Monitor for Pro Photographer

N

notsane

Gawd
Joined
May 23, 2007
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I have a friend looking to get into pro digital photography. Need to get a color accurate 24" monitor and some kind of inexpensive color calibration digital "eye" system. She will not play games or watch movies on this screen. Will probably go with a pre-built computer from Dell or somesutch. I will make sure it can run 1920x1200 and have DVI. Hopefully we don't have to break the bank thinking $400-$700 would do it.

Thanks!
 
For digital photography, particularly if she will be using the ProPhoto RGB or AdobeRGB modes, I'd recommend the 24" HP LP2475w. It's wide-gamut so there should be no problem working in those extended color spaces. The monitor can be had for $560 on eBay.

As far as the colorimeter, take a look at this website which compares several calibration tools.
 
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Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP - $500 or so
HP LP2475w - $600 or so
NEC LCD2490WUXi-BK - $1000+

These are listed in order of quality. Not surprisingly, better quality costs more. The Dell 2408WFP probably is sufficient for her needs.

I don't know too much about what calibrators are appropriate.
 
Hey! What do you mean "you people"? :p

Btw, if you buy the monitor on eBay you can use live search to get 14% cashback.
 
a pro is gonna want a wide-gamut monitor since it wreaks havoc with soft-profing for the web or view on most computers.

check this thread for more infor about that

http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00RUHP

Wide-gamut might work better in windows7 but a lot matters if the Photographer's work is going on the internet or not.

The bt.709/ebu REC.709 gamut used for astc and blu-ray is the same colormetery as sRGB. OSX and windows are using sRgb for the system colorspace and so does the internet

here is some info about color managing wide gamut displays

http://www.gballard.net/photoshop/srgb_wide_gamut.html

the long and short of it is wide-gamut display are benefical mostly if the work is just going to be printed but not so good for work going to the web.

look for a s-ips screen and get either the spyder3 or i1display2 colormeter or newer since the cheaper ones have old calibration software or very slow sensors tha have touble with dark colors wand wide -gamuts.
 
This is what I am going to reccommend.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Kit with Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens $3500
Extra memory cards and batteries

Gateway - Desktop FX6800-01e $1100

From Newegg:
HP LP2475w Black-Silver 24" 6 ms (GTG); 12ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail $600
WD WD6400AAKS 640GB (Two, one for downloading images and one for backup, the computer has hotswap trays) $75 each
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 Memory F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ $94
Logitech G5 7 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Laser Mouse - Retail $50
XTRAC PADS Ripper Optical Mouse pad - Retail $14


X-Rite i1 Display 2 Monitor Color Correction with i1Match 3.6 Software - Retail $220
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 - Retail $290
Adobe PhotoShop CS4 RES - Retail $700

Total $6650 + Tax
 
Definitely Eizo. Eizo is the reference for graphic work and has a huge amount of nice setting options.
 
notsane said:
This is what I am going to reccommend.
...
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 Memory F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ $94
...
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You don't mention an OS, but for that amount of RAM I assume you're also specifying a 64-bit OS, otherwise you're wasting 2GB (actually more like 2.5GB-3GB). If you do go 64-bit, I'd recommend Vista over XP, because XP-64 is half baked and Vista has better color management out of the box. Also make sure that all drivers and software she'll depend on are 64-bit compatible/friendly.

EDIT: duh, nevermind -- I see now the PC you quoted comes with 64-bit Vista. Carry on then! Great monitor, btw, I have one. ;)
 
There are a couple of really good deals on OCZ DDR3-1600 at Amazon.com. There are a couple of 6GB kits, including one for $107 shipped, $57 AR that's CAS 7. Lifetime warranty. Great RAM. I'd get that over the G.Skill, just make sure you send the rebate off quick. OCZ doesn't give much time.

Check [H]otDeals.
 
mistar said:
Definitely Eizo. Eizo is the reference for graphic work and has a huge amount of nice setting options.
Click to expand...

In the same price range NEC is the better choice
Eizo = mostly PVA panels (except some very high end models)
NEC = mostly IPS (except some lower end models)


In addition to the HP the LG Electronics Flatron W2600HP could also be a IPS wide gamut low budget option.

With calibrators depending on the need the i1display2 might not add features you will use over the cheaper i1displayLT.
The sensor is the same, only the calibration options of the LT are stripped down to standard presets which might be sufficient if all you're gonna do is calibrating to 2.2 or 1.8 gamma and 6500K or 5000K white..
 
Benny said:
In addition to the HP the LG Electronics Flatron W2600HP could also be a IPS wide gamut low budget option.
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You have to be careful when recommending this monitor. The IPS model is virtually (entirely?) nonexistent in north america, and is easily confused with the TN version that costs nearly as much.
 
nomu said:
You have to be careful when recommending this monitor. The IPS model is virtually (entirely?) nonexistent in north america, and is easily confused with the TN version that costs nearly as much.
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Ooops, sorry bout that.. W2600HP-BF (rev.2) is a nice monitor but there really only seem to be TN W2600H-PF in the US. >_<; (I wonder if they deliberately named them confusingly)
 
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