Working with the Sony FW900 monitor

We have been recommended to get the Sony FW900 24 inch CRT monitor by Color experts as a low cost solution to monitoring with Color.

So we found two on craigslit for under 200 each! We goth them both! Now, with our G5 and our BlackMagic HD Extreme card, we would like to connect to this monitor.

The monitor has a VGA 15pin D-sub connection, and 5 BNC connectors, R G B and H sync and V sync.

Is anyone using an FW900 to color correct? Do the BNC connectors in the back imply that this monitor can display the REC 709 colorspace? Or is this just a trustworthy monitor that we should use instead of the Apple Cinema Display?

I am grading with this monitor using the VGA 15pin instead of my Apple cinema dispaly.

I am sure a top end expert can give us a better answer but so far I am happy with the results I am getting from my FW900. (damn this thing is heavy)

I cant tell you how important it is to have an EyeOne Display calibrator, rent or buy.
I bought one and love that thing, super easy and you see the improvement in results right away CRT and even LCD.

RPM Post was a great help in some tips and tricks on this.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply. Since I posted, I have got the Sony working great!

We got a new 8 core intel mac pro as well, which has made color correcting as fast as using photoshop - well, almost. Correcting on the G5 was super slow!

I have the Sony hooked up to the second port on the video card (ATI 2600HD). Using the Spyder 3 Elite colorimeter ($230) you can calibrate LCDs CRTs and Projectors as well! We have a DLP projector so using that tool I've been able to calibrate the Sony and the projector to be almost identical and using the Rec 709 settings that the colorimeter can calibrate to. The Eye One Display LT was a tool we had also, but since it could only do monitors and did not give you a more detailed reporting on gamma and luminance, we sold it on Ebay and got the Spyder.

The Spyder is a little more expensive, but gets you a lot more.

Anyway, the guys at RPMpost were right! The Sony FW900 monitor is a great cost effective tool for Color.

double post, sorry.

Hi guys,

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I have also been recommended the Sony FW900 as a cost effective solution for color grading with Color and actually found one for a song and in fantastic condition.
Do you guys still use the monitor with Color? Do you use it for the GUI or as a reference monitor? How is the monitor holding up?
I was thinking about running it with a blackmagic SDI card.

Thanks in advance.