What Monitor for Photo Editing

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Lilbear

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So im looking to buy a monitor to connect to my laptop for more accurate photo editing.

Im looking for recommendations... which is the best to buy.

I looked at the Asus PA248Q and the Dell UltraSharp U2713H so far but some of the bad reviews are a bit off putting.

Also not sure if that's the right section to post this but I try anyway :)
 
Budget?


Both the screens you mention are very good, but not perfect as you would expct at this kind of mid-range price point... but the Dell U2713H can be hardware profiled (with the i1 Display Pro only) as well as the normal software profiling that all screens can have, which is a BIG advantage.

No idea what bad reviews you've read, but like mots things on the internet, reviews can be subjective, especially with monitors if the review author doesn't know what they're doing. Some reviews only review screens out of the box and not after profiling.

Why have you narrowed this down to a 24" screen and a 27" screen? Does size not matter? If not, my advice is the Dell U2413 as it's a proper 16:10 screen, not a stupid 16:9 which is becoming the norm these days. It too can be hardware profiled if you have the i1 Display Pro.

Both Dell screens are wide gamut, so unless you are fully up to speed with colour management some image source can lead to over-saturated colours. games and TV and watching movies etc are not colour managed, and will have very garish colours on a wide gamut screen unless you set it to sRGB for these inputs, and only use native for web based and your photography.

Everything negative I've read about the Dell U2713h are regarding factory settings. So what... a nice screen should be calibrated. No screens are perfect out of the box, so you shouldn't let that put you off.

There's a great review of the Dell U2713H here.

http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review/2013/review-dell-u2713h-part15.html

The reason it only gets "good" is because the tests Prad put stuff through far exceed any requirements you would have of the screen. They're very harsh tests.

Having used both the Dell screens now, I'm happy to recommend them. I do not own a Dell screen either, so this is completely impartial advice and not the usual (and useless) internet habit of recommending what you own.



The Asus screen uses cheap white LED backlighting, and is therefore only standard gamut, barely able to even cover the sRGB colorspace when I tested it. Specs say it's 100% sRGB, but I beg to differ.

sRGB is not the end of the world though, and if you have no knowledge of colour management, can have advantages.

There are 2 versions of this screen BTW. the PA248Q and the PA248QJ. The "J" version comes with a spyder 4 calibrator.

The PA248Q is also a proper 16:10 panel.

The PA248Q is outclassed by the Dell U2413 though.


I'd get either the Dell U2713H (not HM) or the Dell U2413 depending on whether you want 24 or 27"
 
Does the OP really need a wide gamut monitor though?

The price difference between the H and HM would buy a decent calibrator.

Ok course if price isnt and issue then get the H but if price was no object I'd get a U3014
 
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Physically wider, yes, but the same pixel resolution.

I didn't see the "over a 24" bit, sorry... but no need for the weird attitude.



A 24" is 1200 vertical though... that's pretty useful too.

I've had no experience with that LG screen, so have nothing based on measurements about it. Have you calibrated it and have some data on it's accuracy?
 
mattyg said:
Does the OP really need a wide gamut monitor though?

The price difference between the H and HM would buy a decent calibrator.

Ok course if price isnt and issue then get the H but if price was no object I'd get a U3014
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If price was no object I wouldn't be looking at a Dell at all :)

The HM version could save a few quid, but the OP can only decide if sRGB is OK or not.
 
I don't own a calibration tool unfortunately :( but I know few people who do own one and will eventually get around to calibrating it!
 
Pookeyhead said:
....

Why have you narrowed this down to a 24" screen and a 27" screen? Does size not matter? If not, my advice is the Dell U2413 as it's a proper 16:10 screen, not a stupid 16:9 which is becoming the norm these days. ......
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I can't think of anything "stupid" about 16:9 although I've always thought 24" is a sort of "awkward" screen size as it's too small for Quad HD (which works better on 27" in terms of pixel pitch) but a bit too big for Full HD (which works better on 21.5" (or 22") in terms of pixel pitch).

I find 16:9 is a nice ratio if you have a photo editor with the main image in the centre and side panels for adjustments & thumbnails etc on each side of the main photo where the extra width helps.
 
@boliston

16:9 is designed for TVs where the whole screen is utilised to display an image. 16:10 gives extra vertical space for menu bars and toolbars without compromising the image size. 16:10 is designed for computers.. 16:9 for TVs. The only reason 16:9 monitors are common these days is because manufacturers can share panels between TVs and monitors, and thus save money.

It's a personal thing, but IMO a 16:9 screen is just much smaller than it's 16:10 equivalent. The vertical height of a 27" screen for example, is not really much higher than a 24"screen,

64wZDQg.jpg




whereas the 30" 16:10 equivalent is noticeably larger.

YQTzqdB.jpg



Same with 22.9" vs 24".

U1FcaQO.jpg


boliston said:
I find 16:9 is a nice ratio if you have a photo editor with the main image in the centre and side panels for adjustments & thumbnails etc on each side of the main photo where the extra width helps.
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But for example... a 16:10 24" panel is the same pixel width as it's 16:9 equivalent... 1920 pixels (2560 for 27 and 30")... so you have the same width available to do as you say... PLUS the extra vertical height.... win win.

As for 1:1 pixel mapping, you're just referring to watching 16:9 content. I use my TV for watching HD stuff. My computer is for computing.

having said that... 1080P content looks awesome on my 16:10 30" Eizo as it's one of the few computer monitors available that handles 24p frame rates without juddering like hell.
 
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Budget is around the 500 pounds mark as I was going to buy the i1Display Pro for calibration as well.
The monitor is going to be used only for photo processing..... I can watch movies or play games on my laptop screen.

I didn't narrow it down to those 2, its just the 2 I found which sounded ok ... if there are any other ones then of course im interested.
Im not as clued up on colour management but its something I want to learn.
 
Lilbear said:
Budget is around the 500 pounds
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Dell U2413 = £365
Xrite i1 Display Pro = £160

Total = £530

That's average retail pricing... you can probably get cheaper, but you simply will not get any better for your £500.

Don't use the i1 software though. Use the Dell version of the Xrite software otherwise you will not be hardware profiling.
 
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actually i1 has 30quid cash back from WEX so it is £130...which is exactly your total budget!

edit: you have to bu the color passport to qualify the £30 which itself with the i1 is £230...
 
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Very useful thread this, I too am thinking about buying the Dell U2713H. I've been looking into calibration and I think my Spyder 3 Elite is incompatible with it.

The other monitor on my shortlist is the Viewsonic VP2772, which has had some favourable reviews. Has anyone had anything to report on that and would my Spyder be compatible with it?
 
Metal God said:
Very useful thread this, I too am thinking about buying the Dell U2713H. I've been looking into calibration and I think my Spyder 3 Elite is incompatible with it.

The other monitor on my shortlist is the Viewsonic VP2772, which has had some favourable reviews. Has anyone had anything to report on that and would my Spyder be compatible with it?
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I don't see why the spyder wouldn't be but chances are it'll be a software calibration.
 
Metal God said:
Very useful thread this, I too am thinking about buying the Dell U2713H. I've been looking into calibration and I think my Spyder 3 Elite is incompatible with it.
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You can use it with the Dell U2713H, but it will be software calibration only. You can only hardware calibrate with the X-Rite i1 Display Pro and Dell's custom software.

Metal God said:
The other monitor on my shortlist is the Viewsonic VP2772, which has had some favourable reviews. Has anyone had anything to report on that and would my Spyder be compatible with it?
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Your Spyder 3 will calibrate any monitor, but only at software level unless the monitor supports hardware profiling, and so does the software, and if I remember rightly, the Syper 3 software will probably not. The Viewsonic can not be hardware profiled by anything as it does not have a programmable LUT like the Dell U2713H.



mattyg said:
I don't see why the spyder wouldn't be but chances are it'll be a software calibration.
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No chances at all.. The Dell U2713H will DEFINITELY be software only calibration with the Spyder 3.
 
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I am sure Dave will correct me on this. But software calibration alters the output levels LUT table of the graphics card which will result in color bandings as it is only an 8bit channel. The monitor LUT has 14bit channel LUT so any alteration of that won't result in loss of color.

Very similar to the analogy of editing a raw file that had been over exposed and you try to recover the highlights which had been blown out. The computer will make extrapolations and you will see some weird mussing gaps in the histograms as the information just isn't there.
 
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ricky1980 said:
I am sure Dave will correct me on this. But software calibration alters the output levels LUT table of the graphics card which will result in color bandings as it is only an 8bit channel. The monitor LUT has 14bit channel LUT so any alteration of that won't result in loss of color.

Very similar to the analogy of editing a raw file that had been over exposed and you try to recover the highlights which had been blown out. The computer will make extrapolations and you will see some weird mussing gaps in the histograms as the information just isn't there.
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Yep... that's pretty much it. The other advantage is that you are calibrating the monitor independently of the machine, so all inputs supported will be calibrated. With software profiling, you're actually profiling the graphics card to match the monitor.
 
Thanks for a great read. I've been getting frustrated having a poor screen to print control over my photography work, and this looks like a much cheaper alternative to getting an iMac.
I am planning on using the U2413 with my current laptop. What kind of graphic card/processor limitations of my laptop will affect the output on the U2413? I can currently use PS and LR on my laptop, is it safe to assume they will work and display fine with the U2413?
 
I think any laptop graphics card that can output 1920x1200 will be fine........David???
 
Mad Badger said:
I think any laptop graphics card that can output 1920x1200 will be fine........David???
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Yes - assuming digital out (which is what you need available really - i.e. HDMI or other digital out on a laptop) all will display the data with exactly the same fidelity.
 
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