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Current Monitor Recommendation for Photographers ?

Tony Bonanno

pro member
Hi group,

I'm going to NEED a good 21" or larger display pretty quick to replace my dying CRT ? Could use some recommendations as to what is CURRENTLY working well for photographers ....

Thanks!

Tony Bonanno
 

Josh Liechty

New member
I use a Samsung 213T, a 21" 1600x1200 LCD; it was affordable and works fairly well for photo manipulation (there are limited adjustments when using DVI, but I care more about profiling than calibration, so that isn't an issue for me). Samsung has 214T and 215TW (widescreen) models available now, which are said to be better, and offer more adjustments for calibration while using DVI (which is the only way you should use a monitor like this if at all possible).

On the higher end, Eizo, NEC, and Lacie are three brands that are well spoken of; unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of using any of them due to the rather high cost.
 

Tony Bonanno

pro member
Thanks Josh for your thoughts on the monitor. Yes, I have seen the Samsung 213T awhile back and it looked pretty good. Did some research and found that LCD models with what is called "ips" technology panel seems to be best for color accuracy. Anyway, at this point the Apple 23" is looking attractive. The 21" Lacie and NEC models with the 10 bit and 12 bit color lookup tables seem to be about as good as they get, but are rather pricey. Going to have to get something soon.
 

KrisCarnmarker

New member
Tom's Hardware has quite frequent tests of LCDs on his site, and he actually does test color accuracy (unfortunately only out-of-the-box, not calibrated/profiled).

I also read an article on shootsmarter a while ago that tested 6 LCD along with the Sony Artisan. This can be found here (you need to register) or as a PDF here (no need to register). Unfortunately no Samsung and no NEC either. Bearing in mind that the LCD panel is not everything, The Apple Cinema Display is essentially a Samsung and the LaCie is essentially a NEC (I think I got that right, it was a while ago I read up on all this).

If I remeber correctly, Tom's Hardware ranks the Viewsonics quite highly for those on a budged.
 

Tony Bonanno

pro member
Thanks Kris for the link.. read the PDF (its is a trinitron that I'm replacing).. interesting, especially the low Apple 23" scores ?

Nill, the NEC 2190uxi is exactly the monitor I had finally decided on, either it or the LaCie 321, but darn the price is steep for that extra inch !!! Haven't placed an order, still thinking about it. I thought the Apple 23" might be a good choice and save a few hundred, but the NEC xx90uxi series and the Lacie appears to be much better for accurate color..

I'll do something soon, that is for sure... although every time my old trinitron seems to be on its last leg, it surprises me and keep chugging along..
 

Tony Bonanno

pro member
Nill Toulme said:
Apparently the 2190 actually uses different panel tech or something like that... saw a post about it just yesterday somewhere. I'll see if I can find it. Here it is...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1017&message=18881887

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

That is an interesting post Nill. Even in my research, I hadn't uncovered that the panels were different between the 2090 & 2190, both being IPS. But perhaps there is a difference according to the post you referenced. In practical terms, not sure what it will mean for my workflow. Still grappling with what to do. Also, about to throw my Epson 4000 in the arroyo and thinking about the new Canon 5000, but that is another topic elsewhere on the forums...

cheers,

Tony
 

Tony Bonanno

pro member
Hi Nill,

Just ordered the NEC 2190uxi. I'm so use to a 21-22" CRT, decided to stick with the 21" LCD.. hope it turns out to be a good one. Will let you know once I've set it up and calibrated. Still not clear to me what the difference is between the 2090 and 2190 other than the extra inch, but something clearly different according the that thread you referenced. Looks like the 2090 is also an excellent choice..
 

Tony Bonanno

pro member
Nill Toulme said:
Hope you like it. What will you be calibrating it with?

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

I've had pretty good success using the Monaco OptixXR.

Yeah, I hope I like it too.. should be here end of next week..

Have a Happy July 4th Nill (not sure what country you are in come to think of it) :)
 

Nill Toulme

New member
I use the Eye One Display 2 on mine and it works well. It seems to be using DDI (DDC? - whatever) too with v3.6 of the software.

Thanks, you too. I live in Atlanta but right now am in NC mountains and on my way to Montana for a week of fishing...

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 

Tony Bonanno

pro member
Nill, the 2190uxi is up and running here in the studio, and I do like it alot... not happy though that NEC STILL does not have the gammacomp (or Sprectraview II) software ready for our '90 series yet. I talked to their tech folks last week and they just said that it wasn't ready and they "hoped" it would be ready by end of July.. etc. Critical color calibration using the 12 bit LUT capability I think is dependent on at least having the gammacomp (free I believe) or the SpectraView II (have to to pay about $150).

Anyway, even without the software, the unit seems to calibrate pretty well with my OptixXR. I tried hardware calibrating which seems to work, but will also try using native white point to see if there is any difference.

How is the fishing ? Any chance you'll be in New Mexico on your way back from Montana ? By the way, I use to live in Asheville and loved those western NC mountains..

Cheers,

Tony
 

Nill Toulme

New member
Glad you like the NEC.

The fishing in MT was OK but not killer. But that's OK — even poor fishing is better than no fishing, and this was certainly better than poor. ;-)

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 

David White

New member
I've had my 2190uxi for a little over a month and am very satisfied with it. I've been calibrating with SpectraViewII and the Eye-One at 6500, 2.2 and 115cd using 52 steps. I tried using the 256 step setting for calibration but the black level was a little higher than with the 52 step calibration. I've generated profiles with both SpectraViewII and I1 match 3. One seems to give a little more towards the blue and the other a little more towards the red when examining the profiles in ColorThink. I'm still undecided about which profiling package to use.

All in all, a very good monitor.
 

Nill Toulme

New member
David White said:
...using 52 steps. I tried using the 256 step setting for calibration but the black level was a little higher than with the 52 step calibration. ...

52 steps? 256 steps? What does that mean? Where is that setting? What's it supposed to do?

EDIT: Oh I see it... it seems to default to 32. How did you evaluate that? And whether to check "Average low light measurements?" The manual says re the former: "A larger numer of steps will generally result in a more accurate calibration, but will increase the time taken. 32 steps is the recommended setting." ... and the re the latter: "...will average several color sensor measurements to improve the accuracy of low luminance measurements (below 10 cd/m²). Selecting this option will increase the monitor calibration time."

BTW, Andrew Rodney advises that we should use D65 rather than 6500 (but I can't find the post where he said so and why).

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 
Last edited:

David White

New member
Bill,

Good point about the D65 vs 6500K. I'll have to try and see if I'm still getting the difference between the profiles generated with SpectraView and I1-Match.

Here's a pointer to Andrew's explanation of the difference between 6500K and D65: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00C0Bk&tag=

I'm running with Colorcomp set to ON and doing the low light value averaging.

As far as evaluating the difference between the steps, I don't have any objective answer other than grayscale ramps with a large number of steps are very neutral with all steps discernable at the 52 value on my monitor. I guess that given a choice I will go for the larger LUT. I did notice that the more steps used, the higher the black value after calibration so I stuck with 52 as a comprimise between the best black value and color accuracy.
 

Tony Bonanno

pro member
Nill Toulme said:
BTW, Tony and David, have you enabled ColorComp on your monitors? It's turned off by default.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
Hi Nil & David,

Yes, I'm using Colorcomp ON with the default level (in the Advanced menu I believe that is "3" - not sure what the different values respresent though).

I had a good and bad experience with my new 2190uxi. The bad is that my DVI-D port went out (I need it as I'm running two workstations with DVI). The good is that NEC support, once we went through the diagonostic routine a couple of times, was fast in dispatching a new replacement unit (as mine was less than 30 days old). The new unit seems fine, but I have to admit, I think my first unit had slightly more even luminance across the screen, but all in all I'm pretty pleased. The Colorcomp is suppose to map out the pixels for evenness and consistent grayscale, but I can't really see much difference on this sample.

Two things I did notice. Their is a slightly revised OSM menu in the replacement unit. (There are some additional RGB settings in the COLOR menu in addition to the Hue, Sat, Offset controls). Also, with Colorcomp on in my original unit, about the max brightness level (in NEC's % scale) was about 75%, which was plenty bright enough. I notice with this replacement unit, the Brightness isn't limited with the Colorcomp on at the default level and will show a max of 100% when running my OPTIX XR calibration routine. Not sure this is significant as I suspect they just changed the calibration of the scale so that it went from 0 to 100% with Colorcomp on. I do calibrate with Colorcomp on.

Cheers,

Tony
 
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