21" monitor choice

[Kurt]

Originally posted by KeiFront
I have the older model of the philips 201b and it's a pretty good monitor but I believe that the 201b uses a totally different tube so just disregard my advice .

I would advice to try to find a 21" Sony that fits your budget. I've got two 21" Sony's and they are excellent quality wise.

Not to say Sony's are total cr*p, but they are definitely NOT worth their price.

[Wombat]

I don't know about that. My 420GS was worth every penny. And their top-level monitors are really really nice, with controls I haven't really seen anywhere else.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Marshmallowman
Cheapest 18.LCD I can get is about $1100 AUD, anything decent at that size is at least $1300.

And Dell here in OZ just is not the same, the only monitor I can find on the oz site is a 15" crt?(not bundled with a system)

Acer has a cheap 19" that goes for about 570 EUR (950AUD +/-), the AL922. Good screen. Good price. Then again it's probably more expensive in AU.

You can follow this link to see various tests about big screens. You can also have a look at Cadalyst for more reviews.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Wombat
I don't know about that. My 420GS was worth every penny. And their top-level monitors are really really nice, with controls I haven't really seen anywhere else.

They're good screens, but 150% the price of the competitors is NOT justified.

The Eizo T965 (now T966) that I have sells for less than the Sony E530 but is more like the F520 that sells for 40-50% more.

Eizo T965: 21" 130KHz 2048*1536@80Hz dual input TCO99 .24mm
Sony E530: 21" 117KHz 1600*1200@88Hz TCO99 .24mm
Sony F520: 21" 137KHz 2048*1536@86Hz dual input TCO99.22mm

[KeiFront]

I'm with Wombat, Sony's are amongst the best monitors you can buy if not the best monitor you can buy. Sadly it's price tag matches it's quality. (For the Murc Cornerstone fans, I've never seen a Cornerstone yet ).

[az]

I would NEVER get a cheap monitor. I'd rather use the money to get a top-of-the-line unit one step smaller (so in your case, 19"). Your eyes will thank you. (In response to te cheap Acer)

And yes, if you have the money, get an EIZO.

AZ

[The PIT]

Last time I looked at Cornerstones prices they were horrendous in the UK. I've a quick scout round and can't find any prices in the UK which suggests they're too expensive too stock.

I've seen a few Eizos at work and wasn't very impressed suffering from convergence problems.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by az
I would NEVER get a cheap monitor. I'd rather use the money to get a top-of-the-line unit one step smaller (so in your case, 19"). Your eyes will thank you. (In response to te cheap Acer)

And yes, if you have the money, get an EIZO.

AZ

The "cheap" Acer AL922 LCD is actually a very good monitor. I recently replaced a couple of them that were plugged on my P750 by a couple of Sony SDM-S93B and well...I'm not happy. The Sony are about 20% more expensive, they DO have a thinner bezel (about 3mm thinner) but their response time (25ms -supposedly the same as the Acer AL922) is not very good, especially between full on/off. Watching sites with a dark baground is a real pain. It's as bad or worse than my old IIyama AS 4315 UT that had a 25ms response time too (that was a year+ ago). The Acer was a definite step-up there...

OK, it's a Sony, so what? How much am I supposed to spend for a _decent_ Sony monitor???

Too bad supply is short these days...anytime the new LG.Philips 20"+ panels are available, the Sony's get the boot...

[Wombat]

Nobody was talking about LCDs here. I have no idea about Sony LCDs. But for tubes, definitely Sony.

[az]

Kurt, I didn't see you were talking about an LCD. You won't damage your eyes with a cheap LCD, and Acer LCDs are fine.

And yes, you pay too much for Sony LCDs, as well as for EIZO LCDs.

AZ

[Marshmallowman]

Best price I can find for a AL922 is $1200 not including shipping.

Eizo and cornerstone are simply impossible to find here, ilyama I thimk I might be able to find, but I will probably be slugged near $100 for shipping.

Brands that I can actually get are benq(an acer subsid), acer , sony , philips, viewsonic, mitsubishi, hp, ibm, samsung, hyundai panasonic.

edit to add: NEC, likom, hitachi, LG and ilyama is out they are like hen's teeth here.


Anything else is virtually impossible to find, or horrible overpriced.

Are all the monitors I listed that bad?

While I would like an LCD, the simple fact that I do like playing FPS games a lot so the LCD must be up capable of a decent refresh rate and no ghosting. As soon as you get over 17" most response times go to $hit. Not to mention the problem with trying play games at none native rez's (1280x1024 is a good compromise tho).

I curently have 19" v95 optiquest which is still pretty good(if old) and its only good for 1154x864@85, 1280x1024@75 and 1600x1200@60, so 1600 is unusable and I can just tolerate 1280.

So I want to keep at least 18" viewable and good 1280x1024 response, but bumping it up to higher rez's wheh I need to to some proper work is defintely something that will come in VERY handy.

SONY 21" CPD-G520 = $1640, pretty much double the ones I have mentioned.

[Marshmallowman]

okay since no one was impressed with my picks, how about NEC

NEC FP2141SB-BK: 22"

I can get one for about $1050, its a good chunk more but it seem to be a lot better monitor

[spadnos]

The high end NECs are excellent.

That doens't hold for their inexpensive stuff.

I'm typing this on an NEC FP955, a 19" with dual inputs (DVI-A and HD-15, switched from the front panel), it has every adjustment known to man, and is sharp at 1600x1200x80 Hz. My left and right monitors are NEC MultiSync 97F - a later version of their consumer line. They are excellent at 1280x1024, but can't go over 70Hz at 1600.

Basically, anything in the FP line should be great, but the FE line isn't quite up to snuff.

- Steve

[Marshmallowman]

I see NEC-Mitsubishi while looking around, do NEC use the same monitors.

There have been 2 recomedations for the mitsubishi (and one for NEC), anyone seen a bad one?

[spadnos]

NEC bought Mitsubishi (or they merged) a few years ago. FOr the most part, Mitsubishi now only has a professional line, and NEC has both the professional and consumer lines.
The Mitsubishi DiamondTron tubes are considered to be as good as the Sony Trinitrons. Several manufacturers use the Mitsubishi tubes (including LaCie, who make some of the best monitors for photo editing or other color-correct work).
That said, a pro photographer friend of mine had a couple of 21" Mitsubishis (a long time ago - before the NEC-Mits merge), and claimed that the middle of the screen (on both units) had a yellow tint. Even after factory repair attempts ("we can't see the problem"), the problem was there. He switched to LaCie (who use OEM tubes from Mitsubishi), and absolutely loves them.
Go figure.

- Steve