Which monitor calibration system? (for Mac and Windows)

Pookeyhead said:
What monitor was it, and what operating system were you using?

The Spyder 3 is quite old, and it doesn't work well at all with wide gamut screens.

Some monitors when old also can't be calibrated accurately. Some cheaper screens I've used can't be calibrated either. Some cheap TN panel screens don't calibrate well either.
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It was a 27 inch iMac, mid 2012 edition. Maybe that's why then?
 
It's possible. Screens in poor condition often don't calibrate well. There's nothing inherently wrong with the Spyder 3, and that screen is not wide gamut.
 
Pookeyhead said:
It's possible. Screens in poor condition often don't calibrate well. There's nothing inherently wrong with the Spyder 3, and that screen is not wide gamut.
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The screen is good - I think it was user error not understanding all that native stuff etc.
 
Hi Gents,

I'd like to just clarify some thoughts if I may regarding calibration, as I thought it about time I started calibrating my displays properly.
I rarely print photographs, normally I would send them off for printing if required. They normally come back very good but I guess that is more by luck (profiling) than judgement (calibration).
Now I understand that we spend all this time in PP on an image and if our displays remain un calibrated to a degree it means we are spending a lot of effort to render an inaccurate image. However with the displays calibrated the image should be more accurate.

It doesn't make sense not to have the display calibrated, so after recently purchasing a new display and considering I don't often print images myself which calibrator would you recommend?
The i1 Display Pro, or just the Colour Munki Display?
I see there is a ambient light control on the pro should this be disabled if I go down the pro route?
Or is there any specific advantages to going the whole hog with a Colour Munki Photo?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts / ideas
Steve
 
The i! display Pro is an excellent device, but to be honest do you need to to spend all that money. I would say that for your requirements the Color Munkie Display is more than adequate , and some £60 cheaper than the alternatives.
 
Either i1 Display Pro or Color Munki woudl work well. Very similar colorimeters.

The Color Munki Photo will also profile print media, but the cheaper Color Munki Display can not.

The i1 Display Pro is the only one that can hardware profile the new range of Dell screens though.

It's always been accepted practice to NOT use ambient light control, and instead control your room lighting. If that's not possible, then ambient control can be used, but I found it very inaccurate, and often led to a either a very dim screen in still fairly moderate conditions, or overly bright when in a dark room.

If you're serious about this... and you have the computer in a room where you're not disturbing anyone else, then just buy a black out blind, and a 6500K daylight desk lamp, so your ambient conditions are static. Levels of ambient light are not the only problem... COLOUR of ambient light is the biggest pain in the ass. If you've calibrated your screen to 6500K, then you really should be lighting your room with 6500K. Having a 6500K white point on your screen and normal 3200K room lighting will make your screen appear cold, and subconsciously you'll develop a tendency to create overly warm images.
 
Thank you very much, John and Dave, I really appreciate your comments.

Dave that's great, I think you might have made the decision easier for me, as the monitor is a Dell 2412, (due to financial constraints at the time) I do have an old Eizo but it's a bit shaky now.

I'm also lucky that my office is out of way in the house and I'm even luckier that I have acquired a 4 tube 'Graphiclite GLE 317' with D5000 colour viewing lamps as light source from a viewing room that still has a fair few hours on the tubes. So it would make sense to put them to good use. I guess it might be a bit OTT, but I might as well use it if I have it! I just need to sort out the blackout blind.

I understand there is some sort of ambient light detector on the Display Pro so I assume it's this that should be disabled, is that also the case with a stable light source?

Many Thanks for all your advice I really appreciate it.
Steve
 
All available calibrators are better than nothing at all, and will likely give you fairly constant results.
The better and more professional your kit the greater the consistency and accuracy when properly calibrated.
If you buy the best kit and do not calibrate it, all that capital expense is entirely wasted.

At the Other end of things... For a long retired Professional like myself, on a limited budget using low end computer kit, It is still worth calibrating as best as I can.
I have a huey Pro ( they are perhaps some what cheap and nasty) and a rather too old Sharp screen. But all in all I get reasonable consistency after calibrating.
I know it is far from perfect, but as I no longer print It is less important. But I find that when I am looking at work from other people, that had been processed using calibrated screens. It always looks Fine on mine. This is certainly not always true when viewing similar work but from uncalibrated screen users.

A useful, crude but simple test is to check the numerical colour values for what you see as a neutral grey in some shots you have processed in Photoshop. If it looks neutral but the RGB values say something different. Things need sorting.

Calibration is not only about Print results... Every time you make a visual correction in Photoshop you are doing so with the added bias of your Screen.
Every time some one sees that work they also see it through the "Filter" of that Bias. The consistency of the calibration between monitors also determins the consistency of what we see as a community.

I am afraid it the the sort of nonsense written by Realspeed that gets regurgitated throughout the Websphere. It is sad that there is no way to wipe the slate clean. Or at least permanently attach corrections to such nonsense, so that it does not damage the understanding of people genuinely looking for useful advice.
I am sure he believes what he is saying even if his Zeal is totally misplaced.


If my screen beats me to the hereafter, I will need to factor in updating my calibrator. This is something all purchasers of new generation screens need to bear in mind.
 
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I.m going to buy a new monitor in the next week or two...any one suggest a good monitor for around £250..I only print images for my local camera club competitions. I have trouble getting my images the correct colour ( printer Epson R1900 A3+ )
 
69Bonni said:
Dave that's great, I think you might have made the decision easier for me, as the monitor is a Dell 2412, (due to financial constraints at the time) I do have an old Eizo but it's a bit shaky now.

I'm also lucky that my office is out of way in the house and I'm even luckier that I have acquired a 4 tube 'Graphiclite GLE 317' with D5000 colour viewing lamps as light source from a viewing room that still has a fair few hours on the tubes. So it would make sense to put them to good use. I guess it might be a bit OTT, but I might as well use it if I have it! I just need to sort out the blackout blind.
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Ok... but if you're using D50 as proofing, it makes far more sense to calibrate the screen to D50 as well... so then room lighting becomes far more complicated, as D50 room lighting is not cheap. You could still calibrate to D65, but prints may appear slightly warmer than your screen when viewing in the D50 booth. Yu can experiment at your leisure with that, but The D50 booth would sort of head me down a path of a D50 workflow.

69Bonni said:
I understand there is some sort of ambient light detector on the Display Pro so I assume it's this that should be disabled, is that also the case with a stable light source?
Click to expand...

If your lighting is static, and controlled, then there's simply no need for ambient light control, as it will always be the same.
 
Thanks David I suspected as much. The i1 Display Pro is on its way.

It's only a small office so I could easily just use the D50 light (this has 3 tubes) and black out curtain and calibrate to D50 would that work out? Is there any issues with doing this? Only thinking of this as I have the D50 light source available.

Thank again for the advice much appreciated.
 
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@69Bonni

No probs. The i1 Display Pro is great... great software too. Just make sure you use ICC V2 profiles and not V4. Windows doesn't play nice with V4. No practical difference between the two, so you're not missing out on anything.
 
Great thanks David, I'll make a note of that profile now.. And the D50 route you think would be ok(see edited text in post 51 re workflow )

Go it your last line no difference thanks
 
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