New BenQ 27" SW2700PT

[keithcooper]

I've been lucky enough to have one of the new BenQ 27" SW2700PT monitors here for a while to try out.

Over the years I've been lent some very nice monitors to look at (NEC, Eizo etc) but whilst they've all had excellent performance, they were really aimed at pre-press and other areas where stuff like Fogra certification and other standards actually mattered. These extras tend not to come cheap.

The BenQ offers A98 (ish) gamut and a hardware LUT but without some of the whistles and bells that as a working photographer and printmaker I've no real use for (if I'm honest about it). It comes with an effective hood too.

I know it's enough to get me thrown out of some colour management groups, but sometimes I'd rather pay for 'very good' as opposed to absolutely top of the range and certified ;-)

Anyway, I've written up some notes about using the monitor that may be of interest.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/monitor/benq-sw2700.html

One feature I have used is being able to have two calibrations stored. One for everyday work and one dimmer warmer one for printmaking and proofing. The only thing I have to remember is that changing the monitor setup doesn't change the profile being used on my Mac, so not quite such a quick switch.

The monitor is still here, so if anyone would like any additional info, let me know?

[davemiller]

Thanks for a comprehensive report Keith. it looks like good value.

[keithcooper]

The one area that is a little slow is the profiling software (on a Mac) where it seems to sit around for quite a while thinking about what it's up to.

Also, don't tick the 'system wide profile' option since profiling will fail, probably due to the way the system wide profiles folder has tighter file permissions in more recent versions of OS X

[AlterEgo]

any chance to test panel uniformity with something ?

[keithcooper]

Here's a very quick check with the testing function in Spyder 5 Elite (MQF) with the screen running at 120cd/m2

I've saved the results to a PDF. I'm not at all sure of its accuracy of this process - it's just not something I ever check monitors for, other than by eye from across the room. It's certainly not visible in the way I see it with some of our older screens.

I did have some nifty UDACT software to check screens, but that passed by when Mac PPC s/w was no longer supported.

[AlterEgo]

thx

[Czornyj]

Thanks Keith. Apparently there's no uniformity compensation.

[D Fosse]

There seems to be one serious shortcoming with the BenQ software: you can't set the black point. Or did I miss it?

Either way, this is a very underrated and extremely important aspect of calibration. I have 6 different targets set up in ColorNavigator, and aside from the one for web/sRGB, they differ mainly in black point. You don't want to be too disappointed when you see the final result on paper, especially if you work for offset print. My black points go from 0.3 to 1.2.

Aside from that, I'd be mainly concerned with uniformity. Getting perfect corner to corner uniformity is expensive, and a large part of the price tag for the higher end units.

[keithcooper]

Thanks Keith. Apparently there's no uniformity compensation.

I've not seen anything mentioned, but I'm inclined to think that the one I've got is quite adequate for my work supplying images digitally and print work.

It's not one for people whom the functionality/features of an Eizo/NEC Spectrview matter, but I don't do pre-press or anything that remotely requires certification and expensive precision.

Of course it's easier for me to suggest such heresy since I don't sell monitors ;-)    

[keithcooper]

There seems to be one serious shortcoming with the BenQ software: you can't set the black point. Or did I miss it?

Only a relative/absolute setting as far as I can see.

The software (Mac version) is a bit rough around the edges and I'd much prefer to use the customised version of i1profiler that BenQ supply for their higher end products, such as the  24" BenQ PG2401PT I looked at earlier in the year.

You can of course use whatever software you like, but at the moment nothing else sets the hardware LUT - maybe this will change, but I don't know.

The lack of black point is no great issue for me, but I can certainly see many areas where the additional expense would be warranted.

[Czornyj]

I've not seen anything mentioned, but I'm inclined to think that the one I've got is quite adequate for my work supplying images digitally and print work.

It's not one for people whom the functionality/features of an Eizo/NEC Spectrview matter, but I don't do pre-press or anything that remotely requires certification and expensive precision.

Of course it's easier for me to suggest such heresy since I don't sell monitors ;-)

Not a big deal, but it might be annoying in some cases - wide gamut display without uniformity compensation (like old NEC P221, EIZO S2233/S2433, Dell U2410 etc.) usually tend to have color mura issues, where e.g. left side of the screen was greenish, right pinkish and so on. Some samples were better, other worse, ofc.

[D Fosse]

Not a big deal, but it might be annoying in some cases - wide gamut display without uniformity compensation (like old NEC P221, EIZO S2233/S2433, Dell U2410 etc.) usually tend to have color mura issues, where e.g. left side of the screen was greenish, right pinkish and so on. Some samples were better, other worse, ofc.

I had an Eizo S2243 - a 22 inch 1920x1200 version of the 2233 - that was indeed slightly more yellow towards the bottom of the screen. As you say, not a big deal and it didn't affect work.

But the U2410 I had before that was off the charts and unusable (magenta/pink - cyan/green). It lasted two days before I returned it and swore no Dell would ever cross my doorstep again. The whole experience was that bad.

My theory is still that, even without uniformity compensation, the high-price/high prestige brands do get the best panel batches. The others just go for price cuts.

The CG246 and CX240 that I use now are in a different league. With a neutral gray desktop, it's like looking at a spray-painted solid gray coating.

[Czornyj]

My theory is still that, even without uniformity compensation, the high-price/high prestige brands do get the best panel batches. The others just go for price cuts.

The U2410 had larger gamut volume than S2233/2243/2433 or P221, and as such it was more prone to color mura issues.

My observation was that there were better and worse batches - e.g. at the beginning of P221 production the level of intensity of color mura issues was tolerable, then it was really bad, and got better by the end of product life, similar story with the Flexscans. The U2410 was consequently poor.

Recent CX/CG, PA/SV are indeed in a whole different league, usually with uniformity deviations approx. <1dE, peak <2dE