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Author Topic: My New Monitor - An Early Christmas Present  (Read 48914 times)
Terry-M
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« on: December 14, 2017, 05:32:44 PM »

I thought some of you may be interested in this little story after the boss at home gave me permission to proceed.  Grin
Earlier this year I noticed that monitor to print colour match was not quite right especially with orange tones. I wondered if my calibration device, an Eye One 2 Display, was playing up. Subsequent checking with the X-Right  i1Diagnostics program showed it was working properly.
Later in the year I started getting  inconsistent calibration results with my 22" Eizo Flexscan 95% Adobe RGB gamut monitor. It's a good quality monitor but has Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps rather than the more modern LCD back-lighting so I assume they were "going off" after 9 years use. It was time to replace it in ready for Christmas.

Eizo have a reputation for good quality monitors at competitive prices but the latest Flexscan range did not seem particularly suited to photography so I looked at their ColorEdge range that have hardware calibration. This is where the monitor calibration settings are stored in a Look-Up-Table (LUT) in the monitor hardware rather than on the graphics card. This gives consistent calibration  & precision colour . Some even have a built in calibration device that pops out at the edge of the screen. Most models have high gamut LED's too.
I bought a 24" ColorEdge CS2420 monitor which still needed my Eye One 2 Display for calibration. It's one up from the least expensive in the range and has 99% Adobe RGB gamut. It has excellent reviews and rated as good value for money - I did not pay the full list price! See attached image.
Calibration was easy. You start by setting target values, gamma, colour temperature and brightness which are saved. You can have several target sets and therefore several  calibrations. The software does load the profiles into the operating system colour folder as you'd expect.
So why have several calibrations with different targets? I used this feature to check print matching with different brightness levels. Or, say, you are working with video you'd probably want to set the calibration to sRGB. The neat thing is, once these calibrations are done, you can instantly access them from the system tray (Windows) which will load the correct profile and monitor settings with one click.

(NB. I have no commercial interest with Eizo or their sales outlets  Roll Eyes)

Terry
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Jeff
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« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2017, 08:44:17 AM »

Very Interesting.

My S2110W is many years of age.

Time to replace?

The SWPP convention in Jan each year some times have Eizo in attendance. If I can get up in time to catch the 07.30am train I may pay them a visit, then slowly work on my finance director, labouring the fact that I got no Christmas  presents. Sad Sad Sad

Jeff
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Terry-M
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« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2017, 10:06:50 PM »

Hi Jeff,
Quote
My S2110W is many years of age.
Interesting to know someone else who has an Eizo. My 22" Flexscan was 9 years old and still works fine as a non-critical monitor.
Now having a 24" and a quick warm up LCD monitor is very nice.
I didn't specifically say in my original post that monitor to print matching is very good with colour, brightness and shadow detail. The old one wasn't bad but was obviously not as good as it used to be.

I had a home-made hood for the old one made from black 5mm thick foam board glued together with reinforcing strips of wood and spray painted matte black. I was able to modify it to fit the new monitor. The monitor is not far from a window to one side so the hood helps to keep direct extraneous light from the screen.
Terry
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Jeff
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« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2017, 03:10:29 PM »

Hello Terry

Hope the new monitor is performing ok

I am still checking out the CS2420

Looks ok but wonder if my ColorMunkiPhoto 1.2.4 is up to the job.

I have not been over impressed with the Munki.  Cannot definitely say the profiles created are any better than the paper manufacture standard profiles.
Every time I profile the monitor it shows a before and after with the after 'slightly' better..  I wonder if it is just a bit of kiddums.

£542 appears the best price at moment. One online and one a retailer at Nottingham. I keep checking in case one gets a bit more Christmas happy.

I will probably­ work on the Finance Director after Christmas lunch – “Look at all your presents and I have none” Cry

Jeff
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Fred A
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« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2017, 03:18:45 PM »

Quote
£542 appears the best price at moment. One online and one a retailer at Nottingham. I keep checking in case one gets a bit more Christmas happy.

The only thing I know about Nottingham is that the Sheriff lives there, and the Sherwood forest must be nearby.  It follows then that Robin Hood is riding through taking from the rich and giving to the poor.
Hang around a bit. You might get lucky.
Fred
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Jeff
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« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2017, 03:45:16 PM »

May even get a chance with Maid Marian.
She could even be intersted in my Munki


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maid_Marian

Jeff
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Terry-M
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« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2017, 03:51:27 PM »

Hi Jeff,
Quote
Hope the new monitor is performing ok
Yes, I'm enjoying the larger screen, great colour matching and lower power consumption. So you can tell the finance director it'll pay for itself.
I'm sure the Colormunki will be ok. It's one of the recommended devices.
Quote
Every time I profile the monitor it shows a before and after with the after 'slightly' better..  I wonder if it is just a bit of kiddums
The difference you see before and after is with and without the LUT on the graphics card loaded. It indicate how good the monitor settings are, little difference indicates good settings but the Graphics LUT takes over anyway.
You won't have that on the Eizo CS monitor because it's hardware calibration and no effect from the graphics card. The Eizo calibration software will give a validation report which indicates how close the colours are to a set test patches. My results are excellent. The Eizo software is excellent, just create a target and set it off, no fiddling with monitor controls, so easy!
I saw that Nottingham supplier but used Native Digital (http://www.nativedigital.com/) where I already had an account. It's a small company who used to be local to me but now moved to the south coast. Whatever, the monitors come direct from the Eizo UK warehouse.
There's a lot of help videos etc. on these monitors and Eizo UK are responsive to tech queries.


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Jeff
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« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2017, 03:57:30 PM »

Terry thanks for additional info.

Look like it could be a expensive Christmas

Jeff
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Fred A
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« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2017, 10:58:47 AM »

Quote
May even get a chance with Maid Marian.

Jeff,
I found the photo you took of Maid Marian in my archive drive. It is your image 062i0001.jpg.


Fred
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Jeff
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« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2017, 12:22:29 PM »

Oh my god Smiley

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Jeff
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« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2017, 12:23:29 PM »

PS.

Don't post it here Shocked Shocked
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Fred A
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« Reply #11 on: December 20, 2017, 12:27:21 PM »

Of course not. Robin would pin me to a tree with an arrow, Little John would stomp on me, and Friar Tuck would banish me to the church choir forever.
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Jeff
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« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2017, 12:31:44 PM »

Just ordered a new Eizo CS2420

Hope I got a good deal.

Found an outlet selling for £541 but if you signed up for their news letter gave another 10% off.
Base £451.50 - 10% + 20%vat = 487.62  = another £54.18 off.

Expect it later next week.

Then the fun will start.  And if there is no improvement the Finance Director will give me some stick.
(it will have to be good the existing one is still fine to my eyes).

Jeff


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Terry-M
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« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2017, 01:17:35 PM »

Hi Jeff,
Quote
Found an outlet selling for £541 but if you signed up for their news letter gave another 10% off.
Base £451.50 - 10% + 20%vat = 487.62  = another £54.18 off.
That seems good to get the extra 10%. I paid the £541.
I'll send you some articles and links about setting it up, especially calibration. The main point is don't use the pre-set calibration targets in the software but create your own. One of the articles written by my supplier tells all.
Terry
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Terry-M
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« Reply #14 on: December 30, 2017, 04:19:18 PM »

Quote
I'll send you some articles and links about setting it up, especially calibration.
Done by email.
Terry
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