Hi-res non-reflective 24" widescreen monitor?

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Hi-res non-reflective 24" widescreen monitor?

Does such a thing exist at a decent price? Especially one that doesn't change with view angle. I looked at a Samsung 24" in PC World and it went dark if you looked at it off-axis - this is no good for photography. I have a PC, but a friend has a Mac with a excellent 24" screen at 1920x1200 or thereabouts, with a white bezel (larger at the bottom).

Any suggestions based on experience would be greatly appreciated, as the shops around here are useless for stock to try out.
 
It depends what you're after and how much you want to pay really. Have a look at the HP LP2475W (I'm using one) and I like it although some people don't like high gamut monitors. Cost was around £400 direct from HP.

I'd guess the one you were looking at in PC World was a TN display? Good for general use and gaming but as you say not much good for photography. It's all down to the panel type... quick description below...

S-IPS/H-IPS panels are generally considered the best all around panel type, but they are more expensive and very few are made. High end, expensive.
S-PVA/MVA panels offer better color reproduction and viewing angles than TN panels, have slightly worse response times than TN or S-IPS, offer the best contrast ratios, may suffer from color shifting or input lag and have higher availability than S-IPS panels. Mid range, fair price.
TN panels are very cheap and have the fastest response times, but suffer from inferior color reproduction, contrast ratios and viewing angles. Low end, inexpensive.

Hope it helps
Bill
 
I'm happy with my Dell 2407, but it depends how much you call a decent price. Your friend has an iMac by the way, the screen with the white bezel thats bigger at the bottom is the computer.
 
Well, the 24" monitors in PC World were about £265, which I thought was a fair price for a 24" monitor (considering my 22" HP w2207 cost £220 a couple of years ago). I wouldn't want to go too much above that. I don't need a state of the art monitor, I just want something fairly hi-res, non-reflective and non-directional, and decent quality.
 
Bill Roberts said:
It depends what you're after and how much you want to pay really. Have a look at the HP LP2475W (I'm using one) and I like it although some people don't like high gamut monitors. Cost was around £400 direct from HP.

I'd guess the one you were looking at in PC World was a TN display? Good for general use and gaming but as you say not much good for photography. It's all down to the panel type... quick description below...

S-IPS/H-IPS panels are generally considered the best all around panel type, but they are more expensive and very few are made. High end, expensive.
S-PVA/MVA panels offer better color reproduction and viewing angles than TN panels, have slightly worse response times than TN or S-IPS, offer the best contrast ratios, may suffer from color shifting or input lag and have higher availability than S-IPS panels. Mid range, fair price.
TN panels are very cheap and have the fastest response times, but suffer from inferior color reproduction, contrast ratios and viewing angles. Low end, inexpensive.

Hope it helps
Bill
Click to expand...


the panel thing is one of the hardest things to find out as when you start asking people they seem to work out pretty quickly and are not very helpful. I bought my 19" viewsonic about 6 years ago and it was £400 but currently still being sold at £239. Im not into photography enough to buy a monitor for it but the best for decent colours etc at the moment (from what i seen is)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/24-S...screen-LCD-1920x1200-10001-300-cd-m-5-ms-VESA
 
The PC World monitor was this one but there's no information on the screen technology either there or on the Samsung website.

I asked my friend and he confirmed it is an iMac. It's a good quality screen, with consistent viewing range, although it may have a gloss finish, I think. I saw similar quality Apple monitors in PC World, but they were expensive. I'd be interested to know what LCD technology it uses.

It's difficult to find photography-biased reviews of monitors. Most reviews I've read go on about fast response times, etc. but don't mention gamut, directionality (?) and colour/tonal reproduction. It's like gamers drive the PC industry.

Anyway, I know a few new buzz words now. I'll keep looking for monitor reviews.
 
Bill's monitor seems to be the best I've found, although I can't get it for less than £430 including VAT and postage.
 
I don't regret getting my Dell 2407WFP-HC at all - worth every penny. If I ever find one going 2nd hand at a reasonable price, I'm going dual-screen:)
 
Yammer said:
Blimey - what about this?
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?haz-h226wi
Click to expand...

That looks pretty good. According to flatpanels it's showing as Hazro HZ26Wi (widescreen) has a 26 inch 5 ms (g2g) H-IPS (LG.Display LM260WU1) panel. Although I didn't see any reference to revision 2.

Nevertheless a 26" screen with an H-IPS panel at that price is quite impressive.

Incedentally the flatpanels link can be quite useful for sussing out the type of panel in a lot of monitors. It's not always easy to find out from the manufacturers websites, unless we're talking real high end stuff like Eizo, LaCie and so on. But you can be into £000's for those. And probably a compete waste of breath asking the "sales assistants" at PC World etc. The trick is finding something decent at a price you don't need to sell a kidney for!

cheers
Bill
 
Cheers, Bill. I'm sure that will come in useful. The Hazro seems to have attracted a few minor complaints, so maybe they're not as well-built as HP's montors. I'll keep doing my homework, and report back here for completeness.
 
Yammer said:
I looked at a Samsung 24" in PC World and it went dark if you looked at it off-axis - this is no good for photography.
Click to expand...


Stupid question perhaps but why would it make any difference? You're not going to be editing your images while looking at the monitor from the side are you?

Obviously if you've got the money and want the best then go for it, you don't need any other reason.
 
it's about colour shifting, you, your chair and monitor are rarely nailed to the same place and you may be slouching or sat upright etc

cheaper monitors with bad panels basically don't give you the same image colour wise when you're sat within a decent range

if that made sense
 
Yes I understand that but again you're not likely to be looking at a monitor off axis while you work, even cheap monitors these days allow a good range of movement before you see a change.
 
you'd be surprised, i see a large variety of monitors and most are pants if they're budget, even if it's just a shift in brightness levels it's not particularly useful for photo editing, mind you unless you're calibrating your monitor it doesn't make much difference anyhow :)
 
It's more important the bigger the screens get and the nearer you sit to the screen. My current monitor (an HP w2207 22" LCD) is significantly darker at the top of the screen, unless I sit bolt upright.

I sit with my eyes about 22" from the middle of the screen, and the height of the screen is about 12" which means that I have to look up at an angle of 15 degrees to see the top. Not much, but enough to change the brightness of the image. Presumably this would be even worse with a 24" or 26" screen.
 
Also found the Philips 240PW9E, but little information on performance, price or availability.
 
I ordered the HP LP2475W.

It was a nice surprise to be given 10% off the cost of the monitor on subscribing to their newsletter. The final price was £389, including postage.
 
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