What is the best monitor calibration tool?

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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Need to calibrate an iMac and a MBP, what do people use?

And is it worth it to get one with a Colour Checker Passport?

Thanks
 
After a bit of research I decided to go for the ColorMunki Display (I believe there is one in classifieds atm). It seems the ColorMunki has a more accurate and better hardware than the datacolor spyder5pro.

I have calibrated my iMac and works well :)

edit: In the end I just went for the cheapest option which was Colormunki.
 
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I use the Spyder Pro and am very happy with it. I don't think there's much in it when comparing the latest offerings from both brands.
 
Being a bit of a dinosaur I am using the Spyder Elite 4, not sure how much better the 5 would be in comparison so not bothered upgrading (Yet) as the only reports that its better come from Datacolor and they would say that wouldn't they

But if looking for the best, I suspect you need to spend more than the what the Datacolor & Munki's cost although what extra you get others will have to chip in.
 
There are 2 types, photospectrometer and tristimulus.

Photospectrometer scan the entire visual spectrum to give an accurate measurement of colour.

Tristimulus have 3 sensors and 3 colour filters to give an approximate measure of colour. The accuracy depends on the filter manufacturing accuracy and they work best with broad spectrum light sources.
 
ColorMunki Display on the iMac works well, easy to use and gives satisfactory results.
 
i1 Display Pro. I just went with the one I've seen the most of whenever I've visited print shops/retouchers or digi ops on set.
 
st599 said:
There are 2 types, photospectrometer and tristimulus.

Photospectrometer scan the entire visual spectrum to give an accurate measurement of colour.

Tristimulus have 3 sensors and 3 colour filters to give an approximate measure of colour. The accuracy depends on the filter manufacturing accuracy and they work best with broad spectrum light sources.
Click to expand...

What's best for under £200?
 
Raymond Lin said:
What's best for under £200?
Click to expand...

Mid-range tristimulus from one of the companies like X-Rite, Datacolor. Do some research to ensure that the manufacturer says it works with a screen of your type.

A full photospectrometer would be at least 10 times your budget, these are used in professional production houses where you need every screen to be completely matching.
 
Paul-H said:
Being a bit of a dinosaur I am using the Spyder Elite 4, not sure how much better the 5 would be in comparison so not bothered upgrading (Yet) as the only reports that its better come from Datacolor and they would say that wouldn't they

But if looking for the best, I suspect you need to spend more than the what the Datacolor & Munki's cost although what extra you get others will have to chip in.
Click to expand...
A bit of a dinosaur? Really? I'm still using a Spyder 2 Express :coat:
 
st599 said:
Mid-range tristimulus from one of the companies like X-Rite, Datacolor. Do some research to ensure that the manufacturer says it works with a screen of your type.

A full photospectrometer would be at least 10 times your budget, these are used in professional production houses where you need every screen to be completely matching.
Click to expand...

So....thanks. Now should I get x-rite or Datacolor?

And do I need the colorchecker passport?
 
Raymond Lin said:
So....thanks. Now should I get x-rite or Datacolor?

And do I need the colorchecker passport?
Click to expand...

The issue with the tristimulus meters is that for a broad spectrum light source, they're good. However for narrow light sources (Like Laser, OLED...) it only takes a small error in the filter to make a large error in the measurement. The wider the colour gamut, the narrower the light sources need to be.

If you look at the SpecraCal page, http://calman.spectracal.com/meters.html , you can see that the cheaper meters aren't designed for use with OLEDs for instance. Personally, I have a SpectraCal C3 (and access to a Photometer) - but I'm not sure it works with many software tools.

ColorChecker passport - I use it when shooting RAW video. I create a camera profile for a known lighting condition, apply that to all the raw files, I then have a technically accurate image (providing the image is exposed within 1 or 2 stops of where it needs to be). You can then add a creative look to it really easily.
 
st599 said:
The issue with the tristimulus meters is that for a broad spectrum light source, they're good. However for narrow light sources (Like Laser, OLED...) it only takes a small error in the filter to make a large error in the measurement. The wider the colour gamut, the narrower the light sources need to be.

If you look at the SpecraCal page, http://calman.spectracal.com/meters.html , you can see that the cheaper meters aren't designed for use with OLEDs for instance. Personally, I have a SpectraCal C3 (and access to a Photometer) - but I'm not sure it works with many software tools.

ColorChecker passport - I use it when shooting RAW video. I create a camera profile for a known lighting condition, apply that to all the raw files, I then have a technically accurate image (providing the image is exposed within 1 or 2 stops of where it needs to be). You can then add a creative look to it really easily.
Click to expand...

Well, I seldom shoot video...

And my iMac is a 2012 so it's IPS screen but I'm due to get a new one next year with a 5k screen.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Well, I seldom shoot video...

And my iMac is a 2012 so it's IPS screen but I'm due to get a new one next year with a 5k screen.
Click to expand...

sRGB stills and (ITU-R BT.709) HD video share the same colour gamut. Any of those should work with IPS. When you get a 5k wide gamut screen, then you may find the cheaper ones less accurate.
 
st599 said:
sRGB stills and (ITU-R BT.709) HD video share the same colour gamut. Any of those should work with IPS. When you get a 5k wide gamut screen, then you may find the cheaper ones less accurate.
Click to expand...

Bought the X-Rite i1 display pro, should have it tomorrow.

Partly hoping it does something and means money well spent and partly hoping it won't do b****r all which means all my photos exported has been spot on but then it'll also mean I wasted £150!
 
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