Monitor for B&W

[LeicaBraz]

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Almost 90 pct of my photography is B&W - either Monochrom or film. I wonder thus if an Eizo monitor would make that big a difference as compared to color.

Thanks for your opinions.

[sanyasi]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I was curious so I did a quick search of the web. Seems that even fine art B & W photographers in describing their workflow focus on printer calibration, creating ICC profiles, inks, etc., but they don't refer to a monochrome monitor or seem to give it any different thought than those who work in color. Here is a relatively recent post I found:

 

Monitor for Black and White fine art prints - Photo.net Digital Darkroom Forum

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[Jeff S]

If you make prints, then a disciplined workflow is key regardless of color or b/w. Every step of the chain is important, and the monitor is at the heart of that process to better ensure what you see on screen is what you get on paper.

 

And, naturally, all the other steps…from camera/lens to paper profiles, to inks, to printer settings to display lighting are important in that flow. It really depends how critical you want to be. Many folks ignore the framing (glass effects) and lighting component in that chain, and that can be a difference between a b/w print that 'sings' versus one that goes flat. Toward this end, a viewing booth, calibrated to the same brightness and temp as the monitor and the display lighting can help.

 

Jeff

Edited May 26, 2014 by Jeff S

[esquire53]

Almost 90 pct of my photography is B&W - either Monochrom or film.

 

Hi LeicaBraz,

 

same for me. I do calibrate with Spyder4 pro and use apple hires monitor.

Even so you calibrate, comparing my previous monitors, the mid tone gray had minor color cast. get yourself a large gray carton and cut a square inside and place it in front of the monitor. If you can, try a few monitors and calibrate, if you have a calibration system and you could be surprised the variation in mid tone gray compared to the carton. Most calibrations aren't that good at mid tone gray. I think there is something about the linearity of the color channels and there aren't sufficient calibration points per channel. I'm waiting for the new range of 4k monitors get cheaper and see how they will display it.

Maybe the spider isn't the best for b&w calibration.

 

Best regards

[Luke_Miller]

Almost 90 pct of my photography is B&W - either Monochrom or film. I wonder thus if an Eizo monitor would make that big a difference as compared to color.

Thanks for your opinions.

 

Don't have the Eizo, but instead use a NEC Multisync in the Professional Series. I find it far better with B&W than a general purpose monitor. When the Monochrom first came out I looked at the posted images from it and was unimpressed. That was using my web-surfing PC. When I downloaded a couple to my photo processing PC with the NEC Multisync I was blown away - the difference was that dramatic. Both monitors are calibrated with my Xrite DTP94. In my opinion a quality monitor is at least as important for B&W work as for color - perhaps more so.

[NJH]

You can download from Ilford their test image and then order from them their test print, the idea being to match the print to the image on your screen. I found that on my cheap PC screen there is no way I can get the full grey scale, it stops about 3 steps short going to full black long before the black rectangle. On my Macbook Retina I can just about get the full range matching the gradations on their test print but it took a lot of fiddling.

[LeicaBraz]

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Many thanks for all your replies. Will go for an Eizo Flex-scan SX 2262W, 22' with a 1920x1200 display. From what I have read and following my poor understanding of

technicalities, think this will suffice my B&W needs. In any case, should be much better than my current iMac display.

[sanyasi]

You will be very happy with the Eizo.