LED BACKLIGHT LCD PRO-GRAPHICS DISPLAYS

For photographers who need color managed computer editing and processing, a new class of professional grade displays has arrived. This was confirmed to me that NEC’s PA242W is an LED back-lit 24 inch LCD display offering a color range width of 99.3% of Adobe RGB. At a list price of $1,299 in todays market it better be more than good.

For the rest of us, Asus has a 24 inch LCD monitor with 1920x1200 resolution and an Adobe RGB color range that is selling on-line for just over $500. Very soon after receiving an Asus PA249Q for testing and an evaluation report I had it installed on my newest Mac mini. Adjusting, calibrating and profiling with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro resulted in the closest match to my selected aim points I have achieved with any recent display.

This new Asus reproduces digital photographic images with accurate color, smooth tones and very fine detail. It made a number of portrait images easy to retouch manually with Photoshop, with the efficient clean up and correction of complexion errors were effortless to produce finely glamorous images to print. Land and city-scapes were equally easy to edit the image values to obtain an ideal balance of highlight to shadow detail, with a range of colors true as my vision could recall and imagine of the original scene. 

With this new LED backlight just introduced to professional level LCD displays, I was a bit skeptical as this form of backlight, even though it uses less electric power and generates less waste heat has been thought to also reproduce less accurate visual colors. But the RG Phosphor setting selection type the current i1 Display Pro software offers results in a profiled display screen that is a match to some of the best recent CCFL backlight displays I have used. The products from doing edits from high resolution raw scan files proved to me I can obtain an accurate visual perception of image values and adjust to an ideal I cannot improve on.

This technology world we live in keeps changing leaving us lost at almost every turn. But this latest Asus brought me back to where I needed to be to get the visual evidence on screen I require to do justice to photographic editing. Sometimes with new things we get more PR-speech than proof, and the change is just another pain where it hurts most. I cannot imagine doing professional quality photo editing with an iPhone, but that is the latest claim I read in my news today. No wonder many of us are wary of this new world we get as each day passes. It is re-assuring Asus understands the essential parameters that must be met to obtain good professional graphics on-screen reproduction, They set about providing it with no fuss or feathers, the PA249Q monitor is easy to deal with and provides what is needed, a very good quality LCD display at an affordable cost in today’s world many of us can afford.

If you have any questions or comments send David B Brooks an e-mail at goofotografx@gmail.com