BenQ SW271 27-Inch Monitor Review: Nearly Perfect for $ 1.100

[Misha Engel]

It's only UHD, but it supports sRGB, AdobeRGB, DCI-P3 and HDR10 and since most of us don't shoot for the cinema this looks like a really good editing/grading monitor for the price.

https://www.benq.com/en/monitor/photographer/sw271.html

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/benq-sw271-27-inch-professional-monitor,5785.html

 

[Michael Tiemann]

Their support of HDR10 is a bit qualified. It's REC2020 color gamut is not bad, but its 350nit max brightness is clearly below the 1000nits that people think of when they think of HDR10. But that really is the only ding I see against an otherwise high-performance monitor at a reasonable cost point.

My FSI DM240 is only 1080p and also has a high-end NIT limit of around 350-450, but I've really come to appreciate the many bundled scopes and tools that help speed up the grading process for me.

 

[Misha Engel]

but its 350nit max brightness is clearly below the 1000nits that people think of when they think of HDR10.

That is a very good write down "that people think".

A monitor in a darkened (grading room) producing 1000 nits will make you blind.
A TV in a living room with sun reflections hiting the TV-screen producing 1000 nits is to weak to give a bright and clear image.

It's all relative, going from avg. 85 to peak 340 nits with a grading monitor is 2 stops and the same counts for a TV going from avg. 300 to peak 1200 nits.

 

[Shaun Townend]

Misha pop on over to Lift, Gamma, Gain forums also if you're ready to jump down that rabbit hole. Helped me a bunch. :thumbup1:

 

[Tim Gerhard]

Just a little tip for BenQ - they sell factory refurbished directly on ebay. I just got a $600 monitor 40% off. Worth checking their ebay store to see if they have the one you want https://www.ebay.com/str/shopbenq

 

[Tim Gerhard]

I checked and the SW271 is $677 refurb, only 3 left as of right now.

 

[Marc Wielage]

A monitor in a darkened (grading room) producing 1000 nits will make you blind.

That is not true. I've seen 1000-nit mastering sessions many times in LA, and the experience is not blinding. The mastering rooms are far from bright, but there is a nominal illumination (as recommended by SMPTE and Netflix). A lot depends on whether you're making the entire picture bright, or just allowing the specular highlights to hit 1000 nits. There are differing philosophies on how to handle that.

I do routinely watch 4K HDR at 600 nits on an LG C7 at home, and it's not so bad that I'm blinded. Once in awhile, they'll go to a shot where I'll say, "man, that's too damned bright," but 95% of the time it's fine.

It would be a lot harder for me to argue with you about a 4000-nit Dolby Pulsar display, and those I would say are painful to watch if you push them to the limit for an entire show (or an entire feature). I like to think colorists use restraint and experience to keep things at a nominal level, but sometimes the filmmakers have other ideas.

As far as the BenQ goes, I think a lot hinges on how well the display will calibrate, and that's a question for which I don't have an answer. I will say that as a general rule, a computer display in this price range is going to struggle to work as a grading display.

 

[Misha Engel]

As far as the BenQ goes, I think a lot hinges on how well the display will calibrate, and that's a question for which I don't have an answer. I will say that as a general rule, a computer display in this price range is going to struggle to work as a grading display.

For those questions there are many independant reviews on the world wide web and they are pretty happy with this monitor.

What wonders me more is that an ARRI ALEXA signal(Blade Runner 2049) is projected on 70 mm horizontal IMAX film and the audience in the theatre go ohh... and ahh... about the quality since we all know that the horizontal RGB resolution of the ALEXA is 2.4k in the best case scenario. No one in the audience will notice the difference if a movie is graded on a $1,000 BenQ or a $30,000 SONY OLED, when they can't even see the difference between a movie shot native on 70 mm horizontal IMAX and one projected from an ARRI ALEXA on the same 70mm source.