One of the things that keeps coming up on my workshops is that people spend $$$ on cameras, lenses, printers, etc and if they choose a monitor, they either skimp on it, or go for the biggest thing they can get. Hardly ever, does anyone consider that some monitors are worse than others for editing images and getting accurate colour. Admittedly, there are accessories in the photographic medium which are tedious. We hate to have to spend money on them. Tripods, ball heads, clamps, are often the weakest link in the chain for most entry level photographers. Surely a £50 tripod will do. As we become more experienced in our technique, we start to appreciate that spending £400 on a tripod is worth it. We've experienced 'creep' in the cheap tripod, and it's seldom steady too.

I think the same applies to monitors. Most of us will think of spending around £200 to £400 on a computer monitor and think it's good enough. But there are around three different technologies out there and some of them are really unsuitable for image editing.

I don't claim to be an expert in this region at all. But I find it strange that we will spend a lot of money making sure we capture high quality images only to view them on a sub standard screen.

How many people for instance, have LCD panels that change colour when you change the viewing angle? How many people have bought a glossy screen and think it makes their images look great. Consensus is out at the moment on whether glossy screens give an unrealistic impression of whether the images are rich enough. My own personal feeling is that anything glossy gives an overly enhanced impression of rich blacks where they may be none. I prefer to edit on a matt screen.

I'd be curious to find out what percentage of photographers out on the web have calibrated monitors too? How many people are judging others work on screens that are displaying the wrong colours. Or worse, can't display them because if you try to calibrate the screens, the LCD technology won't be working at it's optimum luminance values?

Id' be interested to hear from you - do you have your screen calibrated, and if so, what sort of screen is it? Glossy, matt? Is it a Macbook Pro matt screen (mine won't calibrate).....