chris.dg wrote:
So I am curious how well the sRGB mode works? I've read reports on other NEC wide-gamut monitors that when switched into sRGB mode you lose a bit of luminance, that the reds over oversaturated, and general desktop/browser colors are obviously not "normal". Have you noticed anything of the sort with your new PA272, or in sRGB mode is it still a cream of the crop display?
I have not noticed anything odd about sRGB mode. The problems you mentioned, where colors can look horribly oversaturated or shifted, I have seen (or seen documented by others) when the monitor is in Adobe RGB mode. But that is not the fault of the monitor at all. It is always the fault of the OS or an application not adapted to work with such a wide color space, mistakenly assuming the monitor is sRGB. The colors look fine in high-end graphics apps even when the OS X desktop and web browsers look oversaturated.
But like Charles says, other features compensate for this. For example, the Adobe RGB and sRGB modes are just two of the built-in presets for the (highly accurate and factory verified) internal calibration. But you also get to store a number of your own presets. I do not even use the factory Adobe RGB and sRGB presets. I made two of my own. One I calibrated for "widest possible" gamut for photo work, at a certain luminance, the other an "sRGB emulation" preset at a completely different luminance. Because I didn't agree with the luminance of the factory presets. When you make a preset you can set the luminance, white point, gamut, etc. so if you don't like the factory presets it doesn't matter, just make your own. (Note: I am using the PA272-SV with one of the calibrator devices that actually talks to the internal monitor circuitry, so I am not sure how well this works if you get the more commonPA272 model without it and use a cheaper calibrator that only creates a profile without talking to the monitor.)
The factory Adobe RGB and sRGB presets are very useful if you don't want to get into customizing the color specifications, but any limitations they have are easily understood and remedied if you have some knowledge of color management concepts and have a compatible integrated calibrator.
What you might glean from this is that the true value of the PA272 is if you are an experienced graphics user who knows enough about color to get the most out of the monitor. If you are a casual user who just wants to flip back and forth between sRGB and Adobe RGB once in a while, things might not always work as expected and a more conventional monitors could have been a better deal. If you understand how the PA272 is designed relative to color science, and in terms of how it's an internal calibration compared to the external profiling of most monitors, the sRGB mode makes a lot of sense.
chris.dg wrote:
The PA272 has a number of key features for me: the 2560x1600 native resolution, the built-in KVM switch, DisplayPort, wide-gamut for when I want it,etc. But the only thing holding me back is whether or not I should simply stick with a "normal" gamut range monitor because that is where I'll spend most of my time. Cost is not so much of an issue, i just want the best of both worlds, if it even exists.
Although you said cost is not an issue there seem to be a decent selection of monitors out there that would get you similar features, without wide gamut, for a lot less money. Monitors with that resolution, DisplayPort, pivoting, etc. are now widely available.
One last note: Minor problems have been observed with these monitors in OS X Mavericks. I think they started turning up in 10.9.2. It still performs the same but some things don't work right and it looks like Apple's fault:
OS X 10.9.2 Breaks Display Support with NEC Displays: Sleep, 90° Rotation Failure
Apparently all is needed is for Apple to fix it in the next release, whenever that is. A later post on that same blog indicates that a fix may be coming from Apple. Again, these problems do not stop the monitor from doing its job so if you want one you should still buy it.
