Hey everyone... I'm new to this forum, and recently got back into photography once I could afford the equipment again!
This has been a very useful thread to read, though it's also interesting to read it as one continuing conversation when in fact its been going on since 2004. Obviously the changes that people were talking about in the early posts, how LCD technology was going to make a major breakthrough in the next year or two, and it might not be worth spending the money on a very high end monitor haven't been as dramatic as were expected. Monitor prices have come down dramatically, of course, but it seems its the same companies (NEC, Apple, Lacie) being discussed all the way through.
Anyway, I'm looking at monitors to add to my mac laptop and eventually buy a desktop system. I do a lot of work with very large images, and was looking at picking up the Mac 23" CD, but after reading the last few posts on here, it seems like there may be some issues with getting accurate color on it. I'm going to look into the NEC displays, since everyone seems very excited about those, but I'm wondering why the Eizo displays don't seem to get much mention here. The searches I've done for high end color monitors all seem to point to Eizo, and while they are expensive, their low and mid range screens don't seem out of line with the mac CD's.
With that in mind, I'm taking a look at the Eizo S2110 - 21" Widescreen display... its a bit smaller than I'd like, but I'm wondering if the color accuracy is superior enough to make it worth it (eessentially the same price as the Apple 23"). I'm interested in getting feedback on this... to make it clear, here are my priorities:
Price - $1000 or less.
Color accuracy
Screen size (widescreen 1680 x 1050 minimum)
Maybe I am just overreading some of the posts here, and in the larger context of monitors the apple 23"'s are still a cut above, but some of those posts make it sound like any real photographer wouldn't touch one. I don't profess to be at a professional level, but I expect I will get more serious about it over the next couple years, and I'd prefer to buy something that I'm not going to be unhappy with when I am trying to do very accurate color reproduction.
Also... one last question... what are the recommendations on buying a calibrator? Is there a brand that works particular well with mac's, or are they pretty much all the same in that respect?
Thanks!