Posted by
Jerry (Gerald) Sedgewick on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/32-bit-monitor-tp7580506p7580514.html
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There are likely several reasons the HP ZR30W shows details where these
are lost on the other monitors. One was mentioned: probably some kind of
interpolation of the image like what is seen in Image J (especially
noticeable when images are zoomed in and --what?-- no discrete
pixels!). The other is that most laptop monitors display at 6
bits/channel. And don't get confused about the 32-bit: it's generally
3, 8-bit channels and an 8-bit alpha channel.
The other reason comes with the viewing angle, which in common language,
"sucks" for most monitors. When your head is slightly off-angle, the
screen darkens and colors are incorrect. See for how bad your monitor is
by going to
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php. Monitor
viewing angles of 180 degrees or better aid with viewing the image,
since a person does not generally look at an image while moving their
head around the screen. The HP ZR30W is at 178 degrees.
The technology, as well, determines color fidelity:
TN = Twisted Nematic. This is the technology used for most laptops.
These are fast for refresh, but have narrow viewing angles, low
brightness, and inaccurate color reproduction.
VA = Vertical Alignment. Better color correction and viewing angles
than TN and generally higher brightness, but lag with refresh rates.
IPS = In Plane Switching. This is the technology for the HP ZR30W.
These have wide viewing angles and produce the most accurate colors, but
blacks aren't as deep as VA panels. These are the slowest in regard to
response time, but on a confocal that isn't critical.
PLS = Plane-line Switching. Developed by Samsung with characteristics
matching IPS except for deeper blacks.
In the ideal world, as those concerned about what displays the visual
data, we would all have at least one decent monitor with good color
reproduction and wide viewing angles calibrated with a hardware device
and placed in a darkened room. It would use technology one step up from
Twisted Nematic (TN).
I have no commercial interest with monitor manufacturers, though I'd
love to get my hands on a Eizo monitor.
Jerry Sedgewick
On 6/13/2013 9:52 AM, Andreas Bruckbauer wrote:
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>
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>
> We noticed that our confocal images look amazing (fine details well
> resolved) as long as they are viewed with the monitor belonging to the
> microscope, but as soon as we open them on our PCs or Macs they look just
> normal (fine detail missing).
> The monitor at the Zeiss mic is a HP ZR30W a pretty expensive model. It
> seems to support 32 bit colours which would give 12 bit or 4096 grey steps
> for each of the primary colours. Not sure if this is the secret behind the
> good looking images but has anyone experience using such monitors to display
> images? I would think that the graphic card, operating system and image
> analysis software have to be capable of doing so, which programs would do this?
>
> Did i miss an important development in computer hardware or is there another
> reason for the amazing looking images? Any suggestions welcome.
> .
>