How to select a monitor with good color reproduction?

I know this is severely off-topic and there are better forums for this question than this forum, but since there seem to be a number of photographers here who also manipulate their photographs on the computer, I thought I'd ask the question here.

In another thread I showed you that the color reproduction of my monitor is bad: it suffers a lot from oversaturation. I played around a lot with the controls of my monitor, but apparently this is an inherent problem of my monitor.

So I was thinking of getting a new one. But I don't really know what to look for. I've read about pre-calibrated monitors (to sVGA or sAdobe), but these are expensive and overkill for my purpose - I'm an amateur photographer. I've also read about native 8-bit colors (AMVA+) rather than 6+2. AMVA+ doesn't seems to cost a lot extra, but to be honest I don't know whether this makes a real difference.

Is there anyone who can tell me what I should look for in a monitor that should have good color reproduction?

 

as a person who deals with color reproduction every day as a GM of a large printing company, my advise would be that more important then the monitor itself is a way to keep it calibrated and maintain that calibration. Xrite offers software and a small colorimeter that you can use on your monitors screen to keep it in spec. No matter how good the monitor is they drift away from calibration over time. Then pick a color model and stick with it. Personally I like adobe RGB as it has a bigger color gamut than sRGB.

 

This is a good link regarding what to look for.

http://thedigitalcamera.net/best-monitor-for-photo-editing-and-photography/

 

Excelllent topic Mark, and thanks for the answer to the semi unasked question Lance!

 

was goign to say get one of thos fancy color spyder theings (have not looked are one in years ) my photos might be all over the pace color wise\

 

Thanks, Lance! That's a useful article.

I'm now considering a cheaper 24"IPS monitor with, indeed Butch, a Spyder thang. That's probably better than a more expensive monitor without calibration possibilities.

Reading lots of reviews now...

 

I use the eeny meeny miny moe method of selection.

 

It's fun to dive into a world you know nothing about. Color gamuts, gamma delta's, fake input lags... I didn't know they existed