To all the new readers here, just a quick introduction! I’m Marco and I’m a landscape photographer as well as a photo educator, constantly on the move. Since when I started out with photography, I’ve been editing my work pretty much whenever and anywhere I could such as on airplanes, buses, hotel rooms and even inside cars and tents. Every time on a tiny screen, trying to do my best to obtain the best results. But something has recently changed.
Even though I love traveling, there’s now something that makes me suffer when I’m away from the office… What about? Well, being away from my BenQ SW320 monitor!
Since last January my workflow has completely been upgraded by this monitor which has truly simplified my approach to post-processing and brought my work to the next level. On such a bigger screen, my pictures look alive and really reach in details. And I finally don’t get crazy anymore with the zoom function when I post-process my work!
The BenQ SW320 monitor is part of the PhotoVue Professional Series and with a 99% Adobe RGB color space accuracy provides spectacular color performance and superwide color range. I’ve been wanting to upgrade to something similar for a while, but now that I finally have I fully understand what I was missing and how this monitor has improved (and will keep improving) my workflow. In addition, such a great quality for this price (1.499 USD at the time of writing) definitely makes it the best choice among its competitors that offer similar quality for much higher prices.
But now, let’s get into the details. I will analyze the BenQ SW320 monitor from a photographer point of view and share with you my personal thoughts about it, including what I like and what I don’t like about it.
WHO’S THIS MONITOR FOR?
A BenQ SW320 monitor is the ideal choice for anyone looking into printing his/her images. The 99% RGB color accuracy of this monitor will make sure that whatever you are going to print is going to look great. No bad surprises, with the correct calibration your print will look exactly how it looks like on your screen.
THE SPECIFICS
To better understand what’s great about this monitor, let’s have a look at the specifics first:
- 31.5 Inch, 3840 x 2160 UHD 4k Resolution
- 99% Adobe RGB Color Space With IPS technology
- High Dynamic Range (HDR)
- Palette Master Element Calibration Software with Hardware Calibration
- Brightness Uniformity Function
- Color Switching from AdobeRGB to several color spaces including sRGB and Black and White Mode
- SD/MMC Card Reader at the Back
- DisplayPort v1.4 Connector
31.5 Inch, we are talking about a monster monitor that will display a very large preview of your image and that will certainly make your post-processing easier. Also, the 99% Adobe RGB color accuracy, really leaves no space to errors. Another exciting feature is that you can rotate the screen very easily. This allows you to edit your vertical images in a vertical orientation with ease, without loosing any bit of screen real estate.
SETTING UP THE MONITOR
The monitor is super easy to set up. It comes with a screen, screen support, a Hotkey Puck that lets you switch between Adobe RGB, sRGB, and Black & White modes and detachable shading hood, to make sure that light sources that might be in your office/studio don’t distract your view on the screen. The set up is pretty straight forward and takes only about 10 minutes.
It’s very important to calibrate your monitor with the color profile you intend to work with. Before using a BenQ monitor, the following was my workflow. I was working with an online service to print my pictures. The company would provide me with the color space of their printer and I would set it on my old monitor to check how the colors would be. The thing is that, if your monitor has a lower color accuracy, those colors you see on your screen won’t match the ones you’ll see when you print, even if color calibrated.
The BenQ SW320 monitor will instead give you a precise preview of how the colors will actually look when you’ll print your image. All you need to do is to take knowledge of what color profile your printer uses and calibrate the monitor to match it. Colors will be correct and you won’t have any bad surprises.
Now, my honest opinion is that this monitor is great and does even more than what I need it for. It’s a high-quality screen that totally improves my editing process and the quality of my prints. Therefore I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to obtain similar results. In conclusion, below are the things I like and the ones I don’t like about it.
WHAT I LIKE
- Screen dimensions
- Vertical orientation option
- Screen shading hood – to keep you focused on the screen
- 99% Adobe RGB color accuracy
- Value for money – very high quality for a smaller price compared to competitors
WHAT I DON’T LIKE
- SSD card reader at the back – one thing that would make the workflow even faster would be to have it at the front
I have received this product to review it, but this doesn’t change or influence in any way my opinion about it. My reviews always reflect what I honestly think.
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