LED or LCD for Graphic Artists?

GeneO said:

PwnFrnzy said:

LED is just brighter IMO.

Do you pay attention to color accuracy or uniformity of color and intensity? I expect a CG artist does.

With a cold cathode tube (non LED) stronger color filters are needed and are not accurate plus you have to direct the light from a single tube uniformly over the entire flat screen, which is difficult, and most entry to mid-level CCFL lit LCD monitors don;t do a great job of it. Getting uniformity across the screen with a CCFL tube LCD I suspect costs as much or more than an LED lit LCD. With an LED, behind each pixel is an electronic light source which can be made very uniform in intensity and color accuracy. Plus an LED will, in principle, last longer as it is solid state while the gas CCFL tube will age and loose intensity. In addition, you will get a wider color gamut with a LED backlit display compared to an middle level CCFL LCD.

A LED can be less bulky as well.

An apple 27" Cinema display costs less than $1000. I paid $1300 for my 24" CCFL NEC Spectraview monitor over a year ago. I am not suggesting the Cinema, just sayin the price ....

If I am in the market again it will be an LED backlit display for me. I have one on my macbook pro and the color is dead on and uniform out of the box. I have some credentials - color is important to me as I do wildlife photography and use calibrated monitors and Photoshop for my work. Now whether there are LED monitors at a reasonable price out there that have other desirable attributes I don't know - I haven;t looked for a couple of years.

If you decide not to get an LED, then you may want to pay attention to the panel type. An IPS (IPS-H or equivalent) type LCD panel will let you view at wider angles without intensity or color distortion than other types of panels.

I'm not considering Apple Displays too, even if I had the money. No matter what I do, they seem to be oversaturated. In our office, my boss uses a 2009 21" iMac which I use for some periods of time, and I gotta tell you my eyes would always hurt. The white iMac's display that I use is much, much eye friendly..

Panel type LED you say? I gotta look it up. Thanks!

yeroman said:

GeneO said:

PwnFrnzy said:

LED is just brighter IMO.

Do you pay attention to color accuracy or uniformity of color and intensity? I expect a CG artist does.

With a cold cathode tube (non LED) stronger color filters are needed and are not accurate plus you have to direct the light from a single tube uniformly over the entire flat screen, which is difficult, and most entry to mid-level CCFL lit LCD monitors don;t do a great job of it. Getting uniformity across the screen with a CCFL tube LCD I suspect costs as much or more than an LED lit LCD. With an LED, behind each pixel is an electronic light source which can be made very uniform in intensity and color accuracy. Plus an LED will, in principle, last longer as it is solid state while the gas CCFL tube will age and loose intensity. In addition, you will get a wider color gamut with a LED backlit display compared to an middle level CCFL LCD.

A LED can be less bulky as well.

An apple 27" Cinema display costs less than $1000. I paid $1300 for my 24" CCFL NEC Spectraview monitor over a year ago. I am not suggesting the Cinema, just sayin the price ....

If I am in the market again it will be an LED backlit display for me. I have one on my macbook pro and the color is dead on and uniform out of the box. I have some credentials - color is important to me as I do wildlife photography and use calibrated monitors and Photoshop for my work. Now whether there are LED monitors at a reasonable price out there that have other desirable attributes I don't know - I haven;t looked for a couple of years.

If you decide not to get an LED, then you may want to pay attention to the panel type. An IPS (IPS-H or equivalent) type LCD panel will let you view at wider angles without intensity or color distortion than other types of panels.

I'm not considering Apple Displays too, even if I had the money. No matter what I do, they seem to be oversaturated. In our office, my boss uses a 2009 21" iMac which I use for some periods of time, and I gotta tell you my eyes would always hurt. The white iMac's display that I use is much, much eye friendly..

Panel type LED you say? I gotta look it up. Thanks!

No, if you decide *not* to get a LED backlit panel, *then* look at IPS panels.

@GeneO

Oh, Isee... My bad..

I'm a graphic designer at a medical imaging company and the monitors we use are these. As I'm generally a MAC user at home, I can say the color, resolution, and overall quality of the monitor is pretty good. I've had no issues adapting to windows and this monitors setup :)