Merry Christmas to me!
One thing that's really annoying working with graphics apps is that there are so many option panels and menus that screen real estate is very important. I've long heard that widescreens are great for working in Photoshop because of the palettes, and Max and Maya are the same way. Every palette that's open takes away an area of the screen that lets you view the image. A widescreen monitor's a more efficient use of those pixels (if you're wondering why, think about how our eyes are positioned in our heads - the 16:9 ratio is more visually ergonomic than a 4:3).
I haven't had a new monitor in 7 years - not since I bought my own first computer in 2000, moving out for college. I've been stuck with a crap-ass 17" CRT since then, and decided that now was the time to get a better monitor for my professional endeavours. After looking around, I finally decided on a Samsung 226BW, a 22" 16:10 widescreen LCD (I realized afterwards that I actually suggested the exact same monitor to stsmurf - I wonder if he has an 'S' panel...).
I went from 17 inches to 22 inches. This thing is a behemoth, and she's BRIGHT. For size comparison, I overlaid before and after shots, the old 17" monitor inside the 22". Really funny part is that the Samsung's screen is actually further back in the picture than the CRT's was:
The reason I picked this baby above all was that she had phenomenal color reproduction in reviews - for LCDs, it's supposed to be an artist's wet dream. One fellow with a non-Samsung panel (lower-grade than the original Samsung panels, there is a huge article on this issue here [link]) had a 0.7 rating after calibrating - a 0.0 is perfect, true-to-life color, anything less than 1.0 for any LCD is phenomenal.
There's a definite bluish tint right now, but once calibrated it should be gone. I ordered a Spyder2Express hardware calibrator through Amazon; it was an expense I figured into the total cost of an LCD monitor - any artist worth their salt wouldn't work on an LCD that isn't calibrated (CRTs just aren't cost effective these days), and the Spyder2Express is only $50 USD.
Pleasant surprise: blue power LED. I'm a whore for blue LEDs. For the first time, my monitor actually matches my case, right down to the lighting. Now I'm waiting on 2 Gnomon Workshop DVDs to come in tomorrow so I can learn more 3D modeling. =D
I haven't had a new monitor in 7 years - not since I bought my own first computer in 2000, moving out for college. I've been stuck with a crap-ass 17" CRT since then, and decided that now was the time to get a better monitor for my professional endeavours. After looking around, I finally decided on a Samsung 226BW, a 22" 16:10 widescreen LCD (I realized afterwards that I actually suggested the exact same monitor to stsmurf - I wonder if he has an 'S' panel...).
I went from 17 inches to 22 inches. This thing is a behemoth, and she's BRIGHT. For size comparison, I overlaid before and after shots, the old 17" monitor inside the 22". Really funny part is that the Samsung's screen is actually further back in the picture than the CRT's was:
The reason I picked this baby above all was that she had phenomenal color reproduction in reviews - for LCDs, it's supposed to be an artist's wet dream. One fellow with a non-Samsung panel (lower-grade than the original Samsung panels, there is a huge article on this issue here [link]) had a 0.7 rating after calibrating - a 0.0 is perfect, true-to-life color, anything less than 1.0 for any LCD is phenomenal.
There's a definite bluish tint right now, but once calibrated it should be gone. I ordered a Spyder2Express hardware calibrator through Amazon; it was an expense I figured into the total cost of an LCD monitor - any artist worth their salt wouldn't work on an LCD that isn't calibrated (CRTs just aren't cost effective these days), and the Spyder2Express is only $50 USD.
Pleasant surprise: blue power LED. I'm a whore for blue LEDs. For the first time, my monitor actually matches my case, right down to the lighting. Now I'm waiting on 2 Gnomon Workshop DVDs to come in tomorrow so I can learn more 3D modeling. =D