Monitors for image editing

[CVP]

A question for PH photographers, what montior do you use with your PC for image editing?

At work I have an old 17" CRT connected to laptop via docking station which has served well so far for doing image editing outside work hours and the laptop seems to cope OK with the image processing work.

I now want to do quite a lot of image scanning / editing at home and the laptop screen is just not suitable as ;
1) too small
2) seems to lack the contrast and brightness of the CRT.

I'm looking at a 17" flat panel (due to space restrictions at home) but am worried that it's really just a grown up laptop screen and so may not be up to the job. Is this really so or are there good ones that will give nice crisp clean images for a not outrageous price?

Advice appreciated

Chris

[ws6]

CVP said:

are there good ones that will give nice crisp clean images for a not outrageous price?

Always a compramise when you're spending money price/quality

My "workhorse" is a 19" Taxan TFT which is superb !! My Dell laptop has a 15" TFT and both run XGA. I have a 17" AOC TFT, and a cheap 15" LG TFT wich are also good(ish). However, the contrast ratio on TFT's is much lower than a CTR (a reason not to buy a TFT television (yet). The taxan has very bright/crisp whites which is not replicated on any of the other monitors as well. I used to have 21" crt !!! WAS THE SIZE OF AN OVEN ! AND CONSUMED AS MUCH POWER !!!

I'd go for the best you can buy 17" TFT

I'm sure you'll get a few more ideas from this forum

[simpo two]

I have a Sony 17" TFT which I think is great. I can crank up the brightness until it's like looking at the sun - so I don't, I actually run low brightness and contrast. And low backlight too.

BUT - the blacks are not the same as a CRT, regardless of what I try to do. It doesn't seem to distinguish as well between very dark shades. I don;t know if other makes might be better, but I think it's a characteristic of TFTs.

[te51cle]

I'd always go for a CRT as opposed to any form of flat panel display. The contrast range is much greater and the colours richer which makes them more representative of the finished print. CRTs seem to have less of a colour cast too.

I've got a 21" job but really its a bit too large. 19" would be just right. Mitsubishi and Sony make the best ones.

[simpo two]

The RPS recommend this system of calibration:

www.epi-centre.com/charts/charts.html

Views anyone?

[agent006]

I've got an old Apple 20" CRT. £20 for the monitor and £5 for a PC cable converter. I got it from a graphics studio who were far to anal about the quality of monitors. Replaced all their 2 year old apple kit with tens of thousands of £ worth of LaCie monitors. Absolutely nothing wrong with mine, except it's a bit heavy.

[CVP]

Cheers for the thoughts guys.

After browsing through our IT testing lab at work I've decided that a 17" is sufficient, so ordered an IIyama which seemed to be a good balance of price / alowable number of dead pixels and warranty.

Also treated myself to a Minolta 5400 scanner so I can get some of my old work scanned in an enahnced / cleaned up.

Chris

[gravymaster]

IIyama monitors are awesome from my experience, although a few friends of mine have had problems with pixels dying. Im happy with my 22" crt...

[CVP]

Ordered from dabs and arrived the next day. Absolutely no dead pixels at all which was a nice result.

Picture quality and contrast is just superb.

Very happy bunny.

Chris