Every so often I get an email from a photographer, a blog reader, asking me about the best monitor for photography . I always reply by stalling, saying that it is a very complex subject to explain and that one day I would publish a detailed article focused on the subject.
I delay because I would not like to give an opinion lightly. When I make a recommendation I like to support it with facts, data and arguments. I don't want anyone to buy an x monitor because I say so. If I recommend a photography monitor, I have to explain why.
Well hey, today is the day. In this article I am going to explain what you have to take into account when choosing a monitor for photography, and I am going to give you my personal recommendation, that is, the only monitor for which I personally would put my hand in fire.
I warn you, however, that this is an article aimed at people who are seriously engaged in photography, either professionally, or amateurs for whom photography is not just a passing whim.
In the article I am going to give you a lot of information and data, in order to share with you the little I know and that you too can decide. If you are in a hurry and want a quick recommendation, this article is not for you.
If you want to understand the subject of photography monitors well, this article is undoubtedly what you were looking for.
WHAT IS THE BEST MONITOR FOR PHOTOGRAPHY?
Before, as always, things clear:
at BdF we do not work directly with brands, at least not in a paid way. So this is an article written with the strictest sense of objectivity. Although I will give you my personal recommendation (brand and model) later on, you will see that I give you the clues so that you can form your own personal criteria and you can go out and find the best monitor for photography for you (I teach you how to fish, instead to give you the fish already ready).
In the article I try to be as objective as possible. The monitor model that I recommend below has me in love, me and the more than 700 people who have rated it 4.5 out of 5 on Amazon, but after all, it is still a "personal" recommendation from A server.
I also tell you one thing, I have been dedicating myself to photography for more than 11 years. In all this time, many monitors have passed before my eyes, of all kinds, from the typical cheap "generic" monitor, to the most specialized and expensive, of all sizes. I've tested HP monitors, LG monitors, Apple's all-in-one iMacs, and many more. Panels type TN, VA, IPS. Flat, curved. Full HD, 4K…
So, although you have to be humble in life, I think I know something about monitors for photographers (and I'm still learning, yes ).
One more thing before getting to the heart of the subject: I strive to work on these super-detailed guides with which I try to help as many people as possible. If you find this contribution "useful", and decide by chance to purchase the monitor that I recommend below, doing so through the link that I leave below, BdF receives a small commission, very small but which makes us very excited and allows us to cover part of the crazy costs involved in setting up and maintaining a BdF-level website. Obviously, without obligation. You can buy your monitor elsewhere, but if you do it by following the link below you would be helping us back.
Come on, let's get down to business.
WHAT DOES THE BEST MONITOR FOR PHOTOGRAPHY HAVE TO HAVE?
When I recommend a product, I like to "reason" why first. I hate the fanaticism that many people show when it comes to defending a certain brand. Damn the brands! When I want to buy a monitor to give it a use focused on photography, I want the monitor to meet a series of requirements, whatever the brand is called.
So, before recommending my favorite model (the one I use on a personal level), I am going to tell you, first of all, what you should look for in a monitor if you want to use it, among other things, for photography:
- Inches: the first thing is a basic thing, the monitor should have a size in inches large enough to allow us to see the photos with a sufficient level of detail, and at the same time small enough so that we do not have to look around from one side to the other as if we were watching a tennis match. A monitor that is too big would force us to turn our necks from one extreme to the other and believe me, I tried a 38-inch monitor for a while and ended up with a stiff neck ?.
- Resolution: for these times, since you wear it, yours would be for the monitor to be 4K. Beware that, right now, there are monitors on the market that are already 8K, so expecting the monitor to be 4K is not an exaggeration.
- Panel type: There are several types of “panels” in the monitor market. The panel is basically the glass that lights up showing us the image (speaking soon, come on, because glass is not). There are several types of panels, but the most popular are TN and IPS. Both types have their pros and cons, but IPS has far more pros than cons in my opinion. Monitors with an IPS panel usually offer a very wide viewing angle, no matter what angle you look at the monitor from, your eyes will see the same colors and tones. They also tend to have a better contrast ratio, with more true-to-life blacks.
Disadvantage of IPS panels? That they have a relatively slow refresh rate and theoretically slow response times, but of course, we are talking about milliseconds. People who are into video games and the whole world of Gaming might notice it, but if you want it mainly as a monitor for photography, or even for video, it does not affect you at all.
Therefore, in my case, after having tried various types of panels, I recommend IPS for photography and I would definitely prefer it. - Homogeneity: Some monitor models offer an uneven brightness level and colors. Depending on whether you are looking at the center of the panel, or at the corners, you see some colors and a level of lighting or others. Whoever dedicates the monitor to watch movies, series on Netflix (what series are you guys following right now? Leave me some recommendations below in the comments), or YouTube videos, they won't mind noticing a certain lack of homogeneity throughout the panel. But those of us who spend a lot of time developing and editing our photos need to have a "window" from which to see our photo as faithful to reality as possible.
So, an essential requirement: the ideal monitor must offer an impeccable level of homogeneity. - Color depth: a lot of people get confused with this concept, because it always explains itself horribly. I like to explain it with a very simple analogy: imagine that I place you in front of a beautiful landscape full of colors, and I ask you to paint it for me. In front I leave you a clean canvas, and a palette with only 2 colors. You will paint the landscape for me to the best of your ability, but let's be realistic, no matter how talented you are, it will be difficult for your painting to reflect the "richness" of the color of the landscape in front of you.
Come on, how about I double the number of colors for you? This time I'm going to put 4 different colors on the palette, and a new canvas so you can paint that colorful landscape again. Although far from being able to capture the variety of colors of the landscape, this time your painting will be somewhat closer to reality, since I am leaving you not just 2, but 4 colors to combine.
And we could continue like this...
Let's just say that the more colors you have in your color palette, the more accurately you can represent that colorful landscape.
This analogy, taken to the field of monitors, is called "Bits". The more "Bits" the monitor has, the more faithfully it will reproduce the photographs. The fewer bits, the fewer tones you will have.
To show it to you in a slightly more graphic way, I leave you this illustration that I borrow from B&H.
But how many colors are inside each “Bit”?
Look, an 8-bit monitor would offer 16.7 million shades of colors. You'll say “Wow! That's pretty cool, isn't it?"
So get this: a 10-bit monitor would offer a billion colors.
I don't know if you're following me, but going from 8-bit to 10-bit means going from a gamut of 16 million colors to a gamut of ONE BILLION colors.
8 against 10.
16 against a thousand.
?
Even my head explodes, but stick with this idea: the more bits, the better color representation.
Come on, let's continue with our list of important features that the best photography monitor should have.
- Reproduction of Color Space: I do not want to overextend here, if you do not know what Color Space is, I recommend you take a look at our article here .
The important thing here is that we need as high a level of Color Space reproduction as possible in the Adobe RGB standard, preferably close to 100%.
There are other standards like sRGB, but Adobe RGB is more demanding so if a monitor has 100% or close to that on the sRGB standard, well, that's not bad, but if it gives me that 100% on the standard Adobe RGB, then it's milk.
- That it can be calibrated: if we were talking about any monitor, this would not be very important, but to develop and edit photos on the computer, you need the monitor to interpret the colors as faithfully as possible to reality and, in addition, to do so throughout its entire life cycle.
The point is that most monitors come with factory settings that do not always have to match the color calibration that we need. In addition, over time, the settings of most monitors are altered due to the passage of time.
The solution?
That the monitor allows calibration.
A good monitor for photography must allow it to be calibrated.
- Connections: the more diverse the ports offered by the monitor, the better connection possibilities it will allow us. HDMI, DisplayPort, USB ports, etc.
- Specialized brand: I have left this factor for last. It has a relative importance, but it does. When I buy a monitor as a photographer, I like that the monitor is made by a brand that specializes in the subject. A monitor designed by engineers specialized in the field of monitors and panels is not the same as a monitor made by a brand that makes refrigerators, microwaves, air conditioners or... I don't know... blenders!
This is relatively unimportant, okay? We are not going to tear our hair out either, but other things being equal, I prefer to buy a monitor from a brand that is as "specialized" as possible.
As you can see, this list of "requirements" is very long, but you will have noticed that I have not touched on an important point: the price.
What about the price?
HOW MUCH DOES A MONITOR FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS COST?
First we are going to talk about a generic monitor, and then we go to the specialized one for photography.
A generic monitor can be cheap. Good.
A generic but advanced one, up to date, about 27 or 32 inches, is already starting to rise in price.
Do you see how we are climbing?
Good. If what you are looking for is a specific monitor for digital development and photo editing, then a generic one is not for you. You start looking at a specific one for graphic themes.
If you want a specific monitor for photography, but that is also good, then you already have a significant sum of money.
It's obviously a long-term investment, so your monitor will pay for itself well, but things cost what they cost. It would not be logical to look for a specialized monitor in a sector such as photography, which was top of the range and expect it to cost 200 Euros.
If you are looking for a monitor and you are on a tight budget, I recommend that you buy a generic monitor and that's it. It won't give you the precision or functionality that photographers normally look for in a monitor, but you'll get a cheap monitor.
If you dedicate yourself to photography professionally, semi-professionally, or you are simply an amateur but photography occupies an important part of your life, you need a good monitor for photography.
MONITOR FOR PHOTOGRAPHY: THE BEST OPTION IS CALLED BENQ SW321C
As I mentioned above, in the last 11 years of my life I have tried monitors of all kinds, brands, features, and prices. Normally I am very conservative when it comes to giving a product the qualification of “best”, but after several months using the BenQ SW321Cintensively, I can say that it has become one of the best monitors for photography that I have had so far. It is true that I am combining it with another monitor from another brand (I have two workstations and I am connecting the Macbook Pro to one each time).
When I look at my demanding list of requirements above, the BenQ SW321C more than meets each and every one of my requirements as a photographer:
- 32 inches, the right size between a large screen to appreciate the photos with a sufficient level of detail, and at the same time contained so as not to have to turn your neck from one side to the other.
- Resolution: 4K. It will take many years before it can become outdated.
- Panel type: IPS, is the type of panel that offers the best image regardless of the angle from which we look, in addition to other advantages. It is not ideal for gamers, but for photo, video or graphic design themes it is the best option in absolute terms.
- Homogeneity: homogeneous image in each of the pixels of the screen. No vignetting or weird things around the corners. If you fill the screen with a pristine white document, you'll see exactly the same level of white across the entire surface of the monitor. BenQ SW321C comes standard with technology that enables this level of uniformity.
- Color Depth: we have already explained this above, the more bits, the better "richness" of the color. The BenQ SW321C offers 10 bits (one billion colors).
- Color Space: on the BenQ SW321C monitor we find a Color Space reproduction level of 99% Adobe RGB. Not all monitors offer this percentage. Now, watch out for the trap. If you look on Amazon you will find many monitors that mark 99% sRGB. And therein lies the catch, sRGB is not the same as Adobe RGB.
Both are Color Space standards, but sRGB has a smaller color spectrum. Adobe RGB is bigger, more demanding. A monitor for photography has to offer a high percentage (for example 98, 99%, etc.) but for the Adobe RGB standard.
By the way, Adobe RGB is sometimes referred to as RGB just for the sake of simplicity, but it's the same thing.
That said, the BenQ SW321C monitor gives me an amazing 99% of the most demanding standard, Adobe RGB.
- Calibration: The BenQ SW321C monitor allows “hardware” calibration. This is a small gadget that you place on top of the screen and which allows you to calibrate your monitor however you wish.
If you don't know how the calibration issue works, here is an article where we explain this concept in detail .
Not all monitors allow hardware calibration. This one yes.
- Connections: the more connectivity ports the monitor has, the more options we will have when connecting it to our computer. BenQ SW321C offers 2 HDMI ports (version 2.0), 1 DisplayPort port (version 1.4), 2 USB ports (version 3.1, this is very important because USB 3.1 ports are much, much faster than USB 2.0 for example), a USB-C port, which is slowly becoming very popular, and which offers the advantage of charging our laptop with 60 watts of power (those of us who use Macbooks appreciate it). In this case, the monitor also comes standard with a slot for memory cards (SD/MMC), very useful for those of us who are dedicated to photography or video.
- The importance of the brand: BenQ is a well-known brand in the professional and commercial fields, but with less presence in the private field, partly because they do not manufacture household appliances or things where ordinary mortals can see their logo . However, its products are well known in everything that has to do with screens, projectors and "displays" in general, almost always focused on the professional market: vertical screens like these that we see in shopping centers, bar-type panels that show advertisements , screens for professional gamers, video signal themes for shows and, obviously, monitors for people who like photography, video or graphic design.
As I was saying before, other things being equal, I prefer a photography monitor designed by a brand specialized in the subject, rather than one from a brand that does everything.
It is not the first factor that I pay attention to, but it is important.
OTHER INTERESTING FEATURES IN THE BENQ SW321C PHOTOGRAPHY MONITOR
In addition to the previous requirements, which this monitor meets in a "brilliant" way (and never better said ?), the BenQ SW321C brings added features that are not bad. I would not base my purchase decision on these characteristics, but I do find them an "extra" to take into account:
- Horizontal / vertical position: the BenQ SW321C can be turned to work in the usual landscape mode to which we are accustomed or have it placed vertically from time to time. There are moments and situations in which it can be useful to put it vertically and work momentarily like this.
Normally to be able to do this with a monitor you need to have a special, swiveling stand (or arm for the desk). The BenQ SW321C offers it as standard. - Aspect Ratio: I've tested 32-inch monitors that offered a disproportionate aspect ratio. The typical ones that are "panoramic", super wide horizontally, but that offer very little space vertically. These monitors may be fine for watching a movie, or for working with several documents and windows open at the same time, but they are very uncomfortable for processing photos, since, for the entire photo to fit in the visual field, it has to be small. If you enlarge it, you already have to slide up and down to be able to go through it all.
This BenQ model offers 32 inches distributed in a perfect proportion, which offers a balance between panoramic vision and at the same time a natural aspect ratio for the eye. - HDR: This is complementary, in this case the SW321C supports HDR 10 / HLG content. If you don't know what this is then you don't have to worry, but if you know what it is, you will understand how useful it is for viewing and working with HDR content.
- It offers PIP (Picture-in-Picture, in Spanish Image-in-Image) and PBP (Picture-by-Picture, in Spanish Image next to Image): two functionalities that allow us to connect more than one image source, for example 2 different computers and view the signal from both computers at the same time, in parallel, on the same monitor.
- Hotkey Puck G2: an accessory that allows us to select screen presets with the push of a button. It brings several buttons for various pre-adjusted configurations.
- Visor: this is an essential accessory for those of us who are dedicated to photography . The included visor allows the monitor to be isolated from external light sources, thus improving our perception of brightness and color coming from the monitor itself and offering us a very comfortable visual experience.
WHAT 'S WRONG WITH THE BENQ SW321C ?
I am very conservative making recommendations but when I do I get very vehement. For this reason, whenever I write an article like this, I try to calm down a bit and dedicate a few of my neurons to looking for dirty laundry on the product. Something bad must have, right?
In my case, removing the high price (although more than justifiable), I have not been able to put a single hit on the BenQ SW321C. But maybe it's me. Perhaps other users have been able to find problems with it.
So, in an attempt to complete the information in this review and make this article as useful as possible (hope you're enjoying it by the way), I've spent some time researching user opinions on the internet about the SW321C.
The overwhelming majority are positive opinions, but there are negative ones. Bad opinions revolve around the following aspects:
- Relatively high price. This is not disputed by anyone. It is a price that you amortize over time, and that you recover through each of the features it offers, but it is high.
If you want to lower the price, you have to go to either "generic" monitors, or with lower benefits. - Dead pixels. Some users complain about having a dead pixel. This is easy to fix. If you release your monitor (that long-awaited “unboxing” moment), you turn it on and you find that your monitor has some dead pixels, you return it to the box, and taking advantage of the return period that businesses in Spain offer by law, you return it for have them exchange it for another unit and that's it.
In any case, this dead pixel thing is very rare to happen. There are units like this, but perhaps out of every 10,000 units sold, one or two may have a dead pixel, which is requested to be changed and that's it.
Another thing about dead pixels is that it happens to absolutely all brands of monitors, which is why, in addition to BenQ, other brands like HP or LG have their dead pixel "warranty coverage" policy published on their respective websites ( HP, LG, Ben Q).
This point would not worry me at all.
- Boring and bland exterior design. This is true. BenQ monitors generally come with a normal design. Not ugly. It just goes unnoticed. Rectangle of black or gray color, without more.
IDEAL USER TYPE FOR BENQ SW321C PHOTOGRAPHY MONITOR
This monitor model is not suitable for everyone.
You are not interested in this monitor if:
- You do photography infrequently.
- You are looking for a particularly cheap monitor.
- You are looking for a visually beautiful monitor with a modern design. Your potential is within. On the outside it is a normal device. Correct, but that does not stand out.
On the other hand, if you see yourself in one of the following demographic groups, without a doubt the BenQ SW321C will come to you in cinema:
- You dedicate yourself to professional photography.
- You are an amateur photographer but you like to develop/edit your photographs and you strive to find the most professional result possible.
- Are you a graphic designer, or do you dedicate yourself to video.
- You are studying a degree related to the visual arts (photography, video, illustration, graphic arts).
This review is starting to get long, but I hope that it has helped you to see, in a little more clear way, this subject of monitors for photography.
Come on, we're closing...
CONCLUSION AND PERSONAL ASSESSMENT
If you ask me about monitors in general, for video games or to watch a Netflix series with a bucket of popcorn, I could name other models, but BenQ SW321C is, in my opinion, the best monitor for photography right now.
This is not an absolute truth, it is my humble opinion. As I said before, I use two workstations permanently, and the BenQ SW321Cit is my favorite monitor for photography and design related topics.
Remember that if you buy your monitor from this link, you will be helping us too. If you decide to get this beast of photography, Amazon is where you will find it cheaper right now.
