What is the Best Monitor

A friend and I are both wondering what would be the best monitor to get, specifically to be used for digital editing with Photoshop (for use with a PC)? I have seen a couple of old references to the difficulty with LCD monitors, and that VGA or Plasma are preferable?

I also saw a report from Eric about the NEC monitor:

"NEC Mitsubishi Japan has today announced a 22" CRT monitor which is calibrated to the Adobe RGB color space. The Diamondtron RDF225WG is capable of reproducing 97.6% of the color gamut available from Adobe RGB and has a specific Adobe RGB mode which will allow images in this color space to be displayed without first converting to sRGB (as would normally be carried out by your photo application). This monitor is clearly aimed at the DTP and design market but should also be of interest to high end digital photography and specific roles such as print publication picture editors. No price has yet been announced however availability is said to be 'end of December'."

Does anyone know any more about this monitor?

What monitor do you use and like?

I understand that beyond the type of monitor we need to get into calibration, but that is a whole different topic.........

Thanks, Linda

Not plasma. That's for video and resolution is not that high.

LCD's have plenty of appeal but for the highest resoution displays, widest color gamut and best dynamic range CRT's are the way to go. The most critcal viewing will be done this way. For most people, the quality of LCD's is just fine and their other attributes make them the choice. You can do very well with LCD monitors.

I covet the IBM 23" LCD monitor but at $7000+ I can't justify it.

Really you want a high res CRT that has hardware color calibration built-in. Sony, NEC and LaCie all offer this, as well as third party color calibrators.

I have two LaCies and am very happy with them. The company store frequently has refurbs available at a great price, that is what I bought.

Color calibration is the key to consistent color.

LCDs, etc are fine for office use, but aren't sharp enough, nor offer the various resolutions necessary. IMHO, YMMV, etc.

Jack

I have a Sony Trinitron. Like Jack says, they come with a few built in color profiles which are nice. I can also run mine at 100 hz for a rock steady image.

The built in profiles are nice. If I am working in Adobe 98 color space, I can set my monitor to "professional" which IS in fact the Adobe 98 color space.

Cheers

James

These days, a good LCD with colour controls will give you a very good and accurate colour rendition, and have the advantage of taking up a lot less space.

Proper colour management is vital and I recommend using a colourimetre such as the Colorvision Spyder or similar, and to run this every couple of weeks.

There are a couple of monitors with built in (sort of) color calibration tools. One is the Sony Artisan. You can buy the same exact model without the calibration tool if you already have a calibration system, but I don't recall the model number. The Artisan comes with a small hood, also.

The LaCie's are also quite popular.

As for me, I've got a higher end, but not expensive Viewsonic, which calibrates very nicely. No complaints.

I have another lower end Viewsonic here at work that I am staring at right now. I can barely make out any images on it. Calibrating it makes little difference. It's totally wacko. That's why I never comment on images while at work because all I could ever say is, "looks underexposed".

Now that I'm slightly more knowledgeable, the next monitor will be carefully evaluated for its controls. My LCD on the laptop has none that I can find.

I've heard nothing new on the NEC monitor since the anouncement.