Best LCD Monitor

Hi,

 

I am currently looking for a pair of 17" or 19" monitors or one 21-23" monitor

for photo work. The monitor(s) will be calibrated (with external device). I am

not looking for super high end (Like Enzo, LaCie, etc), but what are good balane

between colour (fidelity, gamut and stability) verses price? Thanks!

I just bought an LG Flatron 17 inches. It's incredibly bright and the colors seem excellent.

Apple 20" or 23".

Incredibly bright does not make for a good photography display. Paper is not incredibly

bright and too much screen brightness makes proper calibration a nightmare if not

impossible. High-end displays for graphical pros generally have around 400cd/m2.

 

I would look at Eizo, Apple or Viewsonic.

 

Apple offers very good value imho.

<p><i>High-end displays for graphical pros generally have around

400cd/m2.</i></p>

 

<p>Only when uncalibrated. Proper calibration of LCDs must be

performed to 100-130cd/m2 depending on surround light. If the LCD

does not let you to bring its brightness level to less than 200cd/m2

(such

as Dell 2405), it is useless for color editing.</p>

If you can, try and find out which panel is used in LCD monitor X instead or assuming that brand X will be good. Also do some research on the various types of panels - IPS/S-IPS panels are the best for displaying colours, but contrast/display of black might not be as good as a decent PVA/MVA panel. The one thing that you don't want for colour work is a TN+Film panel (as used in most 17" panels and some 19" ones).

Agreed, Eugene, I was refering to manufacturer specs.

I just bought a Dell 19" for $247. 700:1 contrast ratio, 8ms refresh etc. It's a great monitor for the price. I bought it to replace and older LCD in my dual configuration. No complaints.

 

Mike

Regarding contrast ratio: It is useless without knowing what the

black point of the monitor is.

 

Normally LCD monitors have black point of around 0.1 (very good) to

0.4 cd/m2 (poor). Because your target luminance is 100-130 cd/m2,

this gives 0.4/100 = 1:250 contrast ratio. Basically, as long as

your monitor is above 1:250 contrast ratio, it should be Okay for

photo editing, and you don't need it to be any higher than that.

Higher contrast ratios are acceptable only when the black point is

in the range of 0.1-0.2 cd/m2, which requires a very high-quality

display. So, you are NOT getting a good deal at all by buying a

cheap LCD that has a high contrast ratio specification as this only

means that its brightness is too high.

Did some research and following up on a few of the responses and previous post. It seems that NEC makes a range of decent LCD that use the S-IPS or some iteration of that technology. Was specifically looking at the 1770NX, 1970NX, 2070NX, etc range. Can someone confirm if they ALL have IPS screens? How do they compare with say the Apple displays?

David,

 

If you want the best NEC displays, look at the IPS models in the NEC 90 Series. They are NEC's top of the line products intended for critical color applications. The 19" LCD1990SXi-BK-SV comes with the SpectraView calibrator (rebranded Gretag MacBeth Eye-One) for less than $1000.