If your CRT monitor's brightness setting is proper you should "barely" see two sets of a checker-board pattern, one VERY slightly brighter than the other. The best way of using this file is to download it and use it with the background of your Viewer (ACDSee, Irfanview, etc.) set to black AND with the room lights either VERY dim or turned OFF completely. It is nearly impossible to see the pattern in the picture when the background of the screen is white.

If you are using an LCD display you are "probably" out of luck when it comes to "dark details". Many of the LCD displays I've tested get screwed up at the dark end because their row and column drivers are not set up properly and therefore can't display low level luminance detail. Also, most LCD displays have a horrible vertical viewing angle; this alone prevents their use an an effective image editing device. An additional problem I've noticed on the LCD displays is the sRGB settings (if there is one to be had) do not accurately produce the proper color temperature and do not come even remotely close to producing a gamma of 2.2. After testing 9 LCD displays the Viewsonic VP930 is pretty decent (great vertical viewing angle, profiles very well using a Spyder "provided" you set the controls as follows: Contrast=56, Brightness=52, RedGain=92, GreenGain=92, and BlueGain=100).