Aug 28 2008
Is It Wrong to Love a Color Monitor?
As with so many valid emotions, it has warranted a country song, and I’ll paraphrase: If loving my monitor is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
I’ve had a LaCie Electron 22 Blue IV for a little over 3 years, and I’ve been more than pleased with the color and reliability of the CRT. The fact that it weighs as much as a 3rd-grader was outweighed [ha] by the reliable color.
I still do a quite a bit of color work, but I’d grown weary of doing my writing on a laptop. Oh, I’ll still have to write on the road, but my back has been begging me to switch to the desktop when I can. I began to realize that either the CRT was going a bit soft, or that I’d been spoiled by the crispness of the laptop screen. Because I usually wrote on the laptop, but retouched on the desktop, I hadn’t been conscious of the softness of text onscreen on the CRT (at least, as compared to the LCD laptop screen). But once it was pointed out to me by a squinting friend, I couldn’t ignore it.
I could say that it was this comment that spurred me to action, but, in fact, it was just the excuse I’d been hoping for: I had been lusting after an EIZO monitor for several years. In general, LCD monitors are capable of much more faithful color rendering than they were in the old days: the Apple Cinema Displays are high-end displays as well. But I was captivated by the dynamic range of the EIZO at trade shows, and just sort of never got over the crush.
So yes, I could have spent less. But I haven’t even the slightest wisp of buyer’s remorse. Or guilt. The ColorEdge CG241W is absolutely fabulous: after a calibration with my X-Rite EyeOne Display 2 monitor calibrator ( I think they’ve slimmed the name down to a very hip “i1″now), the color is dead-on. The type is crisp, and I can display a 2-page spread at actual size. Not “pretend 100%,” which means zip, but actual size. I don’t have to squint. For the first time, I don’t have a vague (sometimes pounding) headache when I knock off at night.
Nothing’s perfect, of course: because it’s a wide-screen format (about 20.5″ wide by 12.75″ tall), I have to sweep my gaze from left to right to traverse the aforementioned big honkin’ two page spread. That’s OK: it will make my neck more limber.
My buying experience was smooth, too: I’ve been buying hardware and software from MacConnection/PCConnection for 17 years, and their support and service is stellar. I still fondly remember the first shipment from them in 1991: I’d ordered a 1.2GB hard drive (Whooiee! And only $1200!). When I opened the box and pushed aside the packing, I found a Starlight mint taped to the drive container, and a coupon good for one free lunch at the diner near MacConnection’s New Hampshire offices.
Of course, they’ve grown in volume since then, and no longer include the mints or the lunch coupons. But I have a business account with them, and all I had to do to buy the monitor was send an email to my account rep; she took care of everything (thanks, Melissa!). You really can’t beat that — I love those guys!
