Marcelo Isarrualde: SW270C Offers Very Real and Accurate Colors

Photographers work with great demand on color accuracy and the new BenQ monitor for professional photographers, the SW270C achieved the color standard that the industry requires, offering very real and accurate colors.

I have the BenQ SW2700PT monitor, and recently BenQ gave me the SW270C monitor to compare them. They have the same size, the same IPS LED technology, but a first novelty is that it has a new USB-C port. This port offers high-speed video, audio and data transmission, as well as power, with a single cable, which provides a quick and easy configuration of the workflow. It also has two HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort input and an integrated SD/MMC card reader.

It also has an integrated 16-bit 3D LUT, an improvement over the 14 of the SW2700PT monitor. The 16-bit 3D search table (LUT) and the Delta E ≤ 2 in the Adobe RGB and sRGB color spaces guarantee very smooth and silky color gradations, with a 10-bit panel showing over a billion colors for natural color transitions and subtle shading, offering a more faithful and representative view of the original image.

The SW270C monitor is specially designed for professional photographers. My usual work in the reproduction of works of art for museums, galleries and artists, requires high quality in terms of color fidelit and sharpness. It delivers bright, accurate colours and meets high colour standards by covering 99% Adobe RGB, 100% sRGB / Rec.709 and 97% DCI-P3 / Display P3, resulting, for example, in a more realistic colour representation in outdoor and nature photography.

The big difference with the SW2700PT version, which takes this monitor a step further in color technology, is that the new SW270C incorporates Uniformity and Brightness Technology. This technology delivers precise color across the entire monitor for true, consistent viewing experiences. Reached through delicate processes that use high-precision devices to meticulously adjust color and brightness in hundreds of sub-regions across the entire screen, BenQ Uniformity Technology delivers precise color across the entire screen from corner to corner. Photographers will perceive the color more uniform than ever when working with this monitor. The colour fidelity is very high and even without making a specific profile the result is very satisfactory, although it requires a later creation of the colour profile to be able to do a much more detailed job. Factory calibrated, the BenQ SW270C offers immediate colour accuracy that ensures users can enjoy the most reliable colour performance.

The calibration is done by hardware with the software Palette Master Elements, developed in conjunction with X-Rite, which use the engine to achieve a quality calibration. The hardware calibration helps adjust the monitor's internal image processing chip, which maintains the consistency of the displayed images with the original content without being affected by the graphics card configuration.

Each unit comes with its own personalized certificate. This software allows you to adjust and calibrate each and every monitor parameter to achieve a result that fits every workflow. Being a screen of 10 bits of depth of color we can see images with gradients of great fidelity and smoothness, but we can also enjoy a great HDR if we use the HDMI port. In grayscale the range is very wide and therefore the blacks that are appreciated are very pure. This feature is accentuated if we work in black and white mode, one of the features aimed at improving the sharpness and accuracy of this monitor. Being able to easily activate this advanced mode greatly facilitates achieving optimal results with greater agility, as it allows us to preview the results with up to three monochrome presets.

Without a doubt, the most important thing for my daily work that this monitor has is the GamutDuo tool, which allows me to compare two different color spaces on the same screen. I usually deliver my photos to the client in two different color spaces, one for the web and one for printing. Having this new tool gives me a lot of peace of mind when it comes to knowing how my photographs will look in the different media where they will be used. This monitor also has the traditional options wheel of the brand, the 'Hotkey Puck', from where you can quickly control the color options and display of the monitor. It is really practical and original and can be placed in the base, where it has a cavity for it that is very comfortable. We can quickly change color space or adjust the most frequent values without having to navigate between menus with the five buttons found at the bottom of the frame.

This is a very complete monitor that more than satisfies the demanding technical needs of my usual work on color, which added to the ease of navigating through the different menus and the turns and rotations of the screen put it in an outstanding place of excellence. An option that effectively replaces those of its predecessor, the SW2700PT model.

Marcelo Isarrualde is a fashion, portrait and architecture photographer from Uruguay. His work is widely seen in photography events, exhibitions and books.