My CRT monitor having failed, I intend soon to buy my first TFT monitor. One of my main uses is to deal with photographs from my Olympus E500 which of course have a 4:3 ratio.However, the iiyama Prolite E1900S monitor which I currently favour, with a resolution of 1280 x 1024, has a ratio of 5:4. What effect would this have on the display of 4:3 photographs - would they distort OR come up with black bands (top and bottom) OR would they need to appear in a window smaller than the screen ? Or should I stick to models which have a 4:3 ratio ? And would a wide-screen monitor make ratio problems even worse, or are there advantages that I may not have realised ?

A 16:9 wide screen gives you space to have a 4:3 ratio image and editing program toolbars each side of it. Particularly suited to Lightroom's layout, but any program that lets you move the toolbars about will work.

The photos wouldn't distort, and yes, to see the whole image it would not will the screen.
Don't forget, unless you never shoot portrait format, the screen will not match the image ratio :)

Many thanks for that useful advice
Gerald