Hi Everyone,
I am in the market for a monitor and I thought NPN is the great place to get some information from photographers.
I have used my MacBook and its small monitor to edit my photos (good quality and I calibrate it). I am not a professional photographer and have not printed many, but I take lots of landscape and architecture photos and of course lots of others as well.
I would like to edit and print some of my photos; some of them for competitions. For this reason, my laptop monitor is very small and part of that is covered with the program that I am using for editing.
My budget is about $500 to $600. Since I do not make money from my photos.
I don't mind getting good but second hand monitors for that price either.
Size: is 24" good enough or should I go to 27"?? I am leaning on 27".
What about brands, resolution, viewing angles etc...
What are you using now and if you want to upgrade what would you go to? (I know some of you are using very expensive monitors like Eizo or NECs but I am talking in my budget area.
In short--save your pennies and buy a nice monitor. Your work deserves the ability for you to be able to see the distinct colors and tonal values, as well as a wide enough color gamut and a screen with near perfect uniformity.
For my money--go NEC. Aside from Eizo, they make the best monitors out there. I have two: A P221W wide gamut (22") (no longer in production), and a brand new PA272W (27"). The 22" inch is attached to my laptop, and the 27" is attached to my workstation. I also use NEC's Spectraview calibration software and the NEC-branded iOne colorimeter with both monitors. The color is spot-on, on both.
Image Science is located in Victoria, Au Here's their address:
Image Science
95 Howard St
North Melbourne
Victoria 3051
Australia
◾Phone: 03 9329 4522
The NEC P and PA-series monitors do cost more, but you'll be happy, rather than cursing yourself for buying a screen that you find wanting.
I hope others will chime in with more suggestions. Good luck in your search.
Thank you so much for the information and your advice.
I was waiting to hear from other photographers as well more on this,
I have done my homework and thinking of getting NEC MultiSync P242W 24" widescreen.
I have found a manufacturer refurbished for about the 60% of the regular price from US that is including the shipment.
This will be my main monitor. I think this will be big enough for my work.
I don't know the differences between the PA an P versions and if 27" is the one that I have to go. PA 27" will cost about $2000. Is that worth the extra $1500?
Many thanks for your help. I am sure I will appreciate it every time I edith an image.
Thanks,
Mo
I looked up the specs at NEC. It is an IPS panel with LED backlight. The specs look pretty good, but you should be aware that this monitor will display only 78.4% of Adobe RGB, and 99.6% of sRGB. If you require a higher percentage of Adobe RGB, then you'll likely need to look at the PA-Series monitors which have better Adobe RGB response.
The cost of the PA-Series monitors is somewhat daunting, I agree, and I agonized over it before I purchased my PA272W. Well, the agony was well worth it, at least to me. The 27" is wonderful to work with and has been a boon for my imaging work. Aside from the accuracy of the color, the extra screen space is most welcome.
I hope others will chime in, since there may be alternatives that will fit your needs at a lower cost.
I would like to thank you for your advice on choosing NEC monitor.
I did a bit research and I really loved the PA272 but it was beyond my budget but still was thinking about it when I cam across a P242W with a very good deal from state (manufacturer refurbished), then I could not ignore it. It was about AUD$600 including shipping. So I ordered and received it last week and I have calibrated using Spider 3 Elite.
I now am confused:
- My laptop monitor looks a bit pale compare to my NEC monitor or I should say the NEC has a very high contrast specially with B+W images. Even images out of camera looks like final image with their contrast. (I have calibrated both monitors). I know NEC monitor is more accurate than my macbook and I should trust it but do I need to change the contrast manually?
- Also, viewing a same image in Adobe RAW and PS looks completely different to each other when viewed in NEC but not in macbook. How is this possible?
- Does calibration corrects everything or should I change some settings manually e.g. contrast, brightness etc....?
- Contract setting is not being highlighted and that means I can not manipulated it! is this normal?
Discussion
4 repliesI am in the market for a monitor and I thought NPN is the great place to get some information from photographers.
I have used my MacBook and its small monitor to edit my photos (good quality and I calibrate it). I am not a professional photographer and have not printed many, but I take lots of landscape and architecture photos and of course lots of others as well.
I would like to edit and print some of my photos; some of them for competitions. For this reason, my laptop monitor is very small and part of that is covered with the program that I am using for editing.
My budget is about $500 to $600. Since I do not make money from my photos.
I don't mind getting good but second hand monitors for that price either.
Size: is 24" good enough or should I go to 27"?? I am leaning on 27".
What about brands, resolution, viewing angles etc...
What are you using now and if you want to upgrade what would you go to? (I know some of you are using very expensive monitors like Eizo or NECs but I am talking in my budget area.
Any information would be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mo
In short--save your pennies and buy a nice monitor. Your work deserves the ability for you to be able to see the distinct colors and tonal values, as well as a wide enough color gamut and a screen with near perfect uniformity.
For my money--go NEC. Aside from Eizo, they make the best monitors out there. I have two: A P221W wide gamut (22") (no longer in production), and a brand new PA272W (27"). The 22" inch is attached to my laptop, and the 27" is attached to my workstation. I also use NEC's Spectraview calibration software and the NEC-branded iOne colorimeter with both monitors. The color is spot-on, on both.
Image Science is located in Victoria, Au Here's their address:
Image Science
95 Howard St
North Melbourne
Victoria 3051
Australia
◾Phone: 03 9329 4522
The NEC P and PA-series monitors do cost more, but you'll be happy, rather than cursing yourself for buying a screen that you find wanting.
I hope others will chime in with more suggestions. Good luck in your search.
--P
Thank you so much for the information and your advice.
I was waiting to hear from other photographers as well more on this,
I have done my homework and thinking of getting NEC MultiSync P242W 24" widescreen.
I have found a manufacturer refurbished for about the 60% of the regular price from US that is including the shipment.
This will be my main monitor. I think this will be big enough for my work.
I don't know the differences between the PA an P versions and if 27" is the one that I have to go. PA 27" will cost about $2000. Is that worth the extra $1500?
Many thanks for your help. I am sure I will appreciate it every time I edith an image.
Thanks,
Mo
I looked up the specs at NEC. It is an IPS panel with LED backlight. The specs look pretty good, but you should be aware that this monitor will display only 78.4% of Adobe RGB, and 99.6% of sRGB. If you require a higher percentage of Adobe RGB, then you'll likely need to look at the PA-Series monitors which have better Adobe RGB response.
The cost of the PA-Series monitors is somewhat daunting, I agree, and I agonized over it before I purchased my PA272W. Well, the agony was well worth it, at least to me. The 27" is wonderful to work with and has been a boon for my imaging work. Aside from the accuracy of the color, the extra screen space is most welcome.
I hope others will chime in, since there may be alternatives that will fit your needs at a lower cost.
--P
Sorry I haven't replied to this for a while.
I would like to thank you for your advice on choosing NEC monitor.
I did a bit research and I really loved the PA272 but it was beyond my budget but still was thinking about it when I cam across a P242W with a very good deal from state (manufacturer refurbished), then I could not ignore it. It was about AUD$600 including shipping. So I ordered and received it last week and I have calibrated using Spider 3 Elite.
I now am confused:
- My laptop monitor looks a bit pale compare to my NEC monitor or I should say the NEC has a very high contrast specially with B+W images. Even images out of camera looks like final image with their contrast. (I have calibrated both monitors). I know NEC monitor is more accurate than my macbook and I should trust it but do I need to change the contrast manually?
- Also, viewing a same image in Adobe RAW and PS looks completely different to each other when viewed in NEC but not in macbook. How is this possible?
- Does calibration corrects everything or should I change some settings manually e.g. contrast, brightness etc....?
- Contract setting is not being highlighted and that means I can not manipulated it! is this normal?
I really appreciate your help in this regard.
Thanks,
Mo