I have a new monitor!

[adina]

Our old one was starting to go dark, and the text would vibrate sometimes. Our new one is pretty.

We went with some kind of Dell. It's flat, like a tv you hang on your wall, and huge. On the downside, you can see how dusty the desk is. The old one covered that.

[Asylum Steve]

On the downside, you can see how dusty the desk is. The old one covered that....

Hmmm, I've had a 19" flat screen sitting in a box for a couple of months now. Guess I know what awaits me...

[Axle]

I would like to have a 19" LCD monitor or two....but sadly I lack the money for such devices. So for now I'm going to settle for 2 17" CRTs. I have 1 installed now, hooking the second one up tomorrow with my second Vid card (an old ATI Rage). It should help improve workflow when doing website work. Dreamweaver in one window, Photoshop in the other.

[Ultra Magnus]

I've got a 20" dell here at work and it's really nice. I like the colors and it has a pretty wide angle of view before you notice the LCD contrast brightness degradation. Our LCD at home is a pile of steaming dog-- err - stuff... It's so bad that if you are looking straight at it your can see the difference in brightness and contrast from the botton to the top of the screen. It makes workign on photos a pain, for that I prefer our old and MASSIVE crt.

BM

[Photo-John]

My office monitor - a nice Sony 17-inch, kicked the bucket yesterday. So now I have a huge, but crappy one. It's got an obvious curve to the tube and it's not calibrated. I think I'm going to have to get something else. This one is going to drive me crazy.

What's the word on LCD vs CRT now? Last I heard, CRTs are still better for graphics applications. Has that changed? They're definitely cheaper. But the options as far as high-end CRTs go, have become very limited. I would like a 19-20-inch CRT with complete color controls.

[adina]

I think ours is either 20-21 inch. I'm not sure, he told me last night when he hooked it up, but I forget, I want to say 21.... It's huge though. After fiddling all day, it's much brighter than the other, and I can't figure out how to adjust the contrast. I have my colors matched up pretty well, but the brightness isn't quite right.

[Photo-John]

Sounds like you might be ready to get a monitor calibration system and do things right. Brighter isn't necessarily better. A well-calibrated monitor will usually look a little flat and dim compared to an out-of-the-box LCD. You want your monitor calibrated to an outside standard, with an ICC (International Color Consortium) profile. That way you know that what you see is the same as what other photography and graphics pros are seeing. Calibrating your monitor ensures that you're setting up your images correctly and helps you get prints that look like what you saw on your monitor. Here's a link to some advertorial about monitor calibration:

http://www.pcphotoreview.com/colorvi...tlightcrx.aspx

And here's a link to profiling software and hardware reviews: http://www.pcphotoreview.com/Color,M...C_4334crx.aspx

[walterick]

I switched to dual crt's a few months ago. It is awesome having two monitors, and I don't mind the fact that they are crt's. The graphics card cost me about $100 and I found a monitor wholesaler selling 19" flatscreen crt's for $40 each so I got in just under $200. It would be hard going back to a single monitor if I ever had to.

John, I got color calibrating software with my Espon 4990 Pro which I haven't run yet. Looking forward to getting a little more "consistent."

Adina, enjoy that new 21" screen! I had a 21" before I went dual and it was awesome!

Rick