Eizo monitor Buying Guide

This brief guide is intended to identify the key differences between the different technologies available in the various Eizo monitors, so you can make the best choice for your needs. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch!

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Introduction

Eizo have quite a few models in their line, and it can be quite confusing choosing which is the best model for your needs.

The first thing we'll say is that any Eizo, even the cheapest 17" Flexscan screen, is likely to be considerably better than any other monitor you've worked with. They are easily and demonstrably better, more accurate screens than other screens you might have used in the past, from an old budget CRT, through to the venerable Sony G monitors, the Mitsubishi/NEC/Lacie aperture grill CRTs, Apple Cinema Displays, Dell LCDs - you name it. Short of the Sony Artisan (no longer made, about $8000, was a special import only!), there is really nothing out there as good - while in their day the aperture grill CRTs were good and well respected, they are definitely not even close to the same league as the latest Eizo LCDs.

Having owned several of both and used them extensively for professional level colour work and retouching, I am absolutely sure of this and have made the measurements with a spectrophotometer to back it up.

You will definitely notice improvements in sharpness, shadow depth, three dimensionality, and the natural and accurate feel of colour when you have the pleasure of using an Eizo. All Eizos are factory calibrated before leaving Japan so right out of the box they're in much better shape than other screens. This however doesn't mean you shouldn't buy your own screen calibrator, as all monitors inherently drift over time (even Eizo monitors) and thus require regular calibration.

We use one Eizo Flexscan 2110w and a Flexscan L997 here at the office, all day every day, in a professional colour critical context and we absolutely love both of these screens.

So rest assured, any Eizo is a great screen. The question to answer is, how great do you need, and how great can you afford?

The Very Best

If money is no object, the Eizo Coloredge CG211 monitor, covering the full gamut of AdobeRGB, is unquestionably one of the best imaging devices available in the world today. It's very expensive, no question, but it's also very very good. I really wish I owned one!

This monitor is particularly well suited to high end proofing applications and is typically found in large printing houses and high end retouching agencies, and is also popular with other colour critical industries such as pattern, fabric, and paint development environments.

For most other professionals, unless you absolutely must have 100% Adobe RGB coverage, the Eizo CG241W is a better buy - it offers almost all of the same features and quality and is dramatically cheaper.

(S)PVA versus IPS Panels

Update Jan 2008 - The latest Eizo CG models (like the amazing Eizo CG241W) have a new generation S-PVA panel that combines the advantages of both IPS and PVA panels.

These new monitors also come with a feature called DUE which makes them perfectly even across their field, so there's really no longer any practical disadvantage to these panels - quite simply they are superb!

The key decision to make when choosing an Eizo is to choose between a PVA panel and an IPS panel.

All Flexscans, except the L997, have a PVA panel.

All ColorEdge CE Models are PVA, an CG models are either IPS or new generation S-PVA panels.

Traditionally, IPS panels have offered better colour reproduction than PVA panels. That said, PVA panels have come a very long way in recent years and the difference is certainly not what it once was. Indeed, we have two screens in the office here, one IPS and one PVA, and I struggle to see any real practical difference in real world usage when sitting in front of either screen and doing photographic image editing.

One noticeable difference is that if you're sufficiently off angle (i.e. looking at your screen from the side), then the IPS panel continues to display colour accurately noticeably more than the PVA panel. Directly in front, they are uncannily similar, but from the side, this extra colour accuracy may prove to be quite important in certain contexts - such as when showing work to clients.

PVA panels are generally much brighter than IPS panels. This means they tend to be a little less even across their field, and in most cases you turn them down to about 10% of their max brightness when doing photographic work. The extra brightness can be great for working with video, especially during the day. Most people don't find the slight shift in brightness across the field to be an issue of practical importance. If you're really concerned about having a perfectly even field, select a higher end ColorEdge model with DUE, a system which guarantees the field will be even within tight tolerances. We have a PDF on DUE available if you're interested in how it works.

If you're a graphic designer, and want the smoothest possible gradients, an IPS panel will help there as well.

PVA models have faster gray to gray refresh times - meaning they're better for video work. Irrelevant for photography, but if you edit or watch videos regularly, a PVA is probably a better choice.

For general photographic use, from front on or within 40 degrees or so, there is not a lot of difference and both PVA and IPS panels offer excellent, accurate, and smooth colour once calibrated.

Hardware vs. software calibration

The first thing to say is that any form of calibration is way better than no calibration! Even expensive monitors will drift over time and therefore require regular calibration. Eizo monitors will drift far less than most as they have extensive stability electronics, but they will still drift a small amount.

We definitely recommend getting a monitor calibrtor with your monitor if you don't already have one. They work very well together and form an excellent, accurate and easy to use combination.

The ColorEdge line of monitors offers direct hardware calibration. This means calibration is done using Eizo's custom calibration software (Colour Navigator) using the LUT tables in the back of the monitor (rather than the video card). These tables are (depending on model) 12, 14 or 16 bit tables. This is in contrast to the normal LUTs in video cards used in software calibration (see next paragraph), which are just 8 bit tables. This is important as when dealing with difficult areas (deep shadows, highly saturated colours etc), doing the maths in a higher bit depth level means you get a more accurate result with greater distinguishable tones being the final result. If you're really pushing the boundaries of colour, or consistently working on low key images on a regular basis, this may be of great use to you.

N.B. You should still buy a monitor calibrator with the CE and CG line monitors if you don't have one or you will not be taking full advantage of your screen.

ColorNavigator compatible calibrators include the Spyder3 series and the Eye One Display series. The Spyder3 Pro is probably the best option at the current time and with a monitor is only $260!

The Flexscan and Flexscan Premium lines offer more traditional 'software calibration'. This means the calibration is done using your calibration system's software (e.g. Eye One Match), and the lookup table (LUT) in the video card is used. This is an 8 bit table. This is how calibration has traditionally been done and is still done with almost all monitors on the market today. When the panel in question is a high quality Eizo panel, the results of this calibration can still be superb and more than adequate for most people. NB You still need to buy a hardware calibration device to do this rather confusingly named 'software calibration'!

One key thing to understand is that the hardware controls on the monitors, both Flexscans and ColorEdges, all work using the internal higher bit depth tables. So if you're varying your gamma, or whitepoint, or luminance in any way for a specialist task, then you still get the advantage of true higher bit depth hardware adjustments even with the cheaper models.

You can read more about differnt types of monitor calibration here.

Screen size issues & Multiple monitors

Generally the size of screen you buy comes down to your needs and your budget. Often, the decision comes down to whether to buy a bigger Eizo versus buying a smaller Eizo and a second, cheaper panel for Photoshop's palettes.

There's no right and wrong on this - I use two monitor's myself, and it works very well...but I have plenty of desk space so it's no bother. If space is at a premium then one larger monitor is probably the way to go.

In the past there has been some concern with the evenness of illumination across the field of larger screens. To be honest, this seems to me to be more of an internet myth than an issue of practical concern. Firstly, Eizo monitors coming into Australia are checked and measured to make sure they fall within acceptable tolerances across their field. Obviously the more expensive the screen, the tighter the tolerances are (and some of the more expensive models have circuitry to bring even greater consistency to things), but in reality we've not had issues with uneven screen illumination even with the 24 inch and larger models.

If you want and can afford a bigger screen, I'd say go for it - more screen real estate is always a good thing (up to about 30 inches beyond which it can actually be a bit of a literal pain in the neck!).

Widescreen 16:9 or traditional 4:3

This depends on your work, but as a general rule I'd say go widescreen.

16:9 is becoming increasingly standard, which means user interface design is moving towards this ratio. It's wide enough to have a strip of palettes running down the screen while still leaving a good sized, rectangular work area. On a 4:3 screen, with palettes on the side, you're left with a rather square-ish work space. The forthcoming Photoshop CS3 has changes to the paletters and workspace area that I notice suit a widescreen format particularly well.

However, the widescreen models mostly can not be rotated 90 degrees (check the brochure for the model you're interested in as some can). If you do a lot of portrait work, this can be a very handy feature so you might be better off with a 4:3 screen.

If you edit video, almost all recent video cameras shoot 16:9 widescreen. This means your videos fill the entire screen once edit, and all the edit programs gear their design towards widescreen editing these days.

Personally, I use a widescreen. I shoot mainly 6 by 12cm film and 35mm digital, and most of my images are landscape format. I also do some video editing occasionally.

Overdrive Circuits/Sharpness Enhancer/Dynamic Contrast Enhancer/HDCP

Some Eizo Flexscan models include these features.

They are all features designed to improve performance with moving video images (e.g. when watching DVDs etc). None of them are really relevant to photographic retouching, but are nice to have if you also watch/edit movies or do CAD/CAM work on your monitor.

We recommend all these features are turned off when you edit photographic images as most of them will interfere with the process of retouching by dynamically varying the onscreen image as you edit - definitely not a good idea with photographic work.

An overdrive circuit improves the midtone to midtone responses time, usually getting it down to about 6 to 8 milliseconds. This reduces ghosting with moving images.

Sharpness Enhancer applies on the fly edge enhancement to images.

Dynamic Contrast Enhancer works by dynamically varying the backlight brightness depending on the displayed image. This can help high contrast images appear to have darker shadows, which can be pleasing when watching videos.

HDCP compatibility allows protected content from Blu-Ray/HD-DVD etc to be played on these screens.

Rotating an Eizo Screen for portrait work

Most Eizo screens pivot 90 degrees (except for the widescreen models). Some of the more expensive Eizo models (Flexscan L997, ColorEdge CG210, 211 etc) include a tool called Active Rotation that will automatically rotate the screen image when you physically rotate the screen.

If you have another Eizo monitor with the rotate function (also called the pivot function), then the rotation is controlled by the graphics card - most modern cards can do this. You will need to install and use the software that came with your video card (e.g 'Catalyst' for ATI cards), and go into the settings for this software. There is also normally a keyboard shortcut to engage this mode quickly. If your video card can not do this, you'll need to upgarde your video card to one that can if you want to use the portrait mode.

Negatives of Eizo screens

I can only think of two negatives - the first being cost. They're definitely more expensive than, say, the Dell monitors of this world. They're also way, way better and definitely worth it if quality image making and accurate colour is important to you. They're also the only screens with a 5 year warranty, so take the cost, divide it by (at least) 5, and look at the per year cost - it's not really that much and it's definitely worth it. At they very least, before you put your pennies towards a basic LCD like a Dell or Samsung or whatever, come in and have a look at an Eizo. A warning though - you will be seduced by the quality!

** Update Jan 2008 - most of the newer models now have easy to see controls so the paragraph below is no longer relevant!

The second negative is the physical controls on some of the monitor panels. They're little black arrows on a black background (so quite hard to see in dimmer light), and they are touch sensitive knobs (thus easy to accidentally operate in dimmer light if you can't find them easily!). I really don't like these controls but I only use them for about two minutes a month so I'm willing to live with them. Whoever idea that was should have a serious re-think about functionality versus form!

So which model should I choose?

After all this, which model is the right one? Well, they're all good, so you won't go far wrong, no matter which model you choose.

If it comes down to a choice between a more expensive screen and no calibrator, or a cheaper screen and an Eye One Display 2, then my adivice is to go for the cheaper screen with the calibrator. Calibration is critical in achieving colour accuracy (and therefore, ultimately, high quality prints!).

Personally if the budget is there, I think the current best value models are the amazing CG241W or slightly smaller CG222W models. They represent to my mind a near perfect screen for almost any use.

These are a high quality S-PVA panel, offer great hardware based calibration, and are a very nice shape and size to sit in front of day to day, when doing a mix of photographic work and more general things like email and browsing. Overall I think they're the best bang for buck at the moment. Combined with a Spyder 3 Pro, you'll have an extremely high quality and highly accurate system to use.

If you're looking for something below $1000 the Eizo S1921 is a great introduction, still has superb panel technology and good calibration controls, and 19", while not as nice as the bigger models, is still big enough for many people.