Monitor calibration which one on a "budget"

Lemaildetom

Lemaildetom

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thomas
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Hi all,

I have a pretty old IPS monitor a DELL 2209WA from around 2010
The detail of the screen here http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/monitors/en/monitor-dell-2209wa-spec-sheet.pdf

I think it is a monitor good enough for editing my picture but it as a really warm colour to it compare to my laptop screen and I think my laptop screen is closer to the colour printed but has it is only 14" with not a great resolution it is a pain for lightroom.

I had a look on ebay and have find:
-Pantone Huey Pro for 35£ (the advert say that the software can be downloaded online, would I need to pay for a licence?)
-Used S4X100 DataColour Spyder4Express for around 75£
-New X-Rite ColorMunki Smile LCD Monitor Colour Calibrator for 70£

Sorry I don't understand much on screen and it seems that all screen are not compatible with all calibration tool. Are all these would work for my screen? Is there one in particular which is better than another? Could I go for the cheapest and save a few £?

Thanks for reading, hope my question is not to stupid but although I'm not so bad with computer I have no idea about this kind of stuff.
 
neil_g said:
i use a spyder3 pro on my 2209WA's and works a treat (only have the pro as I have multiple screens, the 3 express should be fine too).
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Interresting! I was worry it wouldn't work with newer windows. What do you use? I have win 7 - 64bit - pro.
 
Thanks neil very usefull, I think you already help me on a similar request as well. Thanks
 
Yes thanks for the help, I haven't find a solution yet I have to say 70-85£ seems a lot of money right now. I'm hoping to find something around 40-50£ but it proving to be very hard. Followed a lot of ebay auction and they are all going for more money.
 
At the sort of money you are looking to pay I'd be a bit careful before I committed myself. Check that the device is compatible with your OS. or that a Win 7 driver is available
 
Thanks, money is a bit tight and that's why I'm a bit relunctant to pay too much. Is there a reason why not to buy the colormunki smile? It's the cheapest option with a RRP at 69£.
I'm not a pro photographer but would like my screen to be a bit closer to the reality.

I think I'll give a go at the weekend to manual calibration but it I've always failed to get some good results so far.
 
There are lens hire companies that seem to hire out calibration devices now (£10 or so for 3 days). I bought the ColourMunki Display about a year ago, and it's worked really well, but the monitors get calibrated every few weeks. If it's just a once every few months thing, or a one off, I'd hire one. Be careful of a proper cheap one, as above, it might not deliver the expected results :)
 
Lemaildetom said:
Thanks, money is a bit tight and that's why I'm a bit relunctant to pay too much. Is there a reason why not to buy the colormunki smile? It's the cheapest option with a RRP at 69£.
I'm not a pro photographer but would like my screen to be a bit closer to the reality.

I think I'll give a go at the weekend to manual calibration but it I've always failed to get some good results so far.
Click to expand...
I chose the display version over smile for the multi screen support, as I wanted to calibrate both my laptop and external monitor. Btw I got mine from eBay, forgot to mention that in my last post sorry
 
The Pantone Huey Pro is very simple to use - it must be I have one - but Pantone don't appear to be supporting it anymore so the current version of the driver may well be the last one (it's already 3 years old). I use it on a W7 x64 machine and don't find any issues with it.
 
harryb said:
There are lens hire companies that seem to hire out calibration devices now (£10 or so for 3 days). I bought the ColourMunki Display about a year ago, and it's worked really well, but the monitors get calibrated every few weeks. If it's just a once every few months thing, or a one off, I'd hire one. Be careful of a proper cheap one, as above, it might not deliver the expected results :)
Click to expand...

I'll have a look. That's might be interesting! Realistically a monitor that is already few years old should not need recalibrating very often, doesn't it???
In the worth it's good to try and see if I'm happy with the result and if I'm desperate I can by one later on.
 
Lemaildetom said:
I'll have a look. That's might be interesting! Realistically a monitor that is already few years old should not need recalibrating very often, doesn't it???
In the worth it's good to try and see if I'm happy with the result and if I'm desperate I can by one later on.
Click to expand...

If it's not being used constantly for colour critical tasks, then it won't need to be done that regularly. They do naturally shift away from the calibration with use, but with my old Samsung I didn't notice much change when I calibrated it once every 6 months. I do it more regularly now because the machines are used regularly, and the ambient light changes when they get moved. I go on the software's reminders :)
 
I was actually looking online but couldn't find any hiring places. Do you know any?
 
I've never owned or used a calibration device. Historically I used a CRT display and didn't even know that such devices existed - maybe they didn't? I suppose that I adjusted the display by eye. However - I had lab prints made and they were a good match to what I'd seen on my display. Maybe luck was involved, but what I was doing worked.

Fast forward to more recent times - after the crt broke, I got an IPS flat panel display and, obviously, needed to set it up. I had a reference, though - the files for my previously-printed images. The reasoning was that if I set up the display so that these files appeared right when opened in PS, I'd be on the way somewhere.

Since then, apart from prints I've had a Blurb book printed (I sent them a PDF of my complete book design, with CMYK image files to their print profile) with no issues.

So - is all this hankering after calibration devices something of a bandwagon?
 
Lemaildetom said:
I was actually looking online but couldn't find any hiring places. Do you know any?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if it's breaking the rules by posting it (could be seen to be advertising their services), so I'll PM you.
 
harryb said:
I'm not sure if it's breaking the rules by posting it (could be seen to be advertising their services), so I'll PM you.
Click to expand...

Please can you let me know as well. I would like to try a different one from my spyder3pro.

Thanks
 
Bristolian said:
The Pantone Huey Pro is very simple to use - it must be I have one - but Pantone don't appear to be supporting it anymore so the current version of the driver may well be the last one (it's already 3 years old). I use it on a W7 x64 machine and don't find any issues with it.
Click to expand...

that's a shame its what I use for my DELL 2209WA with win 7 - 64bit
its frustrating that they don't support it any more as its a good bit of kit
I was hoping to use it on my mac but it doesn't work unfortunately
 
LCPete said:
that's a shame its what I use for my DELL 2209WA with win 7 - 64bit
its frustrating that they don't support it any more as its a good bit of kit
I was hoping to use it on my mac but it doesn't work unfortunately
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more ... great bit of kit and so easy to use. I will continue to use mine as long as the driver works. It's one of the reasons I haven't upgraded to W8.
 
I know this maybe a silly question but why do you want to calibrate your monitor
 
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I'll have a look at the panthone huey pro! They go for much cheaper on ebay 30-40£ but I had eliminated them from my choice because I saw some pretty terrible review online.

wave01 said:
I know this maybe a silly question but why do you want to calibrate your monitor
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Because looking side by side my laptop screen and my external are totally different. My dell screen as a strong yellow/green cast to it which I don't manage to take out by tweaking the button myself. And my screen laptop a non HD 14inch screen is really small for using Lightroom.
 
This is not just a video card problem. This is absolutely normal. Any different display panels connected to different computers result in different colors. Therefore you need to calibrate and by the way, you need to calibrate each 1-2 months. Due to the lifecycle of a display where backlight and color filters will change with time passing. So you would need to rent such a sensor now and then...

I decided for a Spyder4Pro some months ago, because neither colormunki smile nor spyder4express calibrate the contrasts and brightness correctly. They haven't got the ambient light sensor the pro version has. And if the sensor software won't know what your ambient light is, it is blind on how to calibrate the white and black levels (contrast, brightness) of your display correctly... ;)
 
I though, it would be usefull for everyone to give you an update.

After looking a lot into spyder 3, and other device I couldn't find a option that was costing under 80£ for what is an older, used, with no warranty device... So I finally decided for the spyder 4 pro which I think was close to 120£ deliverd from wex photography. I thought that, while I was spending more money than I wanted too, I should buy something that will work with next generation of windows and eventual new screen.

Plugged it in, run the calibration on my dell 2209WA, I had to dim the brightness to 0/100 and the contrast to 74/100 then the calibration worked faultlessly, the green/yellow cast I had is totally removed and the picture look much more natural. Not sure how good it is but to my eyes it's miles away from what it was before.
Also calibrated my laptop screen which I though was much better and it was quiet a bit off too. Now both screen have similar tones.

A very good experience using the device, just whished the price could be a little lower....
 
Joeturner11 said:
Can anyone recommend me a monitor calibrator for my new monitor, I can't seem to find one that is compatible with Mavericks 10.9, Any Suggestions?
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I believe the spyder 4 range or the i1 display pro is suitable for osx 10.9.
 
Joeturner11 said:
According to WEX specs on there website the Spyder 4 models are only compatible upto osx 10.7 :confused: The i1 pro display looks to be my only option
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hi joe don"t know about specifics but my spyder4 is working fine on maverick.cheers mike
 
When I email spyder about an issue with my spyder 3 pro and osx 10.9 they said my only option was an upgrade to spyder 4 as that works with 10.9.

I think the colormunki also works but you need a patch which available from the xrite.
 
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