Am I In Trouble With My Dell Monitor

[mike_yazzy]

Hello, I'm new to digital photography but have much experience with film. I

just bought a Dell XPS with loads of ram (2 Gigs), hard drive space (300

Gigs), and a nice NVidia 256 MB Video card.....all for $1100! Anyways, I also

upgraded to the Ultrasharp 1907FP 19" Monitor. Now, although I haven't set up

my system or monitor yet (still waiting to set up in dorms in college) I have

read that my monitor is 6-bit. Is this bad or is my monitor fine for photo

processing and gaining accurate color. I have a clibration Spyder 2 so I can

calibrate it, but as for the monitor itself, does this raise a concern? Any

advice would be much appreciated on what I have and what I'm dealing with.

[patrick_viebey___orlando__]

6 bit? I have no idea out of hand.

 

How do you have it connected?

 

In any event, no, you'll be fine. I'm just curious, since computer stuff tends to be in even multiples of 4 or 8.

 

Check out this review. They like the monitor (and don't mention 6 bits or pence or anything...) http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_UltraSharp_1907FP/4505-3174_7-31694881-2.html?tag=nav

[sam_doersam]

Mike,

 

Do a PS.net search:

 

monitor "8 bit" "6 bit"

 

Good info there.

 

Bob

[WJT]

Sam, thanks for that idea to do a Google on the 6/8 bit color depth. There is indeed a "good read" to be found there! Regards.

[EricM]

"I have read that my monitor is 6-bit. Is this bad or is my monitor fine for photo processing and gaining accurate color."

 

Yes, unfortunately, 6 bit and fast refresh rates are bad for photo editing. You need an 8 bit panel (16.7 million colours instead of 16.2) and good photo editing panels usually have a very slow refresh rate as a trade off. The difference is night and day and with your panel you'll never get a feel for contrast and accurate colours with your images. I'd keep your lcd and find a good crt to plug in beside it.

[mike_yazzy]

Thanks for the advice Eric. Do you have any suggestions for a CRT monitor?