Which monitor

[kush]

My wife just said I can get a new monitor! (although I can't get any more lenses...for a while)

I want an LCD, and budget at most $800.

I have a Dell 1.4mhz, NVIDIA Geforce2 GTS display adapter, over 300gig storage, and currently a Planar LCD 15" monitor. PS 7. EOS10D, 420ex, EF28-135IS, 50 1.8.

This is a hobby, so as you also see by the budget I don't need to go overboard; but I know bigger is definitely better in this case, so I'm wondering whether I can get a quality 19" monitor for that amount of money..

I also do quite a bit of home video editing, and I'd probably run dual monitors when I get the new one.

Please help.

thanks

kush

[Littlebike]

For 800 you can get two very good 19" monitors no problem. You could actually get two 19: monitors and a dual head video card for that money.

From what I have read around here LCD is not your best choice for photo editing.

[kush]

Littlebike wrote:
For 800 you can get two very good 19" monitors no problem. You could actually get two 19: monitors and a dual head video card for that money.

From what I have read around here LCD is not your best choice for photo editing.


I really do want an LCD, for reasons of space and esthetics, and that I'm not a pro...but am looking for a reasonably competent upgrade from what I have now.

[evilenglishman]

--

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Hi,

I use a Iiyama HM204DT monitor these are the ones with diamtron picture tubes, they have tremendous sharpness and detail + a high contrast.

Out of the box the 6500 degree setting is almost dead one.

Greetings,
Frank

[daveh]

Some LCDs are better than others but for doing photo editting, I haven't found one yet that seems adequate. You might want to try a more "text oriented" forum to ask for LCD opinions.

I'm happy with the Mitsubishi DiamondPro 930sb that I'm using now. (Another DiamondTron recomendation.)

[CyberDyneSystems]

Good LCDs?

er,.. I understand that Samsung is one of the better deals on them right now.

But like others posting here,. I would not recomend an LCD if graphics/photography is a concern.

I highly recomend an "Aperture Grill" CRT,.. Sony is my favorite,. but the Diamondtrons and some of the NECs are great too.

A superb Sony 19" Aperture grill can be had for $300.00 to $400.00 dollars. No LCD on the market at 5 times the cost would display your images better (or as well)

[kush]

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
Good LCDs?

er,.. I understand that Samsung is one of the better deals on them right now.

But like others posting here,. I would not recomend an LCD if graphics/photography is a concern.

I highly recomend an "Aperture Grill" CRT,.. Sony is my favorite,. but the Diamondtrons and some of the NECs are great too.

A superb Sony 19" Aperture grill can be had for $300.00 to $400.00 dollars. No LCD on the market at 5 times the cost would display your images better (or as well)

Ok. Didn't realize the extent of the problem. I started to look at CRTs (and shoehorns). Couple of questions, if you can help:

NEC Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 930SB with SpectraView - the Spectraview more then doubles the price...do I need this, or is software based calibration just as effective?

What is the difference between shadow mask tube and aperture grill (what is aperture grill anyway?)

And I'm looking at the Crucial Technology Radeon 9700 Pro (128mb).

However, I'm still wondering whether I can 'get away' with using something like the NEC MultiSync LCD1980SX (19 in.) tft. or the Princeton 19” SENergy 981 TFT.

Decisions, decisions.

Thanks in advance

[mfurman]

If I was forced to go LCD for space reasons and I had your budget, I'd go for Samsung 171MP .26mm (1280X1024 81HZ). You'll never do any serious graphics work on tihs, so you might as well get the LCD with the most swank. TV, stereo sound, silver :D

But like others have said, if imaging is what you're into then get a CRT, you can't beat the punch of graphics behind a big flat piece of clean glass.

If my 5 year old 'megamonitor' Viewsonic 21" P815 blew up tomorrow I'd seriously take a look at the Lacie Electron22blue IV (22'', 2048x1536, .24mm) going for $700-800. I've heard good things about the Diamondtron Flat Aperture Grille, and judging by the folks comments here it's worth trying.

Is desk space the issue?

[fredlord]

I just retired from a large digital prepress department where we sat in front of monitors for up to 14 hours a day doing digital alterations and retouching. We found one LCD monitor that worked so well that we switched the entire department over to it and they were in the process of switching the art production department as well when I left.

That monitor is the Viewsonic VP201mb. I've seen prices as low as $1050 dollars on Pricewatch.com. I can attest that it works for accurate color correction as that was what we did all day.

Now, you can believe it or not but this is the only LCD monitor we found that worked. Even other models from Viewsonic did not work as well and were not as comfortable to use all day. We had tried many other LCD monitors and found them all wanting.

Take a look at it if you can otherwise you are better off with a CRT monitor.

Good luck,
Fred Lord

[Osmium]

Samsung 191T - B&H are quoting $799.95

Lots of reviews on the web (just search in Google). Many people rate it very highly. (That includes me - but I'm not an expert).

[kush]

Thanks all for the advice...after going blurry from looking at all possible data, fact, opinion, insinuation, conjecture and at times random foolishness that's out there in ether-land, I've decided on the Viewsonic VP191b, 19" LCD, 1280x1024, 600:1 cntrst, digi/analog, etc. It was a tough decision. I even asked my dog what he thought. My wife thought I should just pick one and be done with it. I pointed out to her that this was an $800 investment, to which the answer was the same. However, the tough part of the decision was picking between two LCDs...and not between an LCD and a CRT.

To get there, I was going to actually buy a CRT and an LCD, hook it up to my system and take them through the workflow, and then return one or both of those. Instead, common sense or laziness prevailed - I went to the local CompUsa, made the salespeople put the 191b and one other LCD up next to two CRTs, Viewsnc P220F with the Aperture grill thing (which I still have no clue what it means and no one has been able to explain), and a 21" Multisync. The machines and graphic cards running those were the same, 2.4mhz Vaio's. We simply cycled through about a half-dozen of the XP sample Jpegs, and also ran a DVD.

I have to say that I saw no perceptible advantage of CRT over the LCD in terms of grey scale, color rendition, brightness / contrast, flicker, distortion, etc. Also the LCD was so much more pleasing to the eye - both in the contextual and a cosmetic sense, so much so that this was a no brainer. I'm sure my eye is not as trained as someone who does this for a living...but I'm not doing this for a living.

Of course the true test will be when I break open the box, put in my new MSI G4Ti4800SE 128mb graphics card, hook up both the new 191b, and my old CRT, and get them all to sing the same tune for a week or so. But I have a feeling I'll be as happy at home as I was in the store. Think that it just doesn't make sense for a hobbyist to go against the grain of technological progress in the name of infitessminal and often imperceptible differences that I probably wouldn't have enough knowhow to do anything about in the first place. And one thing that I do now firmly believe in is that in about a year, LCDs will make CRTs obsolete for just about everything. I'll post my progress.

Thanks
Kush

[CyberDyneSystems]

Aperture grill monitors offer brighter and more vivid/accurate colors. A designer who is concerned with matching colors perfectly or a user who just wants great color would probably want an aperture grill monitor. Aperture grill CRTs are more expensive but offer noticeably better color and brightness.

(ever have a monitor that had to be set at 100% contrast all the time... it was a shadow mask I gurantee! )

Shadow Mask based CRTs are lower cost and are the most common type of CRT. The shadow mask is a metal plate with many tiny holes that guide the electron beam to line up on the phosphor elements that glow to produce images.

Shadow mask CRTs are less expensive and good for word processing and spreadsheets and common, typical work related applications, which explains their popularity.

Aperture Grill tubes are common in monitors such as the professional series CRTs made by Sony, Mitsubishi, Viewsonic etc. , designed for graphic professionals or anyone who appreciates how important the monitor is.

And no,.. in one year LCDs will not have made my Sony FW900 obsolete :)

[kush]

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
Aperture grill monitors offer brighter and more vivid/accurate colors. A designer who is concerned with matching colors perfectly or a user who just wants great color would probably want an aperture grill monitor. Aperture grill CRTs are more expensive but offer noticeably better color and brightness.

(ever have a monitor that had to be set at 100% contrast all the time... it was a shadow mask I gurantee! )

Shadow Mask based CRTs are lower cost and are the most common type of CRT. The shadow mask is a metal plate with many tiny holes that guide the electron beam to line up on the phosphor elements that glow to produce images.

Shadow mask CRTs are less expensive and good for word processing and spreadsheets and common, typical work related applications, which explains their popularity.

Aperture Grill tubes are common in monitors such as the professional series CRTs made by Sony, Mitsubishi, Viewsonic etc. , designed for graphic professionals or anyone who appreciates how important the monitor is.

And no,.. in one year LCDs will not have made my Sony FW900 obsolete :)



Thank you Cyber.

My point on the obsolescence is not that your very nice monitor will belong in the trash bin any time soon (and it is an incredibly nice monitor). Its that the manfacturers will no longer make that monitor because they'll come up with equal or better TFT technology. I'm pretty sure right now there isn't much R&D money going into the tubes.

Kush