I don’t know about you, but I often relied on sunglasses, “shades” when I was driving west in the afternoon. They helped a lot to see the road clearly reducing the extraneous direct light from the sun obscuring my view. The same idea applies to your LCD display. If you keep it shaded from extraneous light in the room where your computer is set-up you will see the image on screen more clearly and free from different and conflicting strays of light. Even in my north-facing room that’s dedicated as my lab, even with special Fobsun LED lamps for my environment lighting, and with a hood protecting the screen, my new Dell Ultrasharp U2410 has a cleaner, brighter screen image now that it has shades.

I don’t know about you, but I often relied on sunglasses, “shades” when I was driving west in the afternoon. They helped a lot to see the road clearly reducing the extraneous direct light from the sun obscuring my view. The same idea applies to your LCD display. If you keep it shaded from extraneous light in the room where your computer is set-up you will see the image on screen more clearly and free from different and conflicting strays of light. Even in my north-facing room that’s dedicated as my lab, even with special Fobsun LED lamps for my environment lighting, and with a hood protecting the screen, my new Dell Ultrasharp U2410 has a cleaner, brighter screen image now that it has shades.

After receiving quite a number of e-mails from readers that have gotten this new Dell LCD display, a couple included a question, is there a hood made for this LCD display? All I could immediately think of is the EZ Hood ColorEyes began offering not long ago. However I have not used this EZ Hood, so I sent for one. I got it and found it only took about 20 minutes to assemble and install it on the Dell U2410, and it fits very nicely. Immediately I noticed my screen image looked clearer and a better reproduction of what I was working with on the computer. So, even in my rather idealized lab, the advantage of the EZ Hood was apparent. If you have a more typical room where your computer is located, I would suspect you would benefit more from the stray light protection of the EZ Hood, and your display will look even better.

From what I understand the EZ Hood was designed to fit recent Apple iMacs, so it is constructed to fit several sizes including both the 22 inch and 24 inch LCD displays I have recommended. It is made from a black plastic double sided corrugated paneling, so it is both rigid and very light, the shipping weight is just 3 pounds. ColorEyes price is $49.50 which is a lot less than I have paid for hoods for displays, although today few display companies offer hoods custom made for their displays, with the exception of LaCie.

So if like most of us and your computer work area is a compromise and stray light falls on the display surface, you will get better performance from the display with a hood. It is a very effective add-on accessory. So go to www.integrated-color.com, and take a look for yourself.