Flat Panel Monitors

[rgs]

I'm looking for suggestions for new flat panel monitors. I would like 22-24 inch models that can be bought for under $500. I still use a CRT and may stick with it because I like the way photos look on it and I have it well matched to my printer. But those new wide screen flat panels are very attractive. Maybe I'll just get one for other work and keep my CRT connected for matching colors and correcting levels. Thoughts??

RGS

[LA30]

I'm looking for suggestions for new flat panel monitors. I would like 22-24 inch models that can be bought for under $500. I still use a CRT and may stick with it because I like the way photos look on it and I have it well matched to my printer. But those new wide screen flat panels are very attractive. Maybe I'll just get one for other work and keep my CRT connected for matching colors and correcting levels. Thoughts??

RGS
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Samsung or NEC displays are great.  Apple 20" refubs can be had for 500.00  You monitor should be calibrated by an external device, like a eye-one display or monico product.  If your printer is pretty new (less than 3 years old) and is a pro version, online paper profiles should yield a great print.  It is better to spend more money on a great display than be second guessing it all the time because you saved a few bucks.  You can't have size and low price and performance, you need to choose 2 of the three.  Maybe save up for a 1000 monitor and keep it for 3+ years.  Best of luck!

Ken

[DarkPenguin]

Most of the 22" displays are TN panels.  6 bit.  Ick!

[The View]

Most of the 22" displays are TN panels.  6 bit.  Ick!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=160211\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

What do you mean by that? TN panels? Even laptop computers have 8-bit displays.

To the OP:

You can't get a good display that large for that little. It just won't look good, and you'll be sorry. I have seen such cheap displays. Stick with your CRT until you can buy something good, like an Apple 23" display for 900$. These you can use for a long time.

[DarkPenguin]

I mean exactly what I said.  They're cheap 6 bit panels.  That's how they get those 2ms times.  I'm sure someone makes a decent one.  I haven't found it.

[PSA DC-9-30]

We're going to get a new Dell sometime in the new year. What do you guys think of the Dell monitors?

Also, my boss bought Neovo F-419 monitors for all our Mac G5s at work, and aside from being blindingly bright out of the box (i.e., before profiling), I think they are incredibly good-looking monitors.

[mistybreeze]

Maybe I'll just get one for other work and keep my CRT connected for matching colors and correcting levels.

That's exactly what I thought when I introduced an Apple Cinema Display to join my three Sony Artisans in my studio. Within days, and I may mean two, every under-twenty-year-old assistant gravitated to the Apple Cinema Display, preferring to work on it for everything. When I argued, quite loudly, the genius benefits of matching prints to screen on the Artisan CRT, I was told they preferred the "guess work" associated with the ACD to the dull, unexciting image on my CRT screen. When the Artisans were no longer being turned on, I gave up and sold them. I've been LCD ever since.

I pity your budget of $500. For a truly decent screen, you'll need to at least double or triple that if you include tax, shipping and extended warranty. Prices haven't dropped that much. But these expenses and desire for quality are an individual decision. Saying good luck may be optimistic but I doubt your goal is realistic.

[CatOne]

What do you mean by that? TN panels? Even laptop computers have 8-bit displays.

To the OP:

You can't get a good display that large for that little. It just won't look good, and you'll be sorry. I have seen such cheap displays. Stick with your CRT until you can buy something good, like an Apple 23" display for 900$. These you can use for a long time.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=160770\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The TN panels are 6-bit devices and use dithering to try to represent "millions" of colors.  They are NOT color accurate, and give significant color shift off axis.

Most laptops use the 6-bit displays, actually.

The cheap (< $500) displays do as well... including the Dells.  Really, the safest route is with the Apple displays but the 23" is $1299 last I recall.  The 20" is less.

[Tim Lookingbill]

The Dell 2007wfp has an 8bit S-IPS panel and calibrates quite well and it's under $500. I didn't have it next to a CRT to compare it with, but what I ended up with after Spyder2Pro calibration connected to a VGA PC system looked pretty good for the money.

[feppe]

I echo others: you won't get a decent 22" under $500. To get acceptable color rendition you have to either spend more money, or go smaller. FWIW, I bought a Samsung 215TW, which is quite good after calibrating.

The Dell 2007wfp has an 8bit S-IPS panel and calibrates quite well and it's under $500. I didn't have it next to a CRT to compare it with, but what I ended up with after Spyder2Pro calibration connected to a VGA PC system looked pretty good for the money.
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It is quite likely that a new 2007WFP is actually an inferior PVA panel. You might've gotten lucky and received a S-IPS panel. Dell is notorious for a bait-and-switch, and its panel lottery. More info: [a href=\"http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1111100]http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1111100[/url]

[Tim Lookingbill]

feppe,

I've researched this thoroughly and there's a way to tell if the Dell 2007wfp has an S-IPS panel and that is to look for the "L"-(for LG=S-IPS) at the end of the serial number on the back of the unit.

But the history of that particular model started out with a PVA panel when it first came out and so the subsequent revision numbers with an AO2 or higher, which are current for this year, have the S-IPS panel.

[The View]

I mean exactly what I said.  They're cheap 6 bit panels.  That's how they get those 2ms times.  I'm sure someone makes a decent one.  I haven't found it.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=160773\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Didn't know such perverse stuff existed.

[The View]

The TN panels are 6-bit devices and use dithering to try to represent "millions" of colors.  They are NOT color accurate, and give significant color shift off axis.

Most laptops use the 6-bit displays, actually.

The cheap (< $500) displays do as well... including the Dells.  Really, the safest route is with the Apple displays but the 23" is $1299 last I recall.  The 20" is less.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=161031\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Fortunately, the Apple 23" is 899$ now.

Regarding Laptop displays, MacBook Pros have 8-bit displays, haven't they? No idea, what kind of displays are in the lower-priced MacBooks.

[Tim Lookingbill]

feppe,

Whoops, I didn't see the link in your previous post. I think I remember reading that right about the time I was calibrating a client's Dell 2007wfp that had AO2 version number and the "L" at the end of the serial number but had forgotten about it.

Geez! These display manufacturers are viscious.

This link:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_p...cid=7-8741-9027

should answer any questions about the MacBookPro color gamut and it's history. Very thorough IMO.