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sRGB vs Adobe RGB Monitor--BenQ SW320

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reidthaler

Reid
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I currently have an NEC PA271w 27" monitor that is 99% Adobe RGB. The display is accurate, but not stunning. I'm thinking of getting the announced BenQ SW320 which promise Adobe RGB and high resolution. I also shoot the a Nikon D810 so I have big files with lots of detail.

I'm concerned that the monitor will be too expensive. If it's around $1,000 USD, that's fine, but if it's pushing $1,500, I'll need to reconsider.

So, my question is, visually, how much of a difference is there between a high resolution monitor that's 99% Adobe RGB vs only 99% of sRGB (which I heard is around 77% of Adobe RGB)
I print my own work on wide format printers, and make my own printer profiles, some i'm kind of deep into this stuff.

Insights appreciated.
 
One question is whether your photos will ever end up in a medium that permits full wide gamut to display. If most of your work goes to the web, to printers/labs that only accept sRGB, then having a wide gamut monitor serves little purpose. I'll take high resolution any day over wide gamut (but my stuff is 99% web and newsprint, most magazines have asked for sRGB, only one, once, long ago wanted Adobe. So I really don't see that a wide gamut monitor will help me (my PA271W which I really like is calibrated to sRGB to match my other sRGB monitor).
 
Since you are printing images then you want the widest possible gamut monitor that is obtainable.
I own the same NEC models as you do and they are excellent for the purpose and they still represent the current industry standard for high-end image editing and video editing - not only the large gamut and consistency but also a very cost effective option compared to equivalent competitors.

I understand your desire for a higher resolution monitor but I would not compromise in other areas merely to get a higher resolution monitor.
If you have got to the stage of making your own ICC printer profiles then you would probably also have discovered that even with a wide-gamut monitor the printer can print colours that are beyond the gamut of that monitor - that is certainly the case with my Epson 7900. Remember that certainly with Lightroom and raw editing that you are editing in a colourspace far larger than any monitor's gamut or printer's gamut.
Yet the monitor is crucial - it is the hub around which the whole process revolves.
Although one is editing in a colourspace larger than anything that can be displayed for at least the foreseeable future and printing to a printer that may well also have a gamut that is larger than the gamut of one's monitor one still wants a monitor with the largest gamut possible.
A wide gamut monitor gives one as much control over the process as possible.

Tony Jay
 
If you read the OP you will see that he states he uses a wide-format printer - almost certainly an Epson or a Canon.
These high-end printers have inksets that on most paper types can potentially produce colours well beyond the gamut of AdobeRGB never mind sRGB.

As I stated in my post the Epson Stylus 7900 that I own produces colours well beyond the gamut of my monitor that has a gamut that pretty much encompasses the AdobeRGB colourspace.

Tony Jay
 
OK, sorry. I read right by "wide format" as well, wide format not gamut, and did not catch that. Sorry.
 
Since as you say "i'm kind of deep into this stuff" you might find looking at color management guru Andrew Rodney's site Digital Dog :: Main. He has a lot of articles and video tutorials on uses and best practices of color management.

-louie
 
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