Whether to change my Dell Ultrasharp?

propaintballa

propaintballa

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Hey guys,

I'm pretty sure this is going to be my first post, so hi! I currently have a MacBook Pro 15 with an LED screen and have recently acquired a Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP which is a nice monitor, but as you'd imagine, the colour on my MBP's LED screen is quite different to that which is displayed on the Dell...

I'd never really thought about this just because I had no reason to really, but as you'd expect, looking at images I have edited in the past look a lot warmer on the Dell because it's not LED backlit and the whites are more yellowy.

I'm currently toying with the idea of ditching the MBP and building another desktop but I'm concerned that if I'm editing pictures on my new desktop with the Dell screen that the colours will be out by quite a way.

So to get to the point, I could probably sell this monitor and have enough to buy an ok 24" LED screen but am now worried about the image quality of these cheaper LED screens and just wondered what people's opinions are?

I hope it's obvious what I'm asking and I haven't gone off on too much of a tangent!
 
neil_g said:
Ideally you should have a hardware calibrator for all of your screens if colour accuracy matters.
Click to expand...

Well yes, in an ideal world, I would, but I don't :P

Even after all manner of calibration on a CCFL monitor though, an LED one will still produce brighter whites and darker blacks, as I'm sure you will be aware.
 
propaintballa said:
Even after all manner of calibration on a CCFL monitor though, an LED one will still produce brighter whites and darker blacks, as I'm sure you will be aware.
Click to expand...
A properly calibrated monitor/computer combination will produce the same whites (same brightness and shade). There may be differences in the black performance as even expensive calibrators find it difficult to measure near blacks and one panel won't be able to go as black as another, but you shouldn't be able to tell them apart simply by the colours they produce. That is the whole point of calibration ;)
 
Ultrasharps are calibrated but they might go off while you use them - mine never had yellowy whites...
And there is huge difference in how LED looks like compared to 'normal' screen.
 
propaintballa said:
Well yes, in an ideal world, I would, but I don't :P

Even after all manner of calibration on a CCFL monitor though, an LED one will still produce brighter whites and darker blacks, as I'm sure you will be aware.
Click to expand...

Actually, you're wrong. White LEDs are not great for accuracy. Genuine RGB LEDs are, but your Macbook Pro doesn't have that. White LEDs are actually found in cheaper screens, and it's a myth that they are superior. They don't offer the same colour space gamut as CCFL. Gamut is a product of backlighting as much as it is the panel. White LEDs are usually very high in colour temperature... which may be why you're thinking the Dell is yellow.

CCFL is far superior. Why do you think all high end NEC and Eizo screens still use CCFL backlighting? Do you not think they'd be using cheaper white LEDs if they offered any advantage?

Darker blacks is nothing to do with LEDs or not. Blacks are set by the panel technology. The only way you can get a true black from a LCD panel is to drastically reduce the backlighting levels, or as in some TVs they dynamically adjust when a dark image is displayed. This is something you do NOT want in a photo editing screen. Everything should be set and static.

If the Dell 2407 is in good shape, once calibrated, it will outperform your Macbook pro screen by some margin.

The Dell may look yellow because you're used to the overly cool backlighting on your Macbook. The only way to be sure is to calibrate it. You seem to be concerned with accuracy... so I think you need to obtain a calibrator.



[edit]

Having said that... an ageing LCD can produce yellow highlights that can't be calibrated out. How old is the Dell and has it had a hard life?
 
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The 2407 is probably just a bit out, but the LED 15" (non retina I presume) is a very long way away from truth. At the end of a day you need the hardware calibrator to get real results
 
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