Eizo, the brand for high-level graphic displays, launched a new display: The Color Graphic 243 Wide - CG243W. At this moment, the display isn’t available on the market yet. On the Dutch website, you can’t even find some information! You need to go to the international website to see the images and information. I couldn’t wait to test the screen.
The display isn’t a common display; it’s a graphic 24.1” wide display. If you are in front of the display, you’ll see 61cm of display! The moment you take a look at the specifications, you’ll see that this screen isn’t a display made for some Internet, spreadsheet or gaming. This display is made for professional (or serious amateur) photographers / graphic employees!
Installation
I connected this display for the test to my Mac Pro with OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and to my Macbook Pro with OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard). For both OS systems the results were the same: the screen was detected within 2 minutes. The only difference is the software. You need to download different software. How the installation process is on a Windows computer is a question that I can’t answer. I only use Mac, but I suppose it will work as well.
Calibration
The Eizo CG243W display is calibrated in the factory, but you need to modify this calibration in function of the light conditions in your office. It doesn’t make sense to buy an expensive display, if you don’t calibrate it on your light conditions. That calibrator can be bought as a package with the display called “OEM calibrator” and is cheaper, but you can only calibrate Eizo displays with it. You have to consider first! If you buy an independent calibrator, it’ll cost you more, but you can calibrate almost any display with it. I used my X-Rite Display 2 for the calibration process.
Before calibrating the display, you need to download the latest software. The ColorNavigator Calibration Software 5.2.5 (32.5MB) is compatible for many calibrators (you can find the whole list on the website of Eizo) and Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6)! For Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), you need to download version 5.2.4 (24.2MB).
Tip for Mac users:
When the software is installed, you won’t find the software in the list of your installed programs. You need to take a look in the folder “” where you’ll find the ColorNavigator software. Connect the device, leave the white cap on it and click “Initialize”. After a few seconds you’ll get the message “Succeeded”. You can now continue with the calibration process.
In the next screen, you’ll find some preconfigured photographic profiles and some printer profiles. Personally, I prefer to make a profile myself, modified to my light conditions in my office. I choose “Create a new target”.
The program will ask to configure RGB Gamut, Brightness / White point, Black level and Gamma. For the “RGB Gamut”, I choose for “Monitor Native”. Brightness / White point will be configured with 100cd/m2 brightness (officially 80 would be enough for TFT displays). The White point will be determined by your calibrator. I choose to keep the minimum for black level, as for the gamma, we choose for 2,2.
The program will ask to rename the profile. How you name your profile is completely your decision, but I prefer to write it this way: [Type display] _ [Brightness] _ [Kelvin values] _ [Gamma] _ [Date], an example: EIZOCG243W_100_6500_22_20091007.
Your target is made and you can start making a display profile. Select your target and click “Adjust”. Initialize your device again and click next. Now you need to place the device at the display, for this you can slide a small plastic in the monitor hood to the left of right side. Rotate the display also a little backwards so the device lays gently to the display. Click next and wait until the program is terminated. The whole process can take up to 5 minutes. It is really important that the light conditions don’t change while calibrating your display!
In the last screen, you’ll see the results of the calibration process with the values that you asked and the values that the display has accepted.
My values: (Demanded value - Result after calibration)
Brightness: 100cd/m2 - 100,2cd/m2
Black level: Minimum - 0,24cd/m2
Contrast ratio: / - 413:1
White point: 6500K - 6479K
Gamma: 2,2 - 2,2
Lookup Table
After the calibration process of the display, most photographers finish because they can’t continue modifying their display to perfection. At this point, this Eizo can continue a long way! Eizo developed something called ”Lookup table”. It will modify your profile with really small steps to perfection. The most easy way to do it is by taking a picture of something with almost every color in it. Make sure the following colors are in your picture: white, black, red, blue, yellow and some rose, pink, purple, … Open that picture on your display with the objects from the picture next to the display. Start to change the different colors with small steps. When you are done, the picture on your display is completely the same as the objects on the picture. If you can’t find such objects, you can buy a X-Rite Colochecker card (costs about 80 euro).
Connections
The Eizo has two DVI-I connections and one display port. This could be useful when you want to connect two computers with the display at the same time. At this moment the display port isn’t very useful because many computers don’t have such a port and the cables are very expensive. When those change, this port will be the new standard.
The display also has a USB hub with 2 ports. When you are using this display, you’ll be using one port to connect the calibration device and the other for a USB stick that you connect from time to time. Because the 2 USB ports are at the top of the left side, you can easily use them. Other displays also have a small USB hub integrated, but are a lot less easy to reach. When you use the display, there are always 3 cables leaving your display: a power cable, a dvi / display port cable and an USB cable for the hardware calibration and the USB hub. All cables can be hidden at the back of the display.
CONTINUE TO PART 2 ...