Eizo CE210W far left a little hazy?

[pixel wrangler]

Just got the above monitor to replace my dying LaCie EB4 19" crt, which developed the nasty habit of displaying just a single few pixels tall bright line horizontally across the center of the screen. Think the flyback x-former is failing. It's just over three years old.

Anyway, got the Eizo since it was only a couple hundred dollars more than the 23" Apple display, can be more accurately calibrated and profiled, and has a five year warranty.

So far, so good except when I sit in front of the monitor it seems as though the far edges, especially the left, go a little bit light and hazy. It's kind of a gradient thing, the symptom abates from the edge toward the center. Pretty much gone by about 40mm in from the edge. Also, if I move my entire body to the left, thus keeping my eyes parallel to the screen, the haziness is nearly eliminated. I was editing some images of one my wedding photographer clients last night, and in a group shot of the guys (all in black suits) the guy on the far left looked like he was a good third of a stop brighter. The RGB numbers confirm however that was not the case, his jacket was about the same as the guys in the middle of the frame.

I guess the question is, is there an issue with this unit, or is it more an inherent quality of LCD monitors in general. I've noticed this and worse on client's monitors and just lived with it; but now that I own an LCD monitor I'm beginning to wonder how much this is going to bug me over the long term. Or am I just being too particular.

More info; I'm still using the factory calibration. My LaCie puck is incompatible with the Color Navigator software, and I've yet to borrow the Monaco XRite puck one of my clients has. So I know the luminance is too high. I've lowered the brightness from the default 30% down to 15% and it's still blinding. Perhaps the problem will be gone once I do a proper luminance adjustment and calibration.

Finally. I'm on a Mac single processor 1.8gHz G5, running OS 10.3.9, using the analog output from my video card.  

Thoughts? Sorry this got to be such a long post.

ron

[Jonathan Wienke]

How close are you to the screen under normal viewing conditions?

[RedRebel]

I have the Eizo S2410 which is the low budget version of the CE240, the same hardware but without the hardware calibration.

The brightnes can be adjust between 78cd/m2 (0%) and 383cd/m2 (100%). At 0% brightness, the contrast ratio is considerably lower (710:1) then at higher values. Starting from 10-15% brightnes, the contrast ratio stayes about the same and is around 750:1. Starting from 60% (263cd/m2) the contrast ratio increases to 770:1 at maximum. I used a monaco optix XR.

I use my 24"monitor at about 25-30" viewing distance and indeed there is some very slight color/contrast shift at both left and right end. However it's considerably more when viewing at closer distances. I was aware that I was buying an S-PVA panel, so I knew this could happen. That was one of the reasons not to buy the considerably more expensive hardware calibratable CE version.

So I would adivice to calibrate it to 10-20% brightness and have a look at your viewing distance. You are using a 21" version so I am a bit surprised that you are complaining about color shift, I wouldn't expect it at 21".

[pixel wrangler]

Gentlemen; thanks very much for your replies. As an ex Galbraith forum poster, i'm thankful there's an alternate forum for professionals and advanced amateurs to exchange ideas.

My viewing distance is about 24". Of course, the color/contrast shift lessens the further away i get. Perhaps a new prescription for my computer glasses is in order so i can back off the screen a few more inches. Contacts for driving, glasses for reading/computer work; this getting older thing can really suck!

The longer I live with this monitor (it's been four days now,) the more I think it's fine. No LCD monitor I've seen has been absolutely perfect edge to edge. One of the things I'll miss about a good quality CRT.  

Between my two main clients there are five Apple Cinema Displays, of various sizes and probably  one to five years old. As a test I'll make a full size screen res photoshop canvas, then fill it with white, 50% gray, and black, and observe the results. Yikes! It's pretty scary how bad most LCD monitors look. Uneven illumination, backlight spill, etc.

Luckily, my new monitor looks very good in these tests. I think once I am able to perform a proper calibration and profile I'll be even happier. By the way one piece of previous info has changed. I'm now using the DVI cable instead of the analog and the Apple adapter.

Still gonna try to get the LaCie fixed, if I can find some old guy who still knows how to actually repairs televisions.

Thanks again,
Ron

[oogsnoep]

I have a LaCie EB4 19" crt like you the problem with the horizontal line is a typical fault of these monitors I think. I got the problem one year ago, Lacie replaced the monitor and now I have the same problem again  I can replace it by Lacie but the problem will occur again in a year I'm afraid. So, like you, I'm thinking of buying a lcd-monitor.

[bjarner]

Dear Pixel Wrangler

Congratulation on your EIZO CE monitor (forgotten if it was the CE210K or CE240K you mentioned) :-)

The problem you are describing is a known proble with all LCD widescreen monitors, and with the CE210K and CE240K. Before the CE models were introduced EIZO launced the S2110W/S2410W models. A lot of photographers thought these models were cheap ColorEdge models and bought them and expected ColorEdge quality. A lot of the guys got disappointed (wonder why since the ColorEdge series is more than dobble-3 times the cost). The main complaint was uneven luminosity and contrast when comparing two versions of the same image side by side.

EIZO then released the CE series under the ColorEdge brand/series. The CE210WK and CE240WK is basically and upgraded S2110W/S2410W, where they have tryed to solve the issues people complained about with the S2110W/S2410W. They added improved viable angle and hardware calibration plus some minor changes, which all resulted in a better monitor, but you can still experience the issues you have mentioned.

There is nothing wrong with your monitor. You will find this problem on all widescreen LCD monitors. Just be happy you bought an EIZO since most others brands are showing the faults much more severe.

The only solotion for even ilumination and contrast is to go for their ColorEdge CG models like the CG211K or CG221K, which is the best solution for photographic work. The CE series are actually aimed at architects and designers from EIZO and not photographers.

Kind regards
Klaus