NEC monitors

Kwak12r

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I am looking for a high quality monitor to use for processing my photos.
I am using a MacBook Pro before the miniport option came available.
I was looking at the NEC website and found 2 monitors that interested me: the 2490WUXi and the 2690WUXi. The main difference is the size but also the 2690 shows more rendition of aRGB.
Any recommendations or comments on monitors?
 
I am not sure if this is helpful but I have an old NEC monitor and have been very happy with it. It is 7 or 8 years old now and it has been hooked up to 3 different computers. Currently I am using it with a Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz with an adapter.
 
I own the 2690WUXi and I couldn't be happier with it. One thing you should do is get the -SV (SpectraView) package which includes a rebranded iOne Display2 calibrator and the NEC specific SpectraView calibration software. This really gets the most out of the display.

The wide gammut (97% NTSC) can be a huge headache. I am not sure how Macs handle displays but in windows there is no native OS level colour management. This means that everything displayed on this screen looks wrong unless you use output colour managed applications such as Firefox web browser, and ACDSee Pro 2 image viewer. As an example have a look at what happens with a non colour managed app under windows: (AcdSee (colour managed) on the left, Oversaturated (esp in reds) Directory Opus previewer on the right)
DSC_3950.jpg


I am not sure if this will affect you on the mac, but on windows it is a pain (i would rather use chrome than firefox but can't). The screen has a native sRGB setting but the colour accuracy of it is very poor, and the maximum brightness is limited. Along with the cheaper price and the fact that few photos actually look like AdobeRGB may make a difference, would be a plus for the 2490WUXi.

The screen itself though, phenomenal!
 
I own the 2690WUXi and I couldn't be happier with it. One thing you should do is get the -SV (SpectraView) package which includes a rebranded iOne Display2 calibrator and the NEC specific SpectraView calibration software. This really gets the most out of the display.

The wide gammut (97% NTSC) can be a huge headache. I am not sure how Macs handle displays but in windows there is no native OS level colour management. This means that everything displayed on this screen looks wrong unless you use output colour managed applications such as Firefox web browser, and ACDSee Pro 2 image viewer. As an example have a look at what happens with a non colour managed app under windows: (AcdSee (colour managed) on the left, Oversaturated (esp in reds) Directory Opus previewer on the right)
DSC_3950.jpg


I am not sure if this will affect you on the mac, but on windows it is a pain (i would rather use chrome than firefox but can't). The screen has a native sRGB setting but the colour accuracy of it is very poor, and the maximum brightness is limited. Along with the cheaper price and the fact that few photos actually look like AdobeRGB may make a difference, would be a plus for the 2490WUXi.

The screen itself though, phenomenal!


I'm about to buy a Dell 2408WFP and I've been reading a lot about the reds and over saturation because of the wide gamut. But it appears to not only be a thing with Dell, but a thing with Windows and all monitors. Wide gamut monitors display the same way? ACDSee corrects for this? Does Photoshop?
 
This is the problem of Dell selling a wide gamut monitor to the uneducated masses. Everyone cries saturation problem, whereas the simple fact is it's like buying a Ferrari and complaining about not being able to put standard unleaded petrol in it.

Dell provide a colour profile on their website. Now any application needs to be aware that the monitor is non-standard to work with wider gamuts, or naturally the colour will be too saturated. The entire world thinks in terms of sRGB and the idea that (255,0,0) will be a very specific red. Now introduce a screen like the Dell 2408WFP and (255,0,0) is actually far more red then expected (hence oversaturation). The software needs to be aware of the colour profile and accordingly output something like (237,5,2) (made up numbers) to compensate and display the correct red.

So you need a program like ACDSee Pro2 and manually load the colour profile. Firefox in the about:config menu allows you to manual add an output colour profile. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc correctly load it from the windows monitor profile, so as long as the colour management is setup correctly in windows all adobe programs should display the correct output.

It's the price you pay to work with the extra colours, but I still honestly doubt it is worth all the extra hassle. If the NEC2690WUXi came in a standard gamut display I would have purchased that one instead. None of my photos have gotten any better as a result of the wide gamut.

Btw if you're after a good cheap screen for photo editing Dell's Ultrasharp series have some S-IPS panels as well just like the high end NECs. The 2408WFP is only a PVA panel and despite actually being a full 8 bit panel still lacks the colour consistency of the IPS panels.
 
Thanks. This is the first time I've come across some real information. Everything I read just has people complaining about over saturation. The reason I want the Dell 2408WFP is because there`s a deal for $380 CDN, possibly as low as $350. I can`t find any other monitors other than online which are a few hundred more dollars and I`m on a limited budget. I figured this monitor would be better than getting a TN monitor. For this price range, would I be better off getting this monitor, or a TN?
 
Oh definitely the 2408. TN panels are horrid. They change both brightness and chromaticity with viewing angles. They are limited to 6bit colour definition (they say 8bit that that just means they accept an 8bit signal). They are thin and cheap for a reason, and all this combines to make the perfect monitor to stay away from for editing photos.

S-PVA panels like the Dell don't change in chromaticity with viewing angles, but do change brightness. Also the panels are 8bit for much better colour reproduction, obviously being 8bit.
 

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