24" monitor for photo editing?

dtokez

dtokez

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Dan
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Hi all - mods, I wasn't sure if I should put this in the gear section or not but I figured it was more suited to this section

What PC monitors do you guys use? I'm after something that's fairly cheap but something that is either pre calibrated or something that I can calibrate myself. If the latter, what calibration tools are recommended?

I have noticed lots of differences on the screens that I have viewed my images on so I think now is the time for something that I can be sure of! I mainly use LR and PS.

Cheers :)
 
I just picked up the Dell U2415h the other week and it's great so far
 
cheers guys. the Dell you posted looks good Andy! Does it need to be calibrated? I'm so out of touch these days, I know back in the CRT days you had to get a calibrator that you held on the screen?
 
dtokez said:
I have noticed lots of differences on the screens that I have viewed my images
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Calibrating your monitor will not make your images look the same when viewing them on other monitors
 
I have the older dell 2209wa which work well with the i1 display pro.
 
dtokez said:
What PC monitors do you guys use? I'm after something that's fairly cheap but something that is either pre calibrated or something that I can calibrate myself. If the latter, what calibration tools are recommended?
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Pre-calibrated is a gimmick. Dell do a load that are and they're quite a way off being accurate, plus... screens do not stay calibrated.. they drift as they age. I'd definitely recommend a calibrator.

You don't mention price, and fairly cheap can change from person to person.

If you mean around £200 as fairly cheap, then the Dell U2412M is a great screen for the money. Genuine 16:10 (1920x1200). Calibrated very well (I bought one for my wife, and used many others). As it's now been replaced by the U2415, I bet you can get a bargain.

There's also the Dell U2415H, slightly more expensive, but still could be called cheapish, and equally as good.

In the market around £200, there's not much competition at the moment.

There's the Eizo FlexScan EV2455, again a genuine 24" 16:10 screen, and considering it has Eizo written on it, as a reasonable £270 approx. Turn OFF the ambient light sensor though... you don't want automatic adjustments of screen settings if you're going to calibrate it.

All of the above are IPS panels, but standard gamut (sRGB).. which is, unless you really know what you're doing with colour management, a safer option for 90% of users.

Going a little higher in Price there venerable old Asus PA248Q is worth a look.. again, full 16:10, and a well respected screen. The Asus PA248QJ is a wide gamut version that's about £80 more than the plain Q version.

Probably the most well respected calibrator for home use is the x-rite i1 Display Pro. The x-rite Color Munki Photo is also worth a look as it can calibrate printer media too, but it's not cheap. If you are only bothered about screen calibration then either X-Rite i1 Display Pro or the X-Rite Color Munki Display woudl be my choices.

I've never been entirely happy with Datacolor Products, which include the Spyder range of colorimeters.



dtokez said:
I have noticed lots of differences on the screens that I have viewed my images on so I think now is the time for something that I can be sure of! I mainly use LR and PS.

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

redsnappa said:
Calibrating your monitor will not make your images look the same when viewing them on other monitors
Click to expand...

I don't think that's what he means... He just realises that because they are different on different uncalibrated monitors, he wants a calibrated screen to be sure that HIS monitor is accurate.. I think. LOL
 
Yeah, as stated above, the 2415h, while much more accurate out of the box than my laptop screen, was still off according to the calibrator. I picked up the x-rite i1 Display Pro and it made a noticeable difference.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Pre-calibrated is a gimmick. Dell do a load that are and they're quite a way off being accurate, plus... screens do not stay calibrated.. they drift as they age. I'd definitely recommend a calibrator.

You don't mention price, and fairly cheap can change from person to person.

If you mean around £200 as fairly cheap, then the Dell U2412M is a great screen for the money. Genuine 16:10 (1920x1200). Calibrated very well (I bought one for my wife, and used many others). As it's now been replaced by the U2415, I bet you can get a bargain.

There's also the Dell U2415H, slightly more expensive, but still could be called cheapish, and equally as good.

In the market around £200, there's not much competition at the moment.

There's the Eizo FlexScan EV2455, again a genuine 24" 16:10 screen, and considering it has Eizo written on it, as a reasonable £270 approx. Turn OFF the ambient light sensor though... you don't want automatic adjustments of screen settings if you're going to calibrate it.

All of the above are IPS panels, but standard gamut (sRGB).. which is, unless you really know what you're doing with colour management, a safer option for 90% of users.

Going a little higher in Price there venerable old Asus PA248Q is worth a look.. again, full 16:10, and a well respected screen. The Asus PA248QJ is a wide gamut version that's about £80 more than the plain Q version.

Probably the most well respected calibrator for home use is the x-rite i1 Display Pro. The x-rite Color Munki Photo is also worth a look as it can calibrate printer media too, but it's not cheap. If you are only bothered about screen calibration then either X-Rite i1 Display Pro or the X-Rite Color Munki Display woudl be my choices.

I've never been entirely happy with Datacolor Products, which include the Spyder range of colorimeters.







I don't think that's what he means... He just realises that because they are different on different uncalibrated monitors, he wants a calibrated screen to be sure that HIS monitor is accurate.. I think. LOL
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I picked up a Dell 2412M for £120 off eBay and for the price it's an amazing screen.
 
I have the Dell U2713HM and it is stunning. I paid about £500 a year ago but now about £350-400.
 
KitsuneAndy said:
Yeah, as stated above, the 2415h, while much more accurate out of the box than my laptop screen, was still off according to the calibrator. I picked up the x-rite i1 Display Pro and it made a noticeable difference.
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Andy is the calibration process straight forward? How often is it advisable to do it?

Thanks for all the suggestions guys - I'll have a look tonight :)
 
Yeah, really straight forward, with that monitor you set it to custom colour mode, and let the calibrator do it's thing. Talks you through it step by step. I manually adjusted brightness and RGB, really easy though.

With other monitors, if they have hardware calibration, then I think there's even less to do.
 
Excuse the blatant hijack, but I'm selling a Samsung 24" monitor in the classifieds if you're interested. It's not an IPS panel, but after calibrating with a Spyder I got great colour accuracy with prints. It's cheap too [emoji4]
 
Morph3ous said:
Excuse the blatant hijack, but I'm selling a Samsung 24" monitor in the classifieds if you're interested. It's not an IPS panel, but after calibrating with a Spyder I got great colour accuracy with prints. It's cheap too [emoji4]
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That's a TN panel and will be very poor for photography work. Contrast and gamma changes with viewing angle, and they do not calibrate well at all, despite what you think. It also has no HDMI which may be a deal breaker for some, and the screen only tilts and offers very little adjustment.
 
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Wow. Thanks for that. I know I was cheeky to pipe up with a blatant "I'm trying to sell my monitor" but I'm not sure it was necessary to slate it quite so much? Why don't you go onto my other thread and type "do not buy this monitor" just to be sure?

In response, A) I've calibrated it myself and personally completed test prints with DSCL and Loxley which both came back spot on. So yes. I do think they calibrate okay for a cheap monitor. B) before throwing me under the bus if you'd taken the time to see the update on my advert you'd note I've removed it from sale and replaced it with my HDMI connecting IPS panel instead. The Samsung is so bad at photography work I've decided to keep it.
 
Morph3ous said:
Wow. Thanks for that. I know I was cheeky to pipe up with a blatant "I'm trying to sell my monitor" but I'm not sure it was necessary to slate it quite so much? Why don't you go onto my other thread and type "do not buy this monitor" just to be sure?

In response, A) I've calibrated it myself and personally completed test prints with DSCL and Loxley which both came back spot on. So yes. I do think they calibrate okay for a cheap monitor. B) before throwing me under the bus if you'd taken the time to see the update on my advert you'd note I've removed it from sale and replaced it with my HDMI connecting IPS panel instead. The Samsung is so bad at photography work I've decided to keep it.
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Not slating it, just making the OP aware that a TN panel is a poor choice for photo editing - he may not be aware. It's not like I posted in your actual trade thread or anything. You chose to post it in here, I chose to comment on the fact. Why should I have taken the time to read an update on your advert? If you wanted us to know that, you should have said. This thread isn't here as a platform for you to sell your screen, sorry.
 
Eizo S2411w here, with a Dell Ultrasharp U2413 as my secondary screen. Would never, ever do colour work on the Dell, it's all over the place compared to the Eizo to an upsetting degree. When my primary monitor dims out to the point where I can't trust it anymore, I'll be dumping the Dell, buying a new Eizo and using the existing Eizo as my secondary.
 
Just noticed the Dell U2515h only has DP and HDMI, do you think i would encounter any issues converting dvi to hdmi? It will run from on-board gfx to begin with

cheers for all the help so far!
 
One thing to watch out for is that the monitor can handle the same resolutions on the HDMI input. It is not unheard of that it is limited to TV resolutions and will apply scaling to get it to map to the panel.
 
MIAMIPHOTO said:
Calibrating your monitor only makes sense if your clients also calibrate their monitor. Otherwise wit is a waste of time.
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I disagree, calibrating your monitor always makes sense ;) At least you know your source is correct, unless you only ever work with one client it doesn't make sense to adjust to them....
 
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