Eizo ColorEdge CG243W

The Eizo ColorEdge CG243W is our best selling monitor and it's easy to see why. For digital photographers, retouchers and graphic designers, the Eizo CG243W offers outstanding quality, colour fidelity, sharpness, uniformity, black/shadow detail and much more. This latest version now comes with the Eizo Flex Stand, enabling a great range of height and tilt adjustments of the screen in your working space.

• 24” Widescreen supporting a native resolution of 1920x1200
• Non-glossy, low reflective screen for professional users
• Hardware-based calibration (requires a measuring instrument) for easy and accurate colour profiling and calibration
• Shading hood (removable) minimises the effect of ambient light falling on the screen
• 3D LUT for Better Additive Colour Mixture
• Brightness and Colour Compensation with EIZO's Digital Uniformity Equaliser
• Three inputs – Display Port (supporting 10 bit) and dual DVI
• 98% coverage Adobe RGB Colour Space
• New OSD
• IPS panel - reduced colour shift on viewing angle
• Eizo Flex Stand
• Full 5 Year onsite (double swap) UK warranty

For the full specifications, please click this link: http://www.eizo.com/global/iblick/spec/?id=CG243W

So What Makes the CG243W so Good? Here's our view.

24" widescreen with 1920x1200 resolution
For most users (but not all), a 24" display with 1920x1200 seems to offer the ideal size/resolution combination. You get a more than decent about of space to edit/view images whilst still having space for Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom menus and tabs. The monitor itself is not physically too big that it makes your neck ache as you use it.

98% Adobe RGB Gamut Coverage and Non-Glossy Screen
Covering almost the entire Adobe RGB colour gamut means the display is physically capable of reproducing more of the colours from your original image, giving a more realistic representation on screen. Watch out for manufacturers who might quote gamut 'size' as opposed to 'coverage' - this is irrelevant as coverage is the important measure! The non-glossy, low-reflective coating on the screen makes it ideal for professional users who don't want to see annoying reflections or artificially boosted saturation or contrast.

3D LUT (Look-up Table)
Eizo's internally developed 3D LUT accomplishes all colour adjustments via a single, mixed-colour cubic table, rather than the traditional way with separate adjustment tables for red, green and blue. This 3D LUT improves the 'additive colour mixture'; a key factor in its ability to display neutral grey tones. This feature, together with the 16-bit internal processing for greyscale rendering delivers colour on par with what the best, high-end CRTs of their time could achieve.

Enhanced Uniformity with Eizo's DUE
All TFT screens, to some extent, suffer from uniformity issues - it's simply a fact of life due to the manufacturing processes involved. Eizo do everything they can to minimise both brightness and colour uniformity issues with the CG243W, initially by only selecting the best panels available, but they then apply DUE (Digital Uniformity Equaliser) to get things even better. The process starts with each panel being put in front of a high specification image sensor which will produce a uniformity 'map' for that specific panel. On the CG243W, Eizo also repeat the mapping with the panel at different operating temperatures (because temperature can also affect uniformity). The maps are then built into the electronics that go with that specific panel so that uniformity can be automatically compensated for. An internal thermometer measures the panel temperature and can call up temperature-specific uniformity corrections. The end result is that the CG243W has a uniformity of less than 3 Delta-E across the whole screen - confirmation of this is contained on the report which comes with each monitor.

IPS Panel for Wider Viewing Angles
IPS panels are very much 'the in thing' with many notable manufacturers offering them either as standard, or in their 'premium' ranges. Two things to bear in mind are 1) there is IPS and there is IPS - not all are equal, and 2) the final image quality you see on screen is not just the result of the panel - the supporting electronics arguably have a more important role to play and this is where Eizo excel over all other manufacturers. IPS technology has the advantage that, in many cases, it can show a large colour gamut and has wider viewing angles than other panel types. This means that you can move your head around, without the on screen image appearing to shift in colour or brightness - however, as most people sit directly in front of their screen the stated viewing angle is not as big a deal as some would lead you to believe!

Hardware-based Calibration and Profiling
Eizo measure the individual tone response for the red, green and blue channels at the factory and adjust them so the monitors colour response is as perfect as can be. However, what Eizo don't know is whether the video card on your computer will mess with the video output in any way, and additionally, over time, the monitor will change it's response as it ages. The way to solve both these problems is to calibrate and profile your screen. On the CG243W, this is done with a suitable external calibrator (we can recommend which one is best suited to you) which is used in conjunction with the supplied Eizo ColorNavigator software. ColorNavigator is able to 'communicate' with the monitor and make direct internal adjustments based on the response of the calibrator to colours put on screen. The profile (the correction table) is then put into the monitors internal LUT. Profiling is therefore quite straightforward (no OSD controls to fiddle with) and is extremely accurate as adjustments are made in the internal LUT and not on your video card.

5 Year 'Advanced Exchange' Warranty
Eizo's commitment to quality is evident from the warranty. All users benefit from a full 5 year or 30,000 hours (whichever occurs first) warranty which is applicable across Europe. Additionally for customers in the UK and Ireland, Eizo have upgraded the warranty to on-site 'advanced exchange'. This means, subject to verification, that Eizo will send a replacement or loan monitor to you and arrange for your to be taken away for repair. Once fixed, the monitors will be swapped back. There is no additional cost to the customer for this service.

For full details of the warranty, please visit the Eizo UK website here: http://www.eizo.co.uk/support/warranty/colour_graphics_warranty.html Please note that the additional benefits of the 5 year warranty over the statutory requirements under the Sale of Goods Act are provided by Eizo UK and not Native Digital.

Conclusions

The Eizo CG243W makes an ideal display for the professional, semi-professional photographer, retoucher or designer who demands the best on screen colour reproduction available. Having the screen this good usually means less hard-proofing is required (because you can accuratly soft-proof on screen) - how much do you spend on printing, only to find they have to be re-done? The CG243W will give you confidence in editing your images on screen, knowing that what you are seeing is an accurate representation of the actual image. Eizo only make monitors, and they have dedicated a huge amount of research and development time and money into making the CG243W one of the best products they've ever made. As noted above, the end result that you see on screen is not just the panel itself, it's also the supporting electronics that make the ultimate difference - something that Eizo excel at.

Why buy your Eizo from Native Digital?  We've been selling Eizo screens since 2005 and have a wealth of knowledge and experience. We specialise in high-end monitors and colour calibration equipment for professional users and can advise you on the right equipment to use, and importantly, how to use it. As well as pre-sales advice, we're happy to talk to customers and provide post-sales advice and support as required via the phone, email or our remote support facility.

Don't forget that our news / support / blog website regularly features articles on Eizo ColorEdge products along with hints, tips and views on calibration and profiling. You can visit the site here: http://nativedigital.co.uk/site/blog