Monitor Calibration

[gwpriester]

We have had this discussion from time to time regarding proper monitor calibration. I was using Huey PRO from x-rite / Pantone for about a year but I was not very happy with the calibration colors. Often I had to go through the calibration cycle a half dozen times before I was happy with the results.

e-rite / Pantone switched out my Huey PRO for the eye-one 2 (i1) calibration system and this is much better.

I was having some problems with the calibrated color and fortunately have a contact at Pantone who walked me through the advanced calibration.

It turns out that my monitor was much too bright. The tech person said this is not good for your eyes if you are working on the computer all day. But the calibration is now very excellent although it is taking some getting used to with somewhat darker colors.

The other problem I was having is the calibration was not holding. I specified the calibration as my default monitor profile but when I rebooted my computer the calibration was gone and grays looked like goose shit green. It was not a pretty site.

This is apparently a Vista problem. But using a utility in the Start > Startup folder Logo Calibration Loader solved that problem. I'm not sure if this is a utility that is part of Vista or is installed with the eye-one software.

The tech also mentioned that with my bright monitor that printed output was probably printing darker. It was. He said that by bringing the white point down to where it is now, that my printed output would be more like the screen display. It is.

Just thought I would pass this along.

[raynerj1]

Thanks Gary. I would imagine most of us run our monitors a little bright.

[tullsta]

Hello,

I have a Lenovo l220x monitor and had even the problem that I had to set brightness to 0% (actually -5% would have been even better) to get my monitor (reasonably) well calibrated. The default setting was 80% - ridiculously bright and apparently a lot of monitor nowadays seem to have this problem.

I'm also quite satisfied with the EyeOne display 2 in combination with the basicColor display as calibration software.

Volker

[gwpriester]

I suspect that monitor manufacturers set the brightness high so that colors appear brighter.

[raynerj1]

It doesn't hurt to have the monitors burn out twice as fast either, from the manufacturers viewpoint.

[RickX]

I am also thinking about buying a calibration device and found the Spyder 3, anybody has experience with that device? It is a little cheaper then the EyeOne, I don't know if there is a difference in quality.

Also one question, I have an Eizo 24" monitor with auto brightness regulator, which can be turned off and I should probably have a fixed brightness setting when calibrating. But overall, will an auto brightness regulator give any problems?

Gary/tullsta do you lower the brightness of your monitor in the evening and still have the right calibrated colors? Or do you then use another calibration setting?

[gwpriester]

Spider is older technology. I don't know if it is as effective or not.

When I was using the Huey PRO calibration system, it had a ambient light sensor and would adjust the settings to the ambient light. But the tech guy I spoke with at x-rite Pantone said they were more effective if you turned that feature off.

The eye-one 2 unit I have does not measure ambient light and seems to be OK in the day and at night. I think your eyes adjust.

[tullsta]

Hello,

if I understand the whole calibration thing right, then you also need a defined ambient light brightness and temperature to have really 100% color matching (room in the basement plus daylight lamps). At home I definitively do not have this, but the results I get from the photo printouts are really reasonable well matched with the screen displays - when using the softproof printer profile and after I got a little experience that e.g. I should not judge the photo on the screen when there's too much bright sunlight or only a too warm/cold lamp.

I made the normal color profile at 140Cd and when I do some photo things at night, I sometimes switch to a different color profile made at 120 or 100Cd (don't remember at the moment) - also helps when you really want to see the last details.

Regarding the calibration devices: I cannot realy compare the things, since I only bought one and since I'm happy with this, there was no need to buy something different.

But some time ago I spoke to the person from where I bought the EyeOne (a German photo print service): to be able to serve their customers better, they tested a larger amount of calibration devices and they judged the EyeOne best from the HW side.
However, also the calibration software plays apparently a big role: here the basicColor software was regarded as best performing (I think there's a 30day trial available and it seems to work with a whole lot of devices). There's also a bundle called "Squid2", which is the EyeOne plus the BasisColor Display 2.
For the German-speaking people here: http://www.fc-prints.de/farbmanageme...ia-squid2.html - that's what I use or under www.basiccolor.de

Hope this helps - tullsta

[RickX]

In the meanwhile I also read some reviews which gave me the overall feeling that the eye-one is more accurate/faster. Going to tryout myself . Thanks for the info!

[AntonM]

Has anyone any experience of ColorMunki? I've been using hueyPRO but also found that printouts are darker than the monitor display.

I've seen a few reviews (for example, PhotographyBLOG, photo-i, TrustedReviews -- I'm sure there are many others).

Has anyone at this forum has tried it?