Digital BW, The Print

>Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 04:31:32 -0000
>  From: "mfp90021 <mfp90021@yahoo.com>" <mfp90021@...>

> Lately I have seen the emergence of 2 new CRT monitors that are
> designed to be calibrated with their own calibrator.  Before it was
> just the LaCie, now we also have the Mitsubishi 2070 with SpectraView
> and the Sony Artisan.  Having never been happy with my LaCie I was
> wondering what the response has been to the other two mentioned.  A
> Mitsubishi sales tech number told me that the calibrating process for
> the 2070 with SpectraView only takes two minutes rather than the 10-15
> minutes I suffer with the LaCie and the software was compatible with
> OS X, OS 9, and Windows 98 (LaCie is not OS X compatible).  He
> was also raving that the 2070 was more color accurate, brighter, and
> had a better tube than the tubes they manufacture for LaCie.  I am
> hoping that somebody has some real world experience with these
> monitors and could offer some advise.

I have a LaCie Blue III and a Sony Artisan (had the original Mitsubishi
Spectraview). No question that the Artisan is the top dog here. So good in
fact I sold my $5000 Barco Reference V and replaced it with the Artisan. It
takes about 12 minutes to do a full calibration but it's worth the wait. The
LaCie is better now with the new software I've been running but I'd rather
have two Artisan's! Here's a test you can try to see how well the black
accuracy is of your calibrated display (courtesy of Bruce Fraser who's Real
World Color Management is now out and a MUST read):

Launch Photoshop.
Make a new document (size isn¹t important)
Fill the document with black (you can use the fill command)
Zoom in so document fills screen
Using the rectangle marquee tool (no feather), make a selection in the
center (size isn¹t important but don¹t make it tiny)
Hide the marching ants (command H)
Click on tab key then F key so ALL you see is black!

You should see JUST a black screen (no palettes or menus).

Call up the Curves dialog (command M)
If possible move it to the side or better, to a 2nd display.

Ok, click as carefully as you can on the BOTTOM curve point that represents
0/0/0 (black). Using your arrow keys, move the up arrow one click at a time
until you can see separation between pure black outside the marquee and the
new values in the marquee.

On my Artisan, I can see a difference between 0/0/0 and either 1/1/1 or
2/2/2! On most other displays, I have to move the levels up to 6 or more.

Also look at the neutrality as you move the arrow key up and make the inside
square lighter. Do they remain neutral or do you see a color shift (usually
magenta). On the Artisan, the lighter square remains dead nuts neutral
appearing.