Recommendations for Best LCD Monitors for Photo Editing.

<p>I will be doing a lot of color-critical photo editing on a Mac and would like to get a good 20" to 24" LCD Monitor for editing. I already have a 19" LCD secondary palette monitor.</p>

<p>I have noticed that most monitors on the market seem extremely high contrast and targeted towards playing games and watching movies -- not necessarily producing accurate wide-gamut colors. I also need the monitor to have good controls for brightness, contrast, RGB and color temperature to accurately calibrate it with a Sypder2Pro colorimeter. Any recommendations in the $300 to $600 USD price range? Thanks.<br>

Rich</p>

<p>So what you want basically is the best for max 600$..not THE best..then you got a more limited option of course..no point of suggesting a NEC. I dont think there is anything that qualify as best under 500$.</p>

<p>The best bet is the Dell 24 Ultrasharp, and with the money save..get a spider3 at least : )</p>

<p>+1 Patrick. the Dell 2408WFP or HP 2475W</p>

 

<p>Thanks Patrick and Howard. I didn't think that being on a budget would draw such disdain.</p>

<p>But alas, I have squandered most of my resources on a new Mac Pro and now must grovel for the best monitor with what little is left. OK, I'll sell my dog or something and up my price range to $800 US. Can that get me anything respectable -- and to clarify for Patrick, not the "best of the best." :-)<br>

Rich</p>

<p>Patrick's NOT showing disdain, Rich, he's just calling it like it is. He's a professional retoucher, and works in front of such displays all day, every day. You can take his recommendations to the bank, when it comes to displays and color calibration tools and strategies.<br /><br />Plus, he ain't from around here. He talks funny! :-)</p>

<p>LOL.. it make me more human ; )</p>

<p>Patrick talks funny cuz he's a color/retoucher Tarzan. </p>

<p>Still not sure if he's translating from French or if it's Spanish to English. </p>

<p>Ah juz lock duh wuhyee he towel-ks.</p>

<p>That's redneck into English.</p>

<p>The Eizo ColorGraphics CG241W wide gammut with hardware calibration is considered the highest-grade standard monitor for profesional image and video editing work.</p>

<p>Bob..its a 2200$US monitor..did you read the OP budget?</p>

<p>600$ MAX..what can you suggest for that price other than a Dell 2408WFP? (its a really good monitor for the price by the way)</p>

<p>And for your information, again, the monitor specs is one thing, the ability to see the difference between 2 monitor is another, and the need for such monitor is also another thing...If you dont do photo retouching profesionally 50hres a week for demanding client, anything between 600$ - 1000$ will do more than you need. And if you are a serious amateur, such a monitor in that price range will do also more than you need.</p>

<p>And personnaly, i wont put 2700$CAN for a Eizo 24inch monitor when i could have a similar product as for quality and color management with a NEC 26inch for 1350$CAN..dam, i could buy 2x 26inch NEC for the same price!?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>What Mac do you have? I have a 24" iMac and it profiles quite well. I do not doubt that some of the very expensive high end monitors can handle a somewhat larger color gamut or that they may profile a bit better, but we are talking degrees here - degrees that can make a difference to certain folks, but which may not be worth the cost in many cases, even for producing some very high quality print work. (Where, in the end, you are almost certainly going to make at least one test print prior to your final version anyway. :-)</p>

<p>Dan</p>

<p>HP LP2475w at this price point, H-IPS panel, wide gamut, more connectivity options than you can shake a stick at.<br>

Some people have had issues calibrating wide gamut displays with the Spyder 2 however.</p>

<p>Patrick, do you think the Dell has better color consistency, etc. than the 20" LCD apple cinema (same price for me)? I know it's better in terms of real estate.<br>

lily</p>

 

<p><a href="http://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/LCD2090UXI-BK?id=UFgYa4zE&mv_pc=678">http://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/LCD2090UXI-BK?id=UFgYa4zE&mv_pc=678</a></p>

<p>Lily, i think they are pretty similar, but you have a 24inch monitor vs a 20inch for the same price...so i wiould get the 24 inch for sure..once you go with a 24inch monitor you will never go back a *small* 20inch : )</p>

IMHO the Dell Ultrasharp 2007FP (not widescreen) is also a good performer (it's a 20" monitor). I have one, because my budget was even lower than the OP's ;) I spent a lot of time reading up on it and others here in the Digital Darkroom and also on other fora. Not a bad buy, and well within bidget. You can spend the balance on calibration hardware.

<p>Thanks for everyone's input -- very helpful.</p>

<p>I think that a Dell monitor might fit my needs as a "serious amatuer" photographer on a budget. Possibly the Ultrasharp 2007FP, or even more affordable, the new Ultrasharp 2209WA which has an IPS panel and a lot of excellent reviews. Anyone have any experience or comments about the later:<br /> http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=320-7825&cs=04&c=us&l=en&dgc=SS&cid=27722&lid=628335</p>

<p>Patrick, could you expand on your recommendation to Lily to go 24" vs. 20". For photo editing, is the larger screen size beneficial for editing photos that will be enlarged to 13"x19"? I will also be using a 19" SyncMaster as a palette monitor, for a dual monitor set up.</p>

<p>I'm asking because you think highly of NEC and Diane gives a link to a refurbished NEC LCD2090UXI-BK. Would that be better than the Dell 2408WFP in your opinion -- or anyone else's opinion who would like to jump in here? Thanks.</p>

<p>Patrick, could you expand on your recommendation to Lily to go 24" vs. 20". For photo editing, is the larger screen size beneficial for editing photos that will be enlarged to 13"x19"? I will also be using a 19" SyncMaster as a palette monitor, for a dual monitor set up.<br>

<br /> I'm asking because you think highly of NEC and Diane gives a link to a refurbished NEC LCD2090UXI-BK. Would that be better than the Dell 2408WFP in your opinion -- or anyone else's opinion who would like to jump in here?<br>

<br /> If 24" is the best way to go, this site also lists a refurbished NEC LCD2490WUXi for double the money of the 20" NEC ($562). Thanks.</p>

<p>Hmm, good questions;</p>

<p>1_i woould go with a 24inch vs a 20inch for the extra space you get..4inch make a big dfference when you work in Photoshop for your tools and panel.</p>

<p>2_I think the NEC and the Dell in that categorie are close to be the same as for color rendition from what i see on there web site. The Dell 24 is 700$CAN, the NEC 20inch is 1000$, both new ..so i will go with a bigger monitor and save 300$CAN, just enough to get a spider3 pro that cost 250$CAN ; )</p>

<p>I just bought two of these 22" Dell UltraSharp 2209WA LCD monitor IPS panel on Dell's outlet store for $178 U.S. each. A week ago. (Adjustable stand/tilt/rotate/swivel).</p>

<p>I absolutely can't get away from them. If on a budget get these, can't go wrong. IPS is the way to go for photo editing, etc...</p>

<p>To see what brands use what type in their LCD monitors. check out <a href="http://www.flatpanelshd.com/panels.php">FlatpanelsHD</a></p>

<p>So Rich,<br>

which one did you end up buying?</p>

<p>Hi all, I know this thread is a bit dead, but one thing caught my attention that made me want to share an experience. I've had this discussion about the 2408WFP for color critical photo editing, and even after calibration, this is one of the worst screen choices for it's price point in my opinion at least.</p>

<p>I do a little retouching and have a color managed work flow down to the lighting in the room I edit. In an ideal world would tell you to get either an eizo, or even the samsung XL20 or XL24. But even on a budget, stear clear of the Dell 2408WFP. It's issues start with color, continue with input lag and finalize with a somewhat irritating hum. I owned 2 of them, the second because I thought the first I had was just a faulty one, and ended up taking that back too.</p>

<p>Ok, I'll start with input lag, input lag is different from response time, and is a common issue in panels based on PVA/s-PVA, it's not a huge problem for photo editing, but has the tendency to make your computer just feel a bit more sluggish then it is... like when the mouse feels a bit slow to respond or text takes a long time to come up after you type it, many other companies use this exact same panel (eizo included) the input lag the dell suffers is just due to the cutting corners on other hardware in the screen</p>

<p>The other issue is color, the screen is notorious for rendering color on one side of the screen different to the other, it's not an issue of viewing angle or backlight unevenness, but look at a plain white background and you'll often see a slightly different hue on one side then the other, which impairs your judgment, when trying to edit an image you want something as neutral as possible. It has also been noted in some cases that the screen has a color ghosting problem whereby you can see a trail behind a moving subject on screen can have a faint "ghost" trail of one color or another.<br>

The final issue being the noise, a minor one for most perhaps, but for those who value silence the screen is noisy at brightnesses bellow 40 or eve 60%.</p>

<p>My recomendations in the same price range would be the Samsung 245T if you can still get one, many people complain about samsung inconsistancies, but the 245T and 275T (both models also come in a + version which is essentially the same) are both very solid neutral screens that actually use the same panel as the dell (samsung own the rights to s-pva). I have 2 245T's which I had to import because they were hard to get in aus for a while, and they are some of the finest screens I've ever used even when compared to some of the eizo's or NEC's.</p>

<p>Hi, I am looking for a decent LCD, 16/10 possibly, the 245T looks very nice indeed but is too expensive for my budget, could anyone possibly recommend something decent for 400 USD max ?<br>

Thx</p>

<p>@ Pierre C<br>

More than likely your not going to find a LCD for $400.00 Brand New for Photo Editing. I've seen some used NEC and LaCie panels for $525.00 and those were IPS. You'll have to be vigilant in your efforts to catch one used, they go quickly. I just sent back a Samsung 245T, Samsung couldn't verify the panel type, their Tech Support didn't even know what I was talking about when I asked what panel type/technology was being used for the 245T. I couldn't get the Reds to calibrate correctly, they were way over saturated and the left side was brighter than the rest of the panel. I'm going to bite the bullet and go with the NEC 2690WU2-BK-SV.<br>

You might want to look at this:<br>

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/LP2475W-24in-LCD-Monitor-1920X1200/dp/B001FS1LLI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264890689&sr=8-1">Amazon.com: HP LP2475W 24in LCD Monitor 1920X1200: Electronic</a></p>

 

<p>I see this thread is old ... but </p>

<p>IPS is recommended here. What about the new LED-backlit for photo editing purposes? </p>