LCD screen

I'm shopping for a new LCD screen since my old Dell Trinitron can no longer be calibrated. I am not going to spend the $800+ needed for perfect color match of screen and print. So I want as good as I can get for less than $500 in a 22" widescreen. I'm looking at the HP 2207H and Viewsonic VLED221wm. The Viewsonic meets 100% NTSC color capability; the HP reaches 92% color gamut. How significant is this difference, since the Viewsonic is almost double the price of HP?

The issue is not monitor/print accuracy but color depth - bit depth. I consider anything less than 10 bits frustrating to use with totally unpredicable results with certain images. An example of this is sensor dust spots on a blue field (blue sky), which are invisible when viewed on a 7 or 8 bit monitor, but clearly evident on a CRT or in a print. Eizo is known for remarkably good screens, but their least expensive, a 10 bit 21" screen is going to set you back at least $1200 and a 12 bit 19" with calibration will be about $1600. But in the long run one of these is worth every penny - or you can always look around for a deal on a CRT.

Not dependent of which model you are looking at, I had a rather unacceptable experience with Viewsonic. I purchased a new monitor from them, had it for three weeks and it developed a problem, long story short it took two months for them to finally replace the monitor. All this while I was trying to color critical work on a monitor such as yours that could no longer be calibrated correctly.

Just an opinion

Rob

Mark - Gene is correct in that bit depth is important. In the price range your looking at, I would at least find a monitor that is 8-bit rather than 6, mainly to avoid seeing posterization that isn't there. Sometimes that info is tough to find though.