bargain Large LCD monitor question - 22"-24" sub $400

Alright,

So there are a few primary LCD technologies out there in terms of LCD construction TN, *VA, S-IPS, H-IPS.

It seems that most sub $400 dollar LCD's are TN. TN is almost always 6bit with dithering.

Now, I've seen apple 23" HD (ADC connector) displays going for not too much money. The apple display is

S-IPS, but it's 4-6 years old. Which in fact offers the better color fidelity and overall image quality? A new

cheap TN monitor (like the Dell lines) or an older Apple S-IPS? Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks,

James

The IPS panel used in the 23-inch Cinema Display is far better for photography work,

despite its age. TN displays suffer from severe variations in colour, brightness and

contrast as the angle of view changes (particularly in the vertical orientation). Large TN

displays (e.g. the 24-inch displays you're considering) are especially troublesome, because

the angle subtended by the screen at the eye is larger than that of a smaller screen. Even

if your eye is perpendicular to the centre of the screen, it will be far from perpendicular to

the edges.

The 6-bit panels often suffer from additional problems created by the spatial and

temporal dithering techniques used to simulate smooth gradients. TN displays are useful

because they are cheap and have relatively fast response times (unimportant for

photography). They are suitable for people who work mostly with text.

VA panels are much better than TN panels for photography. They are capable of deeper

blacks than TN or even IPS panels, and are more stable than TN panels in colour and

brightness as the viewing angle varies. Some of the recent VA panels probably approach

IPS panels in terms of colour accuracy, though lots of them certainly don't. They also have

higher contrast ratios, though remember that the difference between 400:1 and 800:1 (for

example) is only one stop, and even that is only visible in a dark room (due to reflected

light raising the black levels).

If you don't like the Cinema Displays you should definitely consider some of the VA

displays on the market, but try to see them in person before buying. The backlight quality

is also very important for colour accuracy: the panel merely filters the backlight colour, so

if the backlight doesn't emit a good spectrum of colours, even a theoretically perfect panel

can't deliver a wide colour gamut. Many modern backlights are also far too bright for

photography work at full power, and many of them shift off white when calibrated to a

lower brightness.

Note that there are significantly more accurate displays on the market than the Cinema

Display models. NEC and EIZO are the brands to look at, but they're hardly bargains for

most people!