Originally posted by: ericinho
Originally posted by: xtknight
Originally posted by: ericinho
Sorry to trouble you
But if I would have to choose between the Dell 2408WFP and the NEC MultiSync® LCD2470WNX (prices are more or less the same) considering what I need it primarily for...
which one would you advice me to choose and more importantly... why?
Thanks!
Considering the 2408WFP is wide gamut, the MultiSync LCD2470WNX is probably a much better choice for editing conventional sRGB photos. Very few people use Adobe RGB, and if you did you'd know it.
Could you clarify that?
I always thought that WG was a good thing when it comes to color reproduction (considering it offers like 78% of LAB colorspace contrary to the standaard RGB which covers like 50 %)?.
It is not that WG comes closer to a CRT screen when it comes to color reproduction?
Ninety-five percent (or over) of CRTs are sRGB (NTSC ~= 72% gamut) devices. The few DiamondTrons (not all DiamondTrons/Trinitrons) that reached 97% NTSC or so were so-called "ultra-wide-gamut" models and typically very expensive (e.g. $5000 for a Mitsubishi capable of that). Individual differences in phosphors used may cause the CRT to deviate a little from sRGB in either direction, but by and large this is not why CRTs are better for editing photos.
Unless you are actually using this larger space, a wide gamut monitor will only be a pain for you. The reason for this, is because the farther you deviate from sRGB, the more complex transformation needs to occur in order to emulate it. With this gamut mapping/transformation/emulation (from bigger WG monitor gamut to sRGB) also comes lower saturation as a side effect, because this is one psychovisual trick used to make you think you're seeing a lower gamut image. Often it causes images to look duller than they would on a true sRGB monitor.
Therefore, if the majority of your use comprises sRGB (web, particularly photo editing), a monitor much closer to matching the sRGB standard is best for you. The LCD2470WNX closely matches the sRGB standard, while the 2408WFP well exceeds it meaning emulation is required.
Even then with a monitor that
closely matches sRGB, you might want to use a tad bit of emulation (via specifying profile in Photoshop) just to ensure it is exact. Most of the time calibration is enough though since the typical LCD CCFLs match sRGB quite closely.
With pro monitors (like the NEC LCD2690WUXi and NEC LCD3090WQXi) exceeding sRGB and containing adjustable color lookup tables (LUTs), the gamut situation actually does not change. The monitors with adjustable LUTs have three 1-dimensional 12-bit LUTs used for correcting each primary (red, green, and blue).
However, this can not be used for gamut mapping! This would require a 3D LUT [1] to map one relative color value to another. e.g. RGB(25,25,25) is not necessarily RGB(35,35,35) in another gamut (the adjustment to which 1D LUTs would be limited). RGB(25,25,25) might be RGB(25,25,21) in another gamut, depending on the shape of the source and destination gamut. This is why complex emulation must take place.
LCDs today can actually achieve greater precision in the sRGB space than can CRT monitors. However, to do this, consumer monitors with typical, simple internal 8-bit LUTs must limit their bit depth (total number of colors). That means, slightly less detail will be displayed. Usually this is not a big deal. If it is, professional monitors offer very high precision with no reduction of the typical 16.7M colors. The DAC can adjust and choose 16.7M colors from about 69 billion colors (if 12-bit). BTW, CRTs must also have their bit depth limited when calibrating via software. So CRTs and LCDs are about even here, with LCDs often having a slight edge in color accuracy after calibration.
Many aperture grille (Trinitron, DiamondTron) CRTs have "SuperBright" modes that yield 300-500 nits. These aren't "better" for photo editing though even if they are still sRGB gamut. Typical photo editing conditions call for about 80-140 nits. Most LCDs can be calibrated to that, (and to be fair, SuperBright is not mandatory, so these CRTs can do 80-100 nits depending on color temp).
LCDs do fall behind when it comes to contrast. CRTs have a much truer black (other than slight leaking around shadow mask). The crystals of LCDs can not align themselves to a position perfect enough to block all light, thus some of the backlight comes through. PVA-type LCDs are the best at blocking light, with MVAs falling short behind. This extra contrast will help the CRT provide more saturation in dark tones without the sensation of leaking backlight. This here is the main advantage of CRTs over most LCDs, even professional ones, for photo editing. Although the pro H-IPS LCDs are pretty good at dark color saturation.
The LCD2470WNX is a PVA so it will have good black performance and saturation. It does, however, not have an internal adjustable LUT. Software calibration will require limiting # of colors.
I hope this clears things up. This post ended up longer than it needed to be, for sure, but I hope it is beneficial for the others reading. I have stated many things in this post that I intended to state earlier.
By the way, wide gamut LCDs may be useful for print matching (when a profile of the printer's ink/paper is used and compared to the monitor's profile). Many printers exceed the sRGB space by a good amount. The HDTV (CCIR 709) space in the US is roughly sRGB, with differences in black point and luminance range (16-235). Therefore, wide gamut LCDs are not necessarily great for HD purposes, either. That's probably a matter of preference anyway; many stores sell LCD TVs that have wide gamut backlights, and most of these TVs perform no gamut transformation that I know of. That is why they appear more saturated. Some people like it. Depending on the material being displayed it might actually work pretty well. Videos have descriptors for color primaries, and standard gamut and wide gamut are lumped together under one code in the H.264 MPEG-4 Codec (e.g. Bluray/HD-DVD). So, it was probably intended for these LCDs to be used for the same material, anyway.
In summary, without proper profiling, editing sRGB/web-intent photos with a wide gamut monitor will result in dull and lifeless images when viewed on an sRGB monitor (as most of the world). That is because the colors displayed on the WG LCD while editing the sRGB image were more vibrant than they should have been. With proper profiling, the colors will instead appear duller on the wide gamut LCD than they should be, but they will be closer to accuracy. With a true sRGB monitor, the colors will be displayed perfectly.
I will save further musings for an upcoming article.
[1]
http://forums.dpreview.com/for...=1004&message=25818131