The popularity of high resolution and 4K cameras means a high-quality monitor is essential. I was very excited to test run the new BenQ SW320 31.5 inch 4K monitor, which caters for both photo and video editing. Earlier this year I reviewed the BenQ SW2700PT and was impressed with what that had to offer. The SW320 takes image quality to the next level, don’t get me wrong, this monitor is not a replacement for the SW2700PT but the overall quality of colour correction far exceeded my expectations.
There are 5 monitor control keys on the front of the screen and these give you immediate access to the menus, 3 of which are pre-programmed to input, colour mode and brightness, the 4th will give you all of the functions the monitor offers and the last button lets you exit. I really liked this set up and it enabled me to make adjustments without the main screen being hidden in any way.
The BenQ SW320 has this pretty awesome feature called GamutDuo which lets you view 2 images side by side in different colour spaces for easy comparison, this is useful when you want to soft proof images going from Adobe RGB to SRGB for the web. The advanced black and white mode was also a great feature! There are 3 different black and white presets to choose from before you decide to make those adjustments in your editing software. The display on this monitor does full justice to both 4K video and high resolution photographs, the detail on both is crisp. Many photographers work with 2 monitors but I believe this one monitor is sufficient enough to view photographs and still have other programs running, I also loved it can be both landscape and portrait mode!
As I noted in my last review of the SW2700PT, it is essential as a photographer you are editing on a screen where the colours are accurate and again, BenQ have not disappointed, the hood is fantastic so you have no ambient light spilling over and obstructing any colour accuracy and I loved the USB 3.0 ports and the SD card reader, the only adjustment I would like to see in the future is a CompactFlash card reader….
