NEC monitor system is friggin sweet! :)

I got a NEC MultiSync PA241W-BK 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor with Wide Color Gamut

and bought it along with the integrated NEC calibration software and color meter.
NEC - Color Sensor and SpectraView II Software Kit


Obviously it is very color accurate, but I think the real appeal of this system is how everything is smoothly automated for calibration and switching modes. On top of that, you don't need a fancy video card to support a color accurate monitor. Everything is done within the monitor itself. I can't imagine there is a more simple system to use for people who are not calibration experts. Even if you work in sRGB all the time, this monitor will cover 100% of your colors, where a lot of cheaper standard monitors might not even cover all of sRGB.

The only strange thing so far, is that the supplied software key code was not valid, and I had to go onto google to find one. Very strange...


BandH has the best prices for these items, which only shows when you place it into your shopping cart.

Mine came with no light panel leaks, no uneven lighting, and no dead pixels. Despite UPS trying their best to destroy the thing in shipping.

There's a reason this setup gets a lot of positive reviews, and I would like to toss my opinion into the heap too. Easily the best setup for the price, especially if you just want accurate color with no screwing around.

Congrats!!! NEC is well known for high quality monitors.

I have NEC 2690WUXi that is almost 5 years old and has over 30,000 hours of "On Time". It still stays perfectly calibrated with the Spectraview software and color meter. NEC monitors are expensive compared to many other options out there, but in my opinion, the best money I've ever spent.

Mine is still going great! I've ordered test prints from 3 separate labs and they are all exactly as expected. Although I am a little bummed about Bay Photo not utilizing a true Adobe RGB color space. They just converted mine down to sRGB or something close to it. NOT COOL!
The labs which do true aRGB, have sent back samples that are crazy accurate when viewed under full spectrum light.

In a bright room, I find the stock settings for Photo Editing to be right on the money. 140.0cd/m^2 in here seems to translate well to any print that will have any margin of light being shined on it.

On the cost issue, I don't see any other alternative for a wide gamut monitor that is cheaper than NEC. Sure you can get a narrow gamut monitor for pennies, but that is beside the point of having one of these for printing.

Where are you finding wide gamut printing?
Most commercial printers are still sRGB, including any of the chemical process machines from Fuji or Kodak.

Moppie wrote in post #15215245
Where are you finding wide gamut printing?
Most commercial printers are still sRGB, including any of the chemical process machines from Fuji or Kodak.

You just need to look harder.

I just got a test print ("lightjet") done on Fujiflex Super Glossy (world's best paper, by a mile) and it came in full Adobe RGB color space. Side by side with the Bay Photo print, it's quite a staggering difference. I only tested out Bay Photo because their metal prints are the best in the industry, but the limited sRGB color is a NO-GO for most of my landscape work.

Sure the mega print labs will still convert down to sRGB, but the high-end smaller labs can support wide gamut printing. The local lab which does pigment printing has gear that can come close to printing Pro Photo color space, so no worries there other than the crappy look of pigment jet prints (compared to "lightjet").