Monitor recommendations for amateur photographer

[silk186]

My friend is getting into photography and post-processing and is looking for a display to connect to his laptop.

I've recommended a Dell UltraSharp 27. He will watch some movies on it, edit photos and probably do some office type work on it. He doesn't play video games.

It seems that dell dominates in the 27" non-gaming recommendation.
What other options can I recommend him to look at in the sub-£500 range?

 

[Larry Gilmore]

If you want to know about best gaming monitor under 500euro in 2017 here in this article have great monitors. I will recommend you BenQ EW2770QZ its price is in your range and also have 27inch and slim also.

 

[silk186]

As stated above, he doesn't play games.

 

[Spamalope]

I'm a photographer and game (but not super twitch games).

I used an HP 3065LP and then switched to an HP ZR30w. 2560x1600 30 inch screen, IPS (great viewing angles, accurate color). Both are wide gamut, the ZR30 is 100% Adobe, the 3065 is around halfway between sRGB and Adobe. Noticeably better color than a normal screen.

Both have no scaler so zero scaler delay, at the expense of on screen menus. It's only a 60HZ display, but the panel is fairly fast. They require a dual link connection, so you'd need to verify the laptop can do that or has displayport (and you get the ZR30).

It's the best I've found for a single screen that does accurate color; has good viewing angles; is big and can game.

I've been looking for a 4k screen with about the same pixel density, but at the moment there is nothing on the market like that. (you can get 4k, but not accurate color or low lag, though the lag situation is improving) Zisworks is working on 4k larger screens that can game, but they won't have wide gamut color. (I may do that and go to a two screen setup and keep the ZR30 for color editing)

 

[dholcombe]

The Samsung chg70 may be worth looking at depending on if it's discounted from MSRP. It's a 2560 x 1440 curved monitor which makes it a no for me, but it has good color accuracy although it doesn't cover 100% of Adobe rgb it covers will more than 100% of srgb which is what you're most likely to be working in.

Dell usually has a good wide gamut monitor or two which they used to market using the term premier color. Not all ultra sharps have good color. Not sure what they currently have on offer, but I'm still using an old Dell u2711. New ones are likely to be over the price range. Not sure if Dell sells refurbished models in your country, but that is how I got mine within my budget at the time.

I would recommend some kind of hardware color calibration as well if your friend is going to get serious about amateur photography.

 

[aeliusg]

Dell UltraSharp is a good recommendation, as long as the particular model is IPS (with stable color at all viewing angles). He will want to get a color calibration device (used preferably) if he is doing anything semi-serious with photos so as to have a reliable reference for what he is seeing.

 

[geok1ng]

Dell UltraSharp 27

A very precise suggestion, but a bit expensive.

HP ZR30w

Dual link DVI is a PITA to connect in 2017, and particularly hard to do from a laptop. also CCFL backlight ages, so regular hardware calibrations are mandatory. Lacks a sRGB mode.

Samsung chg70

It is a VA panel, with horizontal gamma shift, not recommended for photo work

recommend some kind of hardware color calibration

get a low cost one and use a 3rd party software to add features .

Finally i would recommend a IPS quantum dot display.

 

[DanNeely]

HP ZR30w.

Dual link DVI is a PITA to connect in 2017, and particularly hard to do from a laptop. also CCFL backlight ages, so regular hardware calibrations are mandatory. Lacks a sRGB mode.

The HP ZR30w also has a displayport input, but it's a 7 yo design. Unless you can get a used one local and really cheap I'd probably give it a pass. That goes double for anything old enough to be DVI only; there are no non-flakey DP-DLDVI adapters and we're probably only a year or three from DVI being phased out by desktop GPU makers.

 

[Criticalhitkoala]

pretty much any ultra sharp is what I suggest. Been a photographer for 15 years. Did most of my editing on a 3007wfp.

 

[silk186]

Thanks for the recommendations, I will pass them on to my friend.
He actually bought the hardware color calibration already in anticipation of the upgrade.