Monitor colour calibration tools?

beh* said:
I have owned plenty of monitors and this is the first time i have ever seen a new monitor with incorrect colors. I agree that you need to make contrast / gamma adjustments (which i did), but having to adjust the red, green and blue should not be necessary.
Click to expand...


Yeh the colors are fine, I just ment the contrast & brightness are way off correct when you first get a lcd monitor.. Why didnt we get this prob with crt monitors?
 
mrk

Would appreciate your views as to wether I am deluding myself that I will REALLY notice an improvement if I purchase Spyder2 Express and calibrate my BenQ FP241WZ monitor.

Am I living in cloud cuckoo land?

I do not use the monitor for work or photography - games,films and general use.

Did start a thread on subject in (wrong) graphics section and appreciated replies but noticed this thread and remembered you did own a BenQ 'W' model at one time which I assume you did calibrate so would very much like to hear your views.
 
Well if it's not going to be used for photo editing then you would still see a difference (desktop wallpapers are prime examples if you have a nature photo one) BUT only if you got one and calibrated using it. If you didn't then 6500K in the OSD would look perfectly fine and you'd never be any wiser as to the differences :p
 
A typical screen will look 'good' to most eyes with the contrast a bit on the up side, colors slightly saturated etc etc... On the other hand a calibrated screen will look a bit 'flat' because it tries to render all the tones, especialy in the shadows. This is perceptual of course, but if you don't do photo editing and such, just fiddle with the controls until you are happy with the looks.
 
Bite the bullet and buy the Spyder2. ;) You will not regret it. I use it once a month to fine tune especially as I use it for some photographic work as well as gaming. See signature for monitor.
 
Last edited:
Ok, just brought a Pantone Huey Pro off a popular aution site for £56. It seriously ****** me off that i need to do this but what can you do ....

will report on it's effectiveness.
 
For photography work I quickly found out I need a calibration device. Editing RAWs and printing it is a must to be certain about the colours on you are looking at.

Started looking around and had my eye on the Pantone Huey Pro but then started reading a lot of reports of people having problems with it. Seems like there are a lot of devices with bad sensors on them and Pantone are pretty terrible at fixing this problem. Seen over at photography on the net forums that quite a few have sent theirs back only to be given another dodgy one! Support is based in US btw.

Then started lookin at the spyder 3.. Quite an expensive bump up in price. Reviews still favour the X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 over it which is just a tad more expensive.. will probably go for the X-Rite Eye-One Display 2. Expensive, but depends how important colours are to you.. like someone else said here see it as an investment
 
Last edited:
I'm not into photography / graphics - i'm simply buying it to correct my new 226BW. As you mentioned, it all depends on how important color is to you.
 
I got delivered the X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 this morning paid £130 for it, decided to go for it over the spyder 3 as reviews suggested it is slightly more accurate. Tested it on my 24" TFT Belinea. I've never been totally happy with this monitor in respect of colours or contrast, when I first got it I must have spent a week constantly going into the menu and changing the RGB and contrast settings.

The software that comes with the eye one display 2 is great and very straight forward. Asked me what my target luminance is, then I adjusted the contrast, RGB levels and brightness so the meters falls into the green. Then it takes about 4 minutes to complete the calibration firing up coloured boxes.

After the process the software reports on the final result. Managed to get my target the first time around of 6500k colour temp, 2.2 gamma, and near enough 120 cd/m luminance. Can click on a button to see the before and after and blimey i'm really impressed with the difference, colours look great as does the contrast, very pleasing. My monitor was really out of whack. I can feel happy now that what I see on the screen is correct when editing RAWs. This is my first step to getting accurate print outs!

Gets a thumbs up from me!
 
2StepSteve

I have the Spyder2 Suite and every month it puts up a reminder for the user to recalibrate the monitor before loading the profile. It would be interesting to know if the X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 does the same.
 
embalse said:
What system are you using?
I am now on Vista and I have heard there are some issues with the Eye-One as it is not fully supported.
Click to expand...

Am on XP Pro I saw earlier last year there were some problems with vista and the eye-one due to unsigned drivers. Am guessing the problems are cleared up as Vista drivers are posted on x-rite's site http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=788&Action=Support&SoftwareID=768

GunRunner said:
2StepSteve

I have the Spyder2 Suite and every month it puts up a reminder for the user to recalibrate the monitor before loading the profile. It would be interesting to know if the X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 does the same.
Click to expand...

After the calibration the software asks how often you would like to be reminded to re-calibrate. 1-4 weeks can be selected.. not sure if it forces you to re-calibrate or not, will find out.
 
2StepSteve said:
After the calibration the software asks how often you would like to be reminded to re-calibrate. 1-4 weeks can be selected.. not sure if it forces you to re-calibrate or not, will find out.
Click to expand...
You'll see a reminder notifying you that the active profile is out of date and prompting you to create a new one.
 
When we create a profile for a device, we make sure that device is in a stable and repeatable state. As long as that device never changes, you should not need to re-profile. In experience, however, this is an unrealistic expectation. Below are guidelines and information about profiling different kinds of devices.

CRT Displays

Traditional cathode-ray tube displays will shift over time due to burn-in, phosphor fading and diminished efficiency of the cathode and intensity of the electron beam. CRTs are also very sensitive to electro-magnetic fields and changes in power supply voltage. We recommend keeping speakers, motors and other monitors away from your profiled display to help reduce these effects. Variances in the line voltage supplied to your facility can also change the behaviour of your display, so a line conditioner or uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is suggested.

  • For the hobbyist, profiling once or twice a months should be sufficient.
  • For individuals using their system frequently, we recommend profiling once a week.
  • For professionals who rely on the accuracy of their display for their livelihood, we recommend profiling daily.
In general, it is safer to profile more frequently rather than less frequently.

LCD Displays

Liquid-crystal displays tend to be more stable than CRT displays because of their design. Each pixel is fixed in place rather than being "painted" by an electron beam many times a second. This allows them to be more consistent and color displayed on one part of the display has less effect on the other areas. Furthermore, digitally connected displays, such as those using a DVI or ADC connector, are more consistent because the signal is less vulnerable to interference from surrounding equipment. However, the phosphors do still fade, as will the bulb in the back-light.

  • For the hobbyist, profiling once or twice a months should be sufficient.
  • For individuals using their system frequently, we recommend profiling once a week.
  • For professionals who rely on the accuracy of their display for their livelihood, we recommend profiling daily. However, this may not be necessary with a digitally connected display.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom