Which monitor do you have and how do you like it?

[Norberto Arquilevich]

After much reading about it I deecided to upgrade my 7 year old monitor for a Samsung 215TW (my first LCD) and I am having problems adjusting to it. I like the wide screen a lot, but find the text (clear type checked) kind of course and hard to read. When viewing old photos, the shadows seem to show a lot less detail and look pretty plugged up.

As I can still return my Sumsung, would like to hear your experience and advice. May be it is a matter of settings, or just getting used to it or may be is just the nature of LCD's.

May be I should return it or exchange it for a.....?

I thank you for your help, Norberto

 

[AcuraCL]

Forgive some possibly offensive questions.

What resolution are you running?

What bit depth?

Is it calibrated?

 

[Norberto Arquilevich]

No offence at all.

I am running the monitor at 1680x1050

How do you set (or know) bit depth? What's recommended?

The monitor is not calibrated.

 

[AcuraCL]

In Windows, it's the Color Quality setting in the Display settings control panel (right-click on desktop, select Properties). Should be set to "highest" or "true color".

 

[Norberto Arquilevich]

32 bit

 

[digitalshooter]

--
Thanks,

Digitalshooter!

Member of the 7D and Beercan Cult! Looking for a muffler for my 7D!

The light at the end of the tunnel is becoming clearer and its calling me to the darkside!

 

[AcuraCL]

Well, I have a Viewsonic w/s myself, and I like it, but that Samsung is a fine LCD (8-bit) so it should look better than the OP is seeing.

 

[AcuraCL]

Do you have Adobe Gamma in your Control Panels? It's not quite "calibration," but it can be better than no calibration at all ....

 

[digitalshooter]

played havoc on my old eyes.

--
Thanks,

Digitalshooter!

Member of the 7D and Beercan Cult! Looking for a muffler for my 7D!

The light at the end of the tunnel is becoming clearer and its calling me to the darkside!

 

[Hosebag]

There is a free program out there called "clear tweak" that will let you set the clear type settings lower than Microsoft sets it at. This is supposed to look better on LCD screens. Microsoft setting is 1400, and Clear Tweak recommends 1100 for LCD's.

I have a Samsung 204b monitor and I didn't like the screen on it, until I got another free program called "Quick Gamma". This lets you set your gamma at 1.8, 2.0, or 2.2 in one click. It works by setting the registers in the video drivers, but what a world of difference! I think I will keep the monitor now.
If you can't find these, email me and I will send you copies.

[email protected]

 

[discusjoe]

I have brand new Samsung 244T and a 214T which show exactly what you have described. Both of these monitors have S-PVA panels which have a tendency to show less shadow detail when viewed straight on. When viewing from the side, these panels will reveal a lot more shadow detail which is puzzling.

I believe this may be a symptom of PVA panels which is one of the reasons why photographers prefer monitors with S-IPS panels.

jojo

--



Photography is a never ending tug of war in compromises.

 

[Norberto Arquilevich]

Any suggestion on a replacement (a wide screen if possible)?

TIA, Norberto

 

[NewsyL]

I also have a 215TW and generally think it is fine.

However, I just found this interesting LCD test page.

http://www.lagom.nl/display-test/

On my 215TW, with what I thought was a decent calibration without the use of a Spyder or Eye One but using the pages I've posted here previously, I can see all the "Display Gamma RGB" value rectangles on the far left of the samples though I'm not sure I can distinguish between the two on the farthest left. I can however clearly distinguish them on the right.

How does yours compare?

PS... the thread in which I posted a number of online resources for calibrating monitors > > http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1004&thread=21363588

--
Newsy

 

[KillBill]

Acer 20' wide-screen - perfect!
I reccomend it

 

[Norberto Arquilevich]

Any more suggestions?

Norberto

 

[DavidC]

...and it's great. Unfortunately they don't make them anymore. Pity.

David
http://www.davidcolepictures.co.uk

 

[ResB]

I have the Sony SDM-P234. It's a 23" LCD and frankly it is a lovely piece of kit. For it's age, about 18 months I think it hasn't missed a beat. 16ms Response time, 600:1 Contrast ration and with a WUXGA panel with a native resolution of 1920 x 1200. No dead/stuck pixels.

Love it.

 

[Max Leung]

In Europe the equivalent is the 20WGX2, but missing the video inputs and no HDCP.

It is a 20.1" widescreen LCD monitor. 1680x1050, 6 ms response time, and has an AS-IPS 8-bit panel.

Out of the box the colors match sRGB closely - D6300K across the gray scale. When compared to a fully calibrated source, it is very slightly greenish. No color bleed in grayscale patterns, and no gradation/banding (check http://www.lcdresource.com for what those mean) if left in Native color mode and brightness turned down.

After calibration with an Eye One Pro there is a tiny bit of banding, but in practice you will not see in real-world pictures. This is to be expected on all monitors with 8 bit LUTs - and most calibration software modify the videocard's LUTs, which are always 8 bit when using DVI output.

It is a great monitor - shadow detail is constant no matter what angle you look at. Color shifting isn't noticeable within 60 degrees of center, with slight violet bleed when looking at the corners from a high angle. Far far better than TN panels and an improvement over S-PVA and MVA panels.

It has a glossy screen which may not be desirable - but I have no problems with it and makes images look vivid and appears to improve contrast, even when the measuring instrument doesn't think so.

This monitor also happens to be great for gaming - ghosting is very small, comparable to the fastest LCD gaming monitors, but with better color reproduction.

It does NOT have portrait mode. You can remove the stand and buy an aftermarket stand to get that feature.

After lowering the brightness to 10.9% and contrast set to 91%, I measured a contrast ratio of 1000:1, with black level at 0.15 cd/m^2, and pure white at 150 cd/m^2 - a bit brighter than what some photographers prefer, 100 cd/m^2.

This monitor is probably the best widescreen 20" LCD on the market right now.