Monitor Hardware Calibration

G'day all,


I've just purchased a new Dell u2410 24" monitor and obviously I want to take advantage of its IPS panel and get accurately displayed colours etc.


So I'm wondering if anyone uses hardware calibration and if so, what do you use and how do you find its performance?


I've looked at Bryan's X-rite review and it looks fine but I remember reading that review quite some time ago so it could be a little outdated compared to some of the newer products out there.


I don't want to spend a fortune unless it's really going to be worth the expense. I've had a look at the Pantone Huey which seems to be the cheapest going around - although I'm often hesitant going for cheap gear unless it has rave reviews.


Thanks in advance for the advice.


Cheers, Ben.

I am certainly no expert, but I bought a Spyder 3 Pro and it made a world of difference in my prints---worth every penny. This is one of those purchase that I saw instant results.





Good luck

Thanks Bob. I had a look at the Spyder 3 express and it looks alright too. As far as I can see the major difference between the express and pro is multliple monitor support but I don't really need the second monitor to be calibrated as any photo work will be on the new screen. I reckon I'll be able to set up and individual ICC profile for each monitor anyway.


Cheers.

G´day btaylor,


I am using Spyder3 Elite and are getting excellent results. The only thing I dislike is the graphical userinterface. It is a bit complicated if you are doing a manual calibration.


Another alternative is Eye-One Display 2, it is more userfriendly. I guess they perform quite similar.


If you are doing a lot of printing ColorMunki has the option of calibrating prints.





- Johnny

Good tip Johnny, Thanks mate.

Just to follow up - I ended up buying the Spyder 3 Express and so far it seems spot on. Got a few printsmade upand the colours and exposureare pretty much perfect between what's on the screen and what prints. It's also very simple to set up and the software is simple.


I must say it's a nice change to have confidence that what I see on screen is going to come out perfectly. It's a nice product and for the price I'd highly recommend it.

The Dell u2410 is also a great piece of gear by the way. Beautiful colour rendition, plenty of peripheral's (except a bloody CF card reader - has SD and XD), great resolution, looks nice, is massiveand doesn't cost a fortune.


I'd highly recommend it as well [Y][Y]

quote: "I must say it's a nice change to have confidence that what I see on screen is going to come out perfectly." end quote;


G´Day btaylor,


Glad to hear you bought a product you are happy with. Every photographer should have a hardware calibrator.


- Johnny

I use the spyder 2 and it works fine, but it really affects the startup of windows, it can take a long long time to load the calibration into the video card. About all it does is turn down the brightness of my display slightly, the colors were alread right on.

Hey all, I have been getting into photography for the past 3 years, and bought a new MacBook Pro with CS5 a year or so ago. I'm gradually getting the hang of the CS5 workflow and editing features, but getting extremely frustrated when I go to print photos because they're coming out way darker than on my screen. I guess the Mac display is adding some brightness, because they even look slightly dark when viewing on a PC (though not as dark as in print). I tried compensating for this by editing with the monitor brightness turned down a bit but I'm still not getting good results.

My question: Is it worth buying a hardware calibration solution for a laptop, or should I be investing in a standalone LCD monitor for doing photo editing? I guess another way to state that would be, will I ever be able to get a MacBook Pro screen to look like my prints, or is that a futile endeavor?

Thanks!

I use an X-Rite i1 Display 2 to calibrate my17" MacBook Pro and 13" MacBook Air displays - I do find it helpful.

Thanks for your input... I got real excited when I saw B&H is selling it for $109, but I also see on Amazon one of the reviews says it isn't supported on OS X Lion. Are you running Lion? I haven't upgraded yet but imagine that at some point in the not-too-distant future I'll be forced to. Is it really over 10 years old (Amazon says first sold in Oct 2001)? It's funny because I work (indirectly) with an X-Rite system at work all the time, completely unrelated to photography, never knew they were in the photo space, but I guess it makes sense...

I see that DataColor just released the new line of Spyder4's... maybe I'll grab one of those. I guess I'll go with the Pro in case I ever get a 2nd monitor.

Here's a random question: can I use one of these things to get my plasma TV properly calibrated? I've got a 1-2 yr old TV that I'm still watching with the out-of-the-box settings... never noticed enough of an issue to research calibrating it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mattyg1027

I got real excited when I saw B&H is selling it for $109, but I also see on Amazon one of the reviews says it isn't supported on OS X Lion. Are you running Lion?

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Snow Leopard on my 17" MBP (part laziness, part because I still use some Rosetta-dependent software; note that the current EOS Utility doesn't run under Lion, although a much older version does). Lion on my 13" MBA. I use the i1 Display 2 to calibrate both - X-rite released a special version of their newer software (i1 Profiler, which replaces i1 Match) for Lion users with i1 Display 2: http://www.xrite.com/download/i1D2Lion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by btaylor

Just to follow up - I ended up buying the Spyder 3 Express and so far it seems spot on. Got a few printsmade upand the colours and exposureare pretty much perfect between what's on the screen and what prints. It's also very simple to set up and the software is simple.


I must say it's a nice change to have confidence that what I see on screen is going to come out perfectly. It's a nice product and for the price I'd highly recommend it.

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Ben,

Have you been happy with Spyder 3 Express over the long term? I'm currently using an 8-year old monitor and thinking about taking some Christmas gift cards towards an entry level IPS monitor LG IPS235V and am interested in getting its colors, as well as those on my laptop and the wife's laptop calibrated. Given I'm looking at ~ $200 monitors I really don't want to spend much more than $100 on a calibration system and am looking at Spyder 4 Express.

Thanks
Dave

n/t