Photography News Issue 50

Photography News | Issue 50 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

BenQ SW271 £1067

Specs

Most photographers fuss and fret about squeezing every ounce of quality image from their kits, and spend lots of time and money striving for the very best. The irony is how few give the same level of attention and investment to the hardware used to look at their efforts. If you have a large, 4k capable, colour-managed monitor you are likely to be in the minority, so you can relax and enjoy your images at their fabulous best. The rest of you need to give your viewing pleasure some love and look at the latest monitors, such as this BenQ SW271. It is 4k with a resolution of 3840x2160, supports HDR10, features USB C connectivity, shows 99% of the Adobe RGB colour space – and there’s muchmore. The BenQ SW271 sells at £1067, so it is competitively priced and the sort of money you need to spend for a pro quality, highly featured monitor of this screen size and specification. Assembling the monitor is very quick and no tools are needed. The pivot stand clicks onto the base and is locked into position with a thumb screw, and the screen then just slots and locks into the stand. It’s that simple and takes minutes. Even access to the various sockets is easy because you can rotate the screen 90° for easy access. There are plenty of interface options including USB-C, USB 3.1, HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 – there’s an SD card slot, too. For viewing HDR10 video content you need to use the HDMI input with the supplied lead – or a premiumqualityHDMI cable. The USB-C option means you can transmit video and data with one cable and that gives a transfer rate of up to 5Gbps, so you get smooth 4k content. With the right leads in place, then, it is just a matter of setting the right workingheight and fitting the supplied monitor shade. Obviously it is up to you if you want to use the monitor shade, but it seems sensible to avoid any screen glare or reflections. The final thing to connect is the Hotkey Puck. This offers a convenient and quicker way to get into the menu without the need to use the six low-

Price

£1067

Key features GamutDuo, colour temperature sensor, 4k, HDR, 99% Adobe FRGB In the box Hotkey Puck, mains lead, 1x 1m USB C, 1x 1.8mmDP to DP 1.4 cable, 1x 1.8m HDMI 2.0, 1x 1.8m USB 3.1 cable, CD with manual, driver software Colour bit 10-bit Screen size 27in IPS Display colours 1.07 billion Colour gamut 100% Rec.709, 99% Adobe RGB Aspect ratio 16:9 Resolution 3840x2160 Display area 608.8x355.3mm Brightness 350nits Input 2xHDMI 2.0, 1x 1.4 DP, USB C 3.1, SD card reader, USB 3.1 (2x downstream, 1x upstream), 1x USB 2.0 (for Hotkey Puck) Native contrast (typical) 1000:1 Power consumption 43.38W Height adjustment 150mm Dimensions (wxhxd, no shade, minimumheight) 61.3x50x22cm Weight 10.6kg (with hood and pivot stand) Contact xpdistribution.com

profile buttons that sit bottom right of the screen – one is for power and the others come into play using the on- screenmenu. The Puck sits neatly in the recess at the base of the pivot stand. Basically, it’s a limited facility computer mouse so it is quick and instinctive to use. There are three controller keys around the outer ring of the puck, and these are set by default to change the screen’s working colour space (Adobe RGB, sRGB) or make the image monochrome. These keys can be changed to suit your needs. For example,calibrationsetting,brightness and contrast can be assigned to these three buttons. More customisation is available with three of the screen’s low profile

buttons and by default input, colour mode and brightness are set. Eight options are available, including colour gamutandPIP/PBP.Thisletsyouenjoy the screen’s GamutDuo feature that lets you do side-by-side comparisons of how images from two sources look in different colour spaces. The image itself is edge to edge, thanks to the ultra slim bezel frame around three sides of the screen. With a Gossen light meter, I checked the screen’s evenness – with a plain mid- grey desktop – and found that to be consistent across the screen. No bright hotspots or uneven coverage was detected and everythingwaswithin0.1 or 0.2EV. For colour calibration, BenQ offers its Palette Master Elements software

that is downloadable and this supports devices including Datacolor Spyder 4/5 and X-Rite il Display Pro/il Pro/il Pro 2. Or use your existing software. I tried the SW271 for still image editing as well as for viewing 4k video and HDR footage. Its image quality is impressive and you can really appreciate the capture quality of the latest high resolution cameras. Fine detail looks amazing and once calibrated, colour performance from the 10-bit display shows over one billion colours – so far more than the human eye can perceive. I also liked the handling. The Hotkey Puck is a great idea and so much easier than using the screen’s small buttons. It was much more intuitive, you didn’t have to stretch across the desk and features such as one-click monochrome preview (with three presets) are handy. In Lightroom, switching between colour and mono is a single click but here you can preview a whole grid of images instantly. WC

Verdict

Monitors aren’t upgraded as frequently as cameras and computers so it obviously makes sense to invest in one that fulfils your immediate needs with some degree of future-proofing, too. The BenQ SW271 has that with 4k resolution and HDR compatibility, plus it has the features list and performance that makes it a compelling proposition.

Pros Image quality, colour accuracy, Hotkey Puck, easy set up Cons Nothing

Above The SW271 has PIP (Picture in Picture) and PBP (Picture by Picture) modes so you can directly compare different colour spaces from two sources Above right The Hotkey Puck is a handy device and makes menu navigating much easier than using the screen’s controls Right The on-screen menu is easy enough to navigate, made even easier with the Hotkey Puck.