Originally posted by: KenSings
Hi - new here, I hope I'm posting correctly
1) HUGE THANKS for all the detailed work and recommendations
2) I don't' see the aforementioned Hot Delas (tons) anywhere (I see the recommendations, though)
Quote from first page:
Jan 21, 2008: Moved Hot Deals ( tons ) and Recommendations to second post
Yeah well I tried to imply that in the change log ("Tons" of deals). There really aren't any right now. There're a lot of cheap LCDs but nothing I'd call a "good deal". Previous good deals have included the 20WMGX2 and 215TW for cheaper prices. I usually only put recommended LCDs up there if they become particularly cheap for whatever reason. That doesn't happen too often because usually the crummy ones go on sale.
3) I'm a photo editor, couldn't care less about speed or latency, but want color and contrast for reasonable price. My best picks are:
ViewSonic VX2435WM (seems some folks have a rebate making it ~$560)
Dell 2407WFP-HC (599 at dell right now)
I'm leaning toward the Dell because of larger color gamut as per digitalversus.
The larger gamut is only a good choice if you do a lot of print matching (more print matching than screen/web target matching). If you do more screen work then go for the VX.
Unfortunately Digitalversus doesn't have contrast info for the ViewSonic, so not sure how contrast stacks up. The grey levels look better on their Dell review. Does anyone want to help sway me in either direction, or recommend something else? (knowing I don't want to go for any higher cost). BTW, I'll be running this alongside a CRT in dual monitor mode. Have NVidia 8400GS if that matters.
The ViewSonic's gamma curve (as per PRAD's review) is hard to beat. Its default color accuracy is quite good. I doubt the Dell (S-PVA) matches and the HC will definitely throw you off if you're not doing mostly print matching and don't know how to set software to use sRGB emulation. With both LCDs you have to make sure you're using the right "OptiColor" or other color-tweaking mode, that is "no tweaking" or "normal". All dynamic contrast/color features off for photo editing.
4) I've searched but not found any info on color calibrators and which one to get. I'm thinking along the lines of $100-200ish, and need dual-monitor support and good operability with Photoshop. That means (I think) Huey Pro, Spyder3Pro, or maybe Eye One Display 2. Does anyone have recommendations or can point me to reviews to help me decide? The Spyder3 seems to brag about having 7 detectors, which if that actually represents 7 color bands may be a good thing, but are they cheating and talking about RGB screen, RGB ambient, plus 1 overall sensor, or are they really reading 7 spectral bands? Anyway, I'd like help determining the best of these for photo editing purposes. I have an old Spyder2 but it doesn't claim to be able to do 2 monitors.
Dual monitor really depends on the software not the colorimeter. (If it's advertised as dual monitor that means the software they offer supports dual monitor.) You might want to use different software anyway like ColorEyes Display or basICColor. That might be too pricey though and really I don't know if those support dual monitors either.
The Spyder3 won't be any better than the Eye One Display 2. But both are a good amount better than the Huey Pro which is really just a beginner's colorimeter. The Huey is sufficient for getting decent colors but you really want the Spyder2-3/Eye One Display 2 for great accuracy.
5) Any good tutorials out there on exactly how to use calibrators with Photoshop to get best results?
Again, Many Many thanks for all the great information.
You'd calibrate the monitor and Photoshop would be affected as well.
With Photoshop you may want to import the ICM profile to let it know of the calibrated gamut of the monitor so that proper transformations can take place (sRGB/Adobe RGB conversions). But sorry I'm probably not the best person to ask about this.
Maybe this will help with the dual monitor stuff:
http://www.northlight-images.c...nitor_calibration.html
According to this the Huey Pro supports dual monitors but so does the Eye One Display 2. I don't know about the Spyder3.
xcalib software on Linux supports two screens so I just do it manually that way and not worry about having requirements but I'm sorry I don't know if Windows supports this. I know xcalib can't do the same on Windows at the moment which made me think it might not be supported on Windows at all.
Edit: as a matter of fact xcalib does support Win32 multimonitor now:
http://www.etg.e-technik.uni-e...doe/xcalib/README.html
Worst case, you would calibrate each monitor one at a time and then grab the calibrated ICM for each (usually in the system32 spool drivers color folder) and manually apply each with xcalib to each monitor, instead of using the calibration software's LUT loader (which can be disabled at startup).