Hello,
first off please move this topic if it is in the incorrect location. I am in the market for a new IPS monitor. My budget is not all too large so it'd have to be something between 200-400. No more than 400. I was looking at the LG series but I ran across the Asus(pro artist I think)and as for now, I think that would be what I'll get but I wanted to hear fellow retouchers' opinions before I spend any money as I hate buying things I don't like
I know we all have budgets, but you are not going to get accurate color in that price range. I would wait and save until you can come up with at least $900 and start to look at Ezio or the higher end NEC monitors.
Unless the monitor you are currently using is totally dead I would save and get something good.
Kevin Russo Photography wrote: I know we all have budgets, but you are not going to get accurate color in that price range. I would wait and save until you can come up with at least $900 and start to look at Ezio or the higher end NEC monitors.
Unless the monitor you are currently using is totally dead I would save and get something good.
Kevin Russo Photography wrote: I know we all have budgets, but you are not going to get accurate color in that price range. I would wait and save until you can come up with at least $900 and start to look at Ezio or the higher end NEC monitors.
Unless the monitor you are currently using is totally dead I would save and get something good.
Also, you should also consider the screen uniformity which is generally not included in the specs provided on BH etc. I find this extremely important when choosing a monitor. I tried a Dell U2410, replaced it with a Eizo S2243 (lower-end photo monitor) before i settled with a Eizo SX2462, which I still use, although not perfect. The U2410 is on paper better than the S2243 and actually comparable with the SX, but the SX is way better in every aspect in real life. The Dell had a stuck pixel out of the box and uneven backlight, the S2243 had very uneven colour temperature uniformity.
What I'm trying to say... :p when it comes to monitors the more expensive ones are almost always better than the cheaper ones even though they on paper seems the same. With a few exceptions though (The new Apple monitors I.E.)
What about the Asus Pro Art series of monitors? NEC are nice but with the calibration and a DVI-USB adapter it would go over my budget, even for the cheaper ones. The Asus Pro Art, at least, as it states on the website, comes pre-calibrated.
Brandon McCann wrote: What about the Asus Pro Art series of monitors? NEC are nice but with the calibration and a DVI-USB adapter it would go over my budget, even for the cheaper ones. The Asus Pro Art, at least, as it states on the website, comes pre-calibrated.
The NEC model I suggested should be about $360-$380
Did you look at it ???
You cant pre-calibrate a monitor !!!! Thats BS they all drift in settings
It has to be hooked to a device and measured ideally once a month or less
Watch this webinar to get some idea about color mangement
http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_learning.a … ateid=4885
Brandon McCann wrote: What about the Asus Pro Art series of monitors? NEC are nice but with the calibration and a DVI-USB adapter it would go over my budget, even for the cheaper ones. The Asus Pro Art, at least, as it states on the website, comes pre-calibrated.
Looks interesting, I've seen a few people mention it in different forums, but I haven't seen one myself. Preferably you should try it in a store or buy from somewhere you can send it back within 14-30 days or something. Looks good on paper though except for no info on static contrast (dynamic is a load of BS) and that it's not wide-gamut (only covers 100% of sRGB, no info on Adobe RGB coverage), and Asus is known to make quality computer components in general.
Anyhow, forget pre-calibrated/factory calibration, they are NEVER right. When you profile your monitor you have to take into account the conditions in which you are going to be working in, for example what light sources are in your room, if your monitor is subject to flare from windows etc. In my experience all monitors are way to bright out of the box. My current monitor is set at ~26% brightness which compares to 100cd/m2 (Eizo recommends somewhere between 80-120cd/m2 for the brightness level), it was set to 95% or something when I got it, which was like looking directly into the sun in the middle of the summer, tears started popping out after just 5-10 minutes :p when you adjust the brightness you also have to profile again, essentially rendering the factory calibration useless for most users.
A Spyder 3 Elite or something will give you a good enough profile in most cases, and it's not really that expensive. You can probably get them even cheaper 2nd-hand on eBay or something
if only I could try them in a store! lol There's not really anywhere around here to get them. Though, I get free shipping from my Amazon Prime account and I believe I could send it back if it did not suffice. My room is practically pitch black by the way. The only light is from my monitor, keyboard, modem, router, and tablet.
Brandon McCann wrote: My room is practically pitch black by the way. The only light is from my monitor, keyboard, modem, router, and tablet.
In that case I can almost certainly guarantee you that you will be better off with a monitor that does low brightness levels very well, which Eizo (80cd/m2 default recommendation) and NEC (100cd/m2 d. r.) does. Either way, you will need external calibration equipment, there's really no way around it
Brandon McCann wrote: if only I could try them in a store! lol There's not really anywhere around here to get them. Though, I get free shipping from my Amazon Prime account and I believe I could send it back if it did not suffice. My room is practically pitch black by the way. The only light is from my monitor, keyboard, modem, router, and tablet.
Free 2day air? lol. Amazon Prime grants me free 2day air on items fulfilled by Amazon THOUGH if I get a NEC I believe I'll get it from BH as it is cheaper than Amazon's I think.
Brandon McCann wrote: if only I could try them in a store! lol There's not really anywhere around here to get them. Though, I get free shipping from my Amazon Prime account and I believe I could send it back if it did not suffice. My room is practically pitch black by the way. The only light is from my monitor, keyboard, modem, router, and tablet.
So IPS is not for you. I MEAN it. You'd better buy PVA. NEC P221W, EIZO S2243W, EIZO S2433W (all have programmable LUT, which means that it's possible to calibrate them). If you buy IPS, you will suffer from shining black. I have NEC PA271 and I'm able to work when it's really lot of light and it's calibrated to brightnes taget of 90 cdm2.
Filip Czechowski wrote: So IPS is not for you. I MEAN it. You'd better buy PVA. NEC P221W, EIZO S2243W, EIZO S2433W (all have programmable LUT, which means that it's possible to calibrate them). If you buy IPS, you will suffer from shining black. I have NEC PA271 and I'm able to work when it's really lot of light and it's calibrated to brightnes taget of 90 cdm2.
There are many different versions of IPS, the newest are way better than the old PVA technology, although S-PVA is said to have better blacks and contrast ratio (not sure if this is still the case though).
The Eizo S2243W does not have internal LUT and can not be hardware-calibrated. I had it and it had a horribly uneven colour balance. Very apparent green cast in every corner, like a color-vignette almost. Not all Eizo monitors are high-end.
It's possible to calibrate every screen using the LUT in your graphics card, although hardware-calibration is preferred.
Brandon McCann wrote: What about the Asus Pro Art series of monitors? NEC are nice but with the calibration and a DVI-USB adapter it would go over my budget, even for the cheaper ones. The Asus Pro Art, at least, as it states on the website, comes pre-calibrated.
Very interesting and it also has 10 bits LUT with 100% sRGB Coverage and it is LED. I don't know enough about Asus's monitor so I can't make recommendation. I would suggest find a store where you could play with it or a store that allow you return if you decide not to keep it.
Free 2day air? lol. Amazon Prime grants me free 2day air on items fulfilled by Amazon THOUGH if I get a NEC I believe I'll get it from BH as it is cheaper than Amazon's I think.
That is P model, not PA model. There is a different in P vs PA model as PA model has 14 LUT where as P has only 10 or 12 LUT. Also make sure that it is IPS .
That is P model, not PA model. There is a different in P vs PA model as PA model has 14 LUT where as P has only 10 or 12 LUT. Also make sure that it is IPS .
Jostein Roalkvam wrote: There are many different versions of IPS, the newest are way better than the old PVA technology, although S-PVA is said to have better blacks and contrast ratio (not sure if this is still the case though).
Every IPS has this problem. The thing is that IPS is made for pros and requires pro lighting. It's not designed for people who work in the evening with a little desktop lamp.
Jostein Roalkvam wrote: The Eizo S2243W does not have internal LUT and can not be hardware-calibrated. I had it and it had a horribly uneven colour balance. Very apparent green cast in every corner, like a color-vignette almost. Not all Eizo monitors are high-end.
This EIZO has an internal programmable LUT. You can hardware calibrate it with the EasyPix software/hardware. Thew truth is that it is terribly uneven :-)
Jostein Roalkvam wrote: It's possible to calibrate every screen using the LUT in your graphics card, although hardware-calibration is preferred.
This is not calibration. This is called profiling. Profiling only describes what monitor can reproduce and what it can't. Remember that this is an operation on 8-bit LUT of a graphic card and ends up with smaller number of reproducable colors.
Jostein Roalkvam wrote: If you know German (google translate does a decent job ) www.prad.de is one of the best sources for insanely thorough monitor reviews on the web. They have some in English too. http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/20 … p221w.html
I know this site. This is, as you said, monitor reviews site. It has nothing to do with the professional displays. As an example they always write the color gamut coverage, but never mention the quality and accuracy of reproduction. If you are happy with the google translation try this: http://mva.pl/ This is not a source of all monitor reviews, but the source of the profesional knowledge.
EDIT - Sorry. Actually prad do mention the accuracy of reproduction. Sometime ago I just wanted to learn something about one monitor, and this information was missing.
Jostein Roalkvam wrote: There are many different versions of IPS, the newest are way better than the old PVA technology, although S-PVA is said to have better blacks and contrast ratio (not sure if this is still the case though).
Every IPS has this problem. The thing is that IPS is made for pros and requires pro lighting. It's not designed for people who work in the evening with a little desktop lamp.
Jostein Roalkvam wrote: The Eizo S2243W does not have internal LUT and can not be hardware-calibrated. I had it and it had a horribly uneven colour balance. Very apparent green cast in every corner, like a color-vignette almost. Not all Eizo monitors are high-end.
This EIZO has an internal programmable LUT. You can hardware calibrate it with the EasyPix software/hardware. Thew truth is that it is terribly uneven :-)
This is not calibration. This is called profiling. Profiling only describes what monitor can reproduce and what it can't. Remember that this is an operation on 8-bit LUT of a graphic card and ends up with smaller number of reproducable colors.
I know this site. This is, as you said, monitor reviews site. It has nothing to do with the professional displays. As an example they always write the color gamut coverage, but never mention the quality and accuracy of reproduction. If you are happy with the google translation try this: http://mva.pl/ This is not a source of all monitor reviews, but the source of the profesional knowledge.
EDIT - Sorry. Actually prad do mention the accuracy of reproduction. Sometime ago I just wanted to learn something about one monitor, and this information was missing.
I know that some Eizo monitors have internal LUT (mine does), but the S2234 is not one of those. I can only speak from my own experience, and I would not recommend the S2234 to anyone just slightly serious about photography/retouching/colour work in general.
Most GPU's just have 8-bit LUT yes, that's why I said hardware-calibration is preferred. Anyhow, I was under the impression that calibration is essentially the same as profiling - you calibrate your monitor to get a usable ICC profile to use with it. If I was wrong then I have learned something new today
Anyhow, I do agree with you on that the NEC P223 (PVA) is probably the best value for money in his price range. But as I have never actually used one myself I can only recommend it based on it's specs.
OP: Prad actually has a test of the Asus you looked at: http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/20 … a238q.html seems like it did very good. Might be a "winner" in your budget after all. Even though it's not wide-gamut
The terms "pre-calibrated" or "factory calibrated" just does not make any sence. Calibration runs thru your entire chain of devices, not just your screen.
In order for calibration to work you have to calibrate the entire chain as a whole, not just bits and pieces here and there...
What specifications of the NEC overpower the ones of the Asus? Besides the wide gamut?
Ok What I wish I could explain to you in a short time is the difference between a pro graphics unit and the Asus
Also how important real calibration is
Bottom line
Real graphics units have an internal Look up table that the calibration device can talk to though a software package
The software controls the monitor directly not the computers vastly inferior video card
Eizo
NEC
Lacie
Make units with this software and direct internal calibration
Asus
Dell
Apple
whatever do NOT!!!!
Get the low end NEC now buy the calibration package later when you have the $$$
You can never calibrate the Asus near as well as the pro units
Ok What I wish I could explain to you in a short time is the difference between a pro graphics unit and the Asus
Also how important real calibration is
Bottom line
Real graphics units have an internal Look up table that the calibration device can talk to though a software package
The software controls the monitor directly not the computers vastly inferior video card
Eizo
NEC
Lacie
Make units with this software and direct internal calibration
Asus
Dell
Apple
whatever do NOT!!!!
Get the low end NEC now buy the calibration package later when you have the $$$
You can never calibrate the Asus near as well as the pro units
I have an Eizo cg243w, just thought i'd say that i have brought two calibrators and spyder3 pro then a i1display pro. The spyder3 gave a noticeable green cast first, while the i1displaypro gave none, or should i say a barely noticable pink cast. I use the software provided with the monitor to calibrate, color navigator 6 which is better than the 1display pro's software which only gives partial hardware calibration.
I just replaced my old monitor with the Nec multisync LCD 2490wuxi2.I paid about $600 shiped from B&H. I have spectraveiw calibration software, and the NEC meter. Once calibrated the report shows the monitor is producing 100 percent of adobe RGB. There is a uniformity mode, and I can toggle threw multiple colorspaces to proof work for multiple devices. I can see Black levels lower then printers can produce so how much better could they get. The most important thing to be is that the grey scale is perfect, Meaning my gradients are without any color shifts. The new Nec Monitors say they have better Gamma, but I think they underrated this monitor, since calibration reports prove it to be better they the specs Nec listed.
BTW Lacie is NEC, So don't waist your time there.
Also though I should mention Monitor Internal look up Tables are useless if you use a calibration package that alters your video card's profile. Nec SpectraveiwII software bypasses the video card and calibrates the hardware in the monitor. Your video card should be set to factory defaults.
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