(camera shutter sounds)
- Hi folks Glyn Dewis here
back with another video for you
but this one is
considerably different
to the ones I normally post out.
This isn't a tutorial or technique
or anything like that.
It's literally been born out
of having had so many questions
from people asking what kit am I using.
Now I'm gonna very quickly mention
about the computer
because that's one thing people
have asked about a lot.
Those of you following me for a while
know that fairly recently
and we're talking maybe March 2017
I'm now recording this right
at the end of May 2017.
But back in March
I made the move after roughly ten years
to go from Mac to Windows.
Okay.
And so people have asked me
number one why did I do it
and number two what is the spec
of the machine that I'm now using
what is my desktop machine.
Well to be honest with you
I'm not gonna go into the reasons
as to why I did it.
But what I will say
is that I'm only prepared to use the equipment
that is fit for purpose.
If something isn't performing
and allowing me to do my work
consistently well and easier
then I'll move on to something else.
And that's the situation with Apple.
So I'm not gonna go any further than that
but a personal choice for me.
I made the move to Windows
because it kinda suited
to my workflow and my needs.
Those of you who wanted to know
about the spec and the brand that I'm using
I moved over to Dell.
That's my choice after lots
of soul searching and questions
and asking all this kinda stuff
I've dived over to using Dell
with my Windows machine.
And rather me telling you
what the the spec is now
if you're watching this on YouTube
check out the description parts.
Click on the show more information
underneath the video
and you'll see a list there.
So I can give you an overview
of what the actual spec of the computer is.
If you're watching this video
which is embedded into my blog
over on my website
just check out what I've written there as well.
I'll also list it there.
But the main point
behind me doing this particular video
is to talk about monitors.
Because I've also had people asking
about when it comes to kit
what monitor am I using.
So let me just say that
I've used lots of different brands of monitors.
I've spent a lot of money over the years
on different brands.
I won't name them.
But I've now moved over to a company,
when I say now roughly about a year or so ago,
a year eighteen months
over to a brand called BenQ.
Brands before
they weren't cheap.
They were very very good
but I did get let down by them.
They didn't fail on me.
And when I consider how much
I was spending on them at the time,
that was seriously disappointing
so all kinds of reasons why
but I've now moved over
to this brand called BenQ.
I'm loving their monitors
and you can see two of them behind me now.
The top one.
In fact let me tell you
why I've got two.
I've recently started doing these
YouTube live broadcasts
and I need to have two monitors
one for the monitor that I'm working on
and the second monitor was
to actually monitor the actual software
I'm using to do the live broadcast.
I actually think I might need
to get a third one fairly soon
because of other reasons.
But the top monitor
you can just see over my shoulder
that's a BenQ monitor
that's the SW2700.
Again the descriptions
and all this kind of stuff
if you're watching on YouTube
I'll put those in the description part
but that's the twenty seven inch monitor
and I absolutely love that monitor.
I really really loved it
but then I also wanted
to upgrade and get a bigger one
BenQ introduced this new one
you can see just here
this big daddy one just here
this is a thirty two inch monitor.
It's the SW320.
Now this monitor is a UHD
4k ultra high definition monitor
and I've gotta tell you
I am seriously happy with it.
It is really really pin sharp
and the colours are absolutely bang on.
The actual pixel dimensions
of the screen
it comes out at around
three thousand eight hundred and four
to by two thousand one hundred and sixty
I believe something like that.
It's a ninety nine percent adobe RGB
and a hundred percent SRG
for those of you
who are really into colours spaces
that's what you're gonna be getting with that one.
But what I'm really loving about this
is I've gotta say
and this is roughly been about
in the last ten years now
this is the first time ever
that when I've calibrated my screen
I've actually sent pictures off to be printed
when I've come back
I've had to make no adjustments.
Ordinarily what I had to do was
I'd calibrate my screen
as we all do obviously.
I'd send my prints away
and I'd only send small ones away
so that when they came back
I could see what changes I needed to make.
And when I say changes
I mean I used to find the pictures
would sometimes come out
a little bit dark.
So I'd know that
I maybe need to brighten them up
brighten them up a little bit
then send it off for the bigger prints
having known what adjustments I need to make.
But now that I calibrate this one the SW320
it's the first time ever
that I've not had to do that.
And I use a company called Locksley Colour
who are based up in Glasgow and Scotland
for my prints
and actually they're coming back
absolutely brilliant
so I could have a print next to my monitor
and they're pretty much the same
so as a photographer
and a retoucher
that is an absolute blessing.
I'm really really happy with that.
But talking about the calibration
I use the I1 Display Pro.
You'll notice on the monitors here
there's a hood
I'll talk about that in a minute.
But at the top of the actual monitor hood
there's a little hatch
and it's great there
because you can just fit
that little I1 Display Pro through the hatch
and it fits against the monitor there
so you can just leave it in place
to do your calibrating
and just comes straight out again
without having to take off the monitor hood.
But the monitor hood
I don't care what brand of monitor you get.
Make sure you've got a monitor hood.
Now these ones come with it
The SW2700 and the 320.
I think pretty much most
of the BenQ monitors come
with a monitor hood.
And they're an absolute godsend
when it comes to working.
The room I'm in at the moment
is quite bright
and I've only done that
because I'm recording this video.
But sometimes you can find
that depending on where you're working
you might be getting a little bit
of light in that room
and that light's gonna hit your monitor
and that really is gonna effect
how you retouch your pictures
because if you've got light hitting that screen
I mean this is daylight balance light in here
if you've got light hitting that screen
this light would make me think that
the pictures may be brighter
than they really were.
If I had a normal sort
of room house bulb going on there
that's gonna maybe give it maybe
a little yellow cast on to our pictures.
And it's gonna really make me
see the pictures differently.
So having a monitor hood
is gonna shield your screen from that
so that it's almost like
getting yourself inside the monitor so that
you have nothing contaminating the look.
So what you see is what you get.
So long as it's calibrated.
That's a really really handy thing to have.
The actual monitor hood
and the little hatch there
for dropping through the calibrator.
There's also a little thing
that you get with the BenQ monitors.
It's called a Hotkey Puck.
And it's a small little disc.
Little cable that goes
into the back of your computer there.
And it allows you quick access
to lots of functions that the monitor does.
Now I don't personally use the Hotkey Puck.
But you might be
the kind of person that likes that.
Because you like
to have all these things available.
You know right at your finger tips.
I just lean over and press the keys
and the buttons rather underneath the monitor.
But the buttons under the monitor
and the Hotkey Puck
allow you to do lots of different things.
Like very quickly changing the colour space
that you're viewing your pictures in.
You could even do side-by-side comparisons
of different colour space
with the 320.
You can click to see an instant black and white
what will my picture look like in black and white.
And yeah I know you can do that
with Photoshop and Lightroom.
But just to be able to sit there
and quickly press a button
to see a picture in black and white
and then press it again to turn it off.
It's a really handy
I found it really really handy to see
will that look good in black and white or not.
So that might something you use it might not.
But I think it's a great addition.
There's so much about this monitor here
which I could go on about
like the HDR capability
where you can see so much incredible detail.
But I'm gonna put a detail about
the links where you can check
out more about this monitor
in the description part on YouTube
and also on the blog.
But what else did I want to tell you
oh another little handy thing
on the back of the monitor
certainly on the 2700 and the 320
you've got a little slot there
for putting your SD cards in as well.
So if you're a Mac user
and you've got a Macbook Pro
and you wanna have your laptop connected to a screen
and you gotta use a dongle maybe
for putting your SD card
don't worry about it.
With the actual BenQ monitors
you can put your card inside of there.
That's really really handy.
For me now
because I'm using this tower system
this Windows tower system
my Dell system has got
a slot there for the SD card.
So I could put one in there.
I can also put one in the monitor
and also one in the top monitor as well.
So if I had a shoot
where there's quite a lot of pictures
I can just shovel these cards in
or maybe a lot of video footage
drag it all off really really quickly.
But there's so much I can go on about.
But like I said
I don't normally do these kind of videos
where I'm talking about kit
and all this kind of stuff
but I've been asked lots of questions about it
so I thought I'd kind of
just put this together quickly
so that you can see what I'm using.
But when it comes to money
how much these things cost
check out the link on the
I'll put it on the video
and also in the blog.
Check out the link there
because that will then tell you
how much these monitors are going to cost you
rather than me telling you now
because prices are going to fluctuate.
But they're available on places like Amazon
and all this kind of stuff
but BenQ I only use what is fit for purpose.
If it works
if it does a great job
if it never lets me down
it makes my life easy
and it doesn't cost an absolute fortune
because these are a fraction
of the price of what you're gonna pay
for some big brands if you like.
Then I'm really really happy.
So there you go.
I'm using Windows.
I'm on a Dell.
And I'm now using BenQ monitors.
That is all we need to talk about
when it comes to kit.
But I hope it helps those of you
who did ask questions.
Joking aside
I hope that's answered
your questions for you.
But that's all for now
I'll catch you next time.