Photography News 80 WEB

First test

PRICE: £649

VIEWSONIC.COM/UK

ABOVE The Viewsonic’s menu is easy to navigate, but readability could be better

PROS Excellent image, great price CONS At this price, nothing delivers detail-rich, high- resolution images using 100% of the Adobe RGB colour space. Verdict The Viewsonic VP2785-2K is a leading-value monitor. For £649 you get a pro- level screen that it’s simple to set up and to use, and

Viewsonic VP2785-2K

Aimed at photographers, designers and video creators, the Viewsonic VP2785-2K is a 27in LCD screen and a certified proofing monitor to help you achieve an accurate and consistent colour workflow

ABOVE The monitor’s swivel stand gives great set-up flexibility and the IPS screen means the view is good, even from an oblique angle

Working on and enjoying your photo creations should be a pleasure, not a chore, which is why investing in a large, high-quality monitor is important. I appreciate all sorts of factors come into play, not least budget and space, but for me the minimum size monitor is 27 inches. You get a lovely big image, there’s space for tool palettes and it makes checking through image catalogues easier. It’s a win-win. Size, of course, is just one consideration and resolution, colour accuracy, controls, colour space, interfaces and flexibility come into the equation, too. The Viewsonic VP2785-2K is a 27in IPS monitor with a 2560x1400 resolution and 100% Adobe RGB colour space. It’s a class A FograCert softproof monitor, which means it ensures accurate and consistent final output when correctly set up.

Monitor set-up is easy. The swivel stand comes ready assembled so, with the screen face down on a soft, clean surface, all you have to do is fit the stand – no tools required. There is plenty of height adjustment and the bottom edge of the screen can be placed between 5cm and 18cm off the desktop. There’s plenty of swivel to allow for most set-up scenarios, too. There’s a reasonable amount of tilt, and the screen can be used upright as well. For connection to the desktop or laptop, there are two HDMI inputs: USB-C and one Display Port in. There’s a DisplayPort out, too, so the monitor can be daisy-chained using that or USB-C. I hooked up my laptop and my Apple Mac Mini via HDMI. The monitor auto-detects the computer on power-up/down. Set-up, access to hot keys and the on-screen menu

is via the row of five touch-sensitive controls at bottom right next to the on/off control. The main menu has six tabs, which are input select, auto adjust, Viewmode, colour adjust, manual image adjust and set-up menu. Enter the Viewmode option and you’ll find game, movie designer and photographer settings. In the latter, you can select landscape, portrait, monochrome, retro and photo, and in each one you can fine-tune further. If you select photo, you have sliders for ultra clear, advanced sharpness, advanced gamma and Tru Tone settings. Navigating the menu is easy, with tick, return key and arrows, although one option I would have liked is to chance to alter the colour of the display – white type on a pale grey background was not great for my eyes.

I calibrated the monitor using an X-Rite i1 Studio outfit. Viewsonic offers a free calibration software called Colorbration that works with various X-Rite devices but I didn’t try this as it was not macOS Catalina compatible at the time of testing. The VP2785-2K delivers wonderful, colour-accurate and pin-sharp images, and the WQHD 2560x1440 resolution panel produced images full of fine detail. Across the screen, light evenness was impressive, too, with a handheld Gossen light meter measuring a variance of just 0.1EV from the centre to the edge. With an impressive performance and advanced settings like multi- picture, picture by picture, picture in picture, dual colour and KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switching technology, this screen has great flexibility, too. WC

SPECS ›  Price £649

›  In the box LCD monitor, power cable, 1 x Display Port cable and USB 3.0 cable ›  Display size 27in ›  Aspect ratio 16:9 ›  Panel type IPS ›  Dynamic contrast ratio 20m:1 ›  Brightness 300cd/m2 ›  Resolution 2560x1400 ›  Interfaces 3 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-B, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 3.5mm audio out, 2 x HDMI 1.4, 1 x Display Port, 1 x Display Port Out ›  Dimensions (wxhxd) 61.2x54.5x21.5cm with stand ›  Weight 6.7kg with stand Contact: viewsonic.com/uk

Issue 80 | Photography News 29

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