Hi,

After reading all the reviews and comments I took the plunge. One thing I noticed is many vendors seem to have it on back order so I wonder if something new is just about to be released?

I have a question about set up. I did a search and found this in one of the threads: "settings: D65, 2.2, 120cd/m2" then calibrate with the puck. Is this what I should do for the first time set up? I am running windows. Thanks!

Woohoo! Spend some time with the Spectraview software, it's great how you can easily create, store, and recall different settings for different purposes. Don't forget the contrast ratio setting, it's way cool if you're doing print media.

I think it's just a very popular monitor right now. Very pleased with mine.

I have one too and it will be so bright you will be blown away.But 140 cm/d will be your target with spectraview 2.My brightness level is all the way down and still too bright with reading this forum! Be very careful cleaning your new monitor!You will LOVE IT !

Thanks for the replys. 140 seems WAY too bright!! I like my CRT at 95. Can't you dial it down more than that?

Got my Monitor and It is really sweet! Question about the brightness and settings in SV2: This is my first LCD for editing. Why do people have them set to calibrate to 120 and even 140 cd?? Looks OK to me at 110 and much easier on the eyes.

Question 2: I chose to calibrate to best grey scale instead of maximum contrast. For photo work I assume this is the best choice but want to make sure. Thanks!

What I did when going from a 90cd/m2 CRT to the 140 cd/m2 NEC was increase the overall brightness of my work area considerably. This makes the room both more pleasant to be in, and also a good place to evaluate my large prints compared to my previous method of hauling them perilously to a brighter room for evaluation. I recall thinking that 140 was awfully bright. But although my darker CRT room levels seemed somehow more relaxing, I get much less eye fatique in the brighter room.

Basically, use whatever settings you think give you a decent screen-to-print match. For me that's D65 + gamma 2.2 + about 400:1 contrast ratio. I tried down to 110 cd/m2 for a while, didn't seem to give me any advantage over 140. I might increase the contrast ratio a bit for glossy paper.

To reinterate what Bill says above, the most appropriate brightness depends on the brightness of the environment in where you're working. In my case, I set the brightness of my 2690 to just 100, and that works well in my fairly dimly-lit workspace.

Lisa

Thanks folks! I am a little confused about setting Contrast Ratio. On the one hand you can shoot for best gray scale or highest contrast. Some of you are targeting a specific CR. How did you figure out what CR to calibrate to?? Why is not "best Gray Scale" the target of choice? I thought that would give the best rendering of shadows and near blacks. When I set to 110 cd and best gray, I get a CR of around 250.

Span across the entire screen a 21 step grayramp you can make by creating a black to white gradient with dithering turned off and Posterize set to 21 in AdobeRGB space in Photoshop.

You should be able to see an even progression for each step with no flat areas distributed through the entire tonal scale. The white patch shouldn't be glaring and burning a hole in your eyes.

That's how you set contrast.

When you calibrate/profile with Spectraview II, you can set the Contrast Ratio to either Monitor Default or a specific ratio. However, as I understand it (and have experienced it on my 2090uxi), setting a specific ratio can only decrease the CR from what it would be at Monitor Default, it cannot increase it — and in fact setting a specific ratio higher than what results at Monitor Default is likely to produce a lower CR still.

With Monitor Default, the CR you end up with will be, more or less, a direct result of the luminance value you set (assuming a given gamma setting).

You might find this thread interesting.

Nill
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www.toulme.net

Thanks again everybody. Nill, thanks for referencing that link. I read that thread when I was contemplating my purchse but did not understand too much of it; not having seen the Spectra Vision software. Now it makes sense. Will try Mr. Rodney's monitor test and see how my screen stacks up. Gotta love this forum!!

FWIW this thread got me fiddling with the Spectraview settings again.

For my setup, I noticed that a gamma of 2.4, brightness 120 cd/m2 gives me a great eyeball match from screen to print for Epson Premium Luster. On the screen I was "seeing into the shadows" a little too much at gamma 2.2, compared to typical prints

For 120 cd/m2 with gamma 2.4 I get a contrast range of almost 600:1, compared to the maximum 450:1 I could bet with g2.2.

So perhaps for some of the more punchy papers gammas greater than 2.2 should be considered. Of course this all depends on print viewing levels, printer profiles and lots of other stuff, but I'm liking gamma 2.4 for my personal environment.