Monitors

[mattjgerard]

So, my boss continually asks me what would help me do my job better/faster/more efficient, (in a helpful way, not that I'm not those things already)  and right now I've got some pretty crappy business class monitors. 1920x1080 res. So, I'm thinking of asking for some upgraded screens that would be more color accurate, better view angle, etc. I've got an Acer 27"4K at home that is really nice, and wasn't too expensive, but I'm wondering what everyone is working with on a regular basis.  I've got three small monitors right now, and I'd like to go down to 2 larger higher res ones. I would love to have more screen real estate to see more of the scene tree at once, and now with the dockable interface in 7, I'd love to be able to dock a bunch of stuff. I'm in a cube, so can't get too crazy, and need to probably get 2 sets of whatever so I and the other person can having matching monitors.

[Speedster]

Yo...

This probably won't fit your plan for two monitors, but I'll throw my 2 cents in anyway, as I've become somewhat of a monitor fanatic.

Your monitor is your window to the world, and needs to be the very best quality possible for KeyShot rendering.

Be careful of the size.  Let me explain...  I  design in SolidWorks, or render in KeyShot, often 8-10 hours a day.  I used to use a huge ViewSonic 32" monitor.  But over time my "mouse shoulder" started hurting big time.  I asked my chiropractor about it, and he did a few mobility tests.  Knowing my profession, he asked me how large my monitor was.  He said that was the problem; I had a micro-tear in my rotator cuff caused by minor repetitive movement of my mouse arm.  Similar to the carpal tunnel kind of injury that's caused by keyboarding all day.

Interestingly, about a week later the ViewSonic blew up.  So I started shopping for a new monitor.  My friend is a world-class photographer, and told me about his EIZO, which was ideally suited to CG imaging.

So I bought an EIZO 21" high-end monitor.  It is awesome!  Auto color-calibration, a large sun shield, and unbelievable resolution.  EIZO is the predominant maker of medical imaging and air-traffic control monitors.

And my shoulder healed in two weeks!

The down side is cost.  Mine was $1400, about five years ago.  And they go way up from there based on size and features.

But definitely check out EIZO, if even just for mind food and comparison.  http://www.eizo.com/home/

And one more important bit of wisdom from this old phart!  Protect your eye health!  Follow the "Triple Twenty" rule.  Every twenty minutes, take a twenty second break and look at something twenty feet away.  This allows your eye to reform to its natural shape and helps prevent dry eye and other serious eye diseases down the road.

Bill G

[Will Gibbons]

I'll offer a counterpoint to Bill's story even though he makes some very good observations and arguments.

To combat the monitor size and micro-tear issues, I use a high-end gaming mouse with very high DPI precision. The drivers for it allow for some great customization including sensitivity. I keep mine very high so as to not need to move my hand very much.

As far as the EIZO, while it's great to have the best-in-class color representation and wide-gamma output, your monitor will show your work to you in a better light than anyone else will be able to observe in a 'business or consumer' class monitor. For instance, low-contrast color gradients might not show on a very nice monitor. Also, your fancy monitor may have a wider-gamma range and be able to smooth gradients and show greater ranges of bright and dark areas. The end result is that even if your work looks great on your arguably accurate monitor, then next guy or thousands of people may see what appear to be flaws because of their inferior 'window' into the digital work. Sucks, but it's a risk you run.

I recommend something in the middle of the 2 extremes. I use a 34" Curved Dell Ultrawide monitor. The 34" width allows me to go down to a single monitor, which is cleaner in my opinion, and it's wide enough to split the screen into several working spaces if you prefer. I never feel like I don't have enough room and I use it for everything from web browsing to writing, video editing, podcast production etc...

I also like the Dell Ultrasharp series monitors since they're nice quality, precision and contrast-wise. They're very competitive price-wise, and they're representative of what others will see since they're only 10-bit color-depth (if I recall).

If there's still budget after upgrading the hardware, I'd put money into a nice mouse and keyboard that offer programmable buttons/macros (usually gaming hardware does this) and a nice ergo chair, Ergotron monitor arm or standing desk. Those upgrades will protect you, keep you in your seat longer, and help you work faster.

Hope that helps... yes. I got a bit carried away on this post.

[Speedster]

To combat the monitor size and micro-tear issues, I use a high-end gaming mouse with very high DPI precision.

This is a very good thread for all of us.  We seldom look at the big picture to include the hardware. 

I totally agree on the gaming mouse. The rotator cuff issue is caused by micro-motion. With a smaller monitor you bias the wrist, but with a large monitor, say 27" -32", the bias is to the shoulder, as it takes larger motion to sweep the screen. The problem is that it's not a large enough motion, which then tears the cuff.  A really huge monitor, 32" to 72" (in your dreams!) the motion becomes larger and the issue goes away.  But few of us have that luxury, and frankly I feel they are too large unless mounted on the wall at some distance away.

A top-line gaming mouse is a big benefit. When I ordered my BOXX computer, the sales guy, Michael Wahls, specified and included a high-end gamer mouse just as you describe, especially for the accurate pointing required with CAD and KeyShot.  It really does the job!  You can almost select on a pixel basis!

As far as the EIZO, while it's great to have the best-in-class color representation and wide-gamma output, your monitor will show your work to you in a better light than anyone else will be able to observe in a 'business or consumer' class monitor

Most of my work is for print, not screen so image quality and calibration is critical, although I do many for web use. I always pop web renderings over to my wife's Datel Systems (my old four-core workstation) via our LAN to view on her ViewSonic, then adjust to suit.

But actually, the EIZO was a "choice-by-necessity".  I had to immediately replace my crapped out ViewSonic, and none of the traditional consumer level big box stores stocked the higher end DELL or HP monitors, but could order (or I could on-line) but with about a week's delivery.  Not an option.  My pro photography store, Calumet Photography, had an entire CG Imaging department, and stocked only the EIZO.  So I went back to the office with one that day.  I don't regret the EIZO, but both DELL and HP make very high quality comparable monitors at a lower price point.

Monitor technology has improved exponentially since I bought mine, so there are many more choices available now.

And as Will points out, don't forget your chair!  I hung out my shingle as a designer, moldmaker, molder and modelmaker almost 45 years ago, and until I switched to CAD in 1999 spent most of my time on a stool, slumped over a drafting board with an eraser in my teeth.  Believe me, ergonomics plays a huge role in overall health when we spend as much time as we do in front of our monitor.  Good work habits and ergonomics established early on will serve you well over time, and I say this especially you young guys and gals with a long career ahead of you!  So plan to invest a few bucks in a GOOD chair!  Your butt , back and traps will thank you! 

Bill G

[mattjgerard]

Man, this is great information y'all putting out.

My worksurface is at standing height, and I have a tall chair to match.  I love being able to stand for a bit then sit, then stand. I almost bought a motorized desk when I was freelance, but ended up getting a full time gig  and they actually had me come in to measure me for the desk height.

For monitors, I'll be honest, I will always take more space.  I had a 24" and 21" monitor until last week when we did cubeland cleanout and stacked a whole pile of monitors on a table, and I scored another 21". So my  workspace as the 21-24-21 all side by side. I use the left 2 for main work, and the right one for email, web, reference images, etc. And having each monitor as just 1920x1080 is killing me. My last full time gig I had 2 27" apple thunderbolt displays, and that was just about perfect. Plenty of room for windows and pallets, and stuff. I was doing a lot more After Effects and video editing back then though. And even then I had a small crap 3rd monitor for the security cams on the front and back doors

So being able to go to a single large 32" high res or 2 27" high res would be great, Will I'm going to head to the closest geek store and have a look at those widescreen displays, I've heard great things about them. Do you think the curve bit is helpful? I've heard good and bad things about them.

I've been using the Logitech MXMaster mouse for almost 3 years now, and its fantastic. No more carpal tunnel that I got from using the magic mouse POS for so long. So, got the mouse thing down. I used to have to switch to a pen tablet for a month to let my wrist and forearm heal when I was using the magic mouse. Hated it.

The one thing that can't be forgotten is that nothing will make up for bad posture, of which I am a huge violator. I have post it reminders in front of me that say "SIT UP A@@HOLE" to keep me proper.

I do work for both print and web, so I would need to get something that is true to both, so I see both sides of the ultra high end monitors discussion.  I would keep one of my crap monitors for checks to look for banding and over saturation and things like that.

When I was working on the Barney and Friends TV show as the post production intern (yes, the big purple dino) the head mix engineer would do the final mix on all this huge nice expensive gear, best of everything, processing, eq etc down to the  very expensive and accurate  (And massive) Genelec speakers. He would get the whole mix done, then flip a switch and listen to the whole show on a pair of little 4" auralex crapboxes to make sure it worked there too. I learned a lot doing audio mixes in school, dumping them to cassette and running to the parking lot to listen to them in the car to see how it sounded out there.

Well, just learned that we just got approved for 2 seats of Cinema 4D studio and The keyshotXR plug in for 2 of us. More fun to come, but I wonder if  I can squeeze a monitor purchase into the budget

[Speedster]

Well, this thread is getting weird, but hey- sometimes it's fun to talk about something other than Matgraph!

He would get the whole mix done, then flip a switch and listen to the whole show on a pair of little 4" auralex crapboxes to make sure it worked there too. I learned a lot doing audio mixes in school, dumping them to cassette and running to the parking lot to listen to them in the car to see how it sounded out there.

I also have a small but pro level recording studio, where Geri and I have done some CD's along with some friends.  All Native American music.  I mix and master with a pair of powered KRK V8 powered monitors that can blow the windows out, but then I burn a scratch CD and play it on a crappy old boom box as well as our Onkyo home system to check it out in the real world.  Same as we do with renderings...

There's a high-end stereo dealer here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Constellation Electronics.  I was talking to the owner at a bar one Friday evening, and he invited me to bring my CD over for a listen on their Bowers & Wilkins 800 D3 speaker system.  I was absolutely blown away!  As was he, and asked who did my mastering.  When I told him I did he was knocked over.  And I felt really great that I had done a good job, which I was never really sure of.

Oh ya- the B&W 800 D3 runs $29,250 US (22,500 pounds) a pair!

Back to work- got a Matgraph to figure out!

Bill G

[Will Gibbons]

This is a very good thread for all of us.  We seldom look at the big picture to include the hardware. 
Bill G

Agreed! Thanks for offering another perspective. Each person has their own needs. I 100% agree with you on monitor accuracy for print work.

[Will Gibbons]

Will I'm going to head to the closest geek store and have a look at those widescreen displays, I've heard great things about them. Do you think the curve bit is helpful? I've heard good and bad things about them.

I do work for both print and web, so I would need to get something that is true to both, so I see both sides of the ultra high end monitors discussion.  I would keep one of my crap monitors for checks to look for banding and over saturation and things like that.

Re: monitor - if you require even and perfectly-lit display with no backlight bleeding down to the very edges of your display... I'd skip out on the curved. I'm the only one sitting behind it and I'm always positioned perfectly and seldom run any apps in full-screen mode because it's a lot more than I can see at once. Due to that, I'm happy with the purchase. Definitely a bit more immersive. Also, mine is a subtle curve IPS, not an aggressively curved one. As the size goes up, I think the curve is nice. Personal preference though. Not a matter of 'better'. I also know Dell released some massive 4K monitors recently you may like that are not curved. Saw them in person at Autodesk University, but think they're overkill. I wanted to go to 4K, but still am not 100% satisfied with how all the UI scaling works within Windows 10. When I bought mine last year, this was more of an issue than it is now.

As for accuracy, the spider monitor calibration tools work well. I've used those in the past. They'll allow you to get your monitor calibrated to a profile that can be matched by a printer. The only thing you'll miss out is wider gamma range unless splurging on a super-high-end display.

[DriesV]

I am using this one in the office:
http://www.benq.com/product/monitor/sw320/

I think it is great, because:

• It only costs half a leg
• It has hardware calibration (which is far better than software calibration)
• It is big
• It almost entirely covers the Adobe RGB gamut
• It can also run in sRGB (thus a more limited gamut)
• it has a handy "puck" to switch between color and calibration modes

It has my seal of approval.

Fyi, I am running this monitor in sRGB, calibrated with an X-Rite i1Display Pro.

Dries

[mattjgerard]

Well, this is moving forward with the boss peoples. Since my home PC motherboard died off and is off into the empty void that is warranty repair in california, I brought my own personal 28" Acer B286HK 4k monitor into work to try out.

I did learn that Windows 10 is much more 4k friendly than window 7sp1. And that 4k resolutions need dual link DVI, not single link. And that Windows 7 system scaling is wonky at best. After much fiddling and creating custom resolution and refresh rate settings to minimize cursor drag and ghosting, I'm liking the real estate compared to the other 27" 1920x1080 monitor.

And that I want a bigger one

I think the holy grail to go to a single monitor will be a 30-32" 4K. I looked at the curved displays that Will recommended, and would push for that if it was just me I was looking for, but we are looking to get 3-4 of these for the other graphics people as well, so that we are all color calibrated the same.  So budget wise I've come down to these 2-

BenQ - https://goo.gl/G5pMXj
Dell UltraSharp- https://goo.gl/8MKXVC

I feel like I'm getting really finicky when talking monitors, but I have my 27"1920x1080 and my 28"4k monitor sitting side by side, and that extra inch diagonal is pretty nice.

Keyshot interface is doing fairly well scaling with the windows scaling settings. I am not running my 4k at full res, since windows 7 isn't very flexible when it comes to scaling text and system components, and there for the KS interface goes really small.

I'll keep posting as I get to it.