Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/941133
www.postmagazine.com 39 POST FEBRUARY 2018 REVIEW VITAL STATS MANUFACTURER: Dell PRODUCT: Canvas PRICE: Starting at $1,799.00 WEBSITE: www.dell.com • Hands on collaboration • Paint 3D built-in app • Compatible with any Windows 10 device finger input was an easy transition for me. Premiere Pro already has some optimi- zation for tablets, making it quite usable with touch input without feeling like you're forcing it to work in ways it wasn't de- signed for. I setup my source and program monitors on the 38-inch screen to my left. The laptop's screen in the center was used for my clip bins. I used the Canvas display on my right for timeline editing and effects. One of the nice attention-to-detail ele- ments of the Canvas is the inclusion of a touch toggle button at the top left of the display. Pressing this enables or disables the ability to operate the Canvas with fin- gers. When touch is disabled, the Canvas only responds to the pen and totem input, allowing you to work freely without acci- dental input from resting hands or arms. REAL-WORLD TESTING When I first started editing a real-world project with the Canvas, I worried that getting used to this new workflow would slow me down significantly. Going from my usual keyboard/trackpad setup to a keyboard/trackpad/pen/finger set- up seemed like quite a leap in thought process, but it turned out to not be so. Using the pen on the timeline worked like a charm. The precision of the pen tip combined with the speed of moving my hand to different areas of the screen, rather than sliding a pointer, made for an incredibly efficient experience. I started with my rough edit, which is mostly dropping clips onto the timeline with little attention paid to the precision of the "in" and "out" points. The big- gest slowdown I found with this setup was bringing items from one screen to another. If I had to drag something from the 38-inch screen to the Canvas, I had to cross the laptop screen to get there. Dell has a software trick built into its system to alleviate some long drags. When a window is selected and dragged, an on- screen display pops up showing each of your displays at the top center. You can drag your cursor to any of those three boxes and release the button to make the window jump immediately to that display. This is very helpful when moving windows or apps around, but it doesn't help when working in software and trying to drag clips or effects from one place to another. In this case, a mouse or trackball would likely be better since you can cover more real estate in a smaller space. At times, I would turn the touch input back on so I could seamlessly switch between precision work with the pen and quicker work with my fingers. The pen was great for tweaking in and out positions of clips in my timeline, but I liked being able to use my finger for moving objects around in the title window or ad- justing colors in circular adjustments. CREATIVE ENDEAVORS After being satisfied that the Canvas provided an admirable interface for video editing, I moved on to other creative en- deavors. Windows 10 has a pretty amaz- ing built-in app called Paint 3D. It's a basic painting app with different brush heads, colors and textures at your disposal, but it also provides a very approachable 3D design interface. There are pre-built 3D objects that can be added, scaled, rotated and then painted over. Of course, the pen was tailor made for applications like this, and my whole family found it a joy to play around in. In fact, I wondered if I would get enough time with the Canvas to give it an honest review since it seemed that every time I entered the office, some oth- er Schmutzler was working on their latest creation. Side note: Mirroring the Canvas to an external monitor is a super-fun way to play Pictionary. Working in Illustrator was also a unique experience. The first time I launched Illustrator, I was asked if I wanted to allow the app to switch the workspace to be touch optimized. After agreeing, I saw Illustrator completely different than I'd ever seen it before. The tool buttons were larger and laid out in a way de- signed to be easily accessible. While this helped, I found that my brain struggled to switch from my tried-and-true mouse/ keyboard methods over to the new pen/ finger methods. I thought that adding and manipulating anchor points for shapes would be easier, but I actually found it to be quite frustrating. I'm sure it would just take time and patience to get used to this new way of working, but it wasn't as simple as working in Premiere. Finally, I tried some work out in After Effects. I found the experience there to be closer to Illustrator than Premiere Pro. There are a few activities in After Effects that are made much simpler with a pen: Masking and rotoscoping being chief among them. Given After Effects' complexity and many, many menus and options to navigate, I found the pen to be no more useful than the mouse. IN CONCLUSION Dell has made a solid interactive device with the Canvas. Nearly all of the com- pany's marketing shows creatives using the screen for professional, believable work. This is a rare case where I don't think a company is overselling its prod- uct in the slightest. The Canvas met all of my expectations for which it should be capable. I didn't experience the infamous "gorilla arm" after using the display for extended periods of time since it's set at a comfort- able angle on the desk and features a wide bezel to rest your arm on. It equaled or improved my workflow in most of my typical post production activities, and it did it without my having to spend hours forcing myself to relearn how I work. If you're a PC user looking for a new way to edit photos, graphics, video or audio, then the Dell Canvas 27 could have just the right touch you need. typical post production activities, and it did it without my having to spend hours forcing myself to relearn how I work. If you're a PC user looking for a new way to edit photos, graphics, video or audio, then the Dell Canvas 27 could have just the right touch you need. The Canvas is not a standalone device. It's a monitor that relies on a Windows 10 PC.