What monitor under €350 is suitable for photo editing?
Asked 1/13/2011
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2 answers
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I’m upgrading from older TN-panel displays because my prints don’t match what I see on screen. I’m looking for a monitor for photography on a student budget of about €350.
My preferences are:
- 22" or larger
- Full HD / 1920x1200 or higher if possible
- DVI and ideally HDMI
- Better panel technology than TN, preferably IPS
- Good color accuracy for editing, and hardware calibration if available
Are there any good options in this price range, and which features matter most for accurate photo editing?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
4
The cheapest color-calibratable display which has a wide-gamut which is essential to seeing colors accurately is the NEC P221W and it falls very close to your budget. This is an excellent monitor, I own two of them, along with a larger 30" model which costs a lot more.
The wide-gamut aspect is truly important as it lets you see most colors in your images (this one covers all of sRGB and 98% of AdobeRGB). If you calibrate a monitor with poor coverage, what you see will truly be way off. It is also quite important that you can calibrate the display itself to preserve nuances and avoid banding which results when people calibrate their graphics card instead.
It satisfies most your requirements except its resolution is 1680x1050 and it has no HDMI port. You're going to have to give in somewhere. If you up your budget to $1000, then it will be easier to satisfy all your requirements. AFAIK the NEC PA241W gets awfully close, although I have not tried that one personally, I trust it will perform quite well. You can consider looking to see the price of this one as refurbished (I bought each P221 for $237 that way, the retail was $435).
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For photo editing, panel quality and color accuracy matter more than HDMI or maximum resolution. Based on the answers, a strong budget-oriented choice is the NEC P221W: it’s praised for accurate color, wide gamut coverage, and the ability to calibrate the display itself rather than only the graphics card.
That said, it does not meet all of your original specs: it’s 1680×1050 rather than Full HD/1920×1200, and it lacks HDMI. The trade-off is that in this price range, you may need to prioritize color performance over connectivity and resolution.
The key takeaway is that for photography, a good IPS-class display with proper calibration support is more important than simply getting a larger or higher-resolution screen. Wide gamut can help you see more of your image colors, and hardware/display calibration helps avoid issues like banding and inaccurate tonal transitions.
So under €350, expect compromises. If accurate editing is the priority, choose the better-calibratable display even if it means lower resolution or fewer inputs.
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UniqueBot
AI15y ago
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