What's better? A calibrated TN monitor or low end IPS?

Hi everyone,

I am really confused. I've been looking to get a new monitor. I am just now getting seriously into photography and want a monitor good for photo editing. I want to have a system (calibration and monitor) that will allow me to have photos look on screne as they do when I print at a lab, primarily........then, I want to put my photos on the web for sale, so I want accuracy of colour there too, which I'm told is different.

I currently have an old 21.5" LG LCD and calibrate it with a Spider 3 Pro. Every time I go to recalibrate it, I am told that this is not nessesary and notice that there is little or no shift, so I'm guessing this is a pretty good monitor. I find it depends a bit on the lab I use, but most photos are turning out somewhat close to the colours I see on my screen. Of course, I'd prefer more accuracy with the "prints vs. monitor" with my new monitor.

So, I was wondering if anyone can enlighten me further as to what I really need, and what is the difference between my supposedly "accurately" calibrated LCD vs. an IPS?

I have just learned that I should be looking at getting an IPS panel monitor, but am confused because I have read that IPS monitors have issues with backlight banding/unevenness and with having colour tints, that sometimes vary from one end of the screen to the other. This sounds quite scary, as I am considering buying an IPS, at a higher price, for the purpose of colour acuracy. I don't understand why pay more if there will be lighting and colour shifts across the screen and tint issues. I don't have these issue now as far as I can tell.

Also, this makes it hard for me to decide to get an IPS that I can afford, around a 22" or 24", vs. a bigger 27" regular, TN model....... as my desk configuration has me sitting a bit back from the monitor and I currently tend to lean in close to work, killing my back.

I was trying to pick from a current LG 27" for $350 or an HP zr24w, IPS monitor that I hear is the cheapest IPS, but still has good stats, for $475. This is however 8-bit and displays RGB, which I don't entirely understand, but am told it makes is a very low end IPS monitor. I don't want to spend much more, unless I will be EXTREMELY impressed by the accuracy of my prints.

Any info or advice would be much appreciated. I am not sure what I really need and hear so many negative things about IPS models having colour tint issues and at the same time in other forums, I hear I should only go with IPS for colour accuracy.........which is true and why?

Thanks

Lozza

The main thing about an IPS display is that the image remains uniform if you shift your head. Hard to edit an image if the color or brightness changes if you shift your head.

TN's also seem to have higher contrast which, for photo printing is not a positive, considering prints are < 300.

lozzak wrote in post #11659167
This is however 8-bit and displays RGB, which I don't entirely understand, but am told it makes is a very low end IPS monitor.

Regarding 8 bit displays... Most TN paneled LCDs are 6 bit. The difference will show when you try to calibrate the TN monitor and get banding in smooth gradients. An 8 bit monitor suffers less from this problem, and of course, it's practically non-existent in high end pro monitors.

With the current offerings of 8 bit IPS monitors, banding is a non-issue.

Just going from a TN paneled monitor to one of the affordable IPS monitors you mention, you WILL start editing more accurately, and you will probably revisit many of your old images and re-do them.

As far as printing accuracy, there are still many more variables to contend with, but you've addressed the first critical one.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com …_my_prints_too_​dark.shtml

It depends on how much color (bit depth and gamut) you want to work with. The low end IPS that you might be interested in is the e-IPS, which I believe the HP ZR24W uses. The viewing angle of the e-IPS is slightly less than those of the S-IPS, H-IPS, and p-IPS, but is much better than that of TN. The e-IPS is not that bad considering its price. If you are doing professional work or are very well versed with color calibration and management, I would recommend getting at least the H-IPS or the p-IPS. Another issue (probably small) for most people is the black level, depending on what you use the monitor for. For advertising work, black level is a big (important) issue.

All the banding and tinting you have read about probably come from owners of HP LP2475W and Dell U2410. Both the HP LP2475W and Dell U2410 use the same H-IPS panel (LM240WU4) from LG. This panel has color tint issue caused by the design flaw of the panel from LG; uneven light reflection or "wild" light scattering that causes the tint. The tint issue won't be fixed till LG re-design or refresh a new model of the panel. The banding issue has been fixed by both HP and Dell through firmware update. These LG IPS panels are relatively cheap compared with the Eizo for a reason. If you need a "real" professional panel, go for the Eizo ColorEdge. I use the Eizo ColorEdge for advertising/commercial work at my studio; beautiful and very accurate panel. I also have two Dell U2410 in my studio. To be honest, I can't really tell the difference between the Dell and the Eizo in color accuracy until I really look for it. But for black level, the Eizo is hands down the winner.

Take a look at the following, especially the last link:

http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Color_depth
http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Gamut
http://www.tftcentral.​co.uk …_technologies_c​ontent.htm

Regarding monitor size, if I have to choose between 24", 27", and 30" for instance, I would skip the 27" and go for two 24" instead of one 30", which give me significant more screen real estate to work with and significant cheaper than the 30". Pricewise, taking Dell for instance, with current prices, two 24" ($549 x 2) are cheaper than one 30" ($1499).

Dell U2410 $ 549
Dell U2711 $1099
Dell U3011 $1499

Hope this helps a little

^ The HP ZR24w uses an S-IPS panel. Only the cheap 23" ones, and I think a few 22 and 20" models, use e-IPS.

NEC and Eizo monitors often use the same panels that HP and Dell use.

toxic wrote in post #11664356
^ The HP ZR24w uses an S-IPS panel. Only the cheap 23" ones, and I think a few 22 and 20" models, use e-IPS.

NEC and Eizo monitors often use the same panels that HP and Dell use.

No, the HP ZR24W uses an e-IPS (LM240WU7) made by LG. TFT Central has confirmed this.

http://www.tftcentral.​co.uk/reviews/content/​hp_zr24w.htm

HP literature listed it as "S-IPS (H2-IPS technology for improved energy efficiency)", which is technically wrong. It makes it sound like S-IPS that uses H2-IPS technology or an energy efficient version of S-IPS. There is no such thing as H2-IPS, i.e., no one makes H2-IPS panels. HP makes that term up to make it sound like version 2 of H-IPS or sort and put S-IPS in front of that to make it sound expensive. An energy efficient version of S-IPS is actual an e-IPS. See the links I provided earlier for IPS technology. If you have the HP ZR24W, you can verify the panel type (LM240WU7) by removing the back cover. Also watch out for UH-IPS from HP, there is no such panel.

You can also search for the panel type used by HP, Dell, NEC, Eizo, etc. here:

http://www.tftcentral.​co.uk/panelsearch.htm

This does not mean that the HP ZR24W is bad. The e-IPS is actually quite good for its price.

toxic wrote in post #11664356
NEC and Eizo monitors often use the same panels that HP and Dell use.

But with much tighter QC tolerances.

and better electronics.