Quote Originally Posted by drg
I'm usually hesitant to recommend a particular 'brand' but in this price range the best I see consistently are the monitors from Samsung.

Dell will sometimes tell you or give you enough manufacturer information to figure out where they come from, but not always and there offerings are I feel at this time a bit overpriced.

The S-IPS and S-PVA are manufacturer technology terms from respectively Hitachi (IPS) and Samsung (PVA).

Some of the best photographic monitors I have personally seen and or used are based on some variation of the IPS technology. But these were a very recent Mac/Apple monitor and a Mitsubishi. Both of these were optimized for Color Matching, but reportedly don't have the dynamic range of some other technology.

If you ever are going to watch Video (TV, Cable, DVD's etc) on the monitor, the PVA tech is better under a lot of lighting conditions because it can deliver higher contrast and crisper blacks. Supposedly.

Can you go look at several side by side running in a setup (similar lighting and computer running the monitor) as you will use? Will the seller let you load a few of your own photos to see how the appear on a particular monitor?

Hope this helps and let us know what you do as this monitor thing get more and more important as times goes on and I personally always like to know what other people find works for them!

Good Luck!
Thanks! I appreciate your input and the information from your experience. I doubt if I will watch Video. The reason I asked about the IPS vs PVA is that I went into a computer website and asked this same question, but according to them I couldn't get a decent monitor that would be within my budget. They did say to get IPS for photo editing, but they also stated the least expensive one would be about $600 - and it wouldn't be the best.

So much for that. Right now I have a HP that looked better on the demo at Costco - actually it looked pretty good. However, using it now it doesn't look quite as good, but I haven't done any calibrating. And the negative aspect is the glare - it is extreme, especially when I'm working in the office - documents, typing, etc. The white screen actually makes my eyes hurt. I do get migraines and my eyes are sensitive to light. Interestingly the 17" Dell that I gave away with my old computer is the best out of anything I've used. I didn't experience any glare. For some reason I'm not particularly fond of the wide screen. I think there is a way to get "borders" around the area where you're working as it is set up this way at the store - and the wide doesn't look so w i d e.

I think I'm going to take a half day to go out and compare monitors - and just hope for the best.

Thanks again - your info will help in my search - and I will attempt to see if I can view a monitor side by side.

Liz