I'd long heard about Eizo's monitors being a sort of "Ferrari" line of high-end displays for photographers, but it wasn't until recently that I was able to take one for a test drive. And after pitting the new 24.1-inch Eizo ColorEdge CG2421W against my favorite 23-inch Apple Cinema HD display, I have to say the Eizo wins going away.

But according to how much you have to pay for this incredible LCD monitor, it really should be no contest. While there are many photographers out there who might already balk at Apple's $899 price tag for a 23-inch Cinema HD, that's actually a fraction of what the ColorEdge CG241W sells for. Street price on this high-end screen is a very spendy $2,345. As the saying goes with Eizo monitors, though, you get what you pay for.

What surprised me about the ColorEdge CG241W wasn't its incredible resolution—which is native at 1920 x 1200—nor its wide color gamut—it reproduces 92 percent of NTSC and 96 percent of the Adobe RGB color space—it was its ability to expertly handle moving images as well. I ran the frenetic car chase scene at the end of The Bourne Ultimatum on the Eizo monitor and found it was not only able to keep up with the action with no lag time but could maintain its high resolution with little or no down-rezzing or pixelization. This is likely due to the Eizo's very fast 6 ms gray-to-gray response time, which is a good barometer of how quickly an LCD monitor can refresh what is happening on the screen. So along with viewing and editing photos, the ColorEdge CG241W would be great for video editing or even gaming. (Though, in my opinion, using it exclusively for gaming would be a very sad waste of the Eizo's talents. Hard-core gamers, however, may feel differently. )



GREAT COLOR EVEN WITHOUT CALIBRATION

Where ColorEdge CG241W really excels (and why you're likely reading this review) is in its ability to accurately display digital still images. Color on this monitor, straight out of the box, is incredible and that's no accident. Every CG241W comes with a certificate showing the exact color measurements on the screen at the time of shipment. Before shipping, Eizo measures every tone from 0 to 225 to produce an exact gamma curve of 2.2. A function called the Digital Uniformity Equalizer (DUE) is designed to make the brightness and color consistent on the screen, a great feature that puts Eizo's LCD displays in line with the uniformity you used to get on those highly accurate, though clunky, CRT screens of yesteryear.

Eizo's new ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), with its 12-Bit look-up table (LUT), is the engine that drives this feature, thanks to its palette of 4,081 colors for each R, G and B. The ASIC also has as 16-bit internal processor for bringing out detail in the shadow areas of your images. This is another area in which I felt the Eizo was head and shoulders above the Apple display. Being able to see these details in my RAW images meant I was able to tweak them and clearly view the results during image editing. Another thing I liked about the ColorEdge CG241W was its native 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio, which let me have several images, documents and Web pages open on the screen at once.

The ColorEdge CG241W's maximum brightness of 300 cd/m2 and contrast ratio of 850: it didn't knock my socks off but those levels are fine for image editing. Viewing angles, which are rated at 178-degress, were quite wide and I could clearly see my shots while walking nearly all the way around the screen. This would come in handy when reviewing images with groups of clients and art directors.



EVEN BETTER COLOR WITH CALIBRATION

If you're not satisfied with the color and brightness right out of the box, the ColorEdge CG241W comes with color management calibration software called ColorNatvigator CE, which works with colorimeters from X-Rite, and Datacolor's Spyder3 (also reviewed in this section). Though I used a Spyder3 to calibrate the Eizo monitor, the ICC profile generated by the colorimeter was not significantly different from how the screen was already set, but that's not a knock against the Spyder3. It's a testament to the accurate built-in color of the ColorEdge CG241W. (It is strange, however, that for as much as this Eizo costs, a colorimeter is not included.)

Aside from its image reproduction chops, the ColorEdge CG241W is a rather bare-bones affair. For set-up purposes, that's actually a great thing. I just needed to connect one DVI-to-DVI cord from my MacBook Pro to the back of the screen, and one USB cable (which is used for calibration), and plug the monitor in and I was good to go. If you're looking for extra features like built-in speakers or a Web camera, there aren't any. The CG241W does, however, come with a monitor hood (to shield out light) and a screen cleaner kit. The screen itself is adjustable with a 40-degree tilt, 70-degree swivel, and 90-degree pivot for viewing in vertical portrait mode.



THE BOTTOM LINE

While testing the Eizo ColorEdge CG241W, I had a lot less guesswork in reviewing shots I was going to print out on inkjet art papers for a story in this issue of PDN (read article here), which was a big plus. Photographers who do their own printing for gallery shows could greatly benefit from this screen. Without question, graphics pros who want to get their proofs right the first time would find it invaluable.

For anyone else, however, the price could be cost prohibitive. If you already have a decent monitor—and though it may not stack up to the Eizo, an Apple Cinema HD display is a very good monitor—you might not think you need ColorEdge CG241W. If you ever get the chance to try one out for a week, however, you may start to think differently. A Saab is good. But a Ferrari is even better.



Eizo ColorEdge CG241W

www.eizophoto.com



Pros: Incredibly accurate color right out of the box; fast image response time for video editing work; comes with five-year warranty.



Cons: Very pricey; includes color calibration software but no colorimeter.



Price: $2,345