View On Monitors

Every modern photographer depends on their computer and its monitor(s) throughout the workflow, once the image is captured. Often, as much work is done here that affects the final output as in the camera.

My plain old, discount Samsung SyncMaster 203 is getting hard to start -- the bulb is taking longer and longer to warm up. But once it's going, it works great (like with most monitors, esp. LCD's, don't look for critical color and density adjustments until at least half an hour! after they start.)

So I looked into repairing it: replacing the bulb may be all it needs. This probably will require some surgery dealing with whatever I find inside: cutting out the old bulb, adapting the new one to fit, soldering in new connections, finding and matching specs on a new bulb, etc. I don't recommend trying to repair your own monitor because everyone has a different skill level and there are several levels of potential danger involved; it might be better to find a new monitor in most cases, or a repair shop.

Two bulb sources:
www.xoxide.com
http://www.lcdparts.net

It may be better to replace the current screen with a new one, so some basic understanding of the terms and technologies is a big help. This website, www.tftcentral.co.uk has lots of basic (and more advanced) info to guide the shopping process.