Look over here!
In other s̶p̶a̶news, I entered this Facebook s̶p̶a̶m̶m̶i̶n̶g̶photography competition. If you find yourself bored or with some spare time, I would appreciate, and be in your debt, if you could like the Camerapro page and vote. Ideally you would vote for me but if you don't like my photo then feel free to vote as you wish.
http://bit.ly/zCF8Cn < link is safe, I promise.
Actually, another thing - I'm looking at buying a new monitor. I have a few purposes. The reason I need a monitor at all is because at the moment I only have my 15" MBP which is fine for internet browsing etc but I spend many of the hours when I'm not in the lab (with my nice Dell 24" Ultrasharp U2412M ISP display) on said MBP viewing my lab computer via Remote Desktop. What I do sucks on a 15" screen and trackpad - hence 22/23" monitor with keyboard and mouse is the answer. Now that's the boring back story.
The above usage is pretty insensitive to monitor performance but obviously I want something that has great colours for photo editing. It seems that ISP displays are the go in terms of colour accuracy. They tend to be a compromise in terms of pixel response (many are quite reasonable) however I don't really game so as long as ghosting is not too bad in movies, I'm happy. They also tend to be a compromise in terms of contrast - or at least some have great contrast (LG ISP2xxV series) but big weaknesses elsewhere - or great everything else but weak in contrast (HP U2312hm).
I'm off my rocker from reading countless reviews and general info. Does anyone have experience with the current budget/mid ISP monitor range?
I've boiled it down to:
- Dell U2312hm - 23" IPS panel - good colour accuracy out of the box (perfect if calibrated - one day maybe...), good response, when calibrated contrast is a bit low (770:1), good ergonomics (I like a high monitor and being able to rotate to portrait is nice too).
- Dell u2212hm - 22" IPS panel - as above but contrast >1000:1 when calibrated. less real estate is the only compromise (and also the price is about the same as the 23" - probably pushed up from demand due to the better contrast)
- LG IPS235V - 23" IPS, factory calibrated - good accuracy out of the box (but not vastly ahead of the uncalibrated alternatives listed, cheapest, good contrast (>1000:1), very slow, shithouse stand (no height or orientation adjust - tilt only).
- Viewsonic VP2365wb - 23" IPS, good colour accuracy but weak contrast and slow, also quite expensive compared to the dells and HP which seem to rate better in most aspects
- HP ZR2240w - same 22" panel as used in the dell - generally the same just here to say i've looked at it
There are others from ASUS, AOC, BENQ, Samsung (only have a 24" and 27" IPS (they call it PLS) - too dear), philips (237e3qphsu has poor reviews - ok colour but bad light bleed and terrible contrast <500:1), Iiyama (seem to generally be outperformed by those above) but my focus has been steered towards those that have decent lab tests/reviews. Btw the contrasts i quote are lab tested static, not spec sheet.
Help me put myself out of my misery and order something. I'm really tossing up between the two dells. My feeling is I'll appreciate the extra real estate over better contrast. To add to that, you don't want high contrast for photo editing necessary as other mediums in the workflow don't have the dynamic range anyway (particularly print but potentially camera too).
