Monitors

[Don Greening]

If you haven’t checked out Apple’s cinema displays recently, do yourself a favour and get yourself over to the nearest Apple retailer. These flat panels are suitable for colour accuracy/calibrations duties. They take up a whole lot less desk space than CRT’s and the picture is wonderful. Flat panels have come a long way in the last few years.

Also check out the wide aspect displays at Dell computer. There are a lot of FCP editiors out there that use the Dell 24″ and swear by them. The Dell 24″ is also substantially less money than the comparable 23″ Apple Cinema Display and some in the FCP forum say the picture is better. I think it boils down to personal preference.

Here’s a link to the Dell monitor page:

https://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/category.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&category_id=4058

Hope this helps.

– Don

[Jeff Kelley]

Thanks Don,

I do plan on a trip to the Apple Store but my main concern is accuracy. I know LCD monitors all look good, bright and colorful, but its the accuracy of those colors I’m worryed about. When you are dealing with slight variations in flesh tones for the front of a box of a very importand product, I have to trust my monitor.

Everything I’ve read still says LCD still is not up to CRT standards. If you have any data otherwise, I’d love to read it. I’ve got to present material to my boses (we are going to by 12-15 monitors) and I’ve got a hole folder of material that support CRT’s in the area. In fact, here is a sample of the type of data I am finding

[Don Greening]

Jeff,

Point taken. Dell says they still make CRT’s but a quick look at their website didn’t turn up any. Anyway, it might be worth a look to find out how they stack up comparatively with the past makers of industry standard colour accurate CRT monitors such as LaCie. I do know that Dell have really been pushing their displays recently and extolling thier virtues, etc.

I also know that LaCie still sell displays but I didn’t see any CRT’s at their website. Sorry for not being as helpful as I thought I was.

Good luck.

– Don

[Arthur Schlenger]

Hello, I’m also looking for a monitor, something that will give me a decent image for Final Cut Pro, but it doesn’t have to be a gazillion dollar color correction monitor – I’m basically looking for something that will compete with the Apple LED 24″ display.

My friend who is a professional editor says many people use the Dells and are real happy with them, and they are comparatively cheaper than the Apples, and he says they look better.

Can people give me some recommendations on Dell (I checked out the link above and see they have a UltraSharp line) or other brands, that Dell site has NEC and a few other brands.

Thanks,
Arthur