Monitor profilers/calibrators

DadaKopf

I'm looking to buy either a Spyder or Pantone Huey monitor calibration thingy. Without it, I just don't feel confident enough printing off my photos.

I haven't printed any photos from my DSLR yet.

Are these yokes actually any good? I'm looking at the €90 price-range ones.

Can anyone say whether they work, match up colour pretty well, or what? Or are the cheap ones useless and the expensive ones much better?

Also, I assume it's possible to achieve different profiles with them... like, set them up for print (matching Pantone colours) and also match them up to those digital photo printers (whatever they're called).

Incidentally, where is a good place to get good digital prints done up?

mathias

Ive used both , I prefer the spyder though , its not as messy , and the room illumination thing on the pantone ( where it continually adjusts for ambient light ) is just annoying.

The cheaper versions give you the hardware and the software to calibrate your screen so that what you see on the screen is correct. It has nothing to do with printing , its only to adjust what you see on the monitor to correct colour levels.

The reason thats important is that you can then work in photoshop etc and adjust your photos knowing that what you see on screen is what will print. Most half decent printers should not need much adjusting , its more important that what you see on screen is correct.

IF you want to go down the road of adjusting print output as well , then you need to step up to around the 160 euro mark , for this you get extra software to match screen and printer as well , but I strongly recommend just buying the calibrator , do the screen and then print something and check against the monitor , it should be all you need.

DadaKopf

And it works well when it comes to printing photos at digital photo printers?

I suppose, then, once the screen is calibrated, you can operate in whatever ICC profiles you need when matching up with the output machine?

Canonfan

Can anyone tell me where to get the Spyder. I've been looling one of this. Thanks.

leinsterman

I recently purchased the Pantone Huey Pro for Stg£72 at the Phtofest exhibition ... I like it a lot ... but it does not calibrate printers ... not an issue for me since I can do this by loading the calibrated profile into the printer ...

I am not really sure why there is negativity about its ability to Dynamically adjust to ambient light conditions ... for two reasons -

1. You can turn the feature off
2. It is a great feature, keep the monitor in perfect adjustment ... it is not as if the monitor is flickering all the time ... you don't notice it unless there is a radical change in light conditions ... and as a general rule there is not ...

I never used the Spyder but for the money I am very happy with the Huey ... you get a set of the top 100 Pantone cards with it and when you calibrate you monitor and randomly check against the cards it is always spot on ... (I set up a colour using a raster in photoshop) ...

If I had one criticism it does not work very well with my 42inch plasma which is my second screen ... it works but I have to tweak the process a little ... to be fair it is not designed to work with plasma screens ... not is the Spyder ... unless you buy the plasma version ...

DadaKopf

The Huey comes with 100 Pantone cards? Sweet. That'd be really useful.

But what I really want to know is: does it make the process of altering photos for print by labs easier and more accurate?

leinsterman

DadaKopf wrote:

But what I really want to know is: does it make the process of altering photos for print by labs easier and more accurate?

No idea since I do my own printing for the most part ... I have not done anything above A4 since buying it ... about 2 weeks ago ...

... I'd imagine you have little or no control of how a lab sets up for printing your pictures so you have only limited control no mater what you do ... but if you have the PanTone correct on your computer screen then you have a better chance of getting the result correct from a lab ... assuming their kit is properly calibrated ... so maybe you need to ask the lab how the calibrate their equipment if you are fussy ... or try a few different printers until you find one that works for you ...

DadaKopf

Yeah. I assume, find one that supplies customers with ICC profiles of their printing machines.

The next stage is to find a decent lab printer. No leads yet. I found the place on Abbey St a bit shoddy a few years back, and completely unhelpful when it came to asking for test strips. They thought I was mad. This was 6 years ago!

mathias

But what I really want to know is: does it make the process of altering photos for print by labs easier and more accurate?

Not sure what this question means , you see what the monitor calibrator will do is ensure that what you are seeing on screen is correct , in that sense then the answer to your question is yes , because if you have a correctly calibrated screen , then what you see is what you should get in terms of print.

As regards to how correct any labs printer is , there is no way to know this unless you have the details from the lab , all you can do is know that what you see on your own screen is correct , once you do that , then there should be no problem having a pro lab print it.

You must have a correctly calibrated screen , it is senseless to set up a monitor for a printer you know to be off , that would make photoshop work almost impossible !!

It is more sensible to correct a printer separately to a standard than to alter it for an uncalibrated screen , and it should be noted , that the calibration you do to the screen in no way changes your printer settings , it just allows you to know that the screen output is correct. Once this is the case the rest should follow , as I mentioned above , if , after calibrating your screen , the prints from your own printer dont look right , then you correct your printer , however from a lab .... well they should be correct anyway if the lab is any good.

JMcL

Check out Colour Confidence. They have good prices, sell a good range of stuff, and regularly offer free shipping.

I bought an EyeOne Display 2, and find it excellent, very easy to use. It's a lot more than you're wanting to spend, but the do have an LT version as well, which is a bit cheaper. I'd considered the Spyder as well, but overall the EyeOne seemed to have better reviews/opinions, and a fair few people seemed to have problems with the colour accuracy of the Spyder on some monitors.

They can make quite a difference to print quality. Brightness levels in particular can be a problem, especially with LCDs. Often monitors are just too bright, which will result in dark prints (to satisfy the EyeOne, I had to lower the brightness on my monitor to around 20%).