Does anyone have a clue as what type and or brand of monitor the inspectors use when judging our work?
Is there a standard required by IS that they must adhere to?
Does IS supply them with equipment? Also what resolution might they be running?

I edit (at home) on a dual monitor set-up. A Dell 2007 Ultrasharp LCD on my left and a Samsung SyncMaster CRT on my right.
Both are calibrated with a Gretag MacBeth i1 using Eye-One Match.

I have found that no matter what, LCD screens have too much contrast to make an accurate print from.
If I do my critical editing on the CRT my prints are nearly dead-on.

Having said that though, if all the inspectors are using a contrasty LCD, then the proper work flow for IS would dictate that I edit for their eyes and use my LCD instead of the CRT. Final print quality be damned   

I might also mention that at my office we use dual Eizo LCD monitors. Even identical monitors calibrated with the same equipment show variances from screen to screen. Very frustrating. We tested the high end graphics monitors from the same company, but they we not markedly superior.

I bet the IS inspectors (and probably all inspectors on ms sites) don't even have to calibrate their monitors.

Inspectors MUST calibrate their monitors. We use Spyder3 calibration on 24" Apple cinema displays. Again, all inspectors MUST have well calibrated monitors before they start inspecting. I'm confident this is the same across all agencies.

In the past, we started every day by cleaning screens for dust and coffee splashes.

The real problem is how to prove such a thing is going on, eh?

I have used a number of laptops, that have all been a bit dark.  Then I bought a philips 19" which was unbelievably bright.  Personally I need to get a better calibrator than my cheapo colorplus one (I need to stop photoshop updating and reseting the proof to working cymk - aarggh!!

Anyway, there is a lot of inspectors on a quite a number of sites so I would expect a fair bit of variation, but for pc users the 24" dells seem popular for microstockers (and the dell 19" ultrasharps to a lesser extent). Not sure about mac users heard the 24" cinema displays mentioned a number of times.

Phil

Does anyone have a clue as what type and or brand of monitor the inspectors use when judging our work?
Is there a standard required by IS that they must adhere to?
Does IS supply them with equipment? Also what resolution might they be running?

I edit (at home) on a dual monitor set-up. A Dell 2007 Ultrasharp LCD on my left and a Samsung SyncMaster CRT on my right.
Both are calibrated with a Gretag MacBeth i1 using Eye-One Match.

I have found that no matter what, LCD screens have too much contrast to make an accurate print from.
If I do my critical editing on the CRT my prints are nearly dead-on.

Having said that though, if all the inspectors are using a contrasty LCD, then the proper work flow for IS would dictate that I edit for their eyes and use my LCD instead of the CRT. Final print quality be damned   

I might also mention that at my office we use dual Eizo LCD monitors. Even identical monitors calibrated with the same equipment show variances from screen to screen. Very frustrating. We tested the high end graphics monitors from the same company, but they we not markedly superior.

I have a very similar setup at work.  Both are viewsonic - I have a big CRT on the right, probably about a 19 or 20" standard, and then on the left I have a 22" widescreen.  The setup is pretty nice, check it out. 



The CRT is so much more accurate with color, than the LCD.  I notice that with some images, noise levels show up a lot more on the LCD as well - then when I view the same image on the CRT it looks perfect. 

I'm confident this is the same across all agencies.

It's like that on BigStock too. Although I like to look on my LCD for banding since it has higher contrast.

I use GretagMacbeth Eye-One

Mine setup is dual screen to,  15.4" (1680x1050) laptop extended on 24" dell (1920x1200)... Sometimes open image on laptop display just for checkig because on big screen contrast, brightnes and colours are much better.

I envy all with big screens. alas i do not have space for it. I wonder if my laptop screen is adequate in terms of color correction, even with calibration ....

I envy all with big screens. alas i do not have space for it. I wonder if my laptop screen is adequate in terms of color correction, even with calibration ....

It's amazing how much the big ones have come down in price.  I got a 22" high contrast Samsung a few months ago really cheap.  They were running a sale on the model and I got an open box one (tested at store), ended up getting a $500 monitor for $220.  I also have a Samsung 32" LCD HDTV in the office that is hooked to my computer (and the AV system).  Originally used the computer connection for gaming, but it is great for a final looksee on photos, pretty impractical to use it for much else.  For a bit I had it on my desk when my old CRT gave out, my computer felt like the IMAX, but it is a novelty that wears off quick as your neck wears our from having to turn your head to follow the mouse around.

Noise and artifacting is dead easy to spot on it.  I wonder if a pro monitor would show me more?  I certainly know when I'm likely to get a rejection (and I'm usually spot on for that sort of technical problem too).

I really should get a mouse and a desk though.  I'm going to get RSI from editing photos in bed one day!

You can get a 22" widescreen for $150 now on sale, just have to watch the local store sales circulars.  If you want a better brand name, you will have to pay a little more.  I need to upgrade to an LCD at home, my CRT is huge and sucks a lot of electricity im sure.

LCD buying is tough because the stores never calibrate and little differences in the settings can huge effects on the viewed product, and it is a little different than TV buying (for photos at least).  For HDTV's, contrast ratio is almost secondary to refresh rate and peak viewable angle, for a good photo monitor the refresh rate doesn't matter at all (though it does for gaming), nor does the peak angle (unless you get a little lazy sometimes), contrast ratio, color accuracy, and black point (related to contrast ratio, most LCD's struggle to reproduce black) are king.  Your best bet is almost always doing heavy research on line and walking into the store knowing what you want, the side by side comparisons generally aren't very good, at best they are randomly bad, at worst they are emphasizing their higher profit/higher priced monitors to unwitting consumers.  You are almost always safe with a good Dell (I do have a bad Dell LCD however at work, better than a CRT but not in the league of my Samsung), Samsung, or Sony, all tend to have great color, the deepest blacks, and high contrast.

Waldo - thats interesting you say Sony and Samsung.  I agree - I always thought Samsung had a nice picture on their lcd's.   I wonder who makes Dell's monitors?