get much better. Obviously you've got loads more space for landscape photos but I'd only consider a 16:10 24" screen.
 
I can't comment on LED monitors but an IPS panel monitor will make a good difference. If you can stretch to the U2311H that would be a good buy, that's the one I have. :)

Aye, I know an IPS panel is the best thing possible but I'm on a bit of a spending spree right now so can't afford one :eek::D
 
The problem is with a 16:9 24" screen is that you don't actually gain much height over a 1280x1024 monitor, it's only 1080 high so working with portrait photos doesn't actually get much better. Obviously you've got loads more space for landscape photos but I'd only consider a 16:10 24" screen.

Valid point that man!

I'm not too fussed about height, It's when I've got photoshop open and toolbars etc are crowding around, really reducing the amount of room I have. Will see how much of a difference a 16:10 monitor would make :)
 
It's cheap for a large monitor, and the way I see it, it'll be a lot better than what you're currently using. I'm also tempted to upgrade my 20" TFT monitor to a 24" Backlit LED monitor (or two) because I can't afford an IPS panel. I am holding off for now though as I'm hoping to get a Mac at some point :)
 
DO NOT GET A TN screen for PP work, it's money wasted in the long run, for the sake of your photos...save up another few weeks and get an IPS screen.

The screen is often the one part of computing you keep the longest so make it good and make it last.
 
^^ What Ray said.

No amound of "wondrous LED technology stuff" is going to compensate for the fact that TN panels are hopeless for colour reproduction and viewing angles. Get an IPS panel if you can or an P/MVA one as a close second alternative.
 
Is this screen good for gaming and films as well as photo work?

I can't comment on gaming yet (other than 20 mins alien swarm), as i've only just set it up in my uni room. According to reviews, input lag isn't a problem.

But I watched Avatar on bluray yesterday actually and it looks AMAZING. I didn't have any problems when the camera was panning or anything like that. Colours are really bright and vibrant :) but that might be because of the bluray haha. But it does look good. Good contrast.
 
You want an IPS ccfl lit unit. LED back lighting drops colour reproduction to as little as 70%. Prime example... Dells U2711... 103% colour reproduction or there abouts where as the same panel in Apples new 27" cinema display has colour reproduction dropped to 70%.

Depends if your after a professional grade monitor or not. One thing you may notice is that LED backlit looks better for games and films etc showing what appears to be a richer colour set and deeper blacks. The CCFL IPS units by NEC (NEC Spectraview 2490) as an example are immense but cost £1500 for a 24" 1920x1200 unit.

THIS unit by dell is probably the best bet for price/performance.


Andy
 
Aye, I posted the same thread in Monitors and have been shown the ways and I'm now saving for a tasty 24" HP IPS. :cool:
 
You want an IPS ccfl lit unit. LED back lighting drops colour reproduction to as little as 70%. Prime example... Dells U2711... 103% colour reproduction or there abouts where as the same panel in Apples new 27" cinema display has colour reproduction dropped to 70%.

Depends if your after a professional grade monitor or not. One thing you may notice is that LED backlit looks better for games and films etc showing what appears to be a richer colour set and deeper blacks. The CCFL IPS units by NEC (NEC Spectraview 2490) as an example are immense but cost £1500 for a 24" 1920x1200 unit.

THIS unit by dell is probably the best bet for price/performance.

Andy

Andy, I'm not quite sure what you mean with your terminology here.. Firstly, I presume by 'color reproduction' you actually mean gamut, which isn't anywhere near as simple as saying CCFL can do lots and LED can't. On the contrary you can have two displays able to display sRGB with CCFL or LED backlighting. Likewise you can get wide gamut CCFL backlighting, and you can also get RGBLED backlighting. It's also worth noting that being able to display TOO wide a gamut is actually a disadvantage for colour reproduction, because on a standard 8bit panel (with 16.7M ways of expressing the gamut) the distance between each colour gets larger, loosing the difference in between.

There is also no reason why an LED display should display deeper blacks (My CCFL display has a 0.09cd/m2 minimum black level, pretty low) or richer colours. This is usually faked nowadays with a glossy screen instead.

ScarySquirrel: The new Apple Cinema Displays are in my opinion worse than screens like the U2410. There is nothing special about them bar how they look, but come with many tangible disadvantages (lack of connectivity, glossy screen is a big one IMO, certainly is if you're looking for faithfull colour reproduction qualities, and price!). Apple haven't prioritized their displays for professional use for a long time now.
 
Valid point that man!

I'm not too fussed about height, It's when I've got photoshop open and toolbars etc are crowding around, really reducing the amount of room I have. Will see how much of a difference a 16:10 monitor would make :)

Although theres a difference its not that bad. On a 24" monitor using corel i get these photo sizes at full res (4526x2832):

1920x1080 - 21% portrait / 31% landscape
1920x1200 - 24% portrait / 36% landscape
 
Back
Top Bottom