Today I finally uploaded some more Wallpapers. People have been asking for this for a while now, so I decided its time for another freebee. Since I also own a new monitor (see image), that is capable of a 1680x1050 resolution, I decided to up the standard on my wallpaper resolution. The new wallpaper gallery now has widescreen images of up to 1680x1050 (pretty cool eh?). Some of my readers have been very persistent in demanding the 222 Megapixel Peru image to be made into a wallpaper which I did now.

I bought my monitor (a Viewsonic) at Fry's a while ago. I should have headed over to Newegg and gotten it cheaper, but I didn't know. Currently Newegg is running some sweet specials (mail in rebates) on those monitors. Click the small monitor image to secure one for yourself.

The screen is pretty cool. It is amazingly bright. So bright, that each time I go back to my Laptop I find myself trying to turn up the brightness (which is at maximum already). The color rendition is really excellent. I'd say it can easily compete with much more expensive "professional" models. Of course I did my research before I bought it, since I mostly edit photos on this screen. The Viewsonic was suggested by many to have a very good color rendition (do not confuse this with bright and popping colors). I have actually adjusted the monitor to have a true color reproduction. You can read in my Spyder 2 Review / Tutorial how to do that. Most LCD are totally off the way they come out of the factory. They are great for showroom purposes (the colors are bright and pop) but what you really want is true colors (so your prints look like your screen) and the Viewsonic does not disappoint in the color department.

So why do I love widescreens so much? They are really good for Photoshop. I can easily place all the palettes and tools on the right side of the screen and work on the image (which has an aspect ratio of 3:2 for most cameras). Its much more comfortable than having to make the image too small to see what you are doing.

Unfortunately I am also the pitty owner of a Geforce 5400 (or something like that) graphics card. The Viewsonic comes with a DVI cable (digital video cable) already in the box (you need to buy this extra with most other manufacturers). Unfortunately the NVIDEA card I have (not the latest model) only supports DVI up to 1600x1000 (so close and yet so far, darn). A LCD needs to be run at the maximum resolution at all times, otherwise the picture will not look sharp (really bad for photo editing).

This is because it has a certain number of pixels and other resolutions need to be interpolated. In contrast a CRT (cathode ray tube) does not have "pixels". It has an electron beam that paints the picture and thus can make all resolutions up to a maximum number.

To keep matters short, you can also run exactly half the max resolution which I did with the DVI and it looks so much better than with a VGA cable, that I decided to switch my graphics card for a better model (its hard to believe, because it already looks really good with a VGA cable).

So in case you spring for the deal ($30 mail in rebate on an already cheap model, just click the monitor picture), make sure your graphics card is up for it or update it !

And if you already have a widescreen monitor, grab your free high res wallpapers and head over to Newegg to Win yourself a Charger Hemi, otherwise check out some nice widescreen monitors and slab on one of my free wallpapers to make it shine. It will surely impress the neighbors lady, but if you win the Charger she may be impressed even more.