Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Colour Management => Topic started by: Fred Salamon on October 31, 2020, 07:38:17 pm

Title: NEC PA271Q with 14bit 3D LUT vs Eizo CS2731 with 16 bit LUT
Post by: Fred Salamon on October 31, 2020, 07:38:17 pm

What is the difference between a 14 bit 3D LUT and a 16 bit LUT?
Under what conditions would one be better than the other?

Title: Re: NEC PA271Q with 14bit 3D LUT vs Eizo CS2731 with 16 bit LUT
Post by: digitaldog on October 31, 2020, 07:52:54 pm

A 3D LUT is much more complex than a 1D LUT, by mapping all color values together in a three-dimensional cube. But I suspect that both use 3D LUTs and therefore the difference is moot.

Title: Re: NEC PA271Q with 14bit 3D LUT vs Eizo CS2731 with 16 bit LUT
Post by: Fred Salamon on October 31, 2020, 11:59:14 pm

Thank you for the quick response.

Unfortunately according to Eizo's website I would have to move up to the CG series of monitors to get 3D LUT.
The CS series uses regular LUTs.

So, is a 14 bit 3D LUT better than 16 bit non 3D LUT?

This is for digital imaging (Photoshop and Lightroom Classic) and inkjet printing on an Epson P800, no video.

Title: Re: NEC PA271Q with 14bit 3D LUT vs Eizo CS2731 with 16 bit LUT
Post by: digitaldog on November 01, 2020, 11:56:52 am

Quote from: Fred Salamon on October 31, 2020, 11:59:14 pm

So, is a 14 bit 3D LUT better than 16 bit non 3D LUT?

On paper yes. At least in terms of what the LUT can provide.
This piece (while getting some stuff wrong) is a decent primer between the differences:
https://color.viewsonic.com/explore/content/Advanced-14-bit-LUT-and-3D-LUT_1.html
Like many, they confuse colors (which is something we humans must see) to color NUMBERS which may not be visible.

Title: Re: NEC PA271Q with 14bit 3D LUT vs Eizo CS2731 with 16 bit LUT
Post by: alain on November 02, 2020, 10:12:40 am

Given the low amount of measurement patches  (hunderds, maybe a few thousand), I doubt that it will make a difference.

Title: Re: NEC PA271Q with 14bit 3D LUT vs Eizo CS2731 with 16 bit LUT
Post by: smthopr on November 02, 2020, 12:57:06 pm

While the Eizo CS models do not create a 3D LUT for the display calibration, an .icc profile is created which does measure the state of your display. When using Photoshop, it’s color management will adjust the image to match the state of your display and show accurate color.

For video color correction, the video apps are not color managed like Photoshop, and having an accurate 3D LUT stored in the display is a big advantage.

I have an Eizo CX display that stores only a 1d LUT + matrix. For video work, I’ve created a 3D correction LUT which is used in my video software to correct the image going to the display and this works very well.

But for Photoshop work, I rely on the .icc profiles and Photoshop color management and it works quite well.

So, if you’re not using video color correction software, I would not be too concerned with the Eizo CS not storing a true 3D LUT.