Monitors, monitors, monitors

Can some of you please take a look and let me know which of these few 27" IPS Monitors would be the better choice for photo editing?

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …19&Ntt=ips+27%2​2+monitors

Kinda confused on what to look for.

Thanks.

That questions is way too open.
How much are you willing to pay? will 800$ fit your bill or 300$ is already stretching it?
Do you want high resolution or bigger text?
Do you need max aRGB colors or can settle for RGB?

The best ones there are the PA279Q or the U2713H because of the high resolution and full color support.
You need higher resolution? The P2715Q gives 4K but not full adobe color but good enough for online publishing.
You need less resolution? The P2714H is good enough.

For photo editing, these are what I'd recommend.

Minimum size 24" (1920 x 1080p)
Optimal size 27" (2560 x 1440)
...anything more is a luxury...

Try to get monitors with 99% Adobe color gamut if you plan to work in adobe color space. I prefer them even when I work in sRGB color space.

I echo Eyal in recommending the ASUS PA279Q and Dell's U2713H.

If you are considering 4K resolution, bear in mind that you'll need to upgrade to a 4k capable gpu. It will tax your pc's cpu and ram. So make sure you have at least 8gb ram, latest CPU and preferably a ssd drive. You may end up spending substantially more than you had plan for. The true benefits of a 4k monitor for photo editing is a very personal subject.

Good luck.

Going to assume you know nothing of monitors so I'll just give what I know about em which is fairly brief....

You have a few items to consider

-Panel Types TN vs IPS vs PLS vs VA: https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=zNc2fKuVnGU
Generally TN panels don't replicate colors as well because of the angles at which one views their monitors at. Our heads will shift and as they do the monitor will go from bright to dark depending on what angle you do that from. Look this picture and notice the one on the left is washed out (TN Panel) while the one on the right (IPS panel) still shows the photo without color shifting. This is why doing photo editing on IPS is important. If you edit the photo on a TN panel and for some reason tilted that monitor back a bit, the brightness would appear differently than if you returned the monitor to it's normal position. Now factor that into trying to send that file to a printer.

-Resolutions 1080p vs 1440p vs 2160p (AKA: 4K): Now, look at this photo but make sure to zoom in 100%. Look at the corners or edges of the buildings, you will see jaggies or not a smooth transition. When you goto the middle comparison things look much cleaner and the jaggies appear even less pronounced. When you move over to the right comparison the appear to be no existent. While the link shows a game transitioning, photos will appear sharper just as well. Currently the standard for monitors is 1080p.

-LCD vs LED: Going to wing this one cause I don't know much except that LED monitors ARE LCD but they are lit with LED backlighting while standard LCD monitors are cathode lit. If I also remember right the blacks are truer to LED backlighting than LCD. Your going to have to research this one on your own cause there is a butt load of info out there but LED are the newest tech with OLED being around the corner.

-Connections: Seriously consider this. HDMI, DVI, VGA or DisplayPort (DP). This is how they will connect to your computer. Generally speaking DP>DVI>HDMI>VGA. Sometimes considering this will also help in case you decide to have more than one input in use. I have my PC connected through DP but leave a VGA hanging so I can toss someone else's tower in and work on it without having to disconnect my own PC. Just food for thought. Also if you go for a 4K monitor, using a DP connection will give you the best results vs going with an HDMI.

-Refresh rate 30hz vs 60hz vs 120/144hz Might not be of too much of a burden but if you game at all you will want min 60hz. This is how often the screen will refresh and grab a new frame to display it. (I don't know how else to word this) Basically, if you see a 30hz screen, you may or may not want to have it just for general use. Here is a non-gaming perspective of 30hz scrolling. Not sure if this would or would not stop you but I know that you could get a affordable 4K monitor that is limited to 30hz. If you never play a game, there is no reason to purchasing anything more than a standard 60hz monitor because you need to provide higher FPS content to it in order to see the difference. Usually this is where gaming comes in.


I hope any of this helps at all.

Thanks for the replies thus far.

I know IPS is better than the TN types and I am not looking at 4K.

I was thinking max 27" screen but of the ones in the link, do not know which would be the better monitor. I planned on paying up to around $900.

Again, thanks for the education and thoughts and keep the replies coming.

Setting a budget and keeping a workflow and workspace in mind will let you get the most for your money. Also of importance is the graphics output on your system. (There isn't much point in using up your budget on a monitor that your system can't output to with a decent signal. Not much of an issue if you're only going for a 1080P signal, but can be a problem with larger displays.)

Personally I am a big fan of having at least a dual monitor setup for workflow. 24" 1920x1200 have felt like a nice sweet spot to me, being reasonably priced and easy to drive, but offering enough space to be flexible and not so high of a resolution to pose issues with UI. Really only one of the monitors needs to have high precision for colour, but ideally both would. I use one screen as my 'main' monitor, which gets the full screen display of the image, while the secondary screen gets a gallery view. This is very handy for sorting images.

(I also kind of like to have the secondary above the primary when sorting photos, but otherwise keep it to the side.)

I find that 1080 pixels in height to be annoying to work with, and would suggest considering a larger screen resolution than that.

I generally prefer the 16:10 form factor, but by the time you're getting into 1400 or 1600 pixels high it becomes far less of an issue in my mind. 16:10 is also becoming harder to find sadly enough, which is a shame for content editing. (16:10 meant you could display a 'full res' 16:9 frame on screen while still showing a control/tool bar.)


Good luck in your quest for a display and workflow. Don't forget about the option of reusing your existing screen for a secondary display, or even having three displays. It can be handy to have two displays dedicated to what you're working on, and then a third display to keep websites or reference material open without having to flip through windows. Once you get accustomed to dual monitor (or triple monitor) setups, then it can be hard to go back to only having the one. Even one huge display doesn't really replace a pair of smaller ones in my view as far as ease of workflow goes. (Plus if one has an issue your computer isn't a useless paperweight while you are dealing with a dead display.)

Naturalist wrote in post #17670775
Thanks for the replies thus far.

I know IPS is better than the TN types and I am not looking at 4K.

I was thinking max 27" screen but of the ones in the link, do not know which would be the better monitor. I planned on paying up to around $900.

Again, thanks for the education and thoughts and keep the replies coming.

If you're ok with spending $900, just get a 4K monitor now: the increase in resolution is well worth the cost.

As long as you have a recent graphics card, the extra resolution isn't taxing on any current system. I run a 4K display off my Toshiba laptop, and there's no lag. (photo editing isn't very demanding on graphics hardware).

ViewSonic VP2780 (personal experience, phenomenal monitor)
http://www.amazon.com …r-3840x2160/dp/B00SHZSXV​I,

but also hear good things about the new Dell display:
http://www.amazon.com …r=1-1&keywords=dell+p2715

Thanks again. Good replies.

adamo99 wrote in post #17673729
If you're ok with spending $900, just get a 4K monitor now: the increase in resolution is well worth the cost.

As long as you have a recent graphics card, the extra resolution isn't taxing on any current system. I run a 4K display off my Toshiba laptop, and there's no lag. (photo editing isn't very demanding on graphics hardware).

ViewSonic VP2780 (personal experience, phenomenal monitor)
http://www.amazon.com …r-3840x2160/dp/B00SHZSXV​I,

but also hear good things about the new Dell display:
http://www.amazon.com …r=1-1&keywords=dell+p2715

4k 30hz or 60hz?

k4 60hz on a 27" (or on dual 4k or k4+2k monitors) isn't as straight forward sometimes compared to 4k on a laptop screen.

Aswald wrote in post #17674633
4k 30hz or 60hz?

k4 60hz on a 27" (or on dual 4k or k4+2k monitors) isn't as straight forward sometimes compared to 4k on a laptop screen.

What?

I'm running an external 4K display off my Toshiba laptop, not on the internal screen. I've run both 30Hz and 60Hz, for image editing, there's no significant difference. Everyone making noise about how 30Hz sucks are gamers, where frame rates are more important. Entirely irrelevant for image editing applications.

adamo99 wrote in post #17676378
What?

I'm running an external 4K display off my Toshiba laptop, not on the internal screen. I've run both 30Hz and 60Hz, for image editing, there's no significant difference. Everyone making noise about how 30Hz sucks are gamers, where frame rates are more important. Entirely irrelevant for image editing applications.

30Hz is slow enough to make for less than smooth mouse movement, and can lead to noticeable rendering flicker even in some 2D applications. It can also be annoying to watch video feeds on. Is 30Hz usable? Sure.

10" screens are also perfectly usable as well, but that doesn't mean it is a truly desirable trait or one which everyone is happy to settle with.

I've never had an issue with mouse movement. Also, most video is either 24 or 30fps, so 30Hz is more than sufficient. With a good IPS panel, 30Hz will be perfectly fine for anything image editing related.

Since you have already narrowed it down to 27" IPS, which I agree is just about perfect choice, I will offer my opinion on those monitors you list.

were it me i'd go with one of these;
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …descreen_led_mo​nitor.html

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …2_U2713HM_27_LE​D_LCD.html

Best balance of price/performance IMHO

Rule out any 27" monitor that is only 1920x1080 (1080P)

Then you are left with the 2560x1440, or the "4K"

I don't see a huge advantage to 4K IMHO.

adamo99 wrote in post #17676378
What?

I'm running an external 4K display off my Toshiba laptop, not on the internal screen. I've run both 30Hz and 60Hz, for image editing, there's no significant difference. Everyone making noise about how 30Hz sucks are gamers, where frame rates are more important. Entirely irrelevant for image editing applications.

If one is going 4K, I'd highly recommend a gpu which can do 4k 60Hz.

You'll need the extra headroom if you are quick with your editing process.

Editing files in excess of 20mb and above, it'll show degradation on the 4k monitor in terms of refresh speed by the whole ssd + cpu + gpu combo.

I used to think that 30hz is ok but after a while it got increasingly annoying on both photo editing and 3D drawings. That is why for anyone seeking 4k monitors, I'd always recommend 60hz capable system. But if you can live with the 30hz then it's ok.