CRT vs. LCD - The Big debate. Your opinion.

Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia

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OK, so for a long time, I was PP work on a new 'modern' 26" LCD TV set, which whilst not ideal for this has lovely colours and contrast etc. Native widescreen on it is 1024 x 768 , which looks fine and is the same as how I run my Sony Trinitron CRT which has fantastic PQ.

However, here is the rub, over the break I decided to go back to my LCD and moved it over and now its like, mmmm, that looks great.

One thing I have noticed is that the CRT can crush the blacks, which makes me move the levels more than required. It does however ever offer pinsharp images post shoot when compared to the LCD, which whilst sharp does not allow images to look 'razor' sharp upon initial viewing.

So, what is your preferred screen? It seems to be the devil and the deep blue sea really, in that what one offers, the other does not. Of course, ignoring the mega cheap screens from Dell etc that look godawful...

Of course, it is nice viewing images on my desktop via a 26" screen....

Any thoughts?

Finally, can anyone recommend a decent LCD for PP up to say £500.00 ish? I was looking at Macs last week, but felt that the screen was neither here nor ther PQ wise.

Pete.
 
my main screen is an apple cinema display 30" fully hardware callibrated and it displays superb.
with my system fully calibrated you get a wysiwyg on prints etc.

I would buy another if i had too.

I would recommend looking at displays that are calibrated properly before purchase so you can see what you are getting.
 
TFT have come on leaps and bounds, for prolonged use it has to be a TFT, it wont melt you eyeballs in the sameway that the CRT does, but for ultimate PQ its got to be CRT. I suppose the best thing to do is to find the screen that works best for you!
 
I have a 19" TFT infront of me and 17" CRT to my right. The colours and contrast are much better on the CRT for working on something that is going to be printed. But my TFT is better overall for clarity and brightness for everyday use. I can almost feel the radiation coming from these two things :|
 
just gone from 17" tft to 20.1" tft and wouldn't go back to crt!!
 
Only got TFT, one on my laptop the other on my house PC PQ is cool laptop screen is superb I use a CRT at work and the difference is stunning!
 
Changed from CRT to LCD six years ago. I've gone from 15" -> 17" to my current Samsung 215TW widescreen . I just love the crisp geometry given by LCD's :)
 
Reading between the lines Pete my first question is when you use the LCD or CRT do you use any kind of calibration? If the CRT was crushing the blacks it sounds like the brightness was set too low. You can get basic calibration right by following the steps on this page:

http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/index.html

LCD's have come a long way and the high end Dell's are generally considered among the best without spending silly money. The 2407 (24") and 2007 (20") widescreen models both offer superb image quality. The 24" Samsung is also a good bet and cheaper than the Dell.

One thing to bear in mind is that it's no good choosing one monitor over another because of the contrast, saturation, etc. because the images will only look like that on that monitor. Instead you need a monitor that is able to accurately reproduce colour so you have consistent colour across devices and systems.

As for the sharpness issue a 26" screen showing 1024 pixels will look on the fluffy side as the resolution will be down to something like 48dpi - native resolution on a 24" panel would be around 1920px wide at that size.
 
I have found that the colours seem more natural on my CRT at work compared to my LCD at home. Which is a plus for the CRT, but other images on the forum such as the Bruce the dog

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=13606&highlight=bruce

look to dark on the CRT, which is really annoying, so thats a bad.

So I guess it comes down to what you prefer, and which gives the best results when it comes to eventually printing your work out.

I also plan to see what my photos look like on my new Samsung 32" which was delivered today I've heard that the HD tv's are great for photo editing, can't wait to find out. :D
 
I have an lcd but i reallly dont like the way the light and colours of a photo change depending how high up you sit while looking at the screen.

I prefer the stability of the crt...looks the same from whichever height you sit.
 
My main screen is a Spectraview 2090 LCD which displays colour and detail very well indeed. :thumbs:
 
Diego Garcia said:
OK, so for a long time, I was PP work on a new 'modern' 26" LCD TV set, which whilst not ideal for this has lovely colours and contrast etc. Native widescreen on it is 1024 x 768 , which looks fine and is the same as how I run my Sony Trinitron CRT which has fantastic PQ.

However, here is the rub, over the break I decided to go back to my LCD and moved it over and now its like, mmmm, that looks great.

One thing I have noticed is that the CRT can crush the blacks, which makes me move the levels more than required. It does however ever offer pinsharp images post shoot when compared to the LCD, which whilst sharp does not allow images to look 'razor' sharp upon initial viewing.

So, what is your preferred screen? It seems to be the devil and the deep blue sea really, in that what one offers, the other does not. Of course, ignoring the mega cheap screens from Dell etc that look godawful...

Of course, it is nice viewing images on my desktop via a 26" screen....

Any thoughts?

Finally, can anyone recommend a decent LCD for PP up to say £500.00 ish? I was looking at Macs last week, but felt that the screen was neither here nor ther PQ wise.

Pete.
Click to expand...
Have a look at this site, http://www.trustedreviews.com/displays/ and this looks a nice monitor if you can afford it. http://www.trustedreviews.com/displays/review/2006/09/13/BenQ-FP241W-24in-Widescreen-Monitor/p1
 
Cheers Ash,

Have to say that I am back with my CRT at the mo as I felt it ruined my PP of the Bristol Bath game.

Thanks.

Pete. :)
 
Janice said:
I have an lcd but i reallly dont like the way the light and colours of a photo change depending how high up you sit while looking at the screen.

I prefer the stability of the crt...looks the same from whichever height you sit.
Click to expand...

The high end Dells arnt like this, i've got a 2004 fpw and its got no viewing angle at all it looks exactly the same no matter what extreme angle you look at it from.
 
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