So here’s the discussion… Klaus came to me the other day and asked if I knew anything about Quato monitors. To be honest, I’d never heard of them. They are a German outfit who apparently specialise in high end monitors for graphics / photography / video applications. Now there was something about his question that rang true with me. For years now, everyone in the photographic community would shout Eizo when asked what the best monitor for retouching was for photographers. So could there be another competitor out there who could compete – or better the Eizo ColorEdge range of displays?

There has always been hot competition between users of the NEC spectraview series, some LaCie offerings and the Eizo stalwarts. I have for years complained about the Apple monitors both the stand alone and the all-in-one screens with the iMacs, which is a shame as using the iMac i7 as your main ‘shooting’ machine is currently the fastest solution for both shooting in the studio or on location – so long as you have access to the mains. I like how portable they are and the fact that there is only one ‘bit’ to cart around.

I guess that stand alone monitors only really have a place in the lives of retouchers or photographers who are working in exceptionally stringent colour environments. For me it is not so much about incredibly accurate colour, but more to do with the uniformity of the screen – no blotching and no hue changes across the display.

With that in mind, Klaus’ question took me back to the early days of when I was retailing Eizo monitors. They were still hard to get hold of and everyone wanted to see one to see what all the fuss was about – and that was the old CG-21.

So here we are again, a new kid on the block and I want to see it. So I guess I have to wait for Klaus to invite me over to gaze at it’s beauty. In the meantime I do have these early reports to dwell on -

By the way I’ve received my new Quato monitor and the first impressions are very, very good. The software iColorDisplay is a lot more professional than eyeone match or color navigator and you can actually calibrate all kinds of devices. Most calibrators are supported so my old Gretag iOne Display 2 works well with it.

I think in general the Quato has a slight edge over the Eizo range which you can also see on the prices. A very stunning monitor with a lovely german note to it. It’s a very slick piece of techology.

Only downside in my purchase is that I didn’t do enough research on the net. Instead of buying from the only UK supplier I should have ordered it directly from Europe in Euros as it would have been quite a bit cheaper.

It’s too late now and at least I get good support from native digital where I bought it from.

Well that’s a start. Then he sent this -

with this proviso -

I haven’t had an awful time to spend more time profiling and testing different software but that’s a kind of first result that’s even clearer than expected.

to be fair though, my CG211 definitely is coming to and end of it’s life. It’s been running for years now!

The grey graph is the new quato

So this is getting interesting now. I’ll be reporting back on the Quato as soon as I’ve seen it in the flesh, but it sure looks like an interesting contender.