Asus VH242H monitor

[Crashoran]

Does anybody know if the asus vh242h is a good monitor for photo editing? My laptop screen seems to have a yellowish tint to it, and is beginning to become dim. My roomate has this monitor, and I connected it to my laptop to test it out, and it's leaps and bounds better than the laptop screen, but I'm not sure if it would be a good permanent buy (even though it's pretty cheap).

I have been spoiled with the eizo/apple cinema displays at school but I'm graduating this december and need something reliable to continue editing.

My laptop has VGA/HDMI out.

Also is there any place you recommend I take advantage of my student discount before my time is up?


Thanks peeps

EDIT: sorry move to computer hardware forum please.

[Daniel W.]

Well, "good" is a relative term compared to accuracy. Have you ever calibrated your laptop monitor? The first time I calibrated I thought it was way off in magenta-land, but it was my perception that was askew. Then I calibrated my new LCD after two weeks of not calibrating from out of box, and way off in cyan-land, but the same story. The prints were much more accurate and looked better across both calibrated devices and a few iOS devices and whatnot.

Laptop monitors really aren't the best for editing. If you want to know why, just look at your monitor while opening/closing it and watch the shift - this is exactly why. However, I calibrate my monitor as close as per-month as possible and can edit on it with reasonable accuracy. You're on a good road wanting to edit on a "controlled" device, however, depending on OS, calibration software, and whatnot, using a calibrated external can be difficult if you unplug-plug (sometimes I have to manually reset it).

If your school has a calibrator kit to check out, I'd try that (and maybe ask a instructor about color management. If they have Cine-mac displays and Eizos, somebody should be calibrating!).

So, I can't tell you if it's a good color accurate unit or not (sorry!), but I can tell you what I do:

85% of the time, I edit from my laptop screen but know that I will check color accuracy on an LCD monitor calibrated when I get back to home base before photos are distributed (a Dell unit upper-line unit). The remaining percentage, I'm able to edit in a color managed environment (Cinema displays calibrated monthly, grey non reflective walls and ballast-dimmed fluorescent, with partitions for daylight and tungsten viewing). Calibrate in the home-base monthly, with my laptop display 4-clicks down from full brightness, and calibrate the external LCD at the same time. This maintains that my laptop is close to where I normally edit (a fluorescent space) and the external is accurate to where it will be always.

[jbelcid]

I think an IPS monitor is better for photo editing then a TN panel, which is what the one you have linked is. I own 2 of the asus ones in 22" and enjoy them. However I believe you will get more accurate colors with an IPS panel. With that said they do cost more. I bought a Dell 20.1" IPS panel monitor back in 2005 and it cost about 400-500 if I remember right. I think Dell has a student website where they offer deals. Not sure if it's limited to laptop or desktop combos but you could check it out.

[Shadow]

I went with a Dell U2711 27" 2560x1440 IPS panel. Terrific for photo editing. Viewing angle on TN panels is not nearly as good as IPS. Love it so far.

UltraSharp U2711 69cm (27?W) Monitor with PremierColor Details

[Crashoran]

That monitor looks nice. Do you alternate between sRGB/aRGB modes when surfing the web/editing in Photoshop?

[RKEnnis]

Originally Posted by Shadow

I went with a Dell U2711 27" 2560x1440 IPS panel. Terrific for photo editing. Viewing angle on TN panels is not nearly as good as IPS. Love it so far.

UltraSharp U2711 69cm (27?W) Monitor with PremierColor Details

That's a nice monitor! But if you add $270.00 to that price, you could get a refurb 27" iMac Core 2 Duo, which uses an IPS panel, and can also be used as just a monitor.

I'm just sayin...

[Crashoran]

Originally Posted by RKEnnis

That's a nice monitor! But if you add $270.00 to that price, you could get a refurb 27" iMac Core 2 Duo, which uses an IPS panel, and can also be used as just a monitor.

I'm just sayin...

Glossy 27" monitor = terrible.

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by RKEnnis

That's a nice monitor! But if you add $270.00 to that price, you could get a refurb 27" iMac Core 2 Duo, which uses an IPS panel, and can also be used as just a monitor.

I'm just sayin...

I got it for $638 refurb (with 10% eBay coupon)! So, it's a better deal than you'd think. I build my own Windows boxes, and the glossy iMac screen would drive me 'round the bend for photo work. My home brew PC is a year old, and still pretty hot. (AMD 965 quad 3.4ghz, Radeon 5850 1gb DDR5.)

Originally Posted by Crashoran

Glossy 27" monitor = terrible.

Amen, brother. What was Apple thinking? No 30" option, either... On the other hand, Dell just came out with the 30" U3011! Installed my Blu-ray drive today, and it's an awesome combo.

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/review.p...&id=1265617565

[JohnT]

I upgraded in 2010 to this one...

NEC MultiSync PA241W-BK 24" Widescreen LCD PA241W-BK B&H

It has dropped in price since I got mine.

[Crashoran]

I think I'm going with the HP ZR24W
It has been getting really good reviews so far

HP / Hewlett-Packard ZR24w 24" Widescreen LCD VM633A8#ABA

I don't think my needs nor budget agree with a wide gamut monitor right now

[Daniel W.]

As far as your sRGB/aRGB question - I edit in shoot in aRGB but work in ProPhoto (because of Lightroom) and archive in Prophoto. Exporting for web via LR, is in sRGB and viewed on an external source (can be another computer, the iPhone, whatever) just to make sure that even though I'm in a color-calibrated world, it still looks good to the masses. I try not to switch convert mid-edit, but on the import/export only.