Monitor for photo editing

NinjaBill · 24 May 2007 at 11:09

Hi there,

I'm asking this in here, rather than the monitor forum, because I'm looking to buy a monitor specifically for looking at, and editing pictures. I'm not interested on playing games, or doing anything else with it, other than maybe looking at the odd forum. So colour replication and high-res are a must, I'm not fussed about refresh rate.

I've got a budget of about £300 +vat, although I can go a little higher for something really really good. Any suggestions?

Messiah Khan · 24 May 2007 at 11:15

Ive got a Dell2405, and I love it. the size is certainly very good for photographs.(Often do mini slideshows on it) and the colour reproduction is very good (It doesn't use a TN panel like some cheaper monitors) The 2407 is the latest model, but might be a bit out of your price range, so i'd have a look for old stock 2405, or even a second hand one. I got mine second hand, and I love it.(It also stands up to games in case you did want to play them now and then)

Hen_Dawg · 24 May 2007 at 13:51

If you're that serious about getting exact colours then you may need to up that budget. Search the monitors section for more opinions.
The Dell 2407 is a great monitor but I don't edit pics so can't comment too much on that. However I do know they have a high colour (HC) 92% gaumet due out soon that could be what you're after

J1234 · 24 May 2007 at 14:01

I reccommend one of the Dell monitors, but invest in some proper calibration software if your really serious about getting colours right.

Messiah Khan · 24 May 2007 at 14:03

Yeah, if you want a proper dedicated monitor for accurate colour, you could be looking at a lot more. But if your interested, then look at the; LaCie, Eizo and Iiyama ranges.

glitch · 24 May 2007 at 14:52

NinjaBill said:
I've got a budget of about £300 +vat, although I can go a little higher for something really really good. Any suggestions?

Over half your budget needs to be spent on a Gretag Macbeth Eye-One Display 2, the rest can go on the monitor. If you're really serious about accurate colours then you can't skimp on your calibration unit and the Eye-One is the best for the money.

Why not see if you can get a second-hand CRT with a Trinitron/Diamondtron/Flatron screen? Pairing the two up would give you about as good colour reproduction as you could get, short of spending silly money on a LaCie 300 series LCD or NEC SpectraView.

A.N.Other · 24 May 2007 at 15:40

My Xerox monitor has brilliant clarity and colour reproduction and I would recommend it to anyone. It's got a nice glass front so people don't go damaging it when they poke the screen. I've got the 19" XA7-19i, which is great. One of my friends has recently got the Dell 1907, which may be great for gaming, but I don't think the viewing angle (especially colour and contrast when viewed from anything other than straight on) is much to write home about - in fact I would say it pretty damned poor for the money.

As above, though. If you're serious about the colour reproduction, you'll need to get a calibrator. Something like the Gretag Macbeth Pantone Huey would do you nicely. That can be had for under 50 notes, if you shop around a bit.

Messiah Khan · 24 May 2007 at 15:48

A.N.Other said:
My Xerox monitor has brilliant clarity and colour reproduction and I would recommend it to anyone. I've got the 19" Xa7-19i, which is great.

As above, though. If you're serious about the colour reproduction, you'll need to get a calibrator. Something like the Gretag Macbeth Pantone Huey would do you nicely. That can be had for under 50 notes, if you shop around a bit.

I have a Xa7-192i, and its not a patch on my 2405. Also im fairly sure the Xa7-19i uses a TN panel, so doesn't actually have full 16.7 million colors (24-bit truecolor) and instead relies on dithering to achive the extra colours.

glitch · 24 May 2007 at 15:50

A.N.Other said:
Something like the Gretag Macbeth Pantone Huey would do you nicely. That can be had for under 50 notes, if you shop around a bit.

Actually it's pretty pointless. Unless they've drastically revised the hardware and software, it only calibrates the primary colours and leaves the rest.

It's no match for the Eye-One 2, but the ColorVision Spyder is the better budget buy.

A.N.Other · 24 May 2007 at 16:11

messiah khan said:
I have a Xa7-192i, and its not a patch on my 2405. Also im fairly sure the Xa7-19i uses a TN panel, so doesn't actually have full 16.7 million colors (24-bit truecolor) and instead relies on dithering to achive the extra colours.

Some are TN, some aren't - they changed during production (though I don't know from which to which). I'm not sure which is more common and I couldn't say which I had.

glitch said:
Actually it's pretty pointless. Unless they've drastically revised the hardware and software, it only calibrates the primary colours and leaves the rest.

It's no match for the Eye-One 2, but the ColorVision Spyder is the better budget buy.

Well for the money, I would hope the Eye-One 2 would be better, but that's over half his budget, which doesn't leave much for a decent quality panel. Obviously, the Huey isn't designed to compete in that range. I'm no expert on these really, but I was under the impression from magazines that the Huey was better than the Spyder :confused:

. There's a comparison or some different ones here.

Messiah Khan · 24 May 2007 at 16:15

A.N.Other said:
Some are TN, some aren't - they changed during production (though I don't know from which to which). I'm not sure which is more common and I couldn't say which I had.

Yeah, I know they are made from a total of 4 different panels. 3 of which are TN based. I also think most of the MVA ones didn't even make it into the UK market. You can send your serial number off to Xerox and they will confirm which type you have. I found out when I had issues with mine. Im not saying its a bad monitor, but I think there are better ones out there. The glass front does look nice though, even if it does show the dust up. Ideally I would ike to replace mine for a Dell 2001 to match the Dell2405, and have them both on a single stand.

glitch · 24 May 2007 at 16:39

A.N.Other said:
Well for the money, I would hope the Eye-One 2 would be better, but that's over half his budget, which doesn't leave much for a decent quality panel. Obviously, the Huey isn't designed to compete in that range. I'm no expert on these really, but I was under the impression from magazines that the Huey was better than the Spyder . There's a comparison or some different ones

I can appreciate your point and it's completely valid, but if you want to get accurate colours there's only one choice. If you want to get relatively accurate colours then you can go for something else.

The Spyder is better than the Heuy for the sole reason that simply changing the values of the primary colours won't reduce your average DeltaE (the value of colour accuracy) to a level where overall colour accuracy is acceptable. But that's not the first review I've read where the reviewer has preferred the before/after of the Heuy to the Spyder.

But I'll say again: Eye-One Display 2 + CRT = excellent results under £300.

jimblowscash · 25 May 2007 at 14:52

glitch said:
Over half your budget needs to be spent on a Gretag Macbeth Eye-One Display 2, the rest can go on the monitor. If you're really serious about accurate colours then you can't skimp on your calibration unit and the Eye-One is the best for the money.

Why not see if you can get a second-hand CRT with a Trinitron/Diamondtron/Flatron screen? Pairing the two up would give you about as good colour reproduction as you could get, short of spending silly money on a LaCie 300 series LCD or NEC SpectraView.

no i disagree theres sod all point in spending 150 quid on a calibrator when any monitor under the 700 quid mark IS NOT capable of displaying good colour
I have seen for myself that 99.99% of monitors under that price bracket simply cannot reproduce the kind of quality image required for serious photo work, we looked at several options and monitors from dell, lacie , nec, eizo and iyama... the eizo's were the best but at 2500 quid per unit very expensive, the lacie and nec units were close 2nd and 3rd the iyama didnt come close, we went for lacie as the price was similar to nec, the display was almost exactly the same however the lacie colour managment software was the best we'd used.

its simple you get what you pay for but if your on a tight budget dont go wasting money on calibrators

glitch · 25 May 2007 at 15:08

Funny you should say that but I spent £350 on my monitor and my average DeltaE is <1. In fact it's about as accurate as you can get - all that really lets me down is the colour of the paint on my walls.

jimblowscash said:
its simple you get what you pay for but if your on a tight budget dont go wasting money on calibrators

So you'd recommend spending your entire budget on an uncalibrated monitor?

Amp34 · 25 May 2007 at 15:58

I would reccomend the Viewsonic VX2025wm, I got one about 6 months ago partly due to it's excellent colour reproduction (better than the Dells) and you may just be able to get a decent used calibration tool for your budget too. The calibration of the monitor is also one of the best in the market from stock so even if you can't get a calibrator the colours shouldn't be much different whatsoever.

danrow_99 · 25 May 2007 at 21:57

Whatever monitor you get, I'd recommend keeping the old one too. That way you can have a dual display, all the toolbars and menus from Photoshop on the old one, and your uncluttered image on the new one. I can't emphasise how much this helps with photo editing.
Obviously you'll need a graphics card that supports this, but if not then you can pick one up pretty cheaply.

Let us know what you go for...

jimblowscash · 29 May 2007 at 11:50

glitch said:
Funny you should say that but I spent £350 on my monitor and my average DeltaE is <1. In fact it's about as accurate as you can get - all that really lets me down is the colour of the paint on my walls.

So you'd recommend spending your entire budget on an uncalibrated monitor?

to be honest yes, whats the point in calibrating a monitor to display colours that it cant?? theres no point in loading any kind of icc profile if the monitor can only display 80% of adobe rgb at best let alone srgb colour gamut wich by the way 99.9% of all commercial print will be using!

and a DeltaE of 1 is indeed good but if youve got that over a narrow gamut its pointless....

Bolerus · 29 May 2007 at 12:50

I have been wondering about getting a calibrator myself, and just read that review. For me one paragraph summed it all up, including this thread

Keen amateur photographers would be well served by either of these products, although those who need features like ambient light reading and the ability to choose various colour temperatures and gamma settings should go for the Huey.

If you are an amateur / hobby photographer, but want things reasonably acurate, get a huey.

If you are a profesional get a £3000 monitor and the Eye-One calibrator.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 29 May 2007 at 13:27

I feel Apple will release new screens at WWDC in two weeks time. Just a guess but they need to in order to compete with the market.

Messiah Khan · 29 May 2007 at 13:46

Apples screens, although good, tend to be overpriced compared to the competition. Wonder what is happening to that new panl technology that I heard about a while back, that allowed huge contrast ratios, and made it true hdr.