Hardware monitor calibrators

swingking

Are they worth it?

The reason I ask is I have been using the coloursync application on mac for a while and it is giving back very good colours and exposure. Would it benefit me to use a hardware calibrator?

swingking

So no-one uses a monitor calibrator at all here? not even the professional togs?

fair enuff :rolleyes:

.Longshanks.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?searchid=15754402#

stcstc

i use a spyder 3 extreme, it is fine

gives good results with my 2 large dells


you should try using one, any form of calibration in hardware is almost certainly gonna give you better results than by eye

Heebie

Colorsync doesn't actually calibrate anything very well.. it just adjusts the gamma on the monitor.

A color calibration suite including a colorimeter, spectro-colorimeter, or spectro-photometer, actually works up a color profile for your particular monitor (or printer etc..) that tells the computer "If you send color value 555555 to the screen, what it actually displays is 545556" then using the reverse of that.. if the color that is SUPPOSED to be displayed is 545556, it sends 555555 to the monitor/printer etc.., so what you see is actually correct. The software works up a profile of a lot of different colors, so you get a VERY accurate setup.

Quality-wise, a spectro-photometer like an i1 is the best stuff.. but you pay through the nose for it.

The next would be a spectro-colorimeter like the ColorMunki (and possibly some of the newer Spyder models.)

The "least" of the three types, the colorimeter, still does a good job, but generally only does monitors well. The Spyder models I've used (all many years ago now) were all of this type.

The other two types should do a great job with monitors and printers, and with the right software, can even be used to calibrate scanners and cameras.

The ColorMunki is pretty good value considering it'll let you do monitors and printers, as well as letting you sample colors directly off of objects in the real-world, so you can actually match objects exactly to something you saw somewhere. (as in.. Wow.. I like that color.. SNAP...now you have a nearly perfect representation of it to use in Photoshop etc..)

If you're doing professional work and you DON'T have at least something to calibrate your monitor, you're probably doing your customers a disservice.

swingking wrote: »

Are they worth it?

The reason I ask is I have been using the coloursync application on mac for a while and it is giving back very good colours and exposure. Would it benefit me to use a hardware calibrator?

swingking

I took the plunge and got a Spyder 3 Express. Wasn't too expensive but I'm happy with it.

What scares me is all my photos which I thought were good, now look really dark in lightroom.

Heebie

It's is pretty amazing how "off" monitors are by default. You might check the color temperature that your calibrator is shooting for as well... that can make a big difference.
You should probably take a few pics that you edit with what you have & see how they look on an uncalibrated monitor as well.. since that's what most people will look at it with. (Well.. if it's not for print.)

swingking wrote: »

I took the plunge and got a Spyder 3 Express. Wasn't too expensive but I'm happy with it.

What scares me is all my photos which I thought were good, now look really dark in lightroom.

nilhg

DKPHOTO wrote: »

If anyone is looking for calibration service: info@dkphoto.eu
I can calibrate any monitor- Hardware Calibration NEC, Software Calibration- Laptops, Eizo ...Printers Proifiling
Professional service - in Your work place...

Not very professional to spam your services on boards..

IBTL

Kenny Logins

nilhg wrote: »

Not very professional to spam your services on boards..

IBTL

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