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Author Topic: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?  (Read 27848 times)

Quintin Lake

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Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« on: April 12, 2013, 08:37:31 am »

I've had a very disappointing experience testing the well reviewed here & here Dell U3014 30" display for colour and tone critical photo editing.
The reasons I sent it back were:

-Backlight leakage: When the screen was displaying black the lower corners were dark grey - even with screen set to 20% brightness. this was intolerable for Lights out photo viewing in Lightroom, slideshows with a black border or editing images with inky blacks at the edges

-Inconsistent display of grey tone, pale grey tones showed subtle but visible inconstancy. Many of my images are very minimal and this was also impossible to work with.

- High contrast edges showed red edge or fringe when viewed at a slight angle (such as the edge of the screen when sitting in a normal viewing position)

-Incompatibility with Eye-one Display 2

-PC only software

Please can you suggest an alternative replacement for a well loved DELL 2407WF which has been perfect for me up to now (now working between two locations so need a second display). I'm working primarily in Lightroom from a Macbook Air 11 2011 in clamshell mode, with image archive stored on a thunderbolt external.

Essential Features:
Antiglare finish
Consistent tone and colour across screen
Under £1,500
27-30" display

Nice to have
OSX software
Eye-one display 2 compatibility
USB 3 ports
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nemo295

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2013, 12:37:36 pm »

OS X software? What for?

I've set up hundreds of monitors from lots of manufactures like Dell, Apple, NEC and HP on both Macs and PCs for art directors and graphic designers and never once needed any drivers or proprietary software supplied by the manufacturer.
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Quintin Lake

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2013, 07:01:08 pm »

OS X software? What for?

From tftcentral: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u3014.htm

"Important note for Mac OS users - At the moment the Dell Color Calibration Solution software is only available for Windows Operating Systems. As such, you will not be able to carry out a hardware level calibration on a Mac computer at the moment. You need the Dell software and an X-rite i1 Display Pro to carry out hardware calibration and until a Mac OS version is released it seems this could be a further limitation of the hardware calibration feature."

My personal knowledge of the subject is limited so I may be latching onto something achievable another way
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Schewe

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2013, 11:45:37 pm »

Look into NEC Displays...they offer cross-platform solutions.
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tived

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2013, 11:18:08 pm »

Another happy NEC user with the older 2690wuxi2, and currently look for two 30in screens :-)

I do also have one of the earlier DELL 2405 :-) (Pallet screen) which has been doing surprisingly well over the years, its 8 years old and I like to calibrate it just to see how well it still calibrates :-) - yes, I know its a little sick  ;D

NEC with the Spectraview software is excellent - I do color corrections for book publishing

Henrik
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2013, 08:47:04 pm »

I don't think it is the right time to buy a 30inch screen.

4K screens are just around the corner, Sharp already has one on sale for less than 4,000$, Apple is likely to release their own version on the Sharp panel together with the new Mac Pro in a few months, Nec will be close behind.

They will be expensive for one year, but they are likely to result in a further lowering of the price of lower res 27/30 inch alternatives.

Cheers,
Bernard

afx

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2013, 03:54:12 am »

-Incompatibility with Eye-one Display 2
Most modern screens (wide gamut or LED) will be incompatible with that old instrument, and it does not really have the best consistency: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/MonitorCalibrationHardware.html

Get a i1 Display Pro.

As for 30" screen, how about this NEC: http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review/2011/review-nec-pa301w-bk.html

Miles better than the average consumer Dell....

Or it's smaller siblings if the price tag is to high.

cheers
afx

Craig Lamson

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2013, 06:46:51 am »

I don't think it is the right time to buy a 30inch screen.

4K screens are just around the corner, Sharp already has one on sale for less than 4,000$, Apple is likely to release their own version on the Sharp panel together with the new Mac Pro in a few months, Nec will be close behind.

They will be expensive for one year, but they are likely to result in a further lowering of the price of lower res 27/30 inch alternatives.

Cheers,
Bernard


Wow, I have a very hard time reading OSX text on a 2560 pixel wide display.  I'll need  giant magnifying glass for a 4000 pixel wide display.
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afx

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2013, 08:17:49 am »

Wow, I have a very hard time reading OSX text on a 2560 pixel wide display.  I'll need  giant magnifying glass for a 4000 pixel wide display.
Or finally an OsX that can scale fonts like the rest of the world....

cheers
afx

Craig Lamson

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Re: Dell U3014 Fail: Alternative suggestions?
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2013, 05:03:11 pm »

Or finally an OsX that can scale fonts like the rest of the world....

cheers
afx

Yea, that would be great.
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