Need great Photo editing monitor

[iso79]

Dells are junk. Avoid them at all costs.

[pierceography]

Dells are junk. Avoid them at all costs.

Seeing as how quite a few of us have Ultra Sharps and find them to be fantastic displays, do you care to elaborate on this?

A blanket statement of, "[product] are junk" without any actual proof or underlying reasons for your opinion isn't very helpful sentiment.

And to play devil's advocate (at least a bit), I've worked in the IT industry for quite awhile, and have had mostly negative experiences with Dell products.  In fact, I'm currently typing this post on a Dell laptop (company provided) with a battery that hasn't been able to hold a charge in over a year, and a fried touch pad.  Oh, and it cost over $1,700 18 months ago.  So I generally don't hold Dell in a very high regard.  However, I read up on the Ultra Sharps before I hesitantly bought one, and have been very happy with the purchase.

[nitelife2]

+1 for Dell Ultrasharps

[LetTheRightLensIn]

I am looking to buy a great photo editing monitor for still pictures, I dont know much in this area and could really use some input on what other people are using and like. I have an ati firepro v4800 graphics card and want a monitor that supports 1.07 billion colors.
Thanks in advance

NEC PA series 24"+ are really good, 14bit internal 3D LUT, 100% perfect sRGB emulation modes (more perfect sRGB than sRGB monitors can do, all internal so even programs with zero calibration will display 100% perfect sRGB and interal sRGB or gamma 2.2 TRC etc.) in addition to wide gamut (really nice for fall foliage, sunsets, intense tropical waters, emerald-type gems, really brilliant clothing colors, flowers, etc) and support display port input for 10bit color with you firepro and across the frame color/brightness compensation engine.

Many of the Eizo too if you want to spend 2x as much for a bit better perhaps (but not 2x better). In the US, Eizo doesn't sell any of their best low and mid tier so you need to stick to their high end stuff in the US.

Those are definitely higher tiers than the Dells and Samsungs and such.

[pwp]

I picked up the Dell Ultrasharp U3011, it's a 30" monitor with a res of 2560x1600.  Check out the specs on Dell's site.

+1 for the Dell Ultrasharps!

They are IPS panels at fair prices.  I use the U2410 and couldn't be more happy.  Print colors are a perfect match.

+1 Dell U Series UltraSharp series. Forget any other Dells other than the U Series panels for your primary. They are in another universe.

I have two identical workstations set up with a Dell U3011 as a primary monitor and a Dell 20inch 2007FP as a secondary panel. This Dell is ideal next to the 30 when it's rotated to vertical as the heights match and the pixel dimensions are identical. Easy to pick up the 2007FP or identical 2007FTB on eBay for under $100.

U3011 http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=224-9949&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=4&baynote_irrank=0

2007FP http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-4687&baynote_bnrank=1&baynote_irrank=0&~ck=baynoteSearch

Why two identical workstations? All work is constantly being backed up to a NAS, and if one PC goes down, I can just slide across to the other one and keep working. It's relatively cheap business insurance. Also handy when it's busy and I have someone helping. I've run with Dell U panels for years. They are astounding value.

-PW

[pwp]

Dells are junk. Avoid them at all costs.

Seeing as how quite a few of us have Ultra Sharps and find them to be fantastic displays, do you care to elaborate on this?
A blanket statement of, "[product] are junk" without any actual proof or underlying reasons for your opinion isn't very helpful sentiment.
And to play devil's advocate (at least a bit), I've worked in the IT industry for quite awhile, and have had mostly negative experiences with Dell products.  In fact, I'm currently typing this post on a Dell laptop (company provided) with a battery that hasn't been able to hold a charge in over a year, and a fried touch pad.  Oh, and it cost over $1,700 18 months ago.  So I generally don't hold Dell in a very high regard.  However, I read up on the Ultra Sharps before I hesitantly bought one, and have been very happy with the purchase.

Well yes, you need to choose your Dell product from a fairly well informed position. I'd also hesitate to buy any more Dell laptops and our accounts manager has had a decent run with an entry level desktop PC which ran well once all the pre-loaded junk was stripped out of it. I build my own high performance PC's for the studio (it's a bit like Lego...) but the only Dell monitors I would consider are the U Series panels. The Dell cheapie monitors may be adequate for office work, but for photo editing...no way.

-PW

[TommyLee]

I had a dell 2407 for a few yrs...it was a good product
still works great.. I calibrated it once... ..
but lost interest in chasing all that... it is close enough for me....
I just compare to the 4-5 local photo print places ...and check if it is about right

then a few months ago upgraded to a U3011...2560 x 1600
it is more accurate.. and fits well into my needs
comes with a little 'certificate' like color test...
....seems like the old days when you got a freq response curve/plot with an amplifier or a microphone... seems believable ...photos look great

anyway this monitor is just fine....
and I like the extra space..
I did run the 2407 alongside for a while as an experiment.. but that is gone now

I bought mine at FRY's...and got the same   dell 3 yr exchange warranty..for ANY dead /brite pixel
I registered online for that

and the monitor was $50 cheaper than DELL direct

I now typically re-size or crop the 5D3 shots....to the native 2560x1600 size ....
for my day to day walkabouts....

30" is fun

so...I think
the top Dell stuff is.... a little .....better..

by the way:
NONE of this... stuff .....is perfect anyway...
cameras, monitors, Windows etc..
and Guitars too..I might add....

I finally learned to just go with it....


just my experience ... with this particular monitor

[jthomson]

Dells are junk. Avoid them at all costs.

I am also curious as why you would say this.
I'm another satisfied Ultrasharp user.
 

[JaxPhotographer]

Another very solid option is the HP ZR30w. 30" IPS with low latency (7ms) for IPS panels. I have used one now for more than 6 months and find it fantastic. Calibration via Spyder4 is excellent. Only limitation is Display Port and DVI only. If you use this for work, that is fine but it doesn't have HDMI (which keeps the latency low) so if you want to use it for watching movies via an external HDMI source then choose something else. 2560x1600 resolution, 1.07B colors.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/382087-382087-64283-72270-3884471-4194577.html?dnr=1

Got mine from B&H. Great monitor for the price, not a high-end Eizo or NEC but for my photography work it does a great job.

[Gothmoth]

the NEC SpectraView PA271 (W) is a great monitor for the price.

you won´t find a monitor around 1000 euro that is better then the NEC when it comes to image quality.

i have a few dell U27 and U24 in my shop but they all suffer form some kind of clouding or backlight bleeding. this is absolutely no problem with the NEC.
color homogeneity is therfore better with the NEC also.

but of course compared to the DELL U2711 or 2713 this comes with a higher price.

[Razor2012]

I picked up the Dell Ultrasharp U3011, it's a 30" monitor with a res of 2560x1600.  Check out the specs on Dell's site.

+1 for the Dell Ultrasharps!

They are IPS panels at fair prices.  I use the U2410 and couldn't be more happy.  Print colors are a perfect match.

Yep, they were rated I think #1 last year.  At first I was wanting to get the 27", but I lucked out because when I was looking online there was a one day sale where the 30" was the same price as the 27".  Done deal.

Dell 27 "is a good display but lacks the color accuracy of the best screens, and  you can not  easily calibrate the hard ware and profile as you can do with Eizo CG  and others pre press monitors

Here is a link to the best test center regarding monitors  http://www.flatpanelshd.com/reviews.php

and rec monitors photo http://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?subaction=showfull&id=1229341472

As per your link, Dell is in that list of recommended graphics/photography monitors and is in 4 of the 9 spots.

[RLPhoto]

Dell Ultrasharp series. Good stuff.

[symmar22]

Dells are junk. Avoid them at all costs.

I am also curious as why you would say this.
I'm another satisfied Ultrasharp user.

Would not call them junk, they are good value IPS panel, if you do not want to spend a fortune on a super pro monitor, then why not ?

I work both a Dell 2709W (PVA) and a NEC  NEC PA271W (IPS). The most obvious difference is the resolution (1920 vs 2560); yes the electronics and colour fidelity are better on the NEC, but I got the DELL for 500 Euro while the NEC is 1000 Euro, so for the price, it's very decent. Though the finer pitch on the NEC shows more appealing images, the 16/9 format is clearly a step back from the 16/10 of the DELL.

If you have space on your desk, and are on a budget, the DELL 30 inches might be an option. If you want absolute professional quality, then go for a NEC spectraView 30 inches or the Quato Intelli Proof 300 excellence.

IMO, 16/9 format is not a good ratio for photography, hence I am advising 30 inches screens for a more comfortable 16/10. My next screen will be for sure a 30 inches.

[Razor2012]

Dells are junk. Avoid them at all costs.

I am also curious as why you would say this.
I'm another satisfied Ultrasharp user.

Would not call them junk, they are good value IPS panel, if you do not want to spend a fortune on a super pro monitor, then why not ?

I work both a Dell 2709W (PVA) and a NEC  NEC PA271W (IPS). The most obvious difference is the resolution (1920 vs 2560); yes the electronics and colour fidelity are better on the NEC, but I got the DELL for 500 Euro while the NEC is 1000 Euro, so for the price, it's very decent. Though the finer pitch on the NEC shows more appealing images, the 16/9 format is clearly a step back from the 16/10 of the DELL.

If you have space on your desk, and are on a budget, the DELL 30 inches might be an option. If you want absolute professional quality, then go for a NEC spectraView 30 inches or the Quato Intelli Proof 300 excellence.

IMO, 16/9 format is not a good ratio for photography, hence I am advising 30 inches screens for a more comfortable 16/10. My next screen will be for sure a 30 inches.

30" is sure a nice viewing size and for the same price as the 27", I couldn't go wrong.

[etg9]

another happy Dell U2711 owner. Great monitor for the price. the 30" is great for photo work but isn't my favorite to game on or web surf.

The NEC monitors people have mentioned (PA271W) are a little nicer (not that much) and cost a little bit more, maybe justified for some. I've never owned one but worked on them enough to know they work well enough.

The Eizo stuff is a step up from there and can be color corrected easily if you need that. The money for me just didn't line up for these monitors as a serious hobbyist. However, if I were a professional who needed this as a real everyday tool this would be the monitor to buy.