PCHOOD, MACHOOD AND LAPTOP HOODS
“This has been the best and cheapest upgrade I’ve made”
Review by Aussie Allan
Summary
As Monitors become more accurate and feature rich, it’s just a natural progression for developers and designers to start looking at other areas in the endless pursuit of image excellence. The humble screen hood once only seen and used by the very best imaging houses is now making major inroads into the domestic markets, and why not, the advantages and gains in finished image quality well justifies looking whether this tool can help you perform your editing tasks quicker and more accurately, be it a wall mounted 26” monitor or a 15” laptop..............So let’s have a look at what “PCHood” or “MACHood” have to offer!
I recently did a bit of home renovations in the house, the office to be specific, and had to move most of my editing equipment into the lounge room temporarily. With a curtained window to my left for the first time instead of behind me I suddenly realized and said to myself “You’ve got a problem mate” The light coming in from my left was not just extremely distracting from what I was use too.............but downright destructive, changing the colours and contrast of the image I was working on the night before in the office!
Just to be sure I checked the monitors calibration default file, the image reference number, no.....nothing had changed except that dammed window! Just to make it water tight I got the Boy to hold up a piece of black mount cardboard next to the monitor ........”Bingo”............After 10 minutes with some scissors, sticky tape and black mount board I had a working albeit rough, temporary, DIY fix.
This brought home to me a couple of things, 1) not as bad, but this problem has been with me to a smaller extent even in the front office and 2) I wonder just how much better can I enhance my equipment without spending thousands on a dedicated, high end editing monitor.
After reading several articles and viewing the specs of the top monitors in the present market I decided “I need to sell the kids or win Lotto”. But in the mean time I do have a problem to fix. Several chapters later my 21” PcHood arrived ......... was assembled and fitted in less than 15 minutes and had me back editing minutes after that...........How good is that!
There’s adjustable models made for laptops, PC Monitors and even MAC is covered with an extensive range covering just about every screen size and profile produced on the planet by the look of the range available.
The hood is made of a high quality matt black ABS plastic. Has a very uniform, quality, short pile ultra black felt on all inside surfaces.......surprisingly this felt surface has absolutely zero reflective properties people, giving the monitor screen a tunnel “3D” feel when viewed directly in front.
After recalibrating with my Colormunki with the new hood in place I was again pleasantly rewarded with the contrast level going down not one or two but several notches. For the novas’ this impacts several areas, reduces eye strain, less power consumed for the greenies which means longer monitor life and the lower the contrast the better the monitor handles displaying accurate colours in varying ambient light.
“My work of late has improved”
Another nice feature is a little felt covered trap door centred on the top face flush with the screen/bezel, allowing a USB lead to be threaded through for your monitor’s calibration equipment. There’s also a handy dual bungee strap and clips included and mounting points on the body but I found this not really necessary as the internal felt surfaces provide a very tight, snug fit between the hood and bezel.
If you’ve followed this review thus far you might be interested in making this product perform even better with a little tweak of my own. Now my monitor could be a little bigger at 21” but you’ve got what you got! And it’s actually a medical diagnostic monitor which still gives me razor sharp images with great colour........But!...........The bezel (front cover) is off white, which now!........... Next to the pure black of the Hood ,....stands out like a fluro-strip on a dark moonless night.
Out of India you can buy this high quality 3” wide black felt, single sided tape (Ebay). So with scissor and scalpel in hand I set out and transformed the front bezel cover to midnight black. I didn’t want to loose the functionality of the control panel on the bottom face of the monitor so I integrated a 2” cardboard reinforced flap to the bottom of the bezel as well..........The result. A glass monitor screen suspended in black space. This monitor is truly a pleasure to work with now even in a less than ideal location.
And yes, contrast went down yet again as expected. I truly lust after some of the monitors I saw at Focus this year, like the latest NEC MultiSync monitors. Truly inspired engineering, taking for granted many of the features I’ve bought and installed on my humble Phillips monitor.
Conclusion
I’ve now been using it for a couple of weeks now and can say emphatically this has been the best (and cheapest) upgrade I’ve made since trashing my last monitor. The engineers have put a lot of thought into making sure this product is realistically functional, contains no gimmicky bells or whistles but most importantly, does exactly what it states it will do better than any third party attachment on the market. From the nil reflective quality of the internal felt covering to the aesthetically pleasing overall design, this hood actually looks like it was part of the original monitor design! ..........not an attachment.
From a personal perspective I now have the most comfortable monitor I’ve ever worked on period. Silly as it sounds I now have more confidence in the changes I make to images with the proof in the pudding, the prints I’ve been turning out of late do reflect better workflow practice. My wife is still not sure about the hood but concedes my work of late has improved almost to her standard
I still want an NEC Multi-sync but for the time being I’ve got a much better work monitor by far, my images have improved along with my confidence with very little money and time spent.
No fanfare or complex marking system.........This product deserves a
Camera Heaven Gold Award....... “Simply because it delivers”
Aussie Allan
Buy your PChood or Machood here
