Monitor calibration?
Community Forums/General Help/Monitor calibration?
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| Being colorblind I find manual monitor calibration to be a pain in the ass. I got to looking at the automated monitor calibration tools i.e. DataColor Spyder - are they any good? They're a bit pricey, for what they do, so didn't fancy just taking a punt on it. |
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| Hello, I used it on my work monitor and can say that it works. Setting up is easy and you can really spot the difference. Color is now more pleasing to the eyes. Can't comment the price as it was company provided. -Henri |
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| The spyder gets good reviews, and is commonly used by photography professionals |
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| http://www.hughski.com/ Now, over to the experts... |
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| Is that actually real? The "velcro strap" upgrade made me wonder. |
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| It's a one man operation... AFAIR, he started shipping 'Beta' versions at a lower price. He hadn't decided on the best method to hold it to the screen (ie. *not* suction cups) at the time. So early adopters either had to hold it manually or use tape/elastics bands... :o) When he got the bands made up he offered them as upgrades for early adopters, the base pad thing is a similar story. Here's the guy's blog |
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| Spyder uses counterweight to hold the device in place. -Henri |
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| I borrowed a HueyPro from a design friend when I got my last round of monitors. It did a bit too good of a job, in that it calibrated the screen to precision but that's not always nice to look at, in the same way that white light from LED lighting is not as nice to be surrounded by as incandescent light with it's yellowed glow. I used the results and then tuned from there to something I like. I will say that on most monitors, especially high end ones, without calibration you're largely throwing your money away (unless you're buying for a specific spec, like refresh time). As for cost, I borrowed the calibrator because they're stupid expensive for something you essentially need once (unless you're a graphics pro and have to re-align regularly). Might be worth trying to find a used one? Handy thing to have around but again, you really only need it once. Or the yet cheaper option, ask a friend with really good vision to calibrate your screen for you. If you've got some color blindness that's probably good enough... I hand calibrated the monitors of another friend of mine since he's color blind as well, he's been pleased. |
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| FWIW: windows 7 and 8 havea built-in calibration tool as well. While it won't help you with color gamut and such like the hardware calibrators do, it will help you with basic contrast and gamma: run the "calibrate display color" tool. (And even if you don't tweak the contrast/gamma, it also gives you the option to calibrate the ClearType font smoothing for your display -- which can make a big difference, because the R/G/B subpixel patterns on monitors can vary in order between manufacturers) |
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