Ok guys I have a few questions and I was hoping someone could possibly lean me in the right direction.
I recently bought an Eizo but a friend of mine asked me what she could get on a budget of a couple hundred dollars. So I honestly just googled best monitors for photography and I didnt really find any conclusive info on the lower end stuff.

So lets say under $300 what would be the best monitor to go with? New or used doesnt matter:)

I have noticed that some have PVA and some have IPS is there a difference?
For example I have seen http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop-monitors/pa231w-bk which is a PVA for less than $200


But I havent seen the IPS version http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop-monitors/pa231w-bk for less than $500

But then there is the Color critical version???
http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop-mon … 231w-bk-sv
which are much more...

I know there is plenty of other brands like dell, hp and asus that make IPS monitors but I am not sure what I am looking at and so much of it really seems to be opinion based on the lower end monitors which is weird to me. I would think the majority of articles would be more concerned with the lower end stuff since that is what the majority of people in the world will be using.

Anyways so I thought I would ask around here and see what you all thought:)

PS I am not trying to get into a debate of save your money or whatever till you can get a more expensive. She is looking to buy something now and not later lol

I use an  HP LP2475w IPS Monitor, but they are discontinued.  There is a refurb on Ebay for under $300 here

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-LP2475w-24-i … 337b9dbc41

I also have a Dell UltraSharp U2412M Black IPS Panel that I got on Newegg for $310

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … -_-NA-_-NA

I have them side by side and calibrate them weekly with a spyder.  No problems and the quality seems great to me.

that brings up a good point can you calibrate NEC or other makes like that with a spyder or munki?

The PVA have deeper blacks, but the IPS better colors and viewing angle, PLS is also nice. http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/pa … logies.htm
The TN panels must be avoided! They got less than 178º viewing angle

The best way to calibrate the NEC P/PA is
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/6 … aView.html

...

Anyone interested in buying a monitor for photo work check the reviews:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews.htm
http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/testberichte.html (the English site is very outdated)
http://prohardver.hu/tesztek/rovat/monitor/index.html
In the Prad reviews pay attention to:
-The UGRA test (download the PDF)
-The panel brightness distribution
-Close as possible to Gamma 2.2

-The gamut coverage (good place to compare http://www.iccview.de/index.php/3d)
sRGB(standard gamut monitor) is good enough for Costco/Walmart, but a wide gamut monitor for high-end inkjet, see Dell u2410 vs Dell u2412
-Profile accuracy and the calibration curves, the good ones are in 45º and you do not loose tones, that is the vantage of a monitor with a programmable hardware internal LUT.

-The contrast is the least important as any monitor have more contrast than any paper print.
-Avoid monitors that use PWM
Flicker Free list http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/fl … tabase.htm
-Give preference to 8-bit or 10-bit panels and avoid 6-bit
-Some models are capable of 10-bit input.

................

To calibrate a  consumer grade  monitor monitor(not NEC P/PA, Eizo ColorEdge, Quato)
the cheapest now is the X-Rite ColorMunki Smile or Datacolor Spyder4Express
To calibrate the internal LUT of the new Dell U2413/U2713H/3014/U2414Q/UP3214Q, must use  a X-Rite i1Display Pro

Reviews for calibration devices:
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Cali … dware.html
http://nativedigital.co.uk/site/2013/04 … der4elite/
http://www.gamutprints.com/2012/04/i1di … ck-review/

...

Complementary info:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/40306131
https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thre … st17444951

There is a really good thread on this and I'm sure it's stickied. Maybe somebody could post the link if they have it? It's very detailed and invaluable for buying a monitor.

Edit: I think this is it.

https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thre … ost7663105

For example, Eizo is great but a lot of the panels they use are the same as the much lower priced Samsungs (at least that what I got out of the panel info).

This is most likely my next purchase: http://tinyurl.com/6o8ep5w
Catleap and Achieva, a couple of no-names that ship straight out of Korea (the good one). From the couple hundred pages I've read on that forum thread, these appear to be very good IPS monitors, made with the same panel found in iMacs for a fraction of the price. They are currently around $300 brand new on ebay.

There is a review of the Achieva here http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/20 … qh270.html

LG has a line of IPS monitors that are reasonably priced.


http://www.lg.com/us/ips-monitors
http://www.lg.com/ca_en/computer-produc … hyips.html
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/09/lg-ips … s-monitor/
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/07/lg-ips7-monitors/