October 2006 | Margaret Brown
A top-of-the-range monitor with performance to match.
ColorEdge monitors sit at the top of Eizo's range and are designed to provide professional image quality. At more than double the price of the FlexScan S1931 display, Eizo's ColorEdge CG19 is targeted at professional photographers, prepress professionals and people for whom colour accuracy and fidelity are paramount. Eizo actually claims to hand-adjust every ColorEdge monitor before it leaves the factory to ensure it delivers consistently accurate, reliable colour reproduction.
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ColorEdge monitors sit at the top of Eizo's range and are designed to provide professional image quality. At more than double the price of the FlexScan S1931 display, Eizo's ColorEdge CG19 is targeted at professional photographers, prepress professionals and people for whom colour accuracy and fidelity are paramount. Eizo actually claims to hand-adjust every ColorEdge monitor before it leaves the factory to ensure it delivers consistently accurate, reliable colour reproduction.
Like the FlexScan S1931, the CG19 has very narrow bezels and black-on-black buttons. It also sits on a height-adjustable stand with sturdy hinge that connects the panel to the neck. This allows the monitor to pivot between Landscape and Portrait modes and tilt up to 40 degrees backward as well as swivelling 35 degrees to the right and the left. A wire metal clasp holds the power and signal cords at the base of the neck. Fitted behind the LCD panel is a USB hub, which allows a colorimeter to be connected or lets the monitor be connected to a PC. (The monitor hood shown in the illustration above is an optional accessory, as is the colorimeter.)
Built-in brightness stabilisation is similar to that provided with the FlexScan 1931. So are the black-on-black labels on the CG19's image-adjustment buttons. Fortunately, the onscreen menus are easy to navigate and you can position the dialog box where you want it on the screen. This is handy because the adjustment menu offers many more options than most LCDs. There's also an auto-calibration button and six contrast-level presets: Text, Picture, Movie, Custom, sRGB, and Calibration.
Even without the use of any extra colour-calibration tools, the ColorEdge CG19 turned in an outstanding performance when we first installed it. Whereas most displays offer only 8-bit calibration (which covers 256 steps in the gamma curve), the 10-bit LUT calculates the gamma curve in 1021 steps, thereby providing a smoother result and superior tonal accuracy. This allows the CG19 to display a colour gamut that is wider than the standard sRGB.
Photographers who shoot in the Adobe RGB colour space and use a dual-screen set-up can see how important this wider display gamut is. When you move an Adobe RGB image from an sRGB screen to the CG19, the colours in the image really zing and detail that you knew was recorded when you took the shot becomes immediately visible. Tonal nuances that can be lost in the flatter view an sRGB monitor provides are fully visible. This feature alone fully justifies the CG19's higher price tag!
Supplied with the CG19 is Eizo's proprietary ColorNavigator calibration software, which lets users access the 10-bit colour look-up table (LUT) and calibrate it directly to produce an accurate colour profile. With ColorNavigator you can adjust hue and saturation for red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow, as well as white balance, brightness, black level and gamma. A test pattern screen can display the effects of all manual adjustments.
The introductory page of the ColorNavigator wizard provides details of what will happen during the profiling process.
A target is provided for positioning the colorimeter.
ColorNavigator provides a full range of image controls and calibration data.
A colorimeter, such as the Spyder 2 Pro (reviewed in this issue) or GretagMacbeth EyeOne Display 2, is required to use the ColorNavigator calibration software. Calibrating and profiling the CG19 is equally easy with both devices, although the Spyder 2 Pro's software is slightly more powerful and easier to use. Users can generate up to 20 colour profiles as well as measuring the monitor's brightness and colour co-ordinates. ColorNavigator also makes it easy to keep track of calibration profiles and you can set reminders in increments of working hours to notify you when re-calibration is required.
If you're a photographer who prefers to shoot Raw files and likes using the Adobe RGB colour space, the CG19 will show you your photographs as you remembered them when you took the shot. So far, we've not found any monitor that can surpass its vibrancy, colour accuracy and overall competence as a platform for digital still photography (although not for video). Anyone looking for a best-of-breed monitor for image editing, colour matching and soft proofing will find it a worthwhile investment.
Eizo backs the ColorEdge CG19 with a five-year warranty, subject to the usage time being 30,000 hours or less from the date of purchase. The warranty period for the LCD panel and backlight is limited to three years from the date of purchase.
Native resolution: 1280 x 1024 pixels
Brightness: 280 cd/m2
Contrast ratio: 450:1
Colour gamut: sRGB; 24-bit (16.77 million colours)
Gamma correction: 10-bit
Active display size (H x V): 376 x 301 mm (Diagonal = 481 mm)
Pixel pitch: 0.294 x 0.294mm
Interfaces: USB 2.0; D-Sub mini 15 pin, DVI-D 24 pin x 2 (switchable)
Power consumption: 54W
Dimensions (with stand): 414 x 409.5-509.5 x 202.7 mm
Weight: 8.1Kg