PICKING MONITORS FOR PHOTO EDITING

Presented to the Eagle River Camera Club

October 2, 2014By

Bob Martin

CONSIDERATIONS

Size – more than 24”is best.

Ratio – 16:10 is best (fits perfectly into pictures taken with the landscape orientation and also leave a generous amount of space for the various toolbars arranged vertically in many image editing programs). 16:9 is good.

IPS or TN? - In Plane Switching (IPS) is best. They produce a minimum of 125% of the colors that are available in the NTSC gamut. Also, these colors are not distorted when you look at them from various angles.Twisted Nematic (TN) is not good for a photographic use.

Matte screen or Glossy Screen? – Matte is best, because of better saturation.

MORE CONSIDERATIONS

Standard Gamut or Wide Gamut (Extended Gamut)? - Wide gamut is best but standard gamut is okay. Properly configured professional photo software can reproduce color most accurately on a wide gamut monitor, but some applications (including some web browsers) display color incorrectly on wide-gamut monitors.

Digital connection - HDMI or DVI are good. VGA is bad.

LCD, LED or 4K? - Right now (at most affordable price points), LCD is best.

Color Bits - 8-bit color or greater is best.

Response time – Lower is better.

CLUB MEMBER COMMENTS

Marco GutierrezWe have an Eizo ColorEdge CG211. We have been very happy with this monitor and will probably buy another from this line when the time comes. This particular model is no longer manufactured. I think Eizo has put their emphasis on larger monitors; this is a 21”. It reproduces somewhere between 98% and 100% of the AdobeRGB color space. Different sources give different answers.After the initial calibration we have consistently gotten excellent screen to print matches with BayPhoto, WHCC, Millers, and Buckeye labs. The monitor is very stable. I calibrate the monitor once a month and have discovered that the software seldom has to make any adjustments. This is due to a built in self calibrating system. Eizo provides proprietary calibrating software that supports a number of different spectrometers. I use the ColorMunki with ours.The only “con” is that it was expensive; $2,800 in 2006. This is a trend with most of the Eizo monitors that provide most or all of the AdobeRGB colorspace.Their new CX241 is a 24” monitor that sells for ‘only’ $1300 from B&H and covers 99% of the AdobeRGB color space.If money is no object I would recommend an Eizo without hesitation.

MORE CLUB MEMBER COMMENTS

Wildflower1353@yahoo.comI have a Dell U3011, it is 27 inch ultra high res. I really like it a lot, the resolution is great for pixel peeping and I do color calibrate it. The only caution is that your computer be to be able to allow the monitor to give you that resolution. I had to exchange my computer twice for compatibility. I use an ASUS gaming computer (laptop 17"), not ultra portable but good for home.

Kurtis WaltonI like the apple Cinema Display it is bright and adjusting the colors are easy. Depending on how much you want to spend there are some with built in color calibrators.

Mark StadsklevMy monitors biggest shortcoming is viewing angle. Move my head up or down 3 inches will change the apparent brightness by a huge factor. Left to right doesn't change much. Colors doesn't bother me much since I proof my prints, and use a eyeone calibrator. Brightness is the second factor and one I don't know the answer to. I think there are a few monitors out there that try and simulate paper brightness, just turning down the brightness doesn't do the trick. Size, well 24-28 doesn't matter too much as long as I have a second monitor for a tools palette.

ONLINE HELP IN PICKING A MONITOR

TFT Central - http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/selector.htmPhotography Life - http://photographylife.com/gear-guide/monitor-purchase-guide#ixzz3EfYclnLV