Where are the reviews of LCD monitors for photoediting?

June 8, 2006 11:27 AM

How do you find good but affordable LCD monitors for photo editing (on PC)?

Most of the reviews seem oriented towards games, and the big photography sites don't seem to do hardware reviews of LCD monitors.

I don't care so much about response time, but color fidelity, contrast, and brightness are all important, and these are rarely covered adequately in reviews. I calibrate with a Spyder2, so default settings are relatively unimportant.

So, where do you look for reviews of LCD monitors aimed at photographers and photo editors?

(If you have recommendations for specific monitors, please say so. I'm currently looking in the US$500 range for something that will do 1600x1200.)

posted by Caviar to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

FWIW, Don't Buy Junk.com lets you search by brightness and contrast, but I'm not seeing anything in your price range that has what I'd call good specs.
posted by Hildago at 12:18 PM on June 8, 2006

Samsung Syncmaster 204t

Amazon has it at $510, it's cheaper in other places. Excellent monitor.
posted by doctor_negative at 12:20 PM on June 8, 2006

Though I have no specific knowledge about photo editing requirements for LCDs, I have found the Tom's Hardware reviews of displays to be helpful. The UK site has a rundown of new 19" LCDs.
posted by beerbajay at 12:21 PM on June 8, 2006

I'll second Tom's Hardware as having the best display reviews I've seen. I don't know anyone else that that has charts of black levels/deltas, contrast stability, and color gamut.

The latest Samsung screens, like Samsung 970P look very well suited for color-sensitive work.
posted by lhl at 12:30 PM on June 8, 2006

You're probably looking in the wrong areas since this question gets asked at least once a day on the sites I frequent. On Photo.net, for example, you'll want to search the previous answers in the Digital Darkroom:



Over at dpreview, try the Retouching or teh Pro forums and at Steve's digicams, look in the General area. Tom's Hardware and BeHardware both do excellent monitor reviews:



but I encourage you to compare real users opinions in the forums, too.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 1:10 PM on June 8, 2006

Sorry my links didn't work. Here they are again:

http://www.behardware.com/

http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1701

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/default.asp

http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/
posted by LuckySeven~ at 1:13 PM on June 8, 2006

http://www.behardware.com/
http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1701
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/default.asp
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/
posted by Mitheral at 3:01 PM on June 8, 2006

I recommend looking into a Dell 2005FPW. It's been replaced with the newer version 2007FPW but you can still find them through the Dell Outlet on the Dell.com website for about US$ 350-385 range. The 2007FPW is probably around US$549 but goes on sale for the $400-500 range.

They're both 20.1 inches etc....(i don't have all the specs right now)

But the real reason I got one was because it uses the same LCD panel (made by LG) as the Apple cinema displays but cost about half as much.

I've been using one successfully (*knock on wood) for the past 4-5 months. I calibrated it with an Eye-One doodad and I love it so mcuh I'm considering getting a second one.
posted by eatcake at 4:01 PM on June 8, 2006

I'll second the Dell 2005FPWs. I have two of them sitting in front of me right now, and they're absolutely brilliant.

They're affordable on eBay, but even better if you're not eating it on shipping, and there's absolutely nothing I can complain about or recommend the 2007's for. The response time is incredible, the color and brightness perfect, I have a 3-year on each of them, and not a dead pixel in all 3,528,000 of them. They cost me $400 each brand new, but like eatcake said, you can easily find them in the $250-$300 range.

Absolutely worth it, and even better than the Apple CinemaDisplays in that they pivot!
posted by disillusioned at 9:34 PM on June 8, 2006

Response by poster: Those are some good links above, I'll check them out.

Interesting that you mention the Samsung 204T, which is actually the monitor that spawned this question when I noticed that the 204B has equivalent or better specs in every area, yet it's $60 cheaper and not reviewed as well. I can't find any description of the actual difference.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001194

What's going on there?
posted by Caviar at 2:20 PM on June 9, 2006