Monitor for photo editing

Thaifood · 22 Jul 2015 at 21:55

Hey guys need some advise..
Looking for a monitor for my father to do his photo editing. At the moment he is using a ok ish 1080p monitor but its time to take a step up as his photos are getting good enough to sell..
So anything any monitor 24 inches and above
Good colour accuracy is a must..
And would like resolutions higher than 1080p or even up to 4k..
Price wise.. Hmm.. Not more than £300 if possible.
No gaming will be done on it..
Saw the acer 4k on the weekly deal and it looks good to me, but any other monitors please let me know..

Thanks

Baddass · 23 Jul 2015 at 10:58

does he work with wide colour gamut content at all, or plan to? or is he only working with sRGB content?

any need for 10-bit colour depth support? (only applicable if he has a full 10-bit workflow with compatible graphics card, OS and applications - which is quite rare)

Thaifood · 23 Jul 2015 at 15:23

I am going to say no to 10 bit

Baddass · 23 Jul 2015 at 15:50

ok, and colour gamut for his content? makes a big difference in what you would select

Thaifood · 23 Jul 2015 at 18:40

I am not too sure. But most of his photos will be birds. So I would imagine a wider colour range would be useful.

Minstadave · 23 Jul 2015 at 19:19

I'd look at the Dell U2515H, it's IPS, covers sRGB and is well calibrated from the factory.

Badass has an excellent review on his site.

Baddass · 24 Jul 2015 at 09:07

Thaifood said:
I am not too sure. But most of his photos will be birds. So I would imagine a wider colour range would be useful.

without going in to loads of detail, i'm going to suggest that a standard gamut monitor is going to be suitable for his needs here. Wide gamut monitors are complicated, and only really suitable for people working specifically with wide gamut content, in a colour managed workflow. Sounds like he is just dealing with normal photoagraphy. a wide gamut monitor would just create complications for standard gamut content, leading to unrealistic colour tones and a mis-match between what you see on the screen vs what you then print, or share with other users.

the Dell U2515H mentioned would be a good choice, although keep in mind the res is high for a model that size so it will be quite a jump going to a smaller pixel pitch / smaller font size. you may find 27" models at 2560 x 1440 more comfortable, so maybe the Dell U2715H if you can push the budget slightly. both great all round screens which should meet his needs well

Thaifood · 25 Jul 2015 at 10:39

Thanks a lot for the advice.. Looks like i will be buying one of those dells monitors in that case

Thaifood · 27 Jul 2015 at 17:15

ok the monitor arrived and it is really nice.. but really silly mistake.. he has only got a nvidia 610.. so only has hdmi, dvi, and vga connections.. (got it running on hdmi at the moment but cant really go above 1080p)
i am guessing in order to get the full resolution of this monitor i will be having to go through the display port option?
any suggestion for a cheapish nvidia card which we could get to take full advantage of this monitor?

Baddass · 28 Jul 2015 at 07:52

Which one did you go for? If you have Dual link DVI you might be able to use that via a DVI to hdmi converter cable. Can you take a pic of the DVI connection on the card and advise the make of card?

Thaifood · 28 Jul 2015 at 08:55

we went with the dell u2515h.. 27 was a little bit too much..

his 3d card is a EVGA GeForce GT 610 1gb silent version..... i am almost certain it isnt a dual link dvi cable, but will get a photo when i am round later today

Baddass · 28 Jul 2015 at 09:17

ok. some cards allow you to use HDMI at 2560 x 1440 @ 60Hz on that screen, but it can depend on the card. if you don't have the res listed by default you could also try creating a custom resolution in the NVIDIA control panel to test that, see if it works. if not, then a graphics card with DisplayPort would definitely be the easiest. unless he's gaming then you will probably find any card would be suitable really so you don't have to spend a fortune

Thaifood · 28 Jul 2015 at 12:58

No games at all.
Been setting the resolution up manually to 2560x1440 at 60mhz but it seems to be "slow" if that is possible. Not sure how to explain it. Possible the hdmi cable is only v1. Would you think changing it to 1.3 or 1.4 would help?

Baddass · 28 Jul 2015 at 13:50

maybe it's defaulting back to 30Hz or something as 60Hz isn't being accepted? what does it say if you go in to the OSD menu and look at the active res/refresh? a better cable might help perhaps too

Thaifood · 28 Jul 2015 at 17:11

says its 60hz, but it could be i am use to my monitor which is running at 144hz..
got another cable coming just to see if anything is different...

kefan77 · 28 Jul 2015 at 17:27

I run u2515h on gt610 on 1440p on hdmi. Just needs custom profile in nvidia control panel.

Thaifood · 28 Jul 2015 at 18:31

kefan77 said:
I run u2515h on gt610 on 1440p on hdmi. Just needs custom profile in nvidia control panel.

Got it on a custom profile...
Worked fine for a while..
Dad just called me and said the monitor is going into power saving mode at the moment... gah. Looks like I will have to pop round tomorrow