Monitor

[rpcrowe]

As my previous posts indicate, I have purchased and I am waiting for a new Dell computer which should be great for photo editing.

I was wondering if a new monitor would be in line. By the way, I was able to sell my motor-home, the proceeds of which allowed me to pay off my wife's car (no more car payment) and give me a little fat in my budget. I am now working with a 24" Samsung monitor which is a combination television monitor and computer monitor. It is O.K. but, just that. It requires extensive calibration and, even after calibration. I am never quite sure of the brightness.

A computer designed for Photoshop Editing would be the ticket but, all of them I have researched are in the several thousand dollar price range

I asked my friend, GOOGLE Search, to help me find an affordable computer monitor for photo processing and Google came up with this one... BenQ SW2700PT 27" Widescreen LED Backlit QHD Monitor
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...itor_with.html

At $599.00 U.S. Dollars, with no sales tax or shipping, this seems like a decent middle of the road price.

I seem to like everything about this monitor, especially the lack of a need for constant calibration. Since I have a window in my office that allows light in over my right shoulder, the Monitor Hood might be a great advantage.

I also like the two USB 3.0 ports on the side of this computer. I don't have USD ports on the side of my Samsung and miss them greatly

Here are some reviews:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/r...nq-sw2700.html
http://www.color-management-guide.co...or-review.html

[Shadowman]

I commented on a monitor in post #2, hopefully you can still configure based on your current purchase. That's one of the things I liked best about Dell, you can configure your system exactly how you want.

Does this look like a good Photoshop computer???

[Manfred M]

Benq put out this computer screen on the market to compete with the higher priced Eizo and ViewSonic lines. From everything I read about it (getting rave reviews) this is the unit I would be looking at if I were in the market to replace my screen right now. It is very close in performance to the higher end products at a fraction of the price.

What's not to like about it?

[James G]

Richard +1 to Manfred's comments.

I bought this monitor last year shortly after it was first announced.

It is excellent. The monitor comes bench tested and 'certificated' by BenQ guaranteeing colour space performance.
I calibrate using a Datacolor Spyder and it tells me that I am getting 99% of the Adobe RGB1998 colour space (and 99% of sRGB), corresponding precisely with the certification.


It also has a rather nice little attachment which enables you to access all the control functions for the monitor via a round 'mouselike' keypad, rather than having to fiddle about with the buttons on the monitor (which are there).

I don't use the capability much but it also enables you to 'flip' between sRGB, Adobe RGB and Monochrome at the touch of a button using the same keypad.

I'm considering saving a few pennies to get a second with the intention of rotating it for portrait orientations.

(Overkill in many ways, but my graphics card supports 3 screens and I have an old Toshiba set up that way for web browsing and document reading.)

[John 2]

Richard, can't argue with the Ben Q recommendation but if you want a possible alternative, have a look at the ASUS Pro Art series. I have used the 24" model for three years and it has made my Spyder 3 redundant. Price (in the UK) is comparable to the Ben Q. Here's one of the reviews:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/di...eview-3509104/

[rpcrowe]

I ordered the BenQ from B&H in New York City which means that I will not have to pay the 8% California State Sales Tax (saving me about fifty U.S. Dollars) shipping is also free from B&H.

I researched the various prices for my computer (on the Internet, from Costco website, locally from Frys Electronics and from the two dealers that I most often work with B&H and Adorama). Set up like I have ordered the machine, the Costco website had just about the best price (even with the State Sales Tax and the $15 USD shipping) combined with Costco's policy of doubling the Manufacturer's warranty.

My present computer is so old and cranky that I have not been able to effectively transmit all my files to CARBONITE for backup. I believe that I am being smart in biting the bullet and getting another computer before my present machine completely crashes. I will mirror my present hard drive files and put them on my new computer. I have several programs on my old computer which I do not need anymore and I will not replace these. I will start basically with CS6, NIK and On1 Photo10 for my photo editing and will most likely switch to the Photoshop CC Subscription Service.

I don't do a lot of video editing but, I have been having problems eve doing simple edits for 2-3 minute snippets of my rescue dogs. I will have some simple video editing tools on my new computer. I need the Panasonic HD Writer 3.0 in order to download files from my Panasonic HDC-TM900 dedicated video camera and I like Wondershare Filmora as my simple editng program...

I have On1 Photo 10 on my old computer and while the earlier Perfect Photo versions could limp along, the On1 Photo 10 edits take a terribly long time to accomplish. In fact, the time that they take is so great that I don't use On1 Photo 10 at all. My CS6 and Bridge also freeze up from time to time.

As far as my hard drive setup goes goes, I plan on the following:

1. 256 GB SSD for program files and for actually working with my Photoshop documents.

2. When I open my RAW files, I will save these files (through Adobe Bridge) to the SATA drive in my new computer. I will also back these RAW files on a 3-TB "My Book", Western Digital external hard drive as I open them. I will save the edited versions of my images on my SATA Hard Drive. backed up by the WD, My Book. Everything will also be backed up using CARBONITE. This will fulfill my aim of having the files in three places. I don't think that I need a RAID for this setup. Please correct me if I am being wrong in this train of thought.

I really enjoy photo editing and as I am getting less and less mobile as my age increases, I am getting more and more enjoyment from photo editing.

[MilosVukmirovic]

Hey Richard,
This is a very nice monitor, but there is something to be careful of: Since this monitor has a 10bit panel(1.07 billion colors) it should be connected via DisplayPort and most importantly to a GPU that has 10 bit per color output, otherwise there is a high chance of bad banding(unless you would use monitor in Srgb mode only)

It's very unfortunate that many(if not all) manufacturers in the GPU-cable-Monitor chain don't offer full information on their features and necessary requirements for fully correct functioning of their products.

Hope your new monitor will bring you many hours of joyful photo editing.

Cheers,
Milos

[DickyOZ]

I have had a 24" HD Benq monitor for many years now and although it is getting long in the tooth it has always worked well and satisfied my needs. I would like to modernise but will save my pennies for a 4K UHD monitor to future proof my investment. Display Port and HDMI 2.2 are a 'must'.
Dicky.

[James G]

it should be connected via DisplayPort and most importantly to a GPU that has 10 bit per color output(that means any ATI and only Nvidia Quadro cards

Must say I was not aware of banding as an issue. I have been using this monitor in combination with an Nvidia GEForce GTX-760 video card. I run the monitor in RGB mode and connect using a DVI port. Have had no issues along the lines described.

Think I'll try connecting via the Display port and see if there are any discernable differences...

[george013]

....
I don't use the capability much but it also enables you to 'flip' between sRGB, Adobe RGB and Monochrome at the touch of a button using the same keypad.
....

To be sure I understand you correct. This means that the colour gamut of the monitor is Adobe RGB?

George

[James G]

George, it is a wide gamut RGB monitor.

http://www.benq.com/product/monitor/sw2700pt/features/

[MilosVukmirovic]

The sRGB setting should reduce the color gamut and work very well with any 8bit output wich is max on GTX card. But then this is not monitor's full potential, you are using it for showing you ~16.7million(2^8 * 2^8 * 2^8) colors instead of ~1.07 billion(2^10 * 2^10 * 2^10) colors

You can check color bit depth information in nvidia control panel at display information, you will see that there is no larger output possible than 8 bits per color. Similar is with any Ati card except highest option will be 10 bits per color.

I am speaking based on experience with 2 dell u2713h(without "m" at end) 10bit monitors.

You can best check for banding with black and white(most prone to banding), and R G B gradients in PS and zoom in it, while your monitor is in native=maximum gamut(if it has such setting) or Argb mode and no calibration,so you can eliminate the possible negative influence of that on banding(easiest method is with Proof-Monitor RGB setting in PS)

I would be really interested to hear results from you James, if you would be willing and able to connect your monitor to 10bit output to test and compare with above methods.

Cheers,
Milos

[DanK]

I have a Dell U2412M monitor (not a wide gamut monitor) attached to a computer that is several years old and has an Nvidia NVS 310 card. the computer does not have a display port adapter. I have the monitor hooked up with a DVI cable. The Nivida control panel shows 32-bit, not 8-bit:

[MilosVukmirovic]

Which is 8 bit per color channel + 8bit for transparency

[DanK]

Which is 8 bit per color channel + 8bit for transparency

Thanks.

[MilosVukmirovic]

No problem.
Just to be clear,I did a google search and found where some users claim to have 10bit and up options in their NVIDIA CP, but I have yet to encounter it. And even if it is true, it is not one of the default options always available(as it is in ATI ) and it is desirable even on "lesser" monitors*, nor is the information about it clearly presented from Nvidia.

*as having 10 bit output to 8bit or less monitor would also be a beneficial factor in banding minimisation, it involves same process you would use in PS for banding reduction- Dithering, of course inside monitors processing.

[James G]

I just switched my BenQ screen to the Display Port (£20 for a new cable)

NVidia Control panel now shows the following.... output color depth now 10bpc

[MilosVukmirovic]

Well seems Nvidia started doing things right, it was about time.

I have edited my post so to warn only on 10bit per color option selection

[george013]

What is the difference between desktop colour depth and output colour depth?

George

[James G]

George, my somewhat limited understanding is that modern inkjet printers can handle a wider colour gamut than monitors. So arguably with a greater colour depth it is possible to print a wider range of tones?

I now wait to be corrected

I should say immediately, that the printer might be capable of this enhanced tonal range but I'm not sure I have the vision to appreciate it!
In one sense it matters little to me since I have been getting excellent quality prints from my Epson SC-P600. I'll be reprinting a couple of images tomorrow and will be interested to see if I can detect any differences.