How does monitor age factor into the equation?

[kurt_maurer]

Well as some of you may have noticed I'm in the process of taking a

hardlook at my workflow.

 

I currently use a 4 year old 17" Trinitron CRT. It's not a totally

flat CRT. But, my question is what effect does age have on the

display and how does it impact my ability to properly adjust/modify

my digital images?

 

I recently read a recommendation at WCI for the NEC FE700+. I turned

up some links on the net that are selling this monitor for less than

$150. I think it may be an older model though. So, if my present

monitor is doomed it may be cost effective to upgrade. I currently

can't adjust RGB seperately which is a snag in my color profiling

workflow.

 

Thoughts?

[Nicholas Barry]

I am currently seeing the effects of old age on my four year old Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u: the intensity of the guns/phosphors ain't what it used to be. The recommended intensity is between 85 and 95 cd/cm^2 and I'm right at the lower edge of that. So contrast isn't as high as it could be and colors may be a bit washed out. But somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I'm also looking at getting a new monitor but mostly b/c a friend has access to a 19" monitor for $70 due to a company liquidation (I believe it's a Sony Trinitron, but I'm still checking it out). However, if that wasn't the case, I'd probably just suck it up and keep my single current monitor for a while to come.

 

As for the color guns, I don't think you really have to worry about it. Color Profiling software like PhotoCal does a pretty damn good job of altering the LUTs in the video card to adjust for disparity in color gun intensity. The 900u only has continuously variable color temp but no adjustment to individual guns and I've not had problems. But then again, my standards might be low.

[ed_hopper]

Many professionals who are the most assiduous about monitor calibration believe that about two years is the useful life of even the best monitors. After that, reliable color calibration becomes excessively difficult.

[emre]

Don't do it, Kurt (at least without seeing in person)! I have a second hand 21" Nokia, so I can tell you...first hand...that a monitor's age is important. Mine does not suffer from low brightness, but from color balance. With my calibration system I found that I am at the point where I can just get a neutral color if I set the red gun to its maximum setting and the green gun to its minimum. Imagine if your used monitor is so unbalanced that maxing out the guns does not give you a neutral color? What are you going to do then; compensate through software? Why should you suffer a smaller gamut when you could just get a nice, new monitor?

[kurt_maurer]

Thanks to all that have offered views. The simple answer is that a monitor's age does matter. Guess I knew that would be the case. I was in the process of moving to a dual monitor setup and thought I might just add a cheap 15" if my current 17" (4 years old) would still serve as my main monitor. I guess what I'm hearing is that I should use the monitor I have (Trinitron) for the pallet monitor and buy a new monitor as my main. Trouble with that is I have no where to put 2 17" monitors! Nothing is easy!