Found an NEC LCD2690WUXi2 for $520 AUD ;p Single dead subpixel - even though I know where it is, I can't find it most of the time - it's only evident when I look directly at it when the screen's displaying full white! Even now (on FM's grey b/g), I can't find it.
I definitely find wide gamut important, as well as colour accuracy (this one's hardware calibrated with Spectraview II) and colour uniformity. I think you'll be fine if you just check all those boxes.
Look for bargains like this, and you can net yourself an awesome monitor even on a tight budget.
After a little research I decided to take a chance on the new IPS Asus P246Q. Here’s my review; First and foremost, I consider myself to be a serious hobbyist with regards to photography. I have been working with either a calibrated 10 year old 19” Trinitron CRT or my 15 inch Dell ultra sharp laptop monitor and my print jobs, both old and new, were a little hit and miss, more miss than hit. I purchased a 23 inch Samsung LED and worked with it for a couple of weeks. I was less than enamored so I returned it to the brick and mortar retailer. I pulled the trigger on the Asus. When it arrive the first thing I noticed was the method and materials used to package the monitor. It was packed as one would expect a high end piece of equipment should be. This is in comparison to the Samsung I purchased and returned. The monitor itself was heavier and the provided cables were premium grade. I plugged it in, loaded the driver, and set it to factory defaults. After it warmed up, I calibrated it with the Spyder II. I opened up LR3, a landscape image is almost 8.5 X 11. Holy crap I can see stuff that I was unable to see before. I fired off a couple of prints through the 3880. . . . . bada boom bada bing, PERFECTION!!!!!!!!! What I saw on the monitor is what came out of the printer. What I love most is that can move around and the screen remains sharp, bright, and without color shift. When calibrating I noticed that the colors remained constant from the top of the screen to the very bottom and left to right. Simply stated, I am one happy camper. Best of all? The screen has a dull finish unlike my old CRT and laptop monitor. So if your thinking of a new monitor for 2011 I highly recommend the Asus.
If you go for Dell, make sure you check them out carefully in the shop.
I had bad problems with both the 24 and 27 inch versions. They both had very uneven colour and illumination across the screen. I ended up with an Eizo.
Whaler wrote:
After a little research I decided to take a chance on the new IPS Asus P246Q. Here’s my review; First and foremost, I consider myself to be a serious hobbyist with regards to photography. I have been working with either a calibrated 10 year old 19” Trinitron CRT or my 15 inch Dell ultra sharp laptop monitor and my print jobs, both old and new, were a little hit and miss, more miss than hit. I purchased a 23 inch Samsung LED and worked with it for a couple of weeks. I was less than enamored so I returned it to the brick and mortar retailer. I pulled the trigger on the Asus. When it arrive the first thing I noticed was the method and materials used to package the monitor. It was packed as one would expect a high end piece of equipment should be. This is in comparison to the Samsung I purchased and returned. The monitor itself was heavier and the provided cables were premium grade. I plugged it in, loaded the driver, and set it to factory defaults. After it warmed up, I calibrated it with the Spyder II. I opened up LR3, a landscape image is almost 8.5 X 11. Holy crap I can see stuff that I was unable to see before. I fired off a couple of prints through the 3880. . . . . bada boom bada bing, PERFECTION!!!!!!!!! What I saw on the monitor is what came out of the printer. What I love most is that can move around and the screen remains sharp, bright, and without color shift. When calibrating I noticed that the colors remained constant from the top of the screen to the very bottom and left to right. Simply stated, I am one happy camper. Best of all? The screen has a dull finish unlike my old CRT and laptop monitor. So if your thinking of a new monitor for 2011 I highly recommend the Asus. ...Show more →
I'm still researching monitors, but glad you had some great success with this one. I've been eyeing it up for sure.
the asus looked really nice. I had a lacie 324 which was a nice monitor, then 27" iMac which was large but less nice compared to the lacie, and now I just got an eizo which will rock.
The ASUS did pique my interest. $500 is a happy price for that quality of monitor.
The trend to go 16:9 is really crappy....it's annoying that it's difficult to find a 16:10 monitor these days. They 23" NEC and LG IPS looked interested and price was right but the 1080 vertical rez was a dealbreaker, after the dock and thumbnail strip from lightroom, you end up having no space left.
