NEC Multisync PA241W-BK 24" Widescreen OR NEC Multisync 2490WUXi2-BK 24" Widescreen?

[Drew1992]

I am considering purchasing one of these two monitors tomorrow:

NEC Multisync PA241W-BK 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor with Wider Color Gamut

NEC Multisync 2490WUXi2-BK 24" Widescreen LCD Display

Which One???
Any suggestions? Opinions? User reviews? Experiences?

Also, can you only buy an NEC Monitor online? I have the cash in hand and want one today!

Thanks so much!

 

[Drew1992]

Have done research ALL day on this and I am leaning towards the PA 241W-BK 24" because it states that it covers 98.1% of AdobeRGB Colorspace, whereas, the description for the 2490WUXi2 doesn't say anything about that at all in the specs.
Still no opinions out there?
Thanks!

 

[Garbz]

What do you do with your computer? Getting a wide gamut monitor is a life changing experience. You need to learn to keep all your workflow in 16bit, you need learn that nothing will look right unless you're using a colour managed application.
Do you do webdesign? Don't get a wide gamut monitor.
Do you do video? Don't get a wide gamut monitor.
Do you play games with only a little photography on the side? Well not that it matters here either but all games, movies, even the windows icons will look over saturated. You're limited to surfing the internet in Firefox 4 and have to play with some hidden settings in about:config to even get that looking right. You will notice that if you open an image in Photoshop it looks completely different then viewing an image in Windows picture viewer. Oh and something amazing is that not all RAW processors are colour managed applications either, this blew my mind.

And don't bother getting a wide gamut monitor without getting a calibrator. Really simply don't bother. It's better to have a smaller colour space than to simply have no idea what the space actually is.

If you're willing to change your life then go for it. You'll notice a very slight gain in sunset shots, and that's about it, not that it matters unless you keep the RAWs, or save 16bit TIFFs.

/.EDIT: Disclaimer I have a 2690WUXi which is also wide gamut. The first month with it was incredibly frustrating.

 

[Drew1992]

Hi Garbz,

I am ediitng images in CS5 and Lightroom 3, and using Camera Raw a good deal of the time. I am an amateur, aspiring to become professional. I am interested in using a this new monitor(whichever I decide to purchase) to strictly edit images with. I have no interest in producing videos or editing videos. I am currently using a laptop and it stinks! I plan to use my laptop for web surfing, etc. Just hook up the monitor to my laptop for editing purposes only. I want to see my prints(sent to a lab) match what I see onscreen. I have been saving my images edited in Camera Raw in 8bit(because that's what MPix requires for printing) and in sRGB color space. I'm guessing that I won't be using ProPhoto RGB unless I decide to do my own printing, is this correct?
I have a Spyder 3 Elite, which if you read my other posts/threads, I attempted to calibrate an LCD/T.V. Screen with it and realized that it was impossible to do correctly and pretty much a waste of time trying to edit from an LCD/T.V. screen. It was always too sharp, too saturated, no clarity there. I plan to calibrate and calibrate often as needed. I want the closest match as possible with my prints. I think I understand that if you don't calibrate and don;t have a GOOD monitor than you're pretty much either wasting your time editing images, or you don't really care. I care! I want my images to look more than "ok", I want them to pop out, for people to say, "WOW! that looks great!"
So, I want to see clarity, true colors, details, shadow details, etc.
Yeah, I know what you are saying about Windows picture viewer. I don't use it to look at my photos. If I've read correctly, Windows Picture Viewer has no real color space, is this correct?
Also, I am shooting in RAW all the time and like the advantage that I have in being able to edit more with my RAW files, to have the WB options and to be able to recover images more successfully with RAW files. I see the difference and do not mind the file size and converting process. I have 2 external drives I use for storage.
May I ask, what was so frustrating about the 2690 in the first month you had it? Please share! I want to know! I am considering purchasing one of these monitors(mentioned in my thread title) and do not want to waste my money or time. I plan to order something TODAY, I want to get going on this. I have images sitting waiting to be edited. I have been waiting on getting the cash together to make my big monitor purchase. Now that I have the cash in hand, I am eager to make a purchase(after researching that is,which I have been doing)
Thanks for all of your input, and I look forward to your reply!

Thanks!!!

 

[Drew1992]

To Garbz:

P.S. Do you have any suggestions on other monitors to consider purchasing?

Thanks again!

 

[Garbz]

You misunderstand what I mean about the importance of a calibrator here. Calibrators are important to ensure absolute accuracy, but in this case you need an ICC profile for a wide gamut monitor. You'll be lucky if you find it on NEC's abortion of a website (at least it was 2 years ago). A Spyder 3 will do just nicely for this.

What was so frustrating is trying to make things look right again. Desktop wallpapers looked horrid unless artifically desaturated by applying the monitor's colour profile to the image, but then it would look wrong in photoshop. I used to use free image viewers and I had one I liked a lot. Eventually I was forced to pay for ACDSee Pro so I could look at images properly, and even that doesn't do a perfect job. Firefox 2 was the only browser that obeys output colour profiles, and even that was a mission to figure out and make the internet look right. Firefox 3.0 came out and that functionality was removed. Firefox 3.5 brought it back but for a while I couldn't upgrade my browser or the internet wouldn't look right. and it still doesn't because flash isn't colour managed either so a website which incorporates a mix of flash and standard HTML looks horribly broken. Everything was a mission to get looking right and there's no consistency between apps. Even now my panorama program (actually all panorama programs) don't support display profiles rendering the colour correction features of the software completely useless since I haven't a clue what I'm looking at. The final picture looks completely different when loaded in photoshop.

I even did a wedding shoot in a very dusty environment with subdued lighting one day and I desaturated them only slightly to make them look right. When I finished the photos I realised my colour profile reset with the latest service pack update for some reason and every single one of my photos looked horrendously dull so processed them all again. Speaking of service pack the Windows XP theme makes your eyes bleed on a wide gamut monitor, so you may need to change theme (i'm on a black / grey theme now).

For an example of the difference have a look at this picture of a very pale and pasty girl: Overly saturated on the right in a normal dumb image viewer.

Having a wide gamut monitor you need to take care with what you do. That's the only major frustration.

In general you won't be wasting your money with an NEC monitor. I highly recommend them. Mine's been nothing but perfect (despite it's frustrations) for more than 2 years. Both monitors are high quality IPS screens and both have internal lookup tables for colour correction which is the only right way to apply calibration curves (you may need to look at software for calibrating your monitor since not all software supports hardware lookup tables. NEC's SpectraView II software works well)

Windows picture viewer reads the colour space from images, but converts them to sRGB rather than the display profile, just like 99.9% of other software out there.

If you want to take advantage of wider colour spaces then you'll need to find yourself a decent printing company. They are out there and the cost of prints increases quite a bit. Often they use a LED on photo paper with chemical developers to get the prints. The results are stunning, but don't waste your time ProPhotoRGB. It's a great colour space in theory but in practice there's no printing technology or paper that is readily available that takes advantage of much more than the AdobeRGB space, and even in nature when you're taking photos there' not a lot you will see that falls out of even sRGB let alone AdobeRGB. Taking photos of lasers and LEDs yet, but otherwise no, and the more severe the differences between colour profiles the more lossy the conversion.

Which ever road you go down I think you'll be more than impressed with either screens, just be ware that the wide gamut screen comes with quite a few drawbacks for only a little gain.

 

[Drew1992]

Hi Garbz,

I apologize for not responding sooner. Life has gotten busy for the last few days, kids school events, sports games, etc.
I truly appreciate all of your input and sharing your own experiences. I now have been educated a little more about wide gamut screens and the pros and cons that come with owning one. I would not have known about these "frustrations" you experienced upon receiving my new monitor if it wasn't for your willingness to share those with me. Now, I atleast know that I will have some things to deal with and you have given me details about how you corrected them. Thank you!!!

So, I'm sure you are wondering which display I went with? I chose the 2690. It seemed to me that the specs weren't all the different. Atleast not a huge difference in my opinion. But, the price sure is! So, I decided to go with the 2690, use my Spyder 3 Elite and if it doesn't calibrate to my liking, I'll then go ahead and get the SpectraView II hardware. I read all the reviews and they all stated how well the Spectraview II works with the NEC monitors. I'm excited about getting a new montor, but now know that there will be some things to deal with upon getting it. Thanks again for your input and taking the time to educate me. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[Drew1992]

Correction: I went with the 2490! I accidentally put a 6 above instead of a 4.

 

[Garbz]

As I said I'm sure you'll enjoy it in either case.

Note the Spectra View II hardware is simply an Eye1 Display II colourimeter with some NEC software. The software supports a wide variety of colourimeters so if you do want to go the NEC route the Spyder 3 should be just fine to use. (I have an old version which doesn't list the Spyder 3 as supported but it's predecessor is in the device list)

 

[Drew1992]

Great thanks! I was just wondering about that. Did you use the Spyder 3 software or did you purchase the NEC's software to calibrate with the Spyder 3? Thanks!

 

[Garbz]

I came to this screen with no pre-existing solution so I bought the SpectraView kit along with the i1 Display 2 as recommended by NEC.

So the answer is to look through the Spyder 3 software and see if supports calibration of display hardware lookup tables using DDC. If it doesn't I suggest looking at NEC's software or another program that supports this. It would be a waste to cripple the video card output trying to get colours looking right when you have that lovely 12bit hardware lookup table in the monitor itself.

 

[Drew1992]

Garbz,
Thanks once again! My monitor arrived yesterday!

 

[shammrocky]

I am looking into buying a new monitor for photography editing only and was wondering how you liked your NEC monitor?

 

[Garbz]

Heaps but I'm guessing the question wasn't directed at me. Use the personal message function to get Drew's attention.

 

[shammrocky]

Sorry, I am new to this forun and trying to find out how Drew liked her monitor - I hope this went in the correct place! Were you able to use Spider 3 or did you have to purchase the Spectraview software?