New monitor!

[dbraid]

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Hello all,

 

I, too, have been wondering about a new monitor. In Sean Reid's review of the NEC 2490 monitor, he quotes Carl Lang suggesting that wide gamut monitors may not be ideal for photographers since the 8 bit data path will lead to gaps in color, due to "spreading" the available colors across such a wide spectrum.

 

How does this argument square with your experience?

 

Thanks

[MindsEye]

Hi All,

 

I would contend that if your final output is as valuable to you as your Lecia gear then go for Eizo so you can see those subtle differences. In a way the analogy can be made that Eizo is likened to Leica and NEC to Nikon or Canon. All fine products but a slight edge goes to the ColorEdge (pun intended.)

 

That said I do make my full time living as a photographer and the biggest share of my business is selling fine art prints. Consequently I can justify the cost of my Eizo ColorEdge CG243W, which, of course has come down since I got it. It isn't any more than a good lens.

 

I first bought an NEC 2690 with Spectraview II kit because of reviews and what you seem to get for the price point so why not try it. I immediately noticed that uniformity was, well, not that uniform. NEC tech support helped me with some adjustments but in the end they said it doesn't get any better and my monitor is "within specs." So I shipped it back and bought the Eizo.

 

The tangible and important difference to me is being able to accurately judge nuances of color and density in any part of my image.

 

I still like and recommend the NEC for the money. It all depends on your needs, budget, and situation. Eizo is for those that want or need those differences, subtle as they may be.

 

My two cents

 

www.joelwolfson.com

[christakis]

Hi All,

 

Extremely sorry for not getting back to you earlier. I just saw this. I've yet to discover how I can checkout my "participated" threads other than checking them one by one. Anw... Replies:

 

Christakis:

How did you find the anti-glare coating? Some users mentioned that it affects text due to some "sparkling".

Also, did you notice any tinting (e.g.pink gradually turning to blue from left to right) at all?

 

Fotoism, The anti-glare coating is a funny thing. Sometimes I don't notice it at all. Others it bugs me as hell. Yes it "sparkles" especially under a pure white background. When I sit back slightly, I cant see it at all. My desk is quite small so Im pretty close to the screen which is why I think I can see the anti glare sparkles. On the tinting, again yes I can see it when Im about two inches from the screen at weird angles. That, you don't need to worry about.

 

 

Please expand on "I sort of figured it out". Please.

 

Or is it a secret?

 

Shootist, I've since then tried different things with calibration but didn't get time to look into it extensively as to draw a final conclusion. I used the Spyder3 calibrator to manually calibrate the screen. When I do, the colours are amazing but the reds of my M9 look slightly over saturated. For now, I set the profile of the monitor to the factory default AdobeRGB which gives me very nice colours.

 

When I get sometime to look into the calibration slightly more, I'll update.

 

 

I know you already got a monitor, but just wanted to say I recently got an NEC PA241. I sprung for SpectraView and the color sensor too since I didn't have one of these already. It's a fantastic monitor. I have a wide-gamut calibration for photo editing and an sRGB calibration for general use. It's very easy to switch back and forth between the two. I also really like the uniformity correction feature too.

 

Nice one tgray. Sounds like you made a good move there.

 

Hello all,

 

I, too, have been wondering about a new monitor. In Sean Reid's review of the NEC 2490 monitor, he quotes Carl Lang suggesting that wide gamut monitors may not be ideal for photographers since the 8 bit data path will lead to gaps in color, due to "spreading" the available colors across such a wide spectrum.

 

How does this argument square with your experience?

 

Thanks

 

dbraid, Errr... not exactly sure what that means. Most cameras can shoot aRGB which means, if the colours are on the file, why not get a gamut monitor to see them? I'm probably missing something here but, I didn't have any problems with the colours apart from the calibration hickups I had previously (which is a completely different issue).

 

Hi All,

 

I would contend that if your final output is as valuable to you as your Lecia gear then go for Eizo so you can see those subtle differences. In a way the analogy can be made that Eizo is likened to Leica and NEC to Nikon or Canon. All fine products but a slight edge goes to the ColorEdge (pun intended.)

 

That said I do make my full time living as a photographer and the biggest share of my business is selling fine art prints. Consequently I can justify the cost of my Eizo ColorEdge CG243W, which, of course has come down since I got it. It isn't any more than a good lens.

 

I first bought an NEC 2690 with Spectraview II kit because of reviews and what you seem to get for the price point so why not try it. I immediately noticed that uniformity was, well, not that uniform. NEC tech support helped me with some adjustments but in the end they said it doesn't get any better and my monitor is "within specs." So I shipped it back and bought the Eizo.

 

The tangible and important difference to me is being able to accurately judge nuances of color and density in any part of my image.

 

I still like and recommend the NEC for the money. It all depends on your needs, budget, and situation. Eizo is for those that want or need those differences, subtle as they may be.

 

My two cents

 

www.joelwolfson.com

 

MindsEye, we did say that Eizo is the bees knees when it comes to monitors. A 15 year old Eizo I have back home is still the best colour reproducing monitor I've seen so far. If I were a professional photographer too, I would go for that. But since I don't make ANY money out of my photography, I can't justify such an expense. I would much rather prefer spending that money on lens.

 

All in all, I know I didn't sell the Dell in this reply but I don't like up-selling things for no reason. It's a very nice monitor and it has shown that colours are amazing once I get round to figuring out how to calibrate it properly. It's only downfall is the anti-glare filter which is something that comes and goes. I think it's something that I might be over-reacting over or even will get used to, but I'd much rather have a hood like the NEC does than the anti-glare coating.

[christakis]

I promised I would give you an update on this. I managed to fix the colours by creating two profiles. One for sRGB (to use for internet work) and one for aRGB. Colours were really nice and spot on but the anti-glare filter, in some instances was very distracting so I returned the monitor while I could. Shame really, was 90% happy with it, but for that amount of money, I couldn't settle for anything less than totally satisfied.

 

NEC and Eizo are still out of my budget for now, so I'll stick to my trusty little 22" Samsung. If you are thinking of buying the Dell U2711, try it before buying or buy it online. In the UK, by law, you can return it within a week and get a refund if you don't like it. I believe if you buy it from the Dell website, you have 28 days but read the T&C first.

[fotoism]

Christakis:

Thank you for your update, and you have confirmed my fear regarding the AG coating.

I have been eying the U2711 and read a lot on the internet about it. Most comments are from gamers and general purpose users, and I feel much more comfortable getting feedback from photographers on a forum like this one.

There are detailed instructions on how you can remove the AG coating but the questions is why I should have to do that? One, it is not a cheap monitor and I expect quality reflecting that. Two, that voids the warranty immediately. And three, a glossy reflective screen is no good for me either (not even if it's an iMac). No, thanks.

I guess the search continues...

[christakis]

Christakis:

Thank you for your update, and you have confirmed my fear regarding the AG coating.

I have been eying the U2711 and read a lot on the internet about it. Most comments are from gamers and general purpose users, and I feel much more comfortable getting feedback from photographers on a forum like this one.

There are detailed instructions on how you can remove the AG coating but the questions is why I should have to do that? One, it is not a cheap monitor and I expect quality reflecting that. Two, that voids the warranty immediately. And three, a glossy reflective screen is no good for me either (not even if it's an iMac). No, thanks.

I guess the search continues...

 

Phil,

 

You are right. There is a method to remove the AG filter but the whole idea is bonkers from step one. I came across it when I had the monitor and a wicket little devil almost convinced me to do it but then logic kicked in and decided to send it back instead.

 

I do think the glossy screen of the mac is much better than the AG coating. If you want the best money can buy a monitor with a hood like the NEC Spectraview or Eizo ColorEdge is the way to go. Out of my budget though so, decided to stick to my trusty little monitor which has served me well for 3 years already, even though going from a resolution of 2560x1440 back to 1680x1050 is killing me slowly... :-)

 

Christakis