Eizo Foris FG2421: 120hz VA Panel

General Lee, thanks for uploading those photos dude. Have you noticed any cross hatching or discoloration on the sides?
 
Here is an all-black image taken with my Canon DSLR of my current VA:



Some slight clouding on the corners, nothing major IMHO. Looking forward to comparing it to my EIZO unit.

Here is the comparison added to General's photos. I would say Generals exposure was taken to accept more light, so in reality looks darker in person.

Eizo FG2421 @20% brightness. User 1 mode with Turbo240 on (it reduces brightness)
8ntGV9nl.jpg


Compare it to BenQ GW2760HS, another AMVA panel from AUO. The black depth isn't quite as good and it has more issues with the gamma shift and some clouding issues in the corners. Part of these problems come with it being 27" compared to the 23.5" Eizo.
FbGM9JFl.jpg


Now take a look at Dell U2713HM. This is pretty much the worst side IPS panels tend to have. This unit has clouding issues especially in the lower right corner, and the usual IPS glow issues that are more pronounced with a 27" monitor.
QVwaK7ul.jpg


Here's a Samsung S23A750D, a 120 Hz TN panel. Better blacks than the IPS, but backlight bleed is evident at the bottom.
Cn1ldBtl.jpg
 
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Thing is, for me, all black image was perfectly fine (awesome in fact) and the problem was only apparent on dark-ish colors where it wasn't completely black.. Especially at the far edge of the screen. It was SUPER apparent on certain types of content and impossible to see on some..
 
Is FG2421 a good monitor for someone who:

- prefers a flicker free display for reduced eye strain
- no gaming, but prefer minimum motion blur in 2D/desktop mode when scrolling text in web browser/PDF/MS Word/etc
- *VA panel > IPS due to lack of white screen "grain"
- amateur Lightroom/Photoshop user

If not, anything better than FG2421 at under $1000 for the above requirements?
 
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vladika said:
Is FG2421 a good monitor for someone who:

- prefers a flicker free display for reduced eye strain
- no gaming, but prefer minimum motion blur in 2D/desktop mode when scrolling text in web browser/PDF/MS Word/etc
- *VA panel > IPS due to lack of white screen "grain"
- amateur Lightroom/Photoshop user

If not, anything better than FG2421 at under $1000 for the above requirements?
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The other things can be discussed/are personal choices (coating, va vs ips etc, flicker), but as long as you keep the "minimum motion blur in 2D/desktop mode" in the requirement, this is pretty much the only choice that exists right now (except the professional version, or some CRT, i guess).
 
For 120 Hz and non TN it's the only choice other than going korean. Do note that Turbo240 causes flickering so it's not recommended for desktop tasks if you're sensitive to it. And without it the motion blur is there, it's not as good as my S23A750D in motion clarity.
 
Vega said:
Nice image, but pixels too slow for me. ;)
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I miss the days when you thought your ZR30W's had good black levels and were not grainy :) J/K.

vladika said:
I- *VA panel > IPS due to lack of white screen "grain"
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There are a few cross-hatching free IPS with the same(ish) semi-glossy coatings as the FG2421 and semi-glossy PLS. The Viewsonic VP2770 & BenQ BL2710PT will have less ghosting than the FG2421 when the 240hz is disabled and offer far more screen real estate.
 
HonoredShadow said:
I still can't figure out what the energy save option is and why its on by default.
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If you are talking about EcoView this is the auto-dimming system regarding ambiant light. And if it works the same than on the fs2333 then having it activated means you have PWM even with brightness@max because the feature uses PWM to adjust the brightness of the screen depending on ambiant light (using the translucid sensor on the front of the panel, near the buttons).
 
Everything's relative. Honestly, I didn't even notice the graininess of my U2412M for example until I had a light AG coating monitor sitting right next to it. Does that mean I had a 'bad monitor'? No, it served me very well for years and even now I use it and while I can see it's there, it doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of whatever is displayed. It was an excellent $269 purchase.

And it's really got nothing to do with eyesight, more to do with differences in the way your brain perceives images between individuals and what you are used to using on a daily basis. I know a guy who has 20/15 eyesight for example, and he doesn't notice or care about grainy AG coats or even backlight bleeding. As long as the monitor displays stuff decently, he's perfectly happy, even though his eyesight is literally twice as good as mine. A lot of people on these forums seem to be super picky about things that I don't care about at all(like PWM, which seems to be the fukushima of the display world if you read these forums, but in actuality it's not a big deal unless you're sensitive to it), and things I care about(high resolution and ppi) don't matter at all to many people on here who seem happy with their 1080p 27" monitors.

It's fine to bring up problems with a product and to read reviews before you purchase, so you know what you're getting, but the worst thing you can do is buy something that you're happy with, but then come read some random posts on a forum and think 'oh god I have to return this because some random guy on a forum says he sees crosshatching on his panel and it uses PWM'. Give me a break.
 
NCX said:
I miss the days when you thought your ZR30W's had good black levels and were not grainy :) J/K.
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Compared to a TN panel I guess it had better black levels lol. I remember the horrid AR film on those, one of the reasons I sold them off.
 
Regardless of its flaws, this monitor is the best option at the moment for blur free gaming. I have the qnix 27" and a benq 2420, and the fg2421 is my fav for sure.

This monitor compensates well during fps dips below the refresh rate...which is lightboosts biggest flaw in my opinion.
 
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How does this monitor do anything different than light boost during fps dips? I am apparently completely lost on how this monitor operates.
 
rudy said:
How does this monitor do anything different than light boost during fps dips? I am apparently completely lost on how this monitor operates.
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Not much difference in that regard. It's still noticeable if you dip way down, little better than lightboost for single digit dips. The image quality is the real difference.
 
Vega said:
Friday. :( My wonderful 3-day shipping somehow with Fedex = 5 days.
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Consider yourself lucky. Same thing happened to me, but I'm getting mine next Monday despite it being shipped out this previous Monday.

I called PCNation to see what was up and was told their normal distribution center was out so they had to ship from a different one in CA. To keep the cost down, they had to switch to ground, or so the phone rep told me. The distributor is most likely BLT given the location.

They offered to send another unit out to get it to me by Friday (with a holding charge, of course), and I could simply reject the package arriving on Monday. I didn't want to bother with that. Instead, I might take the other option they suggested: reject the package for a refund. The panel lottery seems too risky at this point...
 
fobis said:
Consider yourself lucky. Same thing happened to me, but I'm getting mine next Monday despite it being shipped out this previous Monday.

I called PCNation to see what was up and was told their normal distribution center was out so they had to ship from a different one in CA. To keep the cost down, they had to switch to ground, or so the phone rep told me. The distributor is most likely BLT given the location.

They offered to send another unit out to get it to me by Friday (with a holding charge, of course), and I could simply reject the package arriving on Monday. I didn't want to bother with that. Instead, I might take the other option they suggested: reject the package for a refund. The panel lottery seems too risky at this point...
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That sounds annoying. I went with ShopBLT, and they got it to me in 3 days from CA to WI.

Thus far, this monitor has exceeded my expectations. No dead pixels, nearly perfect back light uniformity, and great motion clarity. I do have some noticeable gamma shift, but that is fairly typical with VA panels. I will provide feedback in greater detail when I have had a chance to spend a bit more time with it. So far, I am very pleased with my purchase. I just wish it was 27"!
 
fobis said:
Consider yourself lucky. Same thing happened to me, but I'm getting mine next Monday despite it being shipped out this previous Monday.

I called PCNation to see what was up and was told their normal distribution center was out so they had to ship from a different one in CA. To keep the cost down, they had to switch to ground, or so the phone rep told me. The distributor is most likely BLT given the location.

They offered to send another unit out to get it to me by Friday (with a holding charge, of course), and I could simply reject the package arriving on Monday. I didn't want to bother with that. Instead, I might take the other option they suggested: reject the package for a refund. The panel lottery seems too risky at this point...
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Ah, looks like I fell for the trick too! On all the invoices from PCNation, and even on the shipping email it says Fedex 3 day. Even the guy that called me to confirm the order verified it was 3 day. If I open the tracking in a normal Fedex window, they all say ground shipping! :mad:

Oh well, 1st world problems aren't that bad. :) Now I would be pissed if Fedex misses the Friday delivery date, and because of Veterans day on Monday it wouldn't get here till Tuesday eh? Then I would be calling and complaining for some money back...
 
Vega said:
Ah, looks like I fell for the trick too! On all the invoices from PCNation, and even on the shipping email it says Fedex 3 day. Even the guy that called me to confirm the order verified it was 3 day. If I open the tracking in a normal Fedex window, they all say ground shipping! :mad:

Oh well, 1st world problems aren't that bad. :) Now I would be pissed if Fedex misses the Friday delivery date, and because of Veterans day on Monday it wouldn't get here till Tuesday eh? Then I would be calling and complaining for some money back...
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Well, I sure hope you get yours on Friday! Your impressions are going to have a significant bearing on my decision to accept or reject my shipment. I never canceled my Amazon order since they're still out of stock, and I'd much rather deal with them if I know I'm going to have to play the panel lottery.
 
NCX said:
I miss the days when you thought your ZR30W's had good black levels and were not grainy :) J/K.



There are a few cross-hatching free IPS with the same(ish) semi-glossy coatings as the FG2421 and semi-glossy PLS. The Viewsonic VP2770 & BenQ BL2710PT will have less ghosting than the FG2421 when the 240hz is disabled and offer far more screen real estate.
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Is there a version of the Viewsonic as above but with 1080p? I struggle to get a decent frame rate in BF4 as it is.

neel said:
This is not a picture of your screen displaying the stipy picture, you have re-uploaded the original picture itself...
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Sorry guys. No idea how I posted the wrong pic. DOHH. Will amend the original post too. This is in a dark room but on a dull day sadly. If it's not good enough I will do another tonight.

 
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HonoredShadow said:
Is there a version of the Viewsonic as above but with 1080p? I struggle to get a decent frame rate in BF4 as it is.
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Eizo EV2336 has similar image quality, the same semi-glossy coating and similar pixel response times. It's basically a 23" VP2770. The 24" 1200p semi-glossy IPS suffer from cross-hatching (Z24i, EA244WMi) or are wide gamut with higher lag (U2413H, PA249Q) and have more ghosting. There are no semi-glossy 1080p IPS/PLS.
 
Image quality on the VP2770 is superb. If the Eizo can match its image quality along with offering low input lag it's well worth a look. Only problem is your stuck with 60hz.

Anyway had this back from the distributor regarding the cross hatching and bleeding:

EIZO are looking into this and it does seem as though only some screens are affected. EIZO UK are waiting for a reply from Japan.
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We are buying into a lottery. I would stay clear from this monitor until they have got their shit together.
 
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So with me saying previously that something looks like it has been dripped down the screen from the top down, in lines or so. Is that something else to what you guys are on about? Should I also send this monitor back?

I only really see it in dark scenes in games. But one of the reasons why I bought this monitor was for great dark scenes in games!
 
HonoredShadow said:
So with me saying previously that something looks like it has been dripped down the screen from the top down, in lines or so. Is that something else to what you guys are on about? Should I also send this monitor back?

I only really see it in dark scenes in games. But one of the reasons why I bought this monitor was for great dark scenes in games!
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If it looks like faint diagonal lines it is probably "cross-hatching". Its up to you if you can live with it or not. Since some have and others don't it is a defect. Most likely with the coating process. And it is something I have not seen in any other panels from different brands I've bought.
 
It's not diagonal. It's almost as if something has been spilt on the screen and allowed to drip down in straight lines about half a cm in thickness. They seem to be varying lengths. One in particular is on the middle right of the monitor and goes all the way down. Apart from this the monitor is flawless to me.

Like I said earlier I noticed it in dark scenes in Farcry 3 and BF3/4.
 
I spent a lot of time looking examining my monitor and running tests before playing Battlefield 4, and I have not noticed any cross hatching yet. The AG coating on it does show quite a bit of texture compared to my Shimian (glossy) though. It will take some time getting used to the coating on this monitor.

I will report back if I start the notice any cross hatching that wasn't visible before.
 
HonoredShadow said:
It's not diagonal. It's almost as if something has been spilt on the screen and allowed to drip down in straight lines about half a cm in thickness
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are these spaced apart at regular intervals? it sounds like a classic dirty screen problem that has afflicted many LCD panels over the years, I don't know the exact explanation, but something to do with the manufacture process. You can imagine the sheets of TFT or filter layer feeding through some rollers and a build up of contamination on the roller leaving a residue every 360° rotation. You won't be surprised to hear it was a big problem for Sharp TVs for a long time, affecting some very expensive products and causing a lot of stress for people trying to get replacements.
 
I will take some pictures after work to add to the current set of results. I just need pull my 780 and get my 290's installed first. Do you guys have a preference on lights on vs off? Brightness levels? Any requests for pictures of certain things?

I also have a friend coming over on Saturday to take a look at the panel and he is bringing his Asus VG248QE so we can compare them side by side. I am extremely interested to see the results of 120hz vs 120hz and 240hz vs lightboost. Should be an interesting day.
 
ontelo said:
It's really weird that in order to get some kind of contrast and get rid of grayness I have to turn gamma all the way up to 2.6.
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it is normal because intended viewing gamma is not 2.2 or sRGB but flat 2.4
BT.601, BT.709 and even sRGB define 2.4 as target viewing gamma. Average 2.2 sRGB gamma is for 'content creation' and using it for content viewing just doesn't have any sense most of the time, especially on not-professional IPSes

and VA monitors show calibrated gamma only on small area of screen while most have slightly lower gamma
 
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IanM said:
are these spaced apart at regular intervals? it sounds like a classic dirty screen problem that has afflicted many LCD panels over the years, I don't know the exact explanation, but something to do with the manufacture process. You can imagine the sheets of TFT or filter layer feeding through some rollers and a build up of contamination on the roller leaving a residue every 360° rotation. You won't be surprised to hear it was a big problem for Sharp TVs for a long time, affecting some very expensive products and causing a lot of stress for people trying to get replacements.
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Yes fairly even. Various lengths. I don't know if I should send it back. £450 for a monitor with a defect thats not as bad as some and put up with it or send it back and maybe get a worse monitor.

Will they even take it back? I guess so.
 
Make sure you use the FG2421 with a 120Hz input signal, because with 100Hz the monitor presents some input frames twice in order to avoid tearing. Internally, the monitor still runs at 120/240Hz.
Moreover, the main backlight pulse (in TURBO 240Hz mode) is shortest (2.1ms = least motion blur) for brightness settings below 75% where just the LED current is used to control brightness. Above 75%, just the pulse width is increased (up to 2.5ms) while the LED current is held constant.
 
Got my 4th one today, and it's the best one so far.
The one i sent back wasn't all that bad really, just some clouding bottom left and 1 dead pixel (i would still pick the one i sent back over any other LCD model that exists right now, for example).

Here is a picture my surround 3+1 setup (nvidia surround bugs a lot in this driver version, sadly :( ):

MyOLKDKl.jpg


As you can see, they look quite great even next to one of the best panels ever created (the Panasonic VT60, which is around 1m further back) in a dark room.
 
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