Color quality
The quality of colors is measured with the LaCie BlueEye Pro colorimeter, which in fact is a Gretag colorimeter coupled to the software suite developed by LaCie.
Just to remind you, we work with a value called DeltaE. It represents a measurement between the color requested and the one really displayed on the monitor. The higher the result obtained, the less true colors are. The value is also counter-balanced for human eye color sensitivity.
Delta E > 3 the desired color is noticeably different from the one on the screen.
2 < Delta E < 3 color quality is satisfactory, but a graphic designer probably wouldn’t be content
1< Delta E <2 colors are accurate.
Delta E < 1, the result is perfect.
Each time, 18 patches of color are studied and 16 results are reported in a graph.
The probe quickly confirmed our first impression. The Samsung monitor had good initial settings (it's even pre-calibrated) while the Dell had oversaturated colors. The 3007WFP only provides better results in one situation. Monochrome photos were better and grays more neutral. Once again, the probe confirmed our visual assessment:
IPS 6 ms : Dell 3007WFP-HC
S-PVA 6 ms : Samsung SyncMaster 305TIn practice with the gray scale:
IPS 6 ms : Dell 3007WFP-HC
S-PVA 6 ms : Samsung SyncMaster 305TEither way, these monitors should be calibrated and we hope that the color variation from the center to the side of the screen will be as minimal as possible. We want to have accurate colors on the entire monitor (see below for the homogeneity test).
After calibration, the Dell monitor shows accurate colors, the proof that there was no factory pre-calibration.
In fact, the Dell monitor takes the lead if we take the gamut into consideration:
IPS 6 ms : Dell 3007WFP-HC
S-PVA 6 ms: Samsung SyncMaster 305TThe gamut explains the initial color rendering of the Dell, which before seemed so excessive except in grays. Besides the fact that it wasn't pre-calibrated, the 3007WFP-HC displays more intense shades than other monitors thanks to the wider gamut.
For image professionals, such wide space can be very handy and might become absolutely indispensable very quickly. More and more, reflex cameras offer the possibility of surpassing the standard sRGB space and use Adobe RGB. With a normal monitor, you won't see the difference. However, with wide gamut screens it can display more new colors that were captured by the camera. This makes a difference in the following step, printing.
In the gamut graph above, the black triangle corresponds to the color space displayed by the monitor. The orange is the sRGB and reference and the white is ISOcoated. This last one is the color space of professional printers and is wider than the sRGB. There is a risk with standard monitors when working with images taken in Adobe RVB as you might change colors that are outside of this space without realizing it. On the screen, the color space will be the same, but the printer, which is set to ISOcoated, will possibly identify a modified color scale. Wide gamut monitors show these colors and avoid these types of mistakes in extreme color shades.
Now, we will have to verify if colors are as rich and nice throughout the entire panel. This isn't something to take for granted and we remind you that we measured gaps of up to 50% with the first generation of Dell and Apple 30"s. So will we see the improvements that Dell has claimed for months now to have made?
