Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: DanielStone on June 24, 2013, 09:30:00 pm
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I'm going to be in the market for a new monitor sometime in the next 2mo or so.
Its primary use will be for photo editing. Not much else. I'll use my laptop for internet browsing and bs stuff, but this will be a pretty much "dedicated" monitor for a yet-to-be-built PC photoshop/editing system.
Looking at the entire spectrum price-wise. Of course, if I can spend less money, and NOT skimp on quality/endurance, that'd be great. But I firmly believe in the "do it right the first time, cause it costs you money later" mentality in life. Cheap has always left me feeling let down in the end. I can't afford that this time.
So, I'm totally unaware of this stuff technically, so I'm hoping that I can trust you guys who are more tech-savvy than I to throw out some opinions here. 16bit lookup tables? I have not idea what that means. I just wany WYSIWYG from monitor to output(generally c-paper via lightjet).
I'm totally aware of Eizo and their claim to fame, but I'm not brand-oriented here. Quality of the display, a long-life and ease of use is my goal. Calibration is another thing I'll need to learn. Guess I've been lucky up until now
thx,
Dan
prefer 24" and up displays size-wise.
I can probably get a 2nd, much cheaper/bargain panel to use with layers and palettes, etc.. One that won't require super-duper technical color/density quality like this one will. This will be for editing the picture at-hand.
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NEC
27" Widescreen Color-Critical Desktop Monitor w/ SpectraViewII
MODEL: PA271W-BK-SV
Very happy with mine. Profiling a breeze w/ dedicated software/hardware.
Rand
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I cannot say enough good things about the NEC MultiSync high gamut monitors and the dedicated SpectraView calibration software. I have 26 and 30 inch models, the 26 " for almost 4 years, and they have both performed flawlessly all that time. When I first started using the NEC, I went through the recommended calibration steps and from about the 3rd print my screen and prints were as exact a match as one could ask for - and have stayed that way ever since. I always wonder at at the color matching grief that people report on LuLa, it was so easy for me. Perhaps I was just lucky, but I think that this is a well designed and reliable display option. FWIW I use Windows and use Epson with the canned profiles.
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For photo editing, the PA series by NEC are currently the sweet spot in price/performance. Get their SpectraView software as well for hardware calibration and add an X-Rite i1Display Pro if you don not already have a current colorimeter or spectrometer.
Depending on your market, Eizo might be significantly more expensive (In Germany they have 5 years warranty instead of five and thanks to the totally different way of marketing hardware calibration in NECs outside the US, the Eizos are easily competitive with NECs)
Recent hardware calibration capable Dell and LG wide-gamut models based on LEDs do have some silliness in their firmware regarding illumination correction and hardware calibration that remove them from any serious consideration.
There is a new LED based wide-gamut Lenovo 30" for imaging (LT3053p) which might be interesting, but until I see a serious test from prad.de I would be hesitant to buy it.
Though newer LED based models are significantly more energy efficient, apart from two Eizo screens, the high end is still dominated by CCFL backlit screens. That will change within the next year I assume.....
cheers
afx
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The NEC PA271W (which I'm using) is a pretty mature product and will do the job you are asking about (getting a very close screen to print match). The only advantage to a single white LED is longevity compared to CCFL and less energy use. Using the Kill-A-Watt device, I found 100-110 watts usage driven at 150cd/m2.
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NEC PA271W with spectraview here as well.
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NEC PA271W with spectraview here as well.
And another....
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And me. Love it.
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NEC PA271W with Spectraview.. most def.