TFT Monitors [Archive] - Talk Photography

Pook

01-05-2006, 10:59

Having been a long term CRT fan for years, I finnaly took the TFT plunge recently. My old Iiyama was getting a bit crusty, and it's size was annoying. The LaCie 22inch at work is still OK for now, but the home machine was getting an upgrade anyway.

My home machine doubles as a gaming rig anyway, so a large screen was something I was planning for some time. The new rig is a AMD FX60 dual core, overclocked to 3.1GHz with a 7800GTX graphics card overclocked by 30%. Not that the graphics card has much effect on the image editing, but the dual cored CPU is amazing. Photoshop being a threaded application, uses both cores... it's like having two computers doing the work for you.

Anyhooo.... Just thought I;d share my experience with the monitor: A Dell 2405FPW 24inch widescreen. It's fantastic. Like all TFTs blacks aren't quite as dense as a good CRT, but sharpness is amazing, and colours are wonderful. It's brightness is far in excess of any CRT I've ever used also. If anyone wants a large monitor for editing, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b26/pookeyhead/dell0a1.jpg

busterboy

01-05-2006, 11:16

There is a guy called ericbunny (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-24-2405FPW-Flat-panel-monitor-The-Daddy_W0QQitemZ8803429087QQcategoryZ174QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) selling these on eBay for £549..:)

I am very tempted to buy one of these but they are one hell of a price still as yet..:(

Couple of questions really,

1: Are they pixel tested before delivery.

2: What sort of warranty is supplied with them..:)

Pook

01-05-2006, 11:23

I think Dell have a zero dead pixel policy, and mine certainly has none.

It has a 3 year, on-site, next day swap out warranty.

Scan are teh cheapest at present.... unless you can find cheaper. Do a search on Kelkoo.

busterboy

01-05-2006, 11:31

Scan are teh cheapest at present.... unless you can find cheaper. Do a search on Kelkoo.

Erm...:thinking:

Scan are listing these at £675 looking at this page (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=278515) plus postage unless I have the wrong model..:bonk:

digitalfailure

01-05-2006, 11:45

I switched to a TFT a few years ago, using a CRT at work is hard work now....nothing seems as sharp as it does at home, and don't get me started on the space saving ;)

leoedin

01-05-2006, 12:10

WOW

and I thought my 17 inch TFT was big when I got it (admittedly replacing a 13 inch CRT :D)

Leo

01-05-2006, 12:16

Ooooh... I want one!

Pic is over-size though David. Resize it to 160kb please mate. Thanks.

orangepeel

01-05-2006, 12:23

make sure it's the 2405 u get and not the new 2407...

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31352

awesome screen ***. my buddy has one, don't rate it for gaming personally but everything else... rocks.

Warspite

01-05-2006, 12:32

Definately a monitor to lust after and gets as good reviews if not better than the Apple display, think they both use the same panel though;)

Gandhi

01-05-2006, 15:49

flash git ;)

Nice though. Must be about 2k's worth of pc sat there now with all your fancy water cooling and stuff ;)

Pook

01-05-2006, 17:25

Erm...:thinking:

Scan are listing these at £675 looking at this page (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=278515) plus postage unless I have the wrong model..:bonk:

That's not a bad price. Dell's recommended price is over £900. However, I found this link

http://www.europc.co.uk/pages/ProductDetail.aspx?PID=40692&refId=kelkoo

That's a great price.

Joe T

01-05-2006, 18:35

Just be careful - cheap Dell TFTs from third parties are sometimes refurbs - Aria is a case in point.

Pook

01-05-2006, 18:44

Just be careful - cheap Dell TFTs from third parties are sometimes refurbs - Aria is a case in point.

Scan is OK. It was brand new, sealed, with official Dell on site warranty. I recommend Scan.. been using them for around 10 years now.

milou

01-05-2006, 22:43

Nice one. I've just bought an Acer 1916 widescreen and just getting used to the extra brightness...

kamion

02-05-2006, 04:09

:D I am using one of these.

Have been going from 17" CRT to 21" CRT and now to 24" widescreen. :)

With monitors, the bigger is always better. :thumbs: Great for watching widescreen movies as well.

I guess my next upgrade will be to 30". :gag:

Jonny

02-05-2006, 08:34

I've been using a TFT for a few years now, and i'd honestly not ever think of going back to a CRT :)

I've seen some quality CRT's in action right next to quality TFT's. The CRT for the size was a lot more in cost than the TFT and i really didn't see what was so good about the CRT for photo editing? I honestly thought that the TFT produced sharper, brighter and more vivid pictures.

There's also the fact that prolongued use of CRT's makes my eyes feel really tired? Whilst with a TFT i can use it hours on end and not have anything up with them :)

dod

02-05-2006, 15:22

Excellent, another £600 saved, the space on my desk where the monitor sits isn't wide enough for that ;)

Garnock

02-05-2006, 15:59

If you can't justify the cost of the 24" then consider the 20".
I bought the Dell 2005 widescreen for £323 from Dell.
I struggled long and hard over the switch from CRT to TFT.
I considered dual monitor or one widescreen monitor
I decided a good widescreen would make more financial sense
than a dual set up.

Anyway I'm very happy with it.
The colours are great and my prints are exactly what I see
on the screen. ( the monitor is calibrated using a Spyder2 )

As a bonus I have both PC's connected to the monitor so I can switch
from one to the other at the touch of a button.

The monitor uses the same panel as the Apple Cinema 20".
So that can't be bad.

I believe this Dell 20" model is soon to be replaced hence the drop in price.
Get it while you can. :thumbs:

busterboy

02-05-2006, 16:46

Excellent, another £600 saved, the space on my desk where the monitor sits isn't wide enough for that ;)

:lol:

Trung_EP3CTR

29-09-2006, 00:37

I'm currently using a 17" CTX CRT monitor. I'm looking into changing to a TFT LCD screen too very soon.
It has to have pretty good screen quality, something similar to those Apple Mac monitors.
Would idealy like 17" or 19" widescreen. Have a budget of £150.
What do you lot recommend?

pxl8

29-09-2006, 14:39

Dell have got offers on their TFT's at the moment, the 20" is £302 and the 24" £564. I'm gonna order a 20" very soon :)

Warspite

29-09-2006, 14:56

£564 - very tempting, might have to start counting pennies :thinking:

mrgubby

29-09-2006, 15:29

I'm getting very tempted to upgrade my Samsung 17" TFT to a Gateway FPD2185W (21" widescreen) . Staples are doing them for £299 , looks good in the shop and the reviews I can find give it pretty good scores.

Only problem is my GFX card doesn't do widescreen so it would be a new card (PCI-E) and a new MB :(

kamion

29-09-2006, 15:44

Only problem is my GFX card doesn't do widescreen so it would be a new card (PCI-E) and a new MB :(

What graphics card have you got? I had a lame NVIDIA MX2 something or other and it ran 1920x1200 fine.

mrgubby

29-09-2006, 15:48

What graphics card have you got? I had a lame NVIDIA MX2 something or other and it ran 1920x1200 fine.

The resolution is 1680 x 1050 :eek: , don't believe my ATI9800 does that res but if somebody knows different I'd be very happy :love:

kamion

29-09-2006, 16:07

:eek: If you mean the ATI Radeon 9800 range, then of course it will support 1680x1050!

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9800/radeon9800pro/index.html

I "upgraded" my Nvidia MX2 thingy to the ATI Radeon 9700 pro and it's running my 1920x1200 24" Dell monitor just fine. I think the 9800 is better than my 9700. :thumbs:

Trung_EP3CTR

29-09-2006, 16:39

mrgubby

29-09-2006, 16:39

kamion

29-09-2006, 16:59

Wooohoo, never spotted that :)

I think you've just cost me £299 :bat:

:clap:

I'm always glad to help people lighten their pockets. :lol:

matty

29-09-2006, 17:07

Nobody knows then?:suspect:

i dont, sorry, i suggest a trip to PCworld to have a look at lots of monitors in one place...take notes and then find it on the net cheaper;)

mrgubby

29-09-2006, 17:16

I'm always glad to help people lighten their pockets. :lol:

I've been told by my wife to put you on my ignore list :nono:

pxl8

29-09-2006, 17:18

Nobody knows then?:suspect:

You can't go far wrong with the Sony SDM-S75DB at around £140 inc. It's the later version of my current monitor and it's a real gem.

WetSparks

30-09-2006, 09:54

I've been LCD at home for years now. The first one was a 15" Iiyama brought about 7 or 8 years ago. At that time I got it for just over £1k :eek:

Now I've upgrade to a 19" Iiyama, again not the cheapest bunny on the block but I do think the performance of them is worth the extra.

With you on the AMD dual core front though. I got an Athlon X2 4200 just before the price dropped :'( But with 2 gig of memory this thing really rocks :D

tirnanog

30-09-2006, 10:10

I can highly recommend the Hanns G HW191D: good reviews, although at present a little known make. In fact, the parent company manufacture the LCDs for HP, Viewsonic, etc. Dabs have a good deal on it at the moment (about £125). Calibrated with my Spyder 2, it gives very accurate colours. Which makes me think that with other makes one is paying for the name. But then, isn't that always the case?

kamion

30-09-2006, 10:56

There's Hanns-G 19" HU196D on sale £104.58 here:

Hanns-G 19" HU196D (http://www.spotonuk.com/info~Itemcd~1101044~Frm~H~MainCat~~ItmDesc~Hanns%2 DG+HU196D+19%22+Black+Silver+LCD+TFT+Multimedia+Sc reen~Make~Hanns%2DG~ModelNo~HU196D.htm)

Viewsonic VA1912W 19" TFT FLAT PANEL MONITOR £139.99 at PC World:

Viewsonic VA1912W 19" (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?page=Product&sku=885211)

Also, take a look at this eBay seller's page: ericbunny. This guy sells Dell monitors at good prices, and is a well known seller.

ericbunny's eBay page (http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZericbunnyQQhtZ-1QQfrppZ50QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1QQrdZ0?)

tirnanog

30-09-2006, 12:15

The Hanns G HW191D is a [U]widescreen[U] version and well worth the little extra for running two applications, etc.

Trung_EP3CTR

02-10-2006, 00:52

I'm currently using my bro's 19" Acer widescreen TFT now.

I'm now using 1440x900 res however the max refresh rate is at only 60hz and its buzzing like hell:gag:
Reducing the resulotion will only make the picture quality very poor.
I think I've reached the maximum capability of my GeForce2 GTS 64mb gfx card.

Oh well, will have to buy a whole new PC soon I guest.:thinking:

Steep

02-10-2006, 08:25

Here's a question for you, I've always found that a crt monitor at 60Hz flickers a lot and gives me a headache (60Hz being too close to the 50Hz ring main pulse)

Q - is the same true of LCD monitors?

RobertP

02-10-2006, 08:32

Know exacly what you mean and the answer is no. No flicker at all.

I seem to remember getting used to it being brighter took a while though.

Steep

02-10-2006, 08:35

grassy ass :)

Darryn

02-10-2006, 08:35

Im using a 2405FPW and I love it, however, after using the Apple 30" screen ive got my heart set on one of those. I will probably use some of my Christmas bonus to buy it, i cannot wait. That way I can finally get rid of my tiny 17" NEC1760NX that im having to use on my 2nd PC atm.

RobertP

02-10-2006, 08:44

Isn't 30" a bit big for a desk though? Followed a link posted here to an ebay dell seller. They had a 30" and it was 2650 x 1600 - thats a lot of pixels :)

I'm still thinking about a bigger tft but that sounds huge.

kamion

02-10-2006, 08:55

I'm still thinking about a bigger tft but that sounds huge.

With monitors, the bigger is better... always! :thumbs:

mrgubby

02-10-2006, 10:06

The problem that you can get with huge LCD monitors is that if you sit close (ie desk use) then the viewing angle to the screen effectively changes towards the screen edge giving colour/brightness variations.

Steep

02-10-2006, 10:58

tirnanog

04-10-2006, 16:46

I'd almost talked myself into buying the Philips 200W6CS till I read of some problems with them, Philips take weeks to replace and only replace with refurbished units.

Next up is the Dell, essentially the same monitor but 16ms instead of 8 and £35 more expensive.

Do Dell actually make their own peripharies, monitors, printers, etc., or as they just rebadged other makes? Anyway, I stick to my Hanns G HW191D widescreen recommendation.

Warspite

04-10-2006, 16:53

Philips LG and Samsung make their monitors, I believe Lexmark used to (if not currently) make their printers, this occured after Dell fell out with HP and decided to compete with them instead of just selling HP printers.