Dell Monitors or Other brands?

[jun_ea]

Hi,

 

I have been wanting to buy a large screen monitor (lcd for space

efficiency) to edit my pictures. I've been eyeing the Dell 19 and 20

inchers Ultra Res models, because they are cheap. Has anybody had

unsatisfactory experiences with them? Or can anyone recommend a

brand/model that you like? Please keep cost in mind. The Dells are

begin at about $240 and $325 for the 19 and 20 inchers, respectively,

on eBay.

Thanks very much.

[joeb]

Buying a used monitor is false economy. Odds are you could be buying someone else's problem. Phosphers fade on CRT's and LCD could have issues too.

 

You could get lucky. The one's being sold are probabily being replaced by a graphic artist or a photographer that wants to be able to calibrate their monitor and can't calibrate this one any more.

[chris_leck]

You might try searching photo.net. There have been a few recent threads on this.

 

Short answer: I don't think that you'll find a good, cheap LCD. I have a 17" Dell UltraSharp on the office computer but don't think that it's good enough for imaging (small size aside).

[Mike_R1664876643]

I think Dell makes very good LCD monitors. I have a 15" ultrasharp and its been great for photo-editing. A larger screen should be even better.

[HuskyMason1]

Juun...there are many resellers that feature "New" oldstock monitors for less. I recently bought a new Dell (sony trinitron) 19" for $100 + shipping. Shop around.

[paul -]

I just turned down a friend's offer of a several-month-old Dell UltraSharp 1704FPT 17" LCD Monitor for a sweet, low price, after reading a number of user reviews complaining/observing that "it's like staring into a 300 watt bulb", and that it wasn't possible to lower the brightness enough to calibrate the monitor.<p>LCDs may be "getting there", but it looks like the affordable ones still aren't good enough for photo editing.

[laurie_m]

I have a new Dell Ultrasharp 19inch monitor. It's been swapped out for use on my office computer because I still prefer my 6 year old Viewsonic CRT. On the LCD, I couldn't see details in the shadows that I knew were there, despite all my calibration efforts.

[john-stricklen]

I agree with the consensus here that CRT is better than LCD no matter the cost (and good CRTs are cheaper than cheap LCDs). Having said that, I recently bought a Sony laptop and have been very pleased with the monitor on it. It is MUCH better than the Dell 17" LCD on my office desktop, but still not as good as my Viewsonic P95f (a great graphics monitor BTW). Having stared at the Dell monitor for a while, I would never even try to use it for photo work.

 

Make room for the CRT - buy it new - save money over an LCD and get a better monitor.

 

John