HP Dreamcolor Z27X

A high-quality monitor which displays colours accurately is a must-have for photography and video professionals.

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The best photo-gear investment I ever made was in a top-quality wide-gamut monitor. Seven years ago it cost me $5000; more than the highly spec’d Mac that I bought along with it. That Mac has been replaced twice since then but with improved profiling software and a new colorimeter, the monitor just keeps getting better.

Getting a wide-gamut, calibrated and profiled monitor should be an obvious decision for a professional photographer but few seem to take the plunge with most opting for lower spec’d iCandy that makes their photographs look nice on screen, but without the colour depth or accuracy to aid informed processing decisions on images destined for print, publishing and client’s high expectations.

The HP Dreamcolor z27x has been designed for colour critical applications, with features that should streamline their post-production workflow. However professional photographers—especially those who have added video to their skill set—ought to be very interested in this future-proofed, video friendly, wide-gamut monitor.

The 27-inch 2560×1440 pixel review model looks tidy and unfussy in standard black plastic. It has clean lines and a particularly well designed stand that rotates horizontally -45º to +45º, elevates with 120mm of adjustment along with -5º to +20º tilt and 90º rotation for vertical viewing.

Multiple inputs include HDMI and DisplayPort in and out, which means that in a DisplayPort-only setup it can be daisy chained to another z27x for dual monitor use on a supported graphics card. It also has two USB3 outputs on the side of the monitor as well as another two USB3 outputs at the rear along with an ethernet port for remote display management and two audio outputs; one analogue, the other digital/SPDIF stereo audio out.

The z27x also ships with onboard colour calibration, removing the necessity for an entire arsenal of expensive profiling and colorimeter technology.

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For print and publication soft-proofing I typically use D50 and 100 lumens as target settings on my reference screen, but while the z27x displayed the colour and grey patches within acceptable tolerances, the highlight and shadow rendering was very flat. Changing to the targets of D55 and 120 produced a much better viewing experience and more accurate colour readings—E (1976) maxing out at 1.5 for two patches, all the rest averaging below 0.85; excellent quality standard for a monitor to display.

After several days of experimenting I discovered that the normal half hour of warm up time before making a profile or measuring it was too short for the z27x. Ideal profiles need to be made with at least one hour warm-up time, likewise accurate display of colour depth.

Once warmed up, the calibrated and profiled monitor was completely dependable and accurate. Difficult black and white photographs looked natural and full toned. Viewing a grey ramp revealed no jumps or colour variation and only the last three steps of the greyscale step-wedge were too flat to distinguish.

Working in ProPhoto RGB colour space with RAW photographs produced no surprises when converting to AdobeRGB or sRGB. Dark reds and deep blues can be very tricky with most monitors but the HP showed convincing detail right into fully saturated colour. Those same saturated colours progress naturally into dark shadows without banding and unnatural colour shifts. Highlights are well separated with distinct transitions all the way to white.

Video features worth noting include: audio-out that is in sync with monitored video, compatibility with interlaced or progressive video feeds which can be component or RGB (up to 10-bits on PCs), the ability to receive a full 4K video stream which, with the OSD controls, can be viewed as a cropped version at 1:1 or down-scaled to fit.

The z27x was launched earlier this year, along with a smaller 24-inch model, the z24x, which ships with fewer features and is pitched at a lower price point for a different market. The superior colour stability, off-axis viewing performance and onboard colour calibration technology make the z27x the best choice of the pair for professional photographers; particularly those considering branching out into motion picture enterprises.
Adrian Malloch

See more at: hp.com/nz