I am after a good 22 or even a 24inch widescreen LCD monitor mainly for PhotoShop, what do you recommend?
Are the cheapies OK?? I am not concerned with response time as it's only for computer use, no DVD's or games, just needs to have decent contrast, res and pixel pitch.
I used to have the Samsung 226BW (22" Wide screen LCD) It had an excellent contrast ratio of 3000:1 (iirc) 2ms response time and above all else, stunning picture quality with colors to match.... The only reason I dont still use it is because I bought a 52" LCD TV that had HDMI in and my computer had HDMI out... so I figured, Why use 22 when I could have 52...
I've never used anything but Samsung LCD's (I've used LCD's since 2000) and I've never had a single issue..
That being said, had I ever encountered a problem, samsungs excellent warranty would be there to back me up...
Most LCD makers require a panel to have a certain amount of dead pixels in order to replace it under warranty, Benq and Acer being the worst allowing 9 dead pixels on a panel, the 10th being grounds for replacement. Samsung garrantee 0 dead pixels, the first one is grounds for a replacement....
I love all the "definitive" one-line answers you get here....
I am IT director for an advertising company, who's business it is to create magazine-quality material for its high-profile customers.
We use a mix of monitors, from Sony Trinitron (yes, still!!! I hope they never die) to Sony 22" high-end LCD and then down to Chinese "Chimei CMV221D" 22" 1680x1050px cheapies for all non-graphically-challenging applications. To be quite honest, these monitors can be bought for around the $400 (or less now) mark and in most Photoshop situations perform adequately well. For the really critical stuff (skin tones and corporate colour work) we use calibrated Sony monitors exclusively. We do, however use the Chimei's for most other PS work and pagination (page layout) in Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress. They are more than adequate, and at a price one hell of a lot less than the Sonys. Resolution is good, colour accuracy is better than average uncalibrated, and the viewing angle isn't bad either. They are proving more reliable than others we have tried on the low-end, such as Benq and LG.
For the money you can't really go wrong. Never had a dead one, or any dead pixels so far, but it's a numbers game with the cheaper machines... The Chinese are definitely getting better at this game.
We use a mix of monitors, from Sony Trinitron (yes, still!!! I hope they never die)
I still have my Sony Trinitron G520 as a backup, and I agree, I hope to hell it never dies.. what a sensational monitor they are... (cheap nowadays too if you can find them..)
I sell a lot of viewsonic 22" wide screens and they have a pretty good price performance ratio. If you don't need response time then you should look at the contrast ratio. Samsung make one with an 8000:1 ratio. (model: 2253 LW or BW)
Dell 27" here. I did have a 22" Dell Widescreen but this blows it out of the water and I don't think I'll ever get a 22" ever again. It cost me $1400 last year in April. Stunning picture quality and great value. The pixel size is slightly larger, but sitting an arms length away isn't too concerning unless you need fine pixel detail.
Components I believe are the same as Samsung. For 22" value, I'd also recommend Samsung.
If you are using Photoshop then whichever one you get - make sure that you can calibrate it.
Some of the cheapies dont seem to calibrate properly (or at least dont work with all software and/or all calibration systems) - the colours are usually not the problem, but the brightness can be a problem and the monitor doesnt seem to be able to accept the profile with respect to a brightness adjustment.
The photographic bureau I used said this was a common problem with the cheaper LCDs when I was trying to track down the problem. (printed images being much brighter than the screen images)
I suspect that it may also have something to do with the calibration system as well - the more expensive the calibration system (or version) the more likely it is to work better.
This will affect your final printed output, as the screen is not representing the real image that the printer is going to get.
In my case it was out by about 15-20%
But this might be difficult to establish before you have bought.
Otherwise the CMV (Chimei) 22" is wonderful value, but dont stop at one - get two.
I haven't dealt with the CMV 22" but I sold a 19" to a cheapskate customer a couple of years back. He was price driven at the time and wanted the cheapest possible.
He bought a samsung 19" off me 2 weeks later to replace it.
I haven't dealt with the CMV 22" but I sold a 19" to a cheapskate customer a couple of years back. He was price driven at the time and wanted the cheapest possible.
He bought a samsung 19" off me 2 weeks later to replace it.
LOL! There's always going to be someone telling us the opposite hey! So you're a Samsung dealer? Sell the man one cheap! Hey Paul - we've found your man!
I must be one of the ultimate "cheapskates", because I bought 14 of the CMVs and haven't had a problem yet after 6 months of service. I'm still going to stand by my decision, which is, yes, of an economic consideration. Do I regret buying them all? Absolutely not - it makes good sense. Even if a couple of them go before our ROI period elapses (12 months) I'll be way ahead on my budget. Somehow I think that most will make it. I have one at home that's been going for a fair few months now - and it gets a 24/7 flogging.
I've had mine for around 3 years at work and at home and have no problems with the reliability or colour but cannot for the life of me accurately calibrate the brightness and dont want to go and buy a $1000 calibration unit if it wont do any better than my $300 SpyderPro.
I've had mine for around 3 years at work and at home and have no problems with the reliability or colour but cannot for the life of me accurately calibrate the brightness and dont want to go and buy a $1000 calibration unit if it wont do any better than my $300 SpyderPro.
Rally
We don't calibrate them at all - well, other than via standard black/white point scales & basic gamma. Here's a good web page on that: http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/index.html
We calibrate our Sonys because they do our final processing. The CMV's do all the grunt stuff.
Apart from the calibration routines mentioned - I think that there is probably too much emphasis from people on this site who worry about calibration to the nth degree. Unless you are working to publish material in a magazine or book, you really shouldn't need to bother with anything more than what is described above for general daily use. This is all that is really required to produce reasonably accurate colours for the web (that is IF there is anyone out there with calibrated monitors looking at your material to begin with).
If you plan to sell images to people who may use them in print later on then you need to consider this and probably go the whole hog and get a mid-to-high end hardware "calibratable" model. Calibration and profiling of output devices is a messy and difficult business, fraught with inconsistency and experimentation. Our good friend here, Peter Ward, found that out just recently...
A very good machine indeed Jase. We replaced a few Eizos we used to have with Sony, but that was only because the bulk deals were better at the time we were looking for replacements. Well, that and the fact that we did a retro campaign deal for a Sony reseller.
(ps. buy a samsung)
So you're a Samsung dealer? Sell the man one cheap! 
Hey Paul - we've found your man! 
