I was looking for the NEC 2690WUXi but it's release is again delayed and now it's expected in Januari.
I decided to buy the Eizo S2410, which is the low budget version of the CE240. The main difference with the CE240 is that it doesn't support hardware calibration and it's not factory calibrated like the CE240 is.
The reason I went for the Eizo are:
- I didn't want to wait any longer
- The dot pitch of my CRT was 0.25, the Eizo is 0.27 while the NEC is 0.29 which is rather big. The difference between 0.25 and 0.27 is already noticable, so I feel that 0.29 is to big.
- It's still unsure if the NEC will be hardware calibratable. In the US the SV (Spectraview) software can be purchased seperately, but that is not the case in Europe
- In Holland the Eizo comes with a full 5 year warranty incl LCD and backlight, while NEC only gives 3 year
- Several shops sell the Eizo with a 100% pixel waranty, which is not the case with NEC. WHen buying a NEC i need to pay an extra €100,-
My copy of the Eizo S2410 is close to perfect imho. I paid €1149,- ( ~$1380) for it while the CE240 costs €1799,- (~2160,-). It has zero pixel erors and a nice even illumination. I am using it at a viewing distance of about 25-30" and then viewing angle is not a real issue (it's an S-PVA panel). I don't notice any color shifts on the left side (some people claim this, but this was the case with early production models of the CE240). THe only slight color shifts I notice are caused by the viewing angle when viewing it at a to close distance, or when looking at the screen from the side.
The monitor was easy to calibrate with my Monaco Optix XR. I did several gray scale image tests and there is almost no banding (much less then my CRT).
I did several calibration tests using a fixed 6500K color temp and these were the results:
(black level ~ white / brightness / contrast)
(0.11~78.13 cd/m2 / 0% / 710.3) (0.15~111.27 cd/m2 / 10% / 741.
(0.19~142.39 cd/m2 / 20% / 749.4) (0.23~173.35 cd/m2 / 30% / 753.7) (0.27~202.5 cd/m2 / 40% / 750) (0.31~233 cd/m2 / 50% / 751.6) (0.35~263.4 cd/m2 / 60% / 752.6) (0.39~295.69 cd/m2 / 70% / 758.2) (0.42~323.6 cd/m2 / 80% / 770.5) (0.46~353.97 cd/m2 / 90% / 769.5) (0.50~383.28 cd/m2 / 100% / 766.6)
In the end I didn't use a fixed color temp setting but I calibrated it to 6500K using the individual RGB controls.
I personaly feel that it's not the right time to invest heavily in high end monitors. Within a few months more and more monitors will be available using LED backlight. Also Windows Vista will be launched that will support more then 8 bit RGB control, so the current 8 bit DVI standard will be replaced also. I think it's likely that a new generation LCD screens will be launched that support:
- Adobe RGB (LED backlight)
- More then 8 bit DVI, currently only the NEC Spectraview Reference suppors 10 bitt and only the ATI Fire GL card supports 10 bit DVI.
For my use I am very happy with my new Eizo screen. It has the perfect size (24" wide screen) and excellent image quality. I wouldn't recommend larger monitors for image editing because your mouse mileage will increase significantly
... this is not a joke for those working the entire day with these very large screens.
For those considering wide screen for image editing..yes wide screen is a huge advantage. Now you realy see the difference on screen between a Canon 350D or a 5D... and you can use the Photoshop menu's without overlaping the image.