Monitor adviceJonathan:
My old CRT lacie monitor has packed up...so I'm thinking of buying a flat
screen monitor.
Has anyone got any advice about this? At one point people were a bit
snobbish about flat screens for editing photographs...colour/contrast
accuracy etc...
I haven't got loads of cash for it but equally don't want to buy any old
rubbish. What do I need to be aware of? Are things like 'contrast ratio'
important?
Any suggestions welcome.
there's so much been said about this..
One of the main things to consider before the monitor even is the video
card - many modern 3D 'gaming' cards are just not up to the quality that a
dedicated 2D video card can produce, but then, you have to have good
eyesight and be verrry critical before you'll notice any advantages. Matrox
ar ethe standard for 2D cards.
The fact is most people accept less than perfect readily, and are happy to
compromise - and to be honest, with most people 'out there' running LCD's
these days, what benefit is for a high quality image when 99% of the viewers
will have less than optimal monotors to view things on?
For printing, I still maintain callibrate to the printer and use the monitor
only as a *guide* to what's going on. Why introduce a whole additional
step where things could go wrong when it's unnecessary - leave that to the
Graphic Design guys and their 4 colour printers.. it's unnecessary for us
photographers -just calibrate the printer to what looks *best* and print
to that
Having said all that, the following pages are worth the read, and finally -
these days most monitors are good, find a brand and model that looks good to
you and be happy with it. I would warn however that Apple are the only big
name folks badging other peoples monitors, subsequently you could be getting
any brand inside an apple shell.
OK, Last note - the dansdata page has an interesting comment on screen size,
worth considering that some big screens have lower res or real-estate than
some smaller ones
good luck!
karl
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/12/will-your-next-computer-monitor-be-a-hdtv.html
http://www.dv-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2207
http://www.dansdata.com/3007wfp-hc.htm
" you're doing really colour-critical work then no consumer LCD will do, and
many CRTs won't cut it either. But it is my considered opinion that nine out
of ten people who profess great concern for the colour accuracy of their
screen would not actually notice, or be unable to do any of their job, if
you sneakily swapped their carefully generated screen profile for a whole
different one."
