How Much Difference a Monitor Makes

[F8&Bthere]

Up until recently I was doing all my photo work on a very inexpensive Acer 22" LCD monitor. Then when I upgraded my digital darkroom (basically was forced to separate my work/earning money PC workstation from my graphics/hobby PC workstation) I did a bit of research and learned a bit about different types of LCD panels (TN vs IPS, etc). So I arrived at the Dell Ultrasharp 2009WA and wow what a nice little monitor for the price! But the amazing thing is that I never expected to see such a difference going from one 22" LCD to another. It's to the point that my good photos look even better, my bad ones are almost worse (because now it's even easier to see when the subject is soft or out of focus), and most images gained so much more depth and detail that I almost don't need to do any more post processing to get them the pop that my eyes yearn for. Now I look back at images I post processed using the old monitor and some look unnecessarily overdone (like too much pushing of detail and sharpness using software and PS plug-ins etc).

On a semi related note, this is an example of why it's good to have a program like Lightroom that does nondestructive editing- I can always undo or redo what I've done now that I am able to see things anew.

[zenon5940]

Thanks for sharing this F8. I'm looking for a good monitor and sure will investigate the model you mention amongst others.

Thanks again.
Clement

[Marko]

I agree F8 - i invested in the Eizo CG222W a few months back and I see a HUGE difference between that and my pretty good NEC monitor. The main visible difference is brightness...the NEC is much (artificially) brighter.
The CG222W is not the perfect monitor but I am very happy with it.

[Iguanasan]

Which explains why everyone thinks my photos are dark. I'm post processing on my laptop. Mind you it's the Dell premium screen but it's just a laptop. All my post-processing is done with Picasa which is also non-destructive so I can always re-edit at a later date if I get a better monitor. For now, I have to work at getting a better shot out of the camera and then I won't have to do as much PP work

[F8&Bthere]

Thanks for sharing this F8. I'm looking for a good monitor and sure will investigate the model you mention amongst others.

Thanks again.
Clement

You're quite welcome. The 2209WA was out of stock in USA and Canada at the time I bought mine, and I was forced to pay a bit more to get one off eBay. But they might be back in stock now, I'd check dell.ca for details. But just make sure you don't get fooled by the 2209W - it is not the same and not as good as the ultrasharp WA version. I looked around Canada (through the internet) for any IPS type panels and everything I found was much more $$$, like $800+, whereas the Dell 2209WA is about CA$300 - 350. You can also search around redflagdeals.com for threads on this monitor. I did a fair amount of research and everything kept pointing to this unit as much as I tried to find something that was easier to get, like just driving out to the local Best Buy.

[Yisehaq]

If I may be allowed to ask one of my idiotic quesitons I would like to ask about the relationship of the grayscale bar (which you see if you scroll down to the botton of this forum) and the quality of the monitor which you are seeing it on. Does it in anyway suggest that if you can see all the grades of the bar that your monitor is okay??
On mine I see a good grading from 8(225) downwards but the difference is little from 9(255) to 8(225). How can I imporve it if possible?

[tomorrowstreasures]

If I may be allowed to ask one of my idiotic quesitons I would like to ask about the relationship of the grayscale bar (which you see if you scroll down to the botton of this forum) and the quality of the monitor which you are seeing it on. Does it in anyway suggest that if you can see all the grades of the bar that your monitor is okay??
On mine I see a good grading from 8(225) downwards but the difference is little from 9(255) to 8(225). How can I improve it if possible?

THAT is a great query!!!

I wonder if they make a really, really good monitor that has a calibrator built in????? That would solve a lot my issues and probably yours too!

[F8&Bthere]

Well I'm far from being an expert but I came across three things that I noted in my decision:
#1- the type of panel (TN vs IPS vs another type I forget at them moment) seemed to be mostly about the viewing angles. TN is just the common type. IPS has a wider viewing angle. To me, now that I have an IPS, I notice as I raise and lower my head position it doesn't change in brightness or contrast like my other monitor does
#2- I did notice some monitors advertising a wider colour gamut than others.
#3- and this might be more just a feature of any good monitor regardless of panel type, but I notice a big improvement in clarity and depth- it's like switching a TV channel from a standard broadcast to a High Definition broadcast.

I think if you see all the subtle gradations in a grayscale test strip that is a good thing, but I don't think it tells the whole story.

As for calibration....I am awaiting delivery of a Pantone Huey calibrator I picked up off...you guessed it...eBay... for $75 delivered. So for you bargain hunters out there- if you find the Dell 2209WA at $300 and take advantage of Dell's constant coupons deals and promos- you could feasibly have a nice little 22" calibrated monitor for about $350ish (say $275 on deal for the monitor and $75 for a Huey, I think Dell does free delivery in Canada and USA). The Huey I got off a seller in Ontario Canada called Prodigital2000

[Marko]

Most monitors are multipurpose, period.
This means that they are specifically designed to do to a little bit of everything and in general are way too bright. This is bad for photography, as "photography monitors" are specifically developed for to look at images not games and are considerably less bright than gaming or multipurpose monitors.

Now bad is a relative term...I worked on a medium grade monitor for a good 6 years before i got this puppy (Eizo CG222W). But now that I'm looking at and critiquing other people's images daily, and starting to print more frequently, I felt I needed a kick butt monitor. I paid a hefty 1500 bucks CAD for this sucka but I do not regret it for a millisecond.

The best idea is to get a good monitor for photography and calibrate it. Second best, calibrate whatever you have. There are ways to calibrate even a crappy monitor and this is what I suggest as a minimum.

For people new to calibration, Joe Brady of MacgroupUS helped us with this in 2 podcasts a few months back.

http://www.photography.ca/blog/?p=223 - Monitor printer calibration
http://www.photography.ca/blog/?p=263 - Ixtreme and colormunki review plus photoshop dialog box for printing demystified.

In terms of the tonal bar at the bottom of the forum pages. On my Eizo I can clearly see the differences in tone between all the boxes except the last 2 dark boxes on the right. Those boxes I can see the difference but I have to work at it.

Yishaq - You likely cannot see the the white boxes on the left because your monitor is too bright. Calibration may help quite a bit.

TT - The Eizo that I bought comes with its own colour calibration software and is built into the monitor. You'll still need to buy a spectrophotometer though (the device that attaches to the monitor and reads its colour output)

Hope that helps - Marko