CRT vs LCD for Digital Darkroom

Any thought on the pros and cons of CRT vs LCD monitors for editing

color photos

If you need to ask then use an LCD and a DVI videocard.

 

If other issues were important for your image editing tasks you would already know what you need. A very good CRT on a very good VGA card would be a consideration for an image editing professional but it would cost quite a bit more than a decent DVI/LCD solution for someone like me. Or you.

Sorry if I sounded too harsh. But overall LCD/DVI is where the mainstream is and it's WAAAAY better than what the image quality standards were before the combination became mainstream, even for most "professionals".

Pound for pound. a CRT tends to handle better at the extremes (black/white/high gamut) while LCD's are getting better and better thanks to extreme competition in the TV market.

 

Get a decent LCD

LCD's are really nice to work with once calibrated (they are too punchy out of the box, and Adobe Gamma doesn't work). The screen is flat and non-reflective, and fills the entire frame (unlike a CRT). There are no linearity problems (or adjustments). A possible downside is that you can only work at one resolution setting - matching the hardware. Another downside is that you must buy an hardware calibration system.

Poor man's calibration: get a test target that you know is good. Play with your monitor's brightness, contrast, and RGB controls until it matches, as closely as possible, the test target. (Be careful what room lighting you do this under as that will affect your perception of the print.) This might take 15 or 20 minutes, but it will get you 98% of the way to a machine calibrated monitor.

 

I'm never surprised by what comes off my printer or what comes back from the lab, and I've used this method for a few years now. Works with LCD's and CRT's as long as you can access the RGB controls.

 

Oh...IMHO, go with a good LCD.

Hi,

 

Just a question from a holdout CRT person: how long does an LCD monitor last before one (or more) of the guns (a CRT term for the R/G/B) can no longer be calibrated to an appropriate level? With CRTs it is about 2-3 years of heavy use. Does anyone have a handle on about how long for LCDs?

 

Thanks,

 

rdc/nyc

Maybe I'm just using p.o.s. LCDs, (viewsonic VE at work, Dell as second monitor at home for Photoshop palettes, etc.), but the gamma changes horribly depending on vertical viewing angle. A line of a color at the top of the screen looks nothing like a line of the same color at the bottom of the screen. For critical work, they're Absolutely useless. Go with a professional level CRT - you should be able to get one relatively cheaply. Or at least make sure you get a very high quality LCD that doesn't exhibit the same problems as mine.

I had my 19" LCD calibrated perfectly. You know, that type of 'being in the zone' calibration that no matter what I was working on, my final prints matched my display with 100% precision regardless of if I was sending them to Walmart, my local pro lab, my Epson, etc. I love working like that.

 

Then my GF cleaned my desk and moved my LCD, and threw everything off. Yup, they are horribly fussy about the angle you view them at. You hear stereo guys refer to 'head in a vice' sweet spots. Many LCD's are the same way.

"Just a question from a holdout CRT person: how long does an LCD monitor last before one (or more) of the guns (a CRT term for the R/G/B) can no longer be calibrated to an appropriate level? With CRTs it is about 2-3 years of heavy use. Does anyone have a handle on about how long for LCDs?"

 

With LCDs it's the backlighting that will wear out. Not sure how long, but I have seen dim LCDs due to old backlights.

...you get a very high quality LCD that doesn't exhibit the same problems as mine....

 

Keyword here, HIGH QUALITY LCD. BenQ, ViewSonic, Dell, HP are for sure not in this league

for now. As a professional photoretoucher i would suggest that you follow this lead. High

Quality start at around 800$US for a 20inch LCD, in case you ask yourself how much you

should invest. If you cant, buy a CRT...if they still exist : ) I have 2x20inch Apple Cinema

Display that have almost no color shift or bad viewing angle, even if i look at my picture at a

pretty bad angle, like almost to the side of my screen, i still can see my picture with only a

slight color shift and density...but why would i work like that!

Dell sells an monitor using <B>the exact same LCD made by Philips</B>

as the Apple Cinema Display. Apple charges more.

<P>

According to manufacturer specifications, some CRTs last 100,000 hours

while some LCDs last 50,000 hours. However turning on an LCD uses

less power, and can be done more often, so in practical use they

might have similar longevity.