John Robb

In the world of mid to large (22-24inch) monitors there are basically two price ranges that apply to photographers and digital artists. At the upper level are high end HP Dreamcolour and Ezio monitors that retail at around the $3-4 thousand dollar mark – for those who make most of their income out of photography they are invaluable.. Occupying the lower end is a collection of monitors which occupy the sub $1000 range – the ones usually purchased by those who have families to feed.

Arguably one of the best monitors in this low price group is the Dell 2408WFP 24 inch widescreen monitor. The current online price is around $750 and often comes bundled with assorted extras to add a little more value into the equation. Delivery, if in stock in Australia, usually is much quicker than the quoted 7 working days.

When delivered it comes packaged in, as expected, a large cardboard box – the screen and stand have to be carefully clipped together to get things ready. Included are a collection of cables: basic analogue 15 pin RGB, DVI digital and a DVI to HDMI cable. The use of either DVI cable would be my recommendation since they produce optimal image clarity in a high resolution monitor such as this.

It’s in image quality that this monitor does excel. Most monitors at this price level use a TN type of LCD screen which although cheaper to make doesn’t quite produce the optimal results with photographs. The Dell is one of the few monitors in the price range that use the more expensive PVA panel and the result shows.

The colours reproduced by the Dell cover a great deal of the colour range. In practice a few images, that with my previous Dell 1905FP Ultrasharp monitor showed up as fine, now showed subtle colour variations in otherwise uniform areas. An example of this can be seen with the white background areas of Melinda . Contrast, as expected, is great. The screen controls can adjust each red, green and blue channel individually and the unit comes with an ICC profile that can be loaded into Windows.

Although the colour is amazing, the monitor – like all monitors – can benefit from the use of a screen calibration device to ensure the best accuracy in reproducing and control of colours. That being said the Dell starts a lot closer to the ideal than your old monitor.

Extra things to note are that the Dell also comes with a built in card reader and USB hub. The former is handy but not as fast as a good quality reader like the Sandisk Extreme reader . The unit also features a large variety of other inputs including the new DisplayPort connector which although little used makes things a bit more future proof.

In short if your budget can’t stretch to a professional level monitor then the Dell 2408WFP could be the unit you’re looking for.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts at the equipment forum post