Matt, you’re my guy, period. But I think you missed something here. I don’t print at home, and I’ve edited on an iMac for years (Like it sounds like you do) and I love it. But I just flipped to photography full-time and bought the top Macbook Pro laptop ($5k – ouch!). Unfortunately, my iMac is dying, and editing on my laptop screen just doesn’t cut it. Also, Apple has unfortunately stopped making monitors. So my choice is to buy another iMac (Another $2.5-3k) in addition to the very expensive Macbook, or to get an external monitor to compliment my Macbook. Again, I don’t print, but I prefer a big monitor for editing. Sorry for the long road to get to my question, but if you have a Macbook – and you don’t have an iMac to edit on…would this be your monitor choice?
Hi John. This would only be my editor of choice if I printed (a lot) or if my work was largely being seen in print. Otherwise, you’re editing your photos on a flat screen meant for printing, but you’re not using for that which would be odd.
Will the 2018 Mac mini be able to push the SW271 which is optimized by a 10-bit graphics card? I’ve read that the Mac mini suffers a bit in this area so was concerned if pairing this monitor with a 2018 Mac mini was a good idea.
Hi Tony. I don’t have one so you’d have to ask the folks at BenQ. Thanks.
thank you very much for your review. I bought this monitor a few days ago, and it blinks for shorter than a second once or twice a day. Do you have any ideas of configuration issues that could bring to this problem?
Hi Carol. I don’t know about that one. Best to contact BenQ on it. Good luck!
Is the ON1 program as stand alone program or does it have to be used with PS, LR, or another program?
Hi David. It’s both. You can use it standalone or use it as a plug-in to LR or PS which really only makes sense if you use the Effects module in it.
I am thinking about getting the BenQ 27″ (SW2700PT) and pair it with a new Mac Mini. I am also looking for a monitor to edit some drone video in 4K. If you don’t pixel pip, do you need a 4K monitor? The other question that I struggle with is that should I get a desktop. Do you do all most of your edits on a laptop? Laptops have come a long way. What is your opinion on the laptop vs desktop debate?
Your review certainly shows that thismonitor us the one to get, especially the non-4K one for me, however Jeff Schewe, who wrote The Digital Print prefers, I assume, NEC and another one, I think by Eios?? Can’t recall that last one. Any preference by you.
I print with Epson Surecolor P800.
Or are they all pretty much the same? >98-99% Adobe RGB?
Hi Mike. I don’t have any experience with it. That book is 5 years old though and 5 years is a long Time in technology. But I’m sure they’re both great.
I personally don’t do a lot of printing but I put a LOT of photos up on my Zenfolio site where others can select and have printed, such as from weddings or portrait shots. So if I understand you correctly, will this kind of monitor help me get more color accurate prints from my pro lab via my website? (Assuming my customers don’t make any adjustments to the image they select before submitting them to be printed).
Hi John. It will but I’d suggest making a version that shows on the web, and a version that is for print (assuming you can do that). As I wrote in the article, your web photos should be processed differently from your print photos.
Wow. Great timing. I just bought this monitor as I wanted a larger one. You confirmed my purchasing decision. Great minds think alike. Question. My only problem is that because of the high resolution, the text is very small. My other monitor is an ASUS PA246Q (1,920 x 1,200). The ASUS is set as the first monitor. I suspect I am doing something wrong in the setup. Any advice?
Hey Alan. Nope, I think that’s the way it is. I use my iMac when I need to read things. I literally just drag photos over to this one to proof when I need.
This is an IPS monitor and several other monitors use this same Panel. NEC and others.
178 Degrees Vert and 178 Degrees Horizontal are key to telling that it is an IPS Panel inside any monitor.
IPS are tops for photo editing.
Matt, you state that the 10-bit display makes a difference, but wouldn’t you need a 10-bit video card to get 10-bit performance from the monitor? Or is this something that can be approximated with an internal LUT?
Lee, from what I’ve read and researched, you do need to have a video card capable of communicating with a 10 bit monitor, otherwise there’s no point in spending money on a 10 bit capable monitor. The Nvidia Quadro series is capable of handling 10 bit monitors.
I agree with this comment. 10 bit color display is only possible if you have a graphics card (and processor) capable of handling such files.
I will add another comment on these more expensive monitors and agree with Matt on the preeminent value for printing. These monitors do replicate a larger portion of the color space as well as being able to display 10-bit color; assuming you have a graphics card and CPU capable of transmitting 10- bit color such as Nvidia Quadro workstation graphics card. BTW, these cost thousands of dollars.
These monitors typically also have color consistency across the screen far more stable than off the shelf monitors. However, they ALL need to color profiled by the X-Rite system; preferably the iOne Photo Pro 2 vs. the much less capable Colormunki. Be prepared however, this is about $1700 by itself.
I will also add that this ONLY makes sense if you color profile the camera with the X-Rite Color Checker Passport and then color profile the printer with the iOne Photo Pro 2. Skip ANY of these steps and your printed images are hit and miss at best; with the price of quality Ilford paper and ink for a Canon Pro1000 printer, this is simply required for ANY inage printing consistency.
I might also mention that there are much, much more capable monitors for image processing and printing; namely NEC and the epic Eizo monitors. Beware, these monitors are all in the range of $3000 each. However, they are superb !!
if you color profile the camera, monitor and printer as mentioned above plus use a computer and monitor capable of 10-bit color, then the LCD on the back of the camera, the monitor display and the printed inage can and should be identical. However, the price is thousands of dollars and the monitor is just one small piece.
Cheers and happy photography !!!
Great “review” Matt. Your writeup gets right to the heart of what most folks want to know (simply by answering their questions 🙂 ). I don’t print frequently, but often enough where I want to have the confidence that the prints will match what I see on the computer without repeated test runs so I will replace my second monitor in the near future with a BenQ 27″ (I have been on the fence for about 9 months, stalling on the expenditure).
FWIW: There is a BenQ 27″ model SW2700PT, 99% Adobe RGB, 2560×1440 monitor for $670. I would think this would fulfill all ones needs, except those who must have 4K video, at nearly 1/2 the price of the one you reviewed. I do realize you don’t have time for doing comparisons of what else is out there. Thanks for this thorough review!
The BenQ SW2700PT is an excellent aRGB monitor at a great price point. A refurb can be found for around $300 on sale. If 4k or video is not required, it is an excellent monitor and with a delta of less than 2, it rivals monitors costing 4x the price from the big guys.
Thanks, Matt. This was really useful for someone who prints rarely but who also suffers from Gear Envy. For now, I can put this aside!