Advise for choosing a low end monitor for photo retouching

[focus627]

Hi fellows, I have been using my laptop for photo retouching for several years. Needless to say its monitor is not good for the job. Consider buying a low end monitor. The buget probably no more than 500 or so, new or second hand I do not mind. What parameters should I look at?

Dell U2311H 23" W UltraSharp Monitor $279. Is it good enough? I m not a fussy man, not making profit from my photos yet, so just want to make photo retouching task a bit easier. Any advise or comments are welcomed. Thanks.

 

[wdEvA]

Hi fellows, I have been using my laptop for photo retouching for several years. Needless to say its monitor is not good for the job. Consider buying a low end monitor. The buget probably no more than 500 or so, new or second hand I do not mind. What parameters should I look at?

Dell U2311H 23" W UltraSharp Monitor $279. Is it good enough? I m not a fussy man, not making profit from my photos yet, so just want to make photo retouching task a bit easier. Any advise or comments are welcomed. Thanks.

The U2311H, though the low price, isn't really a low end monitor.
The IPS panel used would be good for photo editing $500-$279=$221, you might want to add a spyder3pro to calibrator the monitor too.
If you are not sure why you would need a calibrator, google and read up on color management

 

[edutilos-]

Hi fellows, I have been using my laptop for photo retouching for several years. Needless to say its monitor is not good for the job. Consider buying a low end monitor. The buget probably no more than 500 or so, new or second hand I do not mind. What parameters should I look at?

Dell U2311H 23" W UltraSharp Monitor $279. Is it good enough? I m not a fussy man, not making profit from my photos yet, so just want to make photo retouching task a bit easier. Any advise or comments are welcomed. Thanks.

It is pretty decent already.... Good value for money.

Price you pay for quality, as with many other things like cameras, is exponential here.

 

[yrh0413]

The Dell Ultrasharp panel itself is already a decent monitor, but it comes uncalibrated out of the factory. You can get the Spyder3pro with the remaining $200+.

 

[focus627]

Thanks a lot, fellows! I will order one online soon and get a calibrator too.

 

[seanyzf]

Dell UltraSharp 2410 will be better.. 500+ but the colour is top notch + come pre calibrated in factory.

 

[wdEvA]

Dell UltraSharp 2410 will be better.. 500+ but the colour is top notch + come pre calibrated in factory.

pre calibrated isn't useful unless the environment where you use the monitor is exactly the same as what it is at the factory where the monitor was calibrated

 

[seanyzf]

pre calibrated isn't useful unless the environment where you use the monitor is exactly the same as what it is at the factory where the monitor was calibrated

huh??? can you please explain why? Unless you are taking about the ambient light which affect the colour. A monitor will display the same colour anywhere. I dun think it will change it colour with u shift it from the living room and into the bedroom.

 

[sougen]

huh??? can you please explain why? Unless you are taking about the ambient light which affect the colour. A monitor will display the same colour anywhere. I dun think it will change it colour with u shift it from the living room and into the bedroom.

Color calibration is required regardless, if you want to maintain a uniform consistency of how the color looks like, from off your camera to off the Web. Your room may not be color-calibrated as what the factory is.

In short, get a calibrator. Saves you tons of frustrations of the color not being "right."

 

[Peano]

Dell U2311H 23" W UltraSharp Monitor $279. Is it good enough?

Yes, definitely. Check this review. http://www.flatpanelshd.com/review.php?subaction=showfull&id=1275291737

 

[Octarine]

huh??? can you please explain why? Unless you are taking about the ambient light which affect the colour. A monitor will display the same colour anywhere. I dun think it will change it colour with u shift it from the living room and into the bedroom.

You need to calibrate the entire chain. Who says your PC delivers the colours neutrally? Chipsets and their drivers can bring in additional profiles as presets from the manufacturer, resulting in different colour reproduction along the entire system. With a calibration tool like Spyder one can offload any loaded presets in OS / Drivers and get an accurate calibration result.

 

[wdEvA]

huh??? can you please explain why? Unless you are taking about the ambient light which affect the colour. A monitor will display the same colour anywhere. I dun think it will change it colour with u shift it from the living room and into the bedroom.

ambient light affects alot.
it's not only the ambient light that falls on your monitor, but ambient light affects the way your eyes see colors
Monitor will degrade over time, and recalibration will be needed.
Also like what Octarine had mentioned, your system plays a part too.

 

[Miao]

Ips panel monitor is a must for editing purpose, cos the viewing angle is wider and color, contrast, brightness is more consistant.

Imaging those cheap lcd monitor that display different contrast and brightness at different viewing angle .. how r u going to live with that.

Also that note of the color reproduction of the monitor. High end model can produce abt 98% of sRGB color

 

[Reportage]

The Dell may be using IPS but take note that from what i heard its the newer mass produced E-IPS rather then S-IPS.

If your system support, set your monitor and graphic card as well as printer colorspace to SRGB if your camera have option for SRGB. That way, callibration not really needed unless die die need super accurate color or using adobe colorspace workflow..

 

[ellery]

Reportage you should check and read some of the review with reports (text and charts) on each mode ie sRGB, Adobe and look carefully at the calibration report chart. In some cases setting to sRGB mode results in the monitor displaying most parts of the Official sRGB color range, if the monitor had been calibrated in normal mode most time the calibrator will will up with monitor displaying a little more than the Official sRGB color range.

Color accuracy means different things to different people - I accept that. My suggestion is always to get it as accurate as possible - costs for the tools have come down - in past a calibrator was a 4 digit value item; it's now under $400 even if 4 people share one unit - that wow $100 a person.

 

[Octarine]

If your system support, set your monitor and graphic card as well as printer colorspace to SRGB if your camera have option for SRGB. That way, callibration not really needed unless die die need super accurate color or using adobe colorspace workflow..

Well, have you ever calibrated a monitor that came fresh from the shop in standard settings and compared Before and After? You should.. and then review your statement. In short: whatever comes from the shop is far from being accurate and for a proper calibration all elements have to be included. Graphics card drivers comes with prepared profiles, always good to throw off the accuracy.
Secondly: setting camera and software to sRGB has nothing to do with calibrating. Please do some reading for your own good.