Calibration

[DHR]

First off I'm not a massive photographer, I do like things to look right though.

A few years back I borrowed an i1 display from someone, calibrated my monitor, laptop, even the TV... I've never looked back, nor have I invested in the gear to re-calibrate.

I don't want to spend a fortune and know I'm after second hand kit. I was just about to buy a preowned spyder 2 but I've since heard that this apparently won't work with LED screens... The question is has anyone tried to use it with an LED screen?

All of my monitors are either LCD or very old TFT, I'm thinking more of the future if I upgrade my tv which I don't actually see me doing anytime soon.

So... Am I wasting my money!?

 

[Genoma]

I think LED relates more to how the screen is backlit. Old TFTs and LCDs are backlit with CCFL lights rather than LEDs, can be brighter but quite energy hungry (and thus hot!).

Whether it works or not I can't say but if they claim it doesn't it probably won't give you a top calibrated result.

As an alternative, you can download calibrated ICC profiles from TFT Central here:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/icc_profiles.htm#the_database

Obviously this won't take into account your settings or the general condition of your screen but costs nothing and worth a try!

I just invested in a Spyder 4 pro. Given I have a 27" new monitor and an old 24" CCFL and calibrated both, they still don't look the same. I guess different technologies, backlighting and screen condition play a factor. The new IPS screen has better contrast and depth. Colour reproduction on the printer is very close though which is good, but I still had to bump up the brightness on the prints to get closer to what I had on the screen. It's horses for courses though but not a holy grail. It did show me that some of my older panoramas had far far too much blue saturation in ocean water though.

 

[mrk]

Don't know about older Spyder probes and LED backlit screens but my i1Display2 with either Lacie BlueEye Pro or XRite software works just fine with LED backlit screens even though it's not specced to support them. Perhaps those older Spyders are the same?

Things may well be different if you go OLED though but since the panel technology is still the same in today's screens, just a different backlight, I can't see how it would be an issue.

 

[DHR]

Well I managed to pick a spyder 2 up for £11 :-/ I either got a bargain for my needs or it'll be useless.... I've wasted more before though!

I used HCFR when I calibrated my TV with an i1, wondering if the software that ships with the spyder is any good though?