Best monitor for photo editing and viewing - suggestions wanted

[Peter De Smidt]

I agree wholeheartedly that one should check these things out for oneself. Like many, I've tried 5000k and 6500K, and many in between. I can see my viewing booth from here. Looks a bit yellow compared to my screen. (I use Solux bulbs.) But those bulbs are what i use to display prints with, if I light the prints specifically. I also check out prints by daylight, which, in my case here, is usually bluer than 5000K, especially when viewed by indirect light, which is what my prints receive from our windows.

[Yardley]

It's been a while since I read material on the subject of color memory. But, I recall that color memory is about 1/2 hour. Meaning that, if you're in a building with green tinted glass windows, it takes 1/2 hour after leaving that greenish light environment for the magenta enhancement to correct in your brain. No citations, as I can't remember where I read this.

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

Color management!!! I remember Mpix suggesting that you set up your monitor using 5500K.
Desk with monitors will be in a room just in front of/up against a large window which has working plantation shutters. How should I light the room? There is just a simple incandescent ceiling light so far.

With the NEC MONITORS how many profiles can I set up?

The computer STILL has not arrived and neither have the monitors. I leave town for a week on Monday, so i'm going to be slow setting them up.
Thanks, Bill

[Preston]

Bill, I'd suggest 6500K 2.2 gamma. Honestly, I think this will give the best results. If you use MPix for printing your images, the 5500K will be fine for files you send to them.

With SpectraView you can set up as many 'Profile (calibration) Targets' as you want. After you create the target, select it in SpectraView and then calibrate using that target. There are even built-in ones that you try, but they may not be suitable for editing/printing images.

One other thing: Be sure your video driver (either a discrete video card or on-board graphics) is set to it's default values before you calibrate.

I'm not a huge expert on room lighting, so I'll leave that for others to address for you.

--P

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

Preston,
Thanks and I'll keep all that in mind. I didn't know I could change the settings on a video card.
Bill

[Preston]

I didn't know I could change the settings on a video card

You can do this through the video card's driver control panel. Since I don't know which video card you'll be using, I can't offer anything more specific.

--P

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

NVIDIA GTX 285 is the card that is in the Mac Pro
I think that card was very popular with gamers last year.
Machine is a 2012 model
It has 2 DVI outputs
Do not know anything about their capability with photography.

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

Monitors arrived Monday just as I was leaving in a business trip
One is beautiful, one came all busted up
So back it went to NEC

[8x10 user]

Hey Lenny... I was just wondering. What type of cleaner do you use with your monitors? Do you think that a cleaner could have contributed to your de-lamination problem?

[8x10 user]

I use a Lacie 730 calibrated to 5000k, next to a 5000k GTI viewer, in a room with 5000k lights. I would say that an actual color reference monitor is better for editing and viewing. Calibrating your LUT from a large pallet of hardware colors is better then just profiling. Not all color reference monitors are the same. My Lacie 730 is much better then my Samsung XL20 even though they are both based on Samsung display technology.