We recently purchased a LaCie 724 monitor which we are running on our 8 core, Mac Pro, OS 10.5.6, ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT. We purchased the Colorimeter with the monitor and have since calibrated (multiple times). The monitor is very sharp, but the saturation is unreal. Reds and magentas, in particular, just glow and details in these colors are lost. We shot a Macbeth ColorChecker and viewed the image on both the LaCie 321 and the 724. The 321 is far truer to the actual chart. We’ve been in touch with LaCie, they even sent us a replacement monitor, but we had similar results. Any thoughts or suggestions?
These new high-gamut displays really do have a broader range of colors. It’s quite shocking if you’re not expecting it. If you imagine all the colors that the human eye can see, but you never used to expect to see on a display (Fluorescent orange safety vests, a yellow highlighter, etc.) - and then imagine that these displays will show you more of them, you start to get an idea.
If you are working in color-managed programs, the embedded profiles in your images will be used to show you the image as it is supposed to look according to your preferences. But for other programs, or screen elements like desktop icons, etc. they will usually be displayed in all their glory.
So the thing to do is to check to see if your camera/workingspace/monitor space is consistent. If your camera is set to output to AdobeRGB color, you would want to view the image in Photoshop or some program that will respect that embedded profile. Then, you should be able to see your image accurately on a well-calibrated monitor.
What is this response from daier1r?
To Patrick Herold response
We are shooting in raw and jpg Adobe RGB 1998. We are processing the raw in lightroom also in Adobe RGB but when we view the image on the LaCie 724 it is over the top. Shouldn’t it show the image in Adobe RGB space instead of the monitor color space which is outside of the Adobe space. We are viewing the monitor in the calibrated setting on the monitor. Apparently we can not calibrate the monitor if we switch it to the Adobe RGB preset.
As Patrick said, the software you use to view the image should honour the embedded AdobeRGB profile and display the image accordingly in that colour gamut.
The profile you create for your monitor will be used system wide and will generally be wider in certain areas of the colour spectrum, and then the relevant software such as Photoshop will show a, generally, compressed colour gamut of the image within the colour gamut of the monitor.
Depending on the accuracy and capabilities of the monitor there is always some kind of clipping in certain tones and colours, but you should get a farily accurate preview.
Are you using Photoshop to open the image? And is colour management definitely switched on?
We just recently bought a 724. I am calibrating it with the ColorMunki Design.
If I create a gradient in Photoshop and Illustrator CS4 from 20% black (0,0,0, sRBG for web use) to 0% black, I get light blues towards the light end. And there’s also much more banding than on my previous Apple Cinema 23" display.
How do I get around that problem?
CheersPhil
Are you calibrating it using the LaCie blue eye pro software? Or the Munki software? In order to access the great internal graphics ability of the 724, you would need to use their software in most cases. Using the Munki software to calibrate this display might very likely result in banding.
I would not recommend you buy this beautiful monitor if you own a mac with 10.5.8. I have problems that no one seems to be able to solve. The problem is with the communication and DDC. Unable to properly calibrate and no real help from tech support, I will probably return it and go back to Eizo.
Thanks for the post miyagi1218. We too have had trouble getting accurate color from our LaCie 724. We contacted LaCie tech support and were told that they didn’t even have access to a 724 at the time to try and duplicate the problem. So when they were unable to successfully resolve the issue via postings and phone calls, they sent us a replacement 724 and asked that we do a side by side comparison of the two monitors. We saw similar results.
We’ve talked to some people that say the overly saturated colors are inherent in LED monitors and that we’re not use to the extra large gamut that the display is able to produce, but what good is that if it’s not a true representation of colors. We photographed a Gretag Macbeth color chart and it is apparent that the colors are not accurate (even more so when dealing with color for the web).
We’d like to resolve this matter and we’d be curious to know what course of action you plan to take. Our email is,
info@jamesporterphotography.com if you’d like to contact us direct.
I just bought a 724 and am having the same problem (punchy reds/oranges/magentas). I use the Eye1 to calibrate (my other monitor was a Lacie 321 and I still use a Cintiq as well). Both were calibrated quite well, but this monitor refuses to cooperate.
If anyone figures out a solution I’d love to know - I may have to try and return this monitor as well otherwise. Having a great gamut is nice, but not if it’s wildly inaccurate. 
b
If you decide to keep the LaCie 724, you may also want to consider the LaCie BlueEye sensor (which you would use with the BlueEye software for a DDC hardware calibration). The reason is that (apparently) only the LaCie sensor is ‘tuned’ to the emissive out put of their monitors, probably yielding a better result. However, I do not see the 700 series listed on their website, so this may be a research issue for you before you go out and buy one.
Rick Hatmaker
On Sep 4, 2009, at 5:50 PM, simmsimaging wrote:
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Thanks for that. I really should have researched it a bit more before buying, but I have been using Lacie monitors for years and never had anything to complain about so I just bought the best on in my budget range.
Live and learn.
b
We’ve been in the same boat with the 724. We actually returned ours and purchased an Eizo CG241W in its place. While the colour gamut isn’t as large as the 724 we can calibrate it reliably and the colours are accurate.
That said, we were experiencing colour issues with the Eizo when we first put it in. Colours in PS were over the top, particularly in the reds. After a great deal of testing and trial and error we discovered that when the OPEN GL for the graphics card is activated in Photoshop (Preferences) it can throw your colours off dramatically in dual display environments. We turned it off and all is well. The downside is we’ve lost some functionality in PS with GL turned off.
As a follow up we also re-tested the 724 at our shop with Lacie support on-hand. Still no success as of Dec 16, 2009. It calibrates perfectly on it’s own however in a dual display environment we just can’t seem to make it work. It’s a shame given the benefits of a full Adobe 98 gamut.
C.
RE. calibration device… the i1 Pro works perfectly for calibrating the 724.