PC Monitors for photo editing - IPS? Wide gamut?

[andrewilley]

As you probably know, I'm not a professional photographer, but do want to get the best results from the images I take with my Canon 7D at Disney and elsewhere.

My current main PC monitor is dying so I'm looking for a replacement that will give me decent colour accuracy and shadow detail, etc - 1920x1200 24-inch ideally. I normally shoot RAW and edit in Photoshop (CS6). Not a massive budget to play with, £200-£350 (UK) at the outside.

I'm not too sure how much advantage wide colour gamut will give me in everyday use, and will it work with my DVI-D NVIDIA card or just newer connections such as DisplayPort? I think an IPS panel should be on my wishlist, from looking around the net so far anyway.

I've shortlisted a few, and any comments (or other suggestions) would be appreciated.

• Dell UltraSharp U2413 24 inch PremierColor LED Monitor - Black (1920x1200, 16:10, 60Hz, DVI, DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, USB 3.0)
  
• I've also considered the regular Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24-Inch, which is cheaper and lower colour gamut, but seems to get a lot of positive comments.
• Asus PA248Q 24.1-inch Widescreen IPS Monitor (1920x1200, 6ms, VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort, Pivot, Adjustable Height, True Color)
• Eizo Flexscan EV2436WFS-BK LCD Monitor

Many thanks for any insight you can offer.

Andre

 

[xlxo]

I totally agree with your thoughts about consistency. Pictures and videos on my screens look perfect, but are horrible when I showcase my content with co-workers and friends. I add monitors gradually over time and see different colors when I drag my picture from monitor with different brands.

On a side thought...

• is it worth to get calibration devices like
  http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/798930-REG/X_Rite_EODIS3_i1Display_Pro.html
  http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/838844-REG/Datacolor_S4P100_Spyder4Pro_Software.html
• if so, which one is trueist? When I googled... different devices will yield different colors.
• anyone here use calibration devices? How often do you recheck as monitors degrade over time?

 

[photo_chick]

I only worry about color consistency and detail when I'm printing. If I'm editing photos for the web I'll edit on just about anything. Mainly because I cannot control how other's adjust their monitors or what kind of awful display they are using so i've come to the point where I just don't spend the time on it. Still, it's nice to have my display show my images with accurate color and detail for me. I use an iMac with retina for that reason and my husband uses an ASUS IPS display. I'm leaning toward a Dell for his second display.

I would invest in a calibration system whichever way you go if you do any printing. To me that is where you need to worry about being precise and matching color, tone and gamut.

On a side note.. if you've never had one of these super sharp displays... everything looked out of focus to me when I first got mine. I spent two weeks wallowing in how horribly OOF my work was. Super ultra mega sharp means just that. And it shows every single flaw in an image. Make sure your ego is ready for that as well.

 

[DVC Mike]

I use the Dell U2713HM IPS 27-Inch Screen LED Monitor, and it's pretty nice.

 

[SkaGoat]

Maybe investing in a Datacolor Spyder to calibrate whichever display you choose might be a worth while investment for you.

 

[extreme8]

I have a wide gamut IPS monitor and as long as all of the software you use is color managed it works fine. Non-color managed applications skew towards red pretty badly.
The IPS panel will give you a wider viewing angle with no color shift and probably less important, quicker refresh rates.


If accurate color matters you should absolutely spend a bit on a hardware color management system as recommended by previous posters.
I had the Spyder 3 Elite and, although it was advertised as being compatible with a wide gamut display, I wasn't happy with it. I switched to the X-rite I1Display Pro and it's doing a much better job.

 

[andrewilley]

I've ended up ordering the newer replacement for the U2412, the Dell U2415. It's still a 24" 16:10 IPS screen, but I decided to avoid the complications (and cost) of wide-gamut colour and stick with the higher end of the regular colour mapped screens. It is meant to be supplied pre-calibrated from the factory (with a printed report of the test results) which may mean less work in the short term.

Andre

 

[photo_chick]

Pre-calibration is not accurate for print matching. It's great for generally matching other displays that were calibrated by the same system but it will not match a print lab or inkjet (Although my Apple display was really close to my Epson 2880 straight out of the box). Even with the right ICC profiles you still have to fine tune things most of the time. Some of us are meticulous about that, some are not.