[Canis Vulpes]

I have been down on my luck for a little while and decided to treat myself. Those who know me realise I am no fan of the LCD monitor but rather a big fan of the Sony Trinitron. I had been researching LCD monitors with a view to photo processing for some time and finally gave in. Almost settled on an Apple 23" Cinema display I decided to look on e-bay for a lower price than the 'high street'.

I don't know what made me search for 'Trinitron' but it came back with lots of very low priced units some professional specification that would cost £600-800 in their heyday. A sale was due to end last saturday morning so knowing I would be around decided to see what it was going for in the final minutes. To my amazement the same monitors were still going for £5-10 with 30 minutes remaining. I stayed at the computer and placed my bid for a 19" Sony Trinitron, moments later I had won it for £10.50......thats £10.50! Again I don't know what made me do this but I clicked 'view sellers other items' and saw a 21" G500 for sale again going for £10 with minutes to go, I placed my bid and 'won' the item for £16.50....yes, £16.50!

The only snag was having to collect the items but as I travel through my business a small detour took my to collect last Wednesday. Both items were in pristine condition, taken from a home user in leafy Surrey.

When I returned home I tried the 21" which is as clear and sharp as you would expect from Sony's finest.

Anyone looking for a new monitor should forget latency times, colour accuracy etc, etc and go for trusted CRT technology for practically nothing! CRT has no blurring, Sony Trinitrons are known to be the best for colour accuracy due to their design.

The only downsides are.... this thing is LARGE, really large and heats the room quite a lot. The radiator should not be necessary in winter. No guarantee - you could always buy another at that price! Its also very heavy 30Kgs and would not fit into the boot of my Audi so both had to go on the backseat secured by seatbelts. Finally its not widescreen, the best of my knowledge suggests no widescreen trinitron computer monitors were ever produced. If there were any I would be looking for one!

Attached is a photo by my bargain! (wide angle 17mm shot hence distortion) Compact flash card in lower LHS for size reference.