Monitor

[Paul Glendell]

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Most people who have bought Leica cameras seem to have more money to spend on kit than I do so maybe this advice will sound very silly but here goes:

 

My monitor died about 8 months ago and by chance I manage to talk to the owner of Metro Labs in London and asked his advice. I wanted a pro screen but cheaply. I couldn't afford £1000 or so for a new screen so what should I do.

 

He told me he had recently bought a S/H 19in Lacie CRT ( cathode ray tube for those uncertain about this ancient technology) for £10 on ebay - I looked and manage to get one for £20 + £30 postage !

 

It is wonderful, if a little bulky on the desktop but I have had lots of prints produce from my own local labl - yes I still have one in the wilds of Devon - and without the lab adjusting them the prints are great. Of course I regularly calibrate the screen.

 

Somehow I don't think many of you are going to go for this option but it is a lot less expensive to get a good S/H professional screen than a new one.

 

www.glendell.co.uk

[Nicoleica]

My LaCie 24" monitor recently decided to stop being a monitor, and turned into a nice blue lamp. Repair costs were estimated at being around the GDP of a small country, and so I decided to look for an alternative. I happened to look into one of the local electrical superstores, and came across the iiyama ProLite E2472HD at just over €200. I'd never heard of this company before, and only time will tell if this is a reliable monitor (It is being used as the second monitor on my iMac and sometimes on my MacBook.), but initial impressions are very favourable. The build quality is very good, and even the plastic has a quality feel. The fit and finish are excellent, and there are a lot of nice touches in the construction. The colour and image quality are excellent, and it has a wide range of interfaces and resolutions. It has an LED backlight system, so startup is very fast. Additionally it comes with a 3 year manufacturers warrantee. All in all, it seems a bargain. At less than a quarter of the cost of the LaCie too. At the moment, I'm a very happy bunny.

[chris_tribble]

Paul / Nicole - good to see that there are some kindred spirits here. With any discretionary spend we make choices between options. With digitial RF there aren't many of these () - with monitors there are plenty. Your choices make a lot of sense!