If It Ain't Broke ......

[Mike Farley]

With some trepidation, I am updating my monitor to an Eizo CS240. I am currently using a Dell model which dates back a few years is working well for me and cost about the same as its more capable replacement. It has a reflection free matte screen and is calibrated; my prints are a good match for what I see on screen. Whilst I do not know the specs, the Dell is undoubtedly sRGB which means that anything I submit into the club's digital competitions is displayed correctly while I am working on them. The new monitor has the same resolution, but has a wider colour space of 99% Adobe RGB. I cannot be sure, but I suspect that I will need to make some changes to my workflow, most likely making more use of soft proofing than hitherto.

http://www.alphr.com/eizo/eizo-coloredg ... 240-review

I bought the monitor last week at the shootLDN event from Calumet, a company about which I cannot say enough in respect of its customer service. The salesman told me delivery would either be the following Wednesday or Thursday, which have just passed. Not wanting to sterilise both days, I requested that I be informed of the actual date once the order was placed with Eizo. Wednesday came without either a phone call or monitor, so I contacted them. The woman I spoke to did not know, but promised to call back. Thursday came without either a phone call or monitor, so I contacted them again. This time I spoke to someone different and after he made some enquiries he informed me that the monitor is actually coming today, Friday! As a concession, I have been promised a delivery by midday. Let's hope that I will not be back on the phone at 12:01 ......

I have not dealt with Calumet previously and this experience does not encourage repeat business.

[davidc]

What motivated the purchase?

Also surprised you went for a monitor with a good screen only to then buy a good screen straight after! How much do you intend to be working on the laptop vs the monitor?

[Mike Farley]

What motivated the purchase?

Also surprised you went for a monitor with a good screen only to then buy a good screen straight after! How much do you intend to be working on the laptop vs the monitor?

I am reading that as a "laptop with a good screen". My laptop is a secondary computer and while the screen is good enough to assess images when I am away from my main desktop computer, it is still lagging behind a top quality display. I would be OK posting to the web from the laptop, but I would not do any really critical work on it unless there was no alternative.

The good news is that the monitor finally turned up earlier today, but I do wonder how long it might have taken had I had not chased up Calumet.

[Mike Farley]

I have finally got round to unboxing the monitor. Due to Calumet's delay it arrived just before I was due to go away so it sat in its box for over a week. First impressions are good and unlike the consumer grade monitor I had been using, the CS240 is clearly intended for use where visual accuracy is important. It comes with its own software which works with some monitor calibration hardware. According to the man from Eizo to whom I spoke, it's OK with the ColorMunki Photo, but not the ColorMunki Display which seems odd. That is not an issue for the more expensive monitors in the range as they have built in calibration units which swing down in front of the screen, but being a budget model the CS240 lacks that facility. Fortunately, I have the compatible ColorMunki model and the calibration went smoothly.

My previous monitor, a consumer grade Dell model, has served me well for many years, but images look better on the Eizo . It is possible to switch between Adobe RGB and sRGB modes, and the colours do change. The tones in a delicate high key shot became markedly more saturated when viewed in sRGB. There is also a "paper" mode, which is supposed to simulate how images will look as prints, which I have yet to check. Overall I feel as though I am seeing more in my images than previously, which is unsurprising as the colour gamut which most cameras can capture approximates Adobe RGB, but the test will come when I prepare my shots for print or as DPIs.