Monitors

[Hank]

Hello W3D Users!

Let's talk about monitors.
I will not discover nothing new here, but it's one of the most important things when you create CG. So, I started to look after a new one.
After few days spent on searching the perfect option, finally I decided to buy this model:

Dell U2415

What's so special in it?
Well, hard to say, but if you aim to get more accuracy from your work and the budget has limitation, I had to get somewhere between.

Let's be honest; you can buy something from the top shelf (like EIZO or NEC) with very good display (f.e EIZO CS230), but the prices start somewhere around 580 $, so it's twice like mine U2415...

Some pros/cons:
+ 2xHDMI + 6xUSB + 2xDP
+ Nice thin bezel on the side - looks pretty nice
+ Sharp and good colors.
+ Very bright. Even with set 75% (!) I have to use desktop light at night


- many people complain about irregular IPS light, which is also visible in my model (especially on the top)
- IPS glow (there's nothing you can do with it. Most IPS has it) - hard to get really deep black color.

Conclusion:
You get for what you pay
I can't say anything wrong about it, but I did not expect to get high end spec for hardware ~ 280$
At this moment it should be enough for my work and in future I will use it as secondary display (when I finally buy some cool EIZO)

BTW. If you still think about upgrading the hardware too, go ahead and check the full spec on this web: display spec - it helped me a lot!

Good luck and share with your experience: current or what you're aiming at.

BR, Hank

[micheus]

Let's be honest; you can buy something from the top shelf (like EIZO or NEC) with very good display (f.e EIZO CS230), but the prices start somewhere around 580 $, so it's twice like mine U2415...
...
Conclusion:
You get for what you pay

You are absolutely right.

I'm going to use your post to give my testimony as a no professional trying to be equipped with a good monitor.


For a long time (7 years) I used a LG-W2486L 24"
Brightness and Contrast - two items to take in account for view quality and that monitor had the best one I could find that time.

Then I replace it for a Philips Ultra HD 4K 288P6 28" HDMI/DP/DVI/VGA, which I like.
I bought it because I wanted a bigger monitor on my desk and more pixels to work.
But I didn't took in account one thing: a 4K monitor is the same as tile four FullHD monitors. In this situation, 28" of size was not good enough - it can be for gamers, but not to work on screen - maybe a 32" would be a better choice.

The applications must to allow us to change its font size, because the default one use to become too small in a monitor like this.
OK, Windows has an option to scale the fonts, but that affect the application quality (visually talking) - I didn't like.

The way I found to be comfortable was to reduce the resolution to a QHD (2560x1440) that is a middle of FullHD and 4K (3840x2160).

There is also another issue. Render in 4K takes long time. Render full HD image is faster, but it's not so good to evaluate its result when the dots are so small in a 4K monitor.

Things are better now I have bought an Acer VA270H 27" FullHD/HDMI/DVI/VGA to be used with my wife's mini PC.
I installed it in an articulating arm so now I can use as a second monitor and have the better of two worlds.

[Hank]

Thanks Micheus for sharing with your experinece and I hope the topic is going to bring more data from other users too.
Regarding to my investigation I'd like to add just one more part about monitor specification and in my opinion the most important thing: display panel. In general we can choose between:
- TN = good for gamers, but colors or contrast are usually weak. Due to low production cost, they are the most common.
- IPS (S-IPS, AH-IPS, PLS [Samsung vesrion] or others) = pretty good colors and wide angle view. Most models has problems with black color (due to stong backlight) but if you definatelly want to start your adventure with graphic, choose monitor with this panel. If you have enough $, I advice something from EIZO or NEC - they are top brands with the best monitors
- VA = something between IPS and VA. With good contrast and sharpness.

For screen resolution I was a little affraid about something bigger than Full HD and I also read some reviews about 4K models (scaling issue) and QHD (2560x1440) seems to be a good compromise.

BR, Hank

[micheus]

Yeah, l also hope others can share their experiences too. Good initiative.

Regarding to my investigation I'd like to add just one more part about monitor specification and in my opinion the most important thing: display panel.

Yes. That's true. I remember to read about that sometime in the past. Anyway, I have to say that LG 24" - which used a TN panel - was a great monitor. Even seven years old, it looked like new. I never adjusted bright or contrast greater than 50-60%.
Maybe the huge dynamic contrast helped (the greater I found that time - at least in my country). Before it, I had another LG 24", but that a LCD monitor and surely with a poor image quality.

[Marcin Maćkowiak]

Hi,

I highly recommend ultrawide screens, I do my job with one of them and it's awesome. You can fit everything without a problem. A good feature is that you can split the screen and use other side of the screen for your TV or whatelse you want.

For some cases If you need more active panels or more viewports you can fit them easily.
You can see it in one of my videos - HERE

Right now I have got this model LG - Discontinued, but you can find more of them HERE

[bazooka]

I've a 32" 4k curved monitor and there is no distortion of lines or text visible in any of my 3D apps

I think size is more important than resolution, but both is better ☺

[Extrudeface]

NEC Spectraview 231 here. It supports fully sRGB, and I think is 75% NTSC, not sure right now. It comes with an excellent software for calibrating, specially great if you have a good hardware calibrator. I can have it with the amount of brightness I want ( I dislike working at high brightness) yet with the colors' accuracy I like. I work sending stuff to print, and while this is not the best of the best by any means, it allows me to stop getting crazy with color matching and managing, as was before with just average monitors. This is an oldie now, no LED, is TFT, and an ISP monitor. But has great gradients (even while is 8bit, non 10bit. To me the horrid ones are the 6bit + whatever, no matter what trick is used. 8 bit with what this one does to gradients to display them smoothly: fine enough for me) and great everything. Bunch of years, and still doing well. I think is the NEC line in Europe, though. I believe the calibration software is bought apart in the US, I think also the spectraviews come (or used to come) calibrated by default (with quite some good settings, ie, the sRGB profile). Nothing matches your own calibration (with your lighting, etc), of course. I quite recommend the NEC "pro" line (probably the top thing is to get an Eizo, but hey.)