Monitor choice for Photo editing!

[niall_church]

Sorry to put this topic up again! I'm still none the wiser about an LCD for

the above work!

Can someone list the point I need to look for in a photo editing monitor!

[micheleberti]

I'd go for Nec, the SpectraView serie looks awesome

[pete latham]

I use a pair of Xerox XA-7's and they're quite good as long as I calibrate every week or so.

 

I think the important thing is to make sure your display is regularly calibrated. I'd bet a calibrated XA-7 is more useful than an uncalibrated SpectraView.

 

That said, if you're into professional (critical) colour management then you will want something like the NEC's or Eizo's or Lacie's AND you will want to regularly calibrate it.

 

Colour Confidence have some great buying information on their site (http://www.colourconfidence.co.uk). I have no connection with the company, I'm merely a customer.

 

Hope this helps .... Pete

[godfrey]

This is not difficult. Most of the better monitors today work just fine for most editing

purposes. It is more important to consider calibration and profiling than just the brand

and specification trivia of a particular monitor.

 

My image processing workstation is an Apple Power Macintosh G5 and I equipped it with

an Apple Cinema Display 23" monitor. I calibrate and profile the monitor with the Eye One

Display 2 colorimeter and iMatch software to 140 luminance, 1.8 gamma and 5500K white

point. I print with a profiled workflow to an Epson R2400 and matte papers. What I see on

the monitor is reflected to very high fidelity in the print.

 

I've also calibrated and profiled a Samsung Syncmaster 205bw to this system and found it

to be nearly indistinguishable in use compared to the ACD 23", although the latter has a

small edge in total dynamic range. $260 vs $1150 ...

 

I can't imagine needing much more than either of these for still image work. For more

demanding video work, I'd have to do more research and testing.

 

Godfrey

[Brad_]

I would stay away from any LCD screen that's TN film-based. They have very poor viewing

angle, particularly in the verticle dimension.

 

They're attractively priced, though. I bought a 20" Samsung 205B last year (less than $300

after rebate) for evaluation for a commercial gallery viewing system. Unfortunately you

only need to move your head a little bit to see your image change contrast dramatically.

There's a huge difference, for example, between my Samsung 205B and Apple 23" panel.

 

Generally, but not always, you get what you pay for. S-IPS, MVA, and PVA based screens

are much better for image editing use - but there are lots of trades to sort through as

well. I'd stay away from any panel that's TN film-based - they're great on response time

for gaming though. Unfortunately, that seems to be the way the industry is going for low-

cost panels - gaming with faster response times, rather than image editing.

[godfrey]

Yes, acceptable viewing angle is another major discriminator between screens.

 

I was curious after I read your note so I did a crude test: I filled the ACD23 with a large

step-wedge image and measured light coming from each wedge with a 1 degree spot

meter, from 90 degrees down to 30 degrees (approximately) in both H and V directions.

Did the same with the Samsung.

 

Readings showed a progression of falloff on the Samsung that started 10 degrees earlier

than the Apple and progressed faster on the darker patches, causing the effect of contrast

gain with off-angle viewing.

 

I don't know that I'd call the difference "huge" ... I tend to stay seated in a pretty stable

position relative to the screen as I'm working on it. Side by side the difference is easily

noticeable. The Samsung's rendering doesn't fluctuate too much as I move my head the

normal amount in editing operations with my work glasses. If I put on my progressive

glasses, that forces me to move around more to examine the photo ... then the fluctuation

becomes more pronounced. The Apple screen's rendering is pretty stable under similar

circumstances until I move my head a lot more.

 

Sitting in front of one without the reference of the other next to it, the difference is much

more difficult to notice. But it does show that you're getting something for your additional

money with the more expensive monitor ... thankfully. ;-)

 

Godfrey

[Brad_]

>>> I don't know that I'd call the difference "huge" <P>

 

Huge (and unacceptable) to me. It gets even worse moving vertically, especially when

looking from

below, which yields really dramtic image washout - though vertical movement is usually

not a viewing issue for image editing.

More a quick way to see if your panel is TN-film.<P>

 

I looked around on the web and found <a href= "http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/

guides/

lcd-panel-types.php">good summary</a> about the different underlying LCD display

technologies used.