Best Monitor for Photos

[Photowell]

:D Can some one suggest the best monitor for a PC to work with photos?

[CyberDyneSystems]

As large an Aperture grill monitor as you can live with.. I prefer Sony Aperture grills.. the "Artisan Series" is the best... but oh so pricey.. it is essentially Son'y's best 21" aperture grill with added color correction/calabration hardware and software.

LaCie has a similar line,. also very pricey,. I understand that they use NEC Monitors.

[Avarond]

LaCie has a similar line,. also very pricey,. I understand that they use NEC Monitors.

Actually I think they are around $380 for the 19 inch, and $700 for the 22 inch. Ive used these at work for years and so far have had good luck with them. The hoods are a bit flimsy and after a year or so the double sided tape that holds the hood on seems to wear out, but thats easily replaced. (The old BARCO monitors had metal hoods, doubt anyone makes those anymore). Otherwise excellent color and have never had a problem with LaCie. Though Ive used the Sony's too and they are top notch, just pricier I believe.

[CanonUser]

The Sony's Artisan is the best but the price reflects the quality. If you are not a pro who requires the utmost color accuracy, then any quality CRT that uses the Sony Trinitron tube would be OK. I'm using 2 ViewSonic 21" CRT and they are great. Just don't go for the economy models.
LCD screens are not suitable for color critical works.

Regards,
Alan

[chris.bailey]

LCD screens are not suitable for color critical works.
Regards,
Alan

I have a 23" widescreen Sony flatty and believe me it is stunning for colour work. 1920x 1200 native resolution and no flicker. Wide helps get the menus out of the way in Photoshop plus you can play DVD's on it. Best bit of computer kit I ever bought

[theoldmoose]

LCDs are *NOT* for color critical work. Just by changing your viewing angle, you affect the perceived gamma of the monitor. Until/unless this is somehow fixed, no one that really does critical color work would ever take an LCD seriously.

Now that we've got *that* out of the way 8-)...

Sony/LaCie, whatever, but it won't do you any good if you can't/don't *calibrate* the thing. Otherwise, you are just guessing. Make a print, and if you don't like it, then guess something else, repeat, wash, rinse, repeat ad infinitum. After you done that a few times, you will gladly pay for a decent display calibration system. Try the i1 Display from Gretag/MacBeth. It's reasonably priced, and seems to fit the bill for someone that isn't ordinately fussy about such things. Your printer is another thing entirely. Unless you do a *lot* of large format printing, and sell (make money off of) them, you'll find it cheaper to print out a test target on your paper with your inks, and send it off to get a custom printer profile for $50.

With *that* said 8-)...

Try for a slotted mask tube (like the Sony Trinitron -- there are others, now, that the Sony patent expired a few years ago), with good contrast. If you can, get it from a *local* source that will allow you to take one back and swap it for another, until you get one that you can accurately set the black/white points and color temperature on, and that will stay reasonable calibrated for more than a day at a time.

Cheap monitors need not apply...