Re: SONY Artisan chromaticities
Re: SONY Artisan chromaticities
- Subject: Re: SONY Artisan chromaticities
- From: bruce fraser <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 26 May 2003 18:22:15 -0700
At 1:29 AM +0100 5/27/03, Richard Kenward wrote:
In message Mon, 26 May 2003, Andrew Rodney writes
The Sony Artisan is designed to be an absolute color reference. Each display
will reproduce an identical colorspace within the tolerance of the system to
an NIST reference. This means each display matches another.
That would be great if everyone we did business with had one in tip
top condition and used it in the ideal viewing conditions, but
that's not the real world unfortunately. That's not going to stop
me looking for a quality screen with a larger colour gamut such as
Barco boast, I had rather hoped that the Artisan offered this.
The Barcos don't have a particularly large color gamut, and certainly
no larger than the Artisan. They do have a significantly narrower
dynamic range. The advantage of a color reference display is that YOU
can trust it for YOUR work, and, given good output profiles, the
decisions you make based on what you see on the color reference
system will be accurately executed on output.
Fixed dynamic range
What's the big deal here and how does this give me a real advantage?
Unlike other systems, when you ask for a specific black level (which
along with white luminance is what defines the contrast ratio), you
get it to within a ridiculously small fraction of a candela per meter
squared. That means that when you select a contrast ratio of 350:1,
you get it, every time. Not 320:1 one day of the week and 360:1
another. Combined with good output profiles, it lets you see what
you'll get in print (with the exception of some midtone and darker
teals, greens, and orange-yellows that no commercially-available
display can reproduce), exactly, with no surprises. No fudging like
"I know the shadows look a bit more open on the monitor than they
will in print."
Perfectly neutral greyscale all the way to black
Is this not what one buys a top of the range calibrator and Optical
for, if so I've already got this part.
Not even close.
Try this.
In Photoshop, set your working space to Monitor RGB so that RGB
values get sent directly to the monitor.
Make a solid black RGB000 doc.
Make a small selection in the middle.
Hide the marching ants.
Switch to full-screen mode #2, the one with no menu and a black matte.
Hide all the palettes.
Press Command-M to open Curves.
Target the 0,0 Curve point, then drag the curves dlog off the screen
until only a tiny corner is showing (to avoid flare).
Press the up arrow key once to change 0,0 to 0,1.
Do you see a difference? Is the selection still neutral gray?
Keep pressing the up arrow one press at a time.
Do you see a difference between each press of the arrow?
Is the difference between each press constant?
Does it always result in a neutral gray?
If you answer yes to all of the above, I want whatever you've got.
Barco and Artisan are the only displays that have let me answer yes
to all of the above, and the Artisan is capable (in a very low-light
environment) of producing double the contrast ratio of the Barco.
There are advantages to having direct software control over the
monitor besides convenience. The software can make finer adjustments
to gain and bias than the OSD's user interface allows. Some
third-party calibrators can make those adjustments via a DDC cable,
but none of the third-party instruments come close to the Artisan
puck's accuracy in setting black. Since the puck is matched to the
specific monitor at the factory, it's more accurate than any
third-party instrument that has to accommodate all monitors can ever
be.
Does this really make that much difference and more importantly will
it allow me to see an increased gamut, or will I still have to rely
on a CMYK ink jet print from say a BestcolorProof rip for that?
Unless you're printing with fluorescent inks, your BestcolorProof
prints have a much smaller gamut than any decent monitor. Ink on
paper can produce some colors, mentioned above, that no display can
reproduce-the monitor gamut is larger, but no monitor gamut wholly
contains the gamut of high-quality CMYK printing. The Artisan
reproduces more of those colors than any other display I've used. The
ACD 23 beats it very slightly in the orange-yellows. The Artisan
beats the ACD 23 in the teals and greens.
It's quite simply the best display I've ever used.
Bruce
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