Re: What are the best monitors on the market
Re: What are the best monitors on the market
- Subject: Re: What are the best monitors on the market
- From: Marco Ugolini <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 10:54:19 -0700
In a message dated 7/2/06 7:58 AM, email@hidden wrote:
> When a similar question about "what monitors are good enough for
> color managed usage" was asked this week at the Pro Photo Summit, I brought
> down the house with the comment that one should go to Radio Shack, see what
> models they carried, and then not buy those...
I've come to believe that the field of computer technology is simply too
rapidly changeable for any purchasing advice to be valid for longer than
just a few months at the very best. I don't know of any resources that
constantly keep abreast of all the new offerings either, and make reliable
assessments of what they provide from a professional standpoint. In many
ways, it's the wild west, so hold on to your hat and expect to do some
serious sleuthing on your own!
> It was not simply a joke though; Radio Shack does a very good job of screening
> cost/value ratios and only selling models that are cost efficient for the
> consumer, which makes for a cutoff almost exactly where the serious user wants
> to start looking. A couple of years ago we used to say: over $500 is a good
> starting point, but the Viewsonic $499 monitors that we based that on are now
> available, if you hit the right sale, for $200 and some odd. But there are
> also plenty of $200 and some odd monitors that are not worth color managaging.
With cost-cutting being all the rage in the corporate-influenced world of
design firms in which I work, the pressure is on to look at prices first and
foremost, and I have often had to deal with displays that were cheap *and*
crappy, impossible to color-manage. That, of course, at the same time that I
was expected to provide professional results using such shoddy tools. Well,
another day at the office...
> Another panelist at the Summit suggested that users avoid LCDs below 19
> inches, as they tended to be older technologies, with lower specs, while the
> larger screens tended to be better. Its true that many lines have added their
> 19 inch and larger screens more recently, and that more of them are of a
> quality to color manage, but there is the inverse situation as well, where
> users often look at two units, a good smaller one, and a weaker larger one for
> a similar price, and opt for the larger size, instead of the higher quality.
We're all under the Big Squeeze, and the cheaper offering is often the one
that ends up being chosen, no matter how crass and unwise that choice ends
up being. It's that old Beta-vs-VHS conundrum all over again, and VHS keeps
winning. Sometimes we get lucky, and cheap is also good: yippee!.
> Overall, there is no golden rule here, and its best to let someone else test a
> new model first, and to buy it after someone you know, or whose judgement you
> trust, has given it a good review.
Yes, that's the best advice. Trust professionals who have proven themselves
trustworthy.
Regards.
--------------
Marco Ugolini
Mill Valley, CA
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