LCD Monitor Specs to look for?

[david roach]

Soon I will be looking to upgrade to a dual monitor set(dual 19" or

19" and 15") up for working with photographs. I read somewhere that

you should shoot for a monitor with at least 800:1 contrast and that

is 8ms of faster. I've also read that fast LCD monitors flicker?

 

What specs should I keep in mind while shopping and why?

 

Any help would be great!

 

Thanks,

Dave

[cfimages]

I can't help you with the contrast ratios.

 

8ms or faster, is, I believe, of more use if you're a gamer. For still images it doesn't matter so much.

 

Also, look at displayable colors. You want to find an 8 bit monitor, which will show 16.7million+ colors. Most, if not all, of the cheaper LCDs are 6 bit (16.2 million colors).

 

It's also, IMHO, easier if you can adjust the brightness/contrast/color temp etc of the monitor via buttons on the monitor, rather than in the monitors software. It makes it easier to calibrate the monitor.

[david_moore13]

The bad news with LCDs is that the specs are usually misleading. You just have to see it for yourself to know if it will be adequate. As was already said -- the response time is mostly irrelevant for photo editing. On mine, the response time is 25ms, and that looks just fine to me (I don't play games with it). And no, you won't see flicker. Although the refresh rate is usually slower than CRTs, the monitor does not flicker because the pixels don't need refresh -- they stay illuminated.

 

A brightness control is useful, but other controls might do more harm than good. Each color pixel (red, green, and blue) on an LCD usually only has 256 possible values. If you adjust the color temperature control, it usually just contrains those 256 values to some subset that results in the right color temperature. For example, if you want a "bluer" color temperature, the controller might constrain the red pixels to be 0-230 instead of 0-255. Thus, you've lost some resolution which can lead to banding in the worst case. The brightness control is usually fine though because it changes the real brightness of the backlight. All other adjustments are best made by your monitor calibration software.

 

But the bottom line is that the specs aren't very useful. Many people are happy with the Apple and Dell displays as a general recommendation though.

[david roach]

David,

So you are saying go with what looks good to me?

 

Dave

[Tim_Lookingbill]

According to Tom's Hardware sight which I recommend you visit,

specs can be pretty much meaningless.

 

The actual state of the display irregardless of the spec numbers

can affect the outcome of a successful calibration requiring the

specs be brought to a sweet spot state pretty much whittling

down those impressive spec numbers for the sake of precision.

 

Go to the display section of Tom's Hardware and click on the

Lacie and NEC pro display and The New Champion Viewsonic

VP930 review topics and click down a couple of pages to the

calibration sections showing DeltaE, uniformity and contrast

evaluation charts. You'll find how the reviewer had to adjust

through several recalibration sessions brightness, contrast and

color temp to get optimized results even on pro quality displays.

This is typical of LCD's.

[david_moore13]

Going to Tom's Hardware is a good suggestion. And yes, Dave, I think getting what looks good to you is the best way to judge. Ideally, put one of your photos on each screen to evaluate. It's hard to tell without calibrating each display, but it will give you an idea of which ones have adequate contrast, black levels, etc. And make sure they have a wide viewing angle too -- a too narrow viewing angle can make them hard to calibrate satisfactorily.

[ted_marcus1]

One specification that's actually meaningful is the bit depth of the display panel. Manufacturers are increasingly using 6-bit panels because they (supposedly) have a faster response time. But it also reduces the color gamut. That might not matter for spreadsheets, but for photography you really want an 8-bit panel.

 

LCD monitors also need calibration. Out of the box they're likely to be too bright and have strange color response. So your budget for a new monitor will need to include a spyder that works with LCD monitors, if you haven't already got one.

[david roach]

Yeah I was thinking about the spider earlier. The cost has gone from a bit to a bunch. Not sure If I'm at the stage where I need the dual display yet. I would still like to get a single LCD to make some space on my desk. Small desk and CRT (even a 17") mean no room for anything else.

 

I really do apreciate everyone's help. I haven't bought a monitor in about 7 years. I'm a little behind on the tech side.

 

So 8 bit is a must and then go with what looks good to me. Simple Simple!

 

Thanks a bunch all!

 

Dave