# Need your advice to upgrade my PC monitor



## Emopunk

Hi all. 

After reading your forum for a while and learning a lot, I tought it was time for my first post. I currently own a Samsung T220. I was considering upgrading it to a more photo editing oriented device. IPS panels seem to be the main trend at the moment. Do you have any good advice on a device possibly below 250€?


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## DunimDer

I would advise you here this model, Dell UltraSharp U2412M. Beautiful, clean design, great, natural white color, pleasant, more faithful color compared to the TN matrix. Convenient stand, a very important point in the work does not get hot, and stays cold. Low power consumption. The eyes do not get tired. You sit and sit behind it and everything is OK!


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## Emopunk

DunimDer said:


> I would advise you here this model, Dell UltraSharp U2412M. Beautiful, clean design, great, natural white color, pleasant, more faithful color compared to the TN matrix. Convenient stand, a very important point in the work does not get hot, and stays cold. Low power consumption. The eyes do not get tired. You sit and sit behind it and everything is OK!



Thank you so much. I lost hopes that someone would ever reply. Very appreciated!


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## Replytoken

I am partial to NEC's IPS panels.  You may want to see what models are available from them where you live.  You may also want to set some money aside for calibration hardware/software.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## Emopunk

Replytoken said:


> I am partial to NEC's IPS panels.  You may want to see what models are available from them where you live.  You may also want to set some money aside for calibration hardware/software.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> --Ken



I bought a Spyder 4 Pro one month ago. One of the best devices I have ever spent money on! What NEC models would come into play according to you?


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## Victoria Bampton

Sorry Emopunk, please feel free to bump a thread if we miss it!   I was able to pick up an end-of-line NEC for my parents recently at a great price.  The MultiView and SpectraView ones are excellent.  I've been fairly happy with my Dell U2311H, although it's definitely not as neutral as my EIZO.


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## Emopunk

Victoria Bampton said:


> Sorry Emopunk, please feel free to bump a thread if we miss it!   I was able to pick up an end-of-line NEC for my parents recently at a great price.  The MultiView and SpectraView ones are excellent.  I've been fairly happy with my Dell U2311H, although it's definitely not as neutral as my EIZO.



Hi Victoria, and thanks for replying. I just had a look at MultiSync[SUP]®[/SUP] EA244WMi. It seems another good candidate for me. I understand your appreciation for EIZO, altough they are a bit out of budget at the moment  The NEC here in Italy costs about 100€ above the U2412M. It would be nice to know if it's worth the difference..
One more doubt I grew while researching for these panels, is that in this review: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2412m.htm 
they say it covers 95,8% of sRGB space. Weird enough, when calibrated with the Spyder 4 Pro, my old Samsung T220 ends up covering 99% of such gamut (according to the Spyder software). I then wonder wheter it would be a downgrade or I am wrong in such a comparison. Looking forward for your reactions, people!!


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## Replytoken

Emopunk said:


> I bought a Spyder 4 Pro one month ago. One of the best devices I have ever spent money on! What NEC models would come into play according to you?



I am using an older 2090UXi, as well as a 20WMGX2, so it would be hard for me to recommend any current models.  Just make sure that the models you consider have some variation on an IPS panel.  NEC also sells TN panels for office use.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## Victoria Bampton

I'd be more concerned about how neutral the monitor is, rather than the gamut covered.  NEC have an excellent name in that regard.


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## Emopunk

Victoria Bampton said:


> I'd be more concerned about how neutral the monitor is, rather than the gamut covered.  NEC have an excellent name in that regard.



I understand.. Is there any objective parameter to esteem screen's neutrality?


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## Victoria Bampton

A trained eye's about as good as it gets.  Having a B&W image with a full range of tones helps you spot a cast.


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## Emopunk

Victoria Bampton said:


> A trained eye's about as good as it gets.  Having a B&W image with a full range of tones helps you spot a cast.



Thank you again Victoria. Do you and other users here find it useful to adopt a dual monitor setup when working in LR? I was considering trying the setup with my old and upcoming monitor together.


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## clee01l

Emopunk said:


> Thank you again Victoria. Do you and other users here find it useful to adopt a dual monitor setup when working in LR? I was considering trying the setup with my old and upcoming monitor together.


Happiness  is a new IPS monitor. I've been using dual monitors with LR for so long, that I would find it difficult to manage LR with out two monitors. Yesterday, I replaced my 26" HDTV with a new IPS ASUS 27" monitor. My primary monitor is the 27" iMac. So now I have two IPS monitors that can be calibrated to give the same rendition on either monitor. I'm quite pleased to have 2560x1440 resolution on both my monitors now.


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## Victoria Bampton

I live with 3 monitors most of the time, not for Lightroom but just generally.  It's like working on a bigger desk - more room to spread out.  I couldn't go back to 1!


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## Emopunk

Victoria Bampton said:


> I live with 3 monitors most of the time, not for Lightroom but just generally.  It's like working on a bigger desk - more room to spread out.  I couldn't go back to 1!



I can see your point.. Just out of curiosity, which one is the main screen when working on a triple setup?


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## Victoria Bampton

For me, the middle one.


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## Emopunk

Victoria Bampton said:


> For me, the middle one.


 Ok.. Thanks to you and all the other contributors. I think I am going to buy this second monitor ASAP.


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## clee01l

Emopunk said:


> Ok.. Thanks to you and all the other contributors. I think I am going to buy this second monitor ASAP.


You said that you already have an old monitor. You can use it for a total of two. LR is only going to use two monitors.  I've had three when one of them was a laptop, the others were an HP 22" and a 26" HDTV.  When I got the iMac, I replaced the HP 22" with the iMac 27" and as of my earlier post I replaced the 26" HDTV with a 27" ASUS. I've run out of desk space or I would keep the HDTV in the lineup.


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## Emopunk

clee01l said:


> You said that you already have an old monitor. You can use it for a total of two. LR is only going to use two monitors.  I've had three when one of them was a laptop, the others were an HP 22" and a 26" HDTV.  When I got the iMac, I replaced the HP 22" with the iMac 27" and as of my earlier post I replaced the 26" HDTV with a 27" ASUS. I've run out of desk space or I would keep the HDTV in the lineup.



Yes it's what I plan to do. I will set the new 24 IPS as my main screen and my "old" 22  TN as secondary display. Both will be calibrated with the Spyder 4 Pro.


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## Emopunk

Ok.. Time for an update. Some days ago I received my Dell u2412m. Seems like a great display so far. Nothing to complain about until now. My difficulty is that altough I calibrated both the Dell and the Samsung T220, the latter doesn't seem quite to match the colours/vibrancy of the  Dell. Is that an impossible mission what I'm looking for because of the different technologies? The T220 seems to have a yellowish/dull tint in the whites when compared and another big difference is in the blues, where the Dell seems to be so much better. At this point I wonder if I can go on with both or I should try to sell the T220 and buy another u2412m. Any feedback will be appreciated as always!!


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## clee01l

Emopunk said:


> ...altough I calibrated both the Dell and the Samsung T220, the latter doesn't seem quite to match the colours/vibrancy of the  Dell. Is that an impossible mission what I'm looking for because of the different technologies?...


Yes, Mission Impossible. I lived with an iMac and a Samsung monitor sided by side for about a year.  It was frustrating that I could never get the Samsung to a brightness level to match the IPS. I used the IPS  monitor for critical color work and softproofing and the nonIPS for general work.  As stated earlier I now have two IPS monitors. They still do not calibrate identically, but they are close and the color tint is indistinguishable if viewed separately.


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## Emopunk

I see.. Seems like I'll have to live with it for the time being. Thanks for replying!


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## Victoria Bampton

With Basiccolor software, you can use your current calibration puck, but have a lot more control over the calibration.  I had one cheap monitor that was always much pinker than the good ones, even after calibration, and found it distracting.  I manually tweaked the monitor profile for that cheap monitor using Basiccolor and got an almost exact match in the end.  Depends how much it bugs you...


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## Emopunk

Victoria Bampton said:


> With Basiccolor software, you can use your current calibration puck, but have a lot more control over the calibration.  I had one cheap monitor that was always much pinker than the good ones, even after calibration, and found it distracting.  I manually tweaked the monitor profile for that cheap monitor using Basiccolor and got an almost exact match in the end.  Depends how much it bugs you...



Hi Victoria. I see on their website that the software costs 100€ at the moment. I think I will see if there's a free alternative (most probably not )


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## Victoria Bampton

You could use the trial to get a one off calibration - if it's not your main monitor, an old good profile will be better than a new slightly-off-color one.


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## Emopunk

Victoria Bampton said:


> You could use the trial to get a one off calibration - if it's not your main monitor, an old good profile will be better than a new slightly-off-color one.



That sounds like a solid advice. Is there any specific function in the program that I should investigate in order to match the two monitors? Thanks a lot!


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## Victoria Bampton

Yeah, once you've got profiled it, there's an advanced section which allows you to tweak the curves themselves.  I found my Dell was always a little pink compared to the EIZO, so shifting the green curve slightly got it a lot closer. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough not to be a distraction.  If it was your mani monitor, it would rather defeat the object of calibrating, but I've found it works nicely to get extra cheaper monitors to match in.


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## jameschowe

*Dell 27"*



Emopunk said:


> Hi all.
> 
> After reading your forum for a while and learning a lot, I tought it was time for my first post. I currently own a Samsung T220. I was considering upgrading it to a more photo editing oriented device. IPS panels seem to be the main trend at the moment. Do you have any good advice on a device possibly below 250€?



looking back through my youtube suscriptiions page a mate of mine did a review of a Dell s204L 27" monitor, he went mad 3x Dell 3x Apple Cinema 27" from the video and reviews they look quite a good choice 
tell me what you think Dell S2740L 27 inch Monitor Unboxing

this may also help you in your search http://computers.toptenreviews.com/monitors/ - top 10 monitors of 2013 so far

hope this helps in making your choice -  
James


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## camner

clee01l said:


> Happiness  is a new IPS monitor. I've been using dual monitors with LR for so long, that I would find it difficult to manage LR with out two monitors. Yesterday, I replaced my 26" HDTV with a new IPS ASUS 27" monitor. My primary monitor is the 27" iMac. So now I have two IPS monitors that can be calibrated to give the same rendition on either monitor. I'm quite pleased to have 2560x1440 resolution on both my monitors now.



Cletus, which 27" ASUS IPS monitor did you get?  There seem to be two: the ASUS PA279Q or the PA278Q?  Both are IPS, but the PA279Q is significantly more expensive.  One of its claims to fame seems to be that it is "factory calibrated."  I'm not exactly sure how that works...isn't the whole point of calibration to ensure than things work right in one's personal environment?


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## clee01l

camner said:


> Cletus, which 27" ASUS IPS monitor did you get?  There seem to be two: the ASUS PA279Q or the PA278Q?  Both are IPS, but the PA279Q is significantly more expensive.  One of its claims to fame seems to be that it is "factory calibrated."  I'm not exactly sure how that works...isn't the whole point of calibration to ensure than things work right in one's personal environment?


I got the PA278Q.  Factory calibration is nothing more than tuning the color using a color calibration tool.  All monitors come from the factory with some calibration testing to make use they are within specs.  Sort of like at the Toyota factory where some bodies meet a higher tolerance and become Lexus.  If you calibrate your monitor to your specs using your calibration tool, you will replace the factory calibration profile with a profile that your tool creates.


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## camner

clee01l said:


> I got the PA278Q.  Factory calibration is nothing more than tuning the color using a color calibration tool.  All monitors come from the factory with some calibration testing to make use they are within specs.  Sort of like at the Toyota factory where some bodies meet a higher tolerance and become Lexus.  If you calibrate your monitor to your specs using your calibration tool, you will replace the factory calibration profile with a profile that your tool creates.



That's what I thought...thanks.  For those of us who personally calibrate monitors, it strikes me that "factory calibration" is marketing hooey and not useful.  (But I do know there are other differences  between the models).


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## camner

It turns out the differences between the Asus PA278Q and PA279Q are definitely NOT simply the "factory calibration."  The PA279Q is a wide-gamut monitor that covers nearly 99% of AdobeRGB (and thus, of course, 100% of sRGB) while the  PA 278Q is a "standard" (or sRGB) monitor.  This is an important difference for those whose work requires a wide-gamut display.

That there is this kind of difference certainly make sense given the difference in price.


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