Monitor for Astrophotography Processing

Equipment Buying Advice
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Mark Germani avatar
Mark Germani avatar
Hi folks:

Apologies if this question has been previously covered on the forum, but I wasn't able to find much using the search so I thought I'd give it a shot....

I just took the plunge on a new Mac Mini M4 Pro, and I need to purchase a monitor - 27" 4k, and my budget is less than $600 USD / $800 CAD. I've had my eye on the Asus PA279CRV but have heard that the contrast ratio (1000:1) is a real weak point. Could you wonderful folks please advise me on a decent monitor in my price range? Thanks in advance!

CS,
Mark
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Oscar H. avatar
Oscar H. avatar
Legend has it that if you project an image on the back of a bald head, you'll get a really accurate color balance

(sorry, I don't know anything about monitors, just couldn't hold myself : p)
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
The Pro Art are quite nice. The other option is any well reviewed IPS monitor and a calibrator like the Spyder..

Be aware some monitor tech like OLED and HDR may need a more expensive calibration device…
Florian Hahn avatar
Florian Hahn avatar
Hi,

two more alternatives with very similar specs than the Asus:
AOC U27U3CV
Dell U2723QE

I am currently on the lookout for monitors as well with the same basic specs as you do. Those are the 3 monitors left to choose from. I am currently waiting for any upcoming offers, but probably go with the AOC model as it has a KVM-Switch feature and speakers.

CS, Florian
dummieastro avatar
dummieastro avatar
I have the ASUS PA278QV which I like very much for a budget display. I think the ASUS are a good value. Like anything else you can spend more and get better performance.  Stepping up in the ASUS line to 4K should get you a very nice monitor. 

CS, Bob
Mark Germani avatar
Mark Germani avatar
Thanks everyone for their input! The AOC is hard to find in Canada, but that Dell monitor looks pretty amazing - the contrast is twice the ASUS monitor, though it sounds like the surface is more reflective so not as good for my bright office during the day. I have no windows or lights behind me, so I might be ok.

I really appreciate all the suggestions!

PS: @Oscar (messierman3000) I've got the bald head, all I need are a few strategically-placed mirrors and I'd be all set!
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Jeff Bennett avatar
Jeff Bennett avatar
I bought this for Mac mini seems to work well with Pixinsight, great color.  LG UltraFine UHD 27-Inch 4K UHD 2160p Computer Monitor 27UN850-W, IPS with VESA DisplayHDR 400, AMD FreeSync, and USB-C, White,Silver
Oscar H. avatar
Oscar H. avatar
Mark Germani:
I've got the bald head, all I need are a few strategically-placed mirrors and I'd be all set!


LOL 
David Foust avatar
David Foust avatar
I recently was shopping for monitors with high color accuracy for postprocessing my astrophotos as well. The ProArt seemed to be the standard, but it was expensive, so I went searching for more affordable options that were still good. I was also hunting for an ultra wide to replace my existing dual monitor setup (which was cobbled together from two cheap lcd monitors... One from 2007(!) and one from about 2014. It was time for an upgrade 😂)

Something I found in my search was ensuring that the monitor is able to fully produce what would be considered the "standard" color gamut of sRGB. So you'll want to at least look for monitors that meet the 100% sRGB spec. However, if you want to upgrade past that standard (since live in the world of HDR and now have the tech to reproduce or at least simulate a wider color gamut), DCPI-P3 or Adobe RGB is a higher standard and can produce colors something like 125% of sRGB.

That said, there's lots of monitors that will advertise that they are 110% of sRGB or something to that effect. This is a marketing gimmick. They're able to do this by playing with saturation and other factors. This doesn't necessarily mean they're better or worse than a 100% sRGB monitor. Just look for one that has 100% sRGB color gamut and ideally, has an sRGB mode, which should give you pretty good out of the box color accuracy performance.

I ended up going with this Asus monitor because it was a crazy good black Friday deal last year (it was like $230 bucks I think at the time?) and it has been fantastic.

Edit: Here's a visualization for the different color gamut certifications so you can get an idea of what some of the specs mean. sRGB, P3 and Adobe RGB is what you will find in most consumer computer monitors. Higher specs get pricey real fast 😅 

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Mark Germani avatar
Mark Germani avatar
Hi folks:

Thanks everyone for the great feedback! I'm seriously looking at the Dell U2723QE now, but I have two small worries:
  • The contrast ratio of 2000:1 sounds impressive, but will this simply make everything darker seem clipped, or will it allow better processing of dark areas?
  • I'm using it with a Mac, and have heard some quibbles about 4k displays and scaling. Most of the quibbles seem to be from several years back and it seems that it's kind of a moot issue at this point, but have any of you run into issues processing on a Mac with a scaled display? I know Pixinsight says it supports 4K+ resolutions now.

Thanks in advance to anyone who feels like jumping in here. You guys are awesome!

CS,
Mark
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Jens avatar
Jens avatar
For what are you using your images for? 

If you're only going to publish it on Instagram, everyone will see the image on a smally uncalibrated screen, in this case it really doesn't matter what monitor you use.
Even better if you edit the photo on a screen like that, to get the image look nice on such a display

If you want to print, Eizo is probably the best you can get, sometimes even with built in color calibrators.
That gets you colors the closest to the printed version.

If you get a monitor with a huge color gamut, it will only look nice for you, because not a lot of people have such screens.
even worse, the colors need to be compressed for other screens making them look different to what you see.

I would always choose the screen which comes closest to the screen on which it will be viewed on in the end and if you're the only one seeing it, then totally go all in.

Color accuracy only really matters when you want to print, for every other use, it doesn't really matter because pretty much no one has color accurate screens.
I would try to go for as much close to 100% adobe RGB as you can though.

edit: That's only my opinion of course ;)
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Jens avatar
Jens avatar
Sorry out of some reason it got reposted and I can't delete it. 
Jens:
For what are you using your images for? 

If you're only going to publish it on Instagram, everyone will see the image on a smally uncalibrated screen, in this case it really doesn't matter what monitor you use.
Even better if you edit the photo on a screen like that, to get the image look nice on such a display

If you want to print, Eizo is probably the best you can get, sometimes even with built in color calibrators.
That gets your colors the closest to the printed version.

If you get a monitor with a huge color gamut, it will only look nice for you, because not a lot of people have such screens.
even worse, the colors need to be compressed for other screens making them look different to what you see.

I would always choose the screen which comes closest to the screen on which it will be viewed on in the end and if you're the only one seeing it, then totally go all in.

Color accuracy only really matters when you want to print, for every other use, it doesn't really matter because pretty much no one has color accurate screens.
I would try to go for as much close to 100% adobe RGB as you can though.

edit: That's only my opinion of course ;)
Peter avatar
Peter avatar
I use 2 BenQ PD2700Q monitors  2560x1440

PD2700Q｜27-inch 2K QHD sRGB HDR10 Designer Monitor | BenQ UK

Calibrated with a Datacolor Spyder 5 pro.
They are brilliant and give me all the colour range i need at 100% sRGB.
Menu buttons are simple and easy to use, The menu screen lasts long enough to get things done.

Might be worth a look if your budget isn't huge.
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Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Jens:
Color accuracy only really matters when you want to print, for every other use, it doesn't really matter because pretty much no one has color accurate screens.
I would try to go for as much close to 100% adobe RGB as you can though.


Yes and no.

It is quite true that the general population is pretty clueless about color and their monitors are seldom calibrated.  In my experience with looking at monitors at the neighbors and such, they are often truly horrible with badly screwed up colors.

Having said that, I suspect that fully 75% of the views of our images are by other imagers, often right here on Astrobin. Those people are almost all well informed and very likely have pretty well calibrated monitors. So it is all about evaluating your audience.

Printing is another matter, of course, but I am not a fan of printing astro images. No sooner than you spend tons on a nice print, the methods and techniques will improve and you are stuck with a no-longer-optimal image on your wall.  The only images I would want to do that with would be ones that have sentimental or historical value for you. For example, I had a couple of Sky and Telescope covers way back in the early 2000s. Not great by today's standards but they have sentimental value to me.

Better choice would be a picture-frame-like monitor on the wall instead of a print. That way you can keep your images up to date.
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Rob Lyons avatar
Rob Lyons avatar
The LG Ultrafine pair nicely with the Mac as they were built for that purpose. They are a bit pricey, but if you can find the 24" on sale, it will fit your budget. I'm also a big Asus ProArt and Dell Ultra Sharps fan. These are very similar, having 4K resolution, wide P3 colour gamuts, and over 99% colour accuracy. One thing I like about Asus is that you can get them in a slightly matte finish, which is excellent for cutting down reflections.
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David Foust avatar
David Foust avatar
Color accuracy certainly matters for print, but it also matters for screens. Phone screens especially these days can produce a very wide and reasonably accurate color gamut, so color accuracy is also important for screens. You're right that most probably use pretty cheap computer monitors when they're on PC, but fact of the matter is, most people browse from their phones, which can reproduce colors fairly accurately out of the box.

The ultimate goal here is to produce a well calibrated image regardless of what the end user's hardware is. To do that, you'll need a monitor that is well calibrated and can accurately reproduce 100% of the sRGB color gamut.

I like to produce music as well, and the principle is the same. You want to mix and master the song in such a way that no matter what the end user's sound system is, it can reasonably reproduce the song. To do that, you need a well calibrated sound system that can accurately reproduce the sound and listening environment that is relatively neutral (ie without echo and reflections that can cancel wavelengths and otherwise "color" the sound. IMO, the same principle applies here as well. You need a monitor capable of accurately reproducing a wide enough color gamut that is well calibrated to "master" your image such that it will be faithfully reproduced, no matter the end user's system, which may be better or worse than your own.
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Mark Germani avatar
Mark Germani avatar
Thanks folks! I don't usually print my images for the reasons @Billmentions, but I do submit them to print publications so I'd like to at least in the right ballpark, colour-wise.

I'm a little worried about the "IPS Black" in the Dell Ultrasharp clipping the darks, and the colour coverage doesn't seem as good as the Asus ProArt PA279CRV, so I'm probably going to go with the latter. While it's not unilaterally the "best" (everyone seems to like the one they've got) it certainly gets mentioned the most. I'll let you know how I fare. I'm hoping things don't get weird scaling the 4K with the Mac Mini.

Thanks again and CS!
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Ryan Génier avatar
Ryan Génier avatar
I use an ASUS ProArt QHD monitor (ProArt Display PA278QV｜Monitors｜ASUS Canada) and I've been very happy with it.