Which Monitor

[Cloud9]

I would like a 24" lcd for my photography business to complement the new mbp I will be purchasing very soon.

Here's the deal. If I can spend under $500 then that is fantastic. Samsung, westing house, and Acer, and a company called KDS all have 24" lcd at or under $500. This makes me happy, it also makes me nervous. I have heard some people people say good things about samsung, but I just want to be sure before I go ahead. I would do dell but it is too much and I have not been able to find their 24" refurbed yet. Samsung seems like the best choice, but I can't tell you that it is for any logical reasons, only a feeling.

Advice is appreciated, thanks.

 

[chrisbeebops]

Most of the cheaper displays use lower quality LCD panels (usually 6bit TN panels). 6bit TN panels cannot natively display all colors that an 8bit display can, but can come close through the use of dithering. If you plan on using the display for photography, you might need an 8bit display which has better color reproduction.

 

[cometa]

depends what your doing...

for someone like me, price is the most important, size second, and actual specs last. i've never seen an lcd monitor that didn't look pretty good. i would go with the biggest/cheapest one and see how it looks. i bet it looks good enough to be worth the price. although if you're doing digital imaging/video stuff, you might need something with "good" specs.

 

[ab2650]

... i've never seen an lcd monitor that didn't look pretty good.

I have, and it brought tears to my eyes. I'm not going to say that price isn't an important factor for most people, but for someone like me who needs to firmly be planted in front of the thing 8+ hours per day, expected to reproduce accurate color, I'd say spend the extra cash for something nicer.

If the OPs choices are the ones he listed, I would go for the Samsung. Westinghouse is junk. Acer probably is too, and it's been way too long since I've seen a KDS (they didn't make bad CRTs back in the day, but that was back in the day.)

And regarding the 6-bit/8-bit, there's some confusion if all the 24" Dell LCDs are true 8-bit, (versus 6-bit + 2 dither, as in the MBP screen). All I can say is the Dell 2405FPW I have has been a workhorse, and I haven't noticed off-colors, banding, etc that is more likely on a cheaper display. For what it's worth, ever-so-often I notice some poor dithering in real world use on the MBP screen.

Evidently the Dell 2407WFP-HC is true 8-bit according to Wikipedia. If it were my eyes and my choice, I'd save a little extra for something you know is nice (or make sure you have a return policy on the other panels).

 

[jlanuez]

I would like a 24" lcd for my photography business to complement the new mbp I will be purchasing very soon.

Here's the deal. If I can spend under $500 then that is fantastic. Samsung, westing house, and Acer, and a company called KDS all have 24" lcd at or under $500. This makes me happy, it also makes me nervous. I have heard some people people say good things about samsung, but I just want to be sure before I go ahead. I would do dell but it is too much and I have not been able to find their 24" refurbed yet. Samsung seems like the best choice, but I can't tell you that it is for any logical reasons, only a feeling.

Advice is appreciated, thanks.

We also have a photography business and use a 17" C2D MBP with a 30" ACD. In the studio we just (today!) sold a G5 and are replacing that with the new 24" iMAC 2.8GHz.

Maybe your could find a nice used 23" ACD in your price range?
We just sold a 20' ACD on Craig's list for $400.


.

 

[pcuser2]

I like Samsung also , I think they are good at monitors . But just as usual before you make a decision , you'd better got some reviews for the item , if both the brand and the revews are good you can trust in it . Here I want to suggest the Samsung 245BW 24 inch Widescreen LCD Monitor to you :
Contrast Ratio: Dynamic 3000:1, Static 1000:1
Brightness: 400 cd/m²
Response Time: 5 ms
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
This monitor got nice reviews :
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...410&SRCCODE=PRICEGRABBER&CMP=OTC-PRICEGRABBER
But recently a deal on it is for $461 instead of $500:
http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=63216
Hope this helps anyway .