flanders scientific

Dan Desmet came by today with one of the new FSI 2470W LED backlight monitors today so I could compare it to our 2450Ws.

So right off the bat, this unit features an RGB LED Matrix backlight vs. the fluorescent backlights of the 2450W. This makes the display lighter, use less power, run cooler and makes it basically "instant ready." The 2450W has to warm up for at least 30 minutes to be fully accurate in color. In addition, the LED backlights are even more precise giving you a wider and more accurate RGB display.

Now before we go any further, no I'm not saying the 2450W is inferior to the 2470W. In fact with the two monitors side by side, feeding the same 720p / 60 ProRes material, they look identical. Cannot tell the difference and of course this speaks to the superior quality of the FSI brand.

What the 2470W represents is FSI's answer to those who absolutely positively must have a 10 bit monitor. Telecine, Film Color Correction and very high end post production processes where an 8 bit panel simply will not suffice. And for those who are cost conscious, and today who isn't, they brought panel in at under $10,000 AND they include the 3G (Dual Link) input STANDARD. I'm not sure any of the other panels out there today offer this as standard equipment and certainly nobody can offer this for under $10k.

Dan brought up a gradient ramp to show the me the difference between the 2450W and the 2470W. There is slight banding visible on the 2450W. None on the 2470W.

For 90% of us out there, including me, the 2450W is the monitor you want in your edit suite. We don't need that extra $4,000 of features or quality especially if you're working in video production. I'm designing a new facility and in 8 of the suites we'll have a combination 2450W's and 1770W's because the image quality is superb and the 8bit quality of the panel suits our needs.

But I will admit that after seeing this panel today, I just may have to pony up for one in our new Color DI suite. Depends on where the budget falls.

See that's one thing I love about the entire FSI team. Even though this new monitor is out and it's pushing $9,000 they're not in a hurry to sell it to you just to make a profit. When you call or live chat with these guys, the first thing they want to know is what are you going to do with the monitor. If it looks like you really don't need to spend the extra $4,000, they're the first to tell you. And of course with the 30 day money back guarantee, you can always return one monitor and purchase the other.

After seeing the FSI monitors and all their features at the first demo, I suggested to Dan Desmet they should create a video version of their user manual to make it easier to understand everything. Well that conversation led to the new How To video manual that was launched on the website last week.

http://www.flandersscientific.com/index/videomanual

It's also a great way to essentially get a demo of their products without actually seeing them in person.

Bram Desmet just stopped by to show me the latest rev of the 2450W with next ND Filter and the latest software revisions. This thing IS a CRT replacement, no questions asked.

If you're going out to NAB or need a new color accurate monitor for your facility, you can't go wrong with this or really any of their monitors. But this 2450W with the ND filter..... WOW!!!!