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Sysagent
14-Dec-2007, 14:23
There are many of them and I assuming that they are much of a muchness, but which is the best one around the £120 mark?

I know there is the following:-

SPYDER 2 PRO MONITOR CALIBRATOR

PANTONE HUEY PRO CALIBRATOR

GRETAG MACBETH EYE-ONE DISPLAY 2

GRETAG MACBETH PANTONE HUEY

Just be interest if anyone has done any investigative work on them or experiences etc etc...

Ta
Jonkai
14-Dec-2007, 14:25
I use:

http://www.photobox.co.uk/popup.html?name=colourzoom
GroovYF
14-Dec-2007, 14:27
Ah, but what reference do you use it against, Jonkai? :D

How do you know Red is the correct shade of red? :P

I've used the Standard Huey for mine, Sys
Ribby
14-Dec-2007, 14:39
I use:

http://www.photobox.co.uk/popup.html?name=colourzoom
Have you got a calibration print from photobox to compare against the screen?

Mine's on its way.
Jamey
14-Dec-2007, 15:26
Not researched them personally because I can't afford to buy four different calibrators and I don't know three other people who own different ones, plus I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between two monitors that had both been hardware calibrated with different calibrators.

However... Both the big books I've read were slightly in favour of Gretag-MacBeth over Colourvision but I don't get the impression there was a lot in it. For that reason, though, I went for the Eye-One Display 2 and I've been very happy with it.
milou
14-Dec-2007, 15:33
The Spyder 2 Pro hardware is the same as Spyder 2 as it's just the software that's different. I have a long term evaluation copy of the Pro software if need be.
BobC
14-Dec-2007, 16:18
That iDisplay one got flagged up on one of my searches. Is this the one you got Jamey? Where's the cheapest place to get them?

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/eye_one_display2.htm
Jamey
14-Dec-2007, 17:33
That iDisplay one got flagged up on one of my searches. Is this the one you got Jamey? Where's the cheapest place to get them?

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/eye_one_display2.htm

That's the one, didn't realise LaCie used it too and that it had been rebranded.

I got mine from Bodoni:
http://www.bodoni.co.uk/gretagmacbetheyeonedisplay2-p-143.html
Jonkai
14-Dec-2007, 18:32
Have you got a calibration print from photobox to compare against the screen?

Mine's on its way.

Aye, they sent me one when I got the Rose printed :)
Jonkai
14-Dec-2007, 18:33
Ah, but what reference do you use it against, Jonkai? :D

How do you know Red is the correct shade of red? :P

I've used the Standard Huey for mine, Sys

When pictures are awesome as mine, you don't need to fanny about with how the dawn looks ;)
milou
14-Dec-2007, 18:36
Rosy fingered dawn?
Jonkai
14-Dec-2007, 18:38
I fingered Rosy in the morning... it's coming soon... honest!
milou
15-Dec-2007, 10:56
Software only - has great reviews: http://www.displaymate.com/
Ribby
17-Dec-2007, 12:35
Do these tools help you set up your brightness/contrast/gamma as well as colours?
Sysagent
17-Dec-2007, 13:18
Do these tools help you set up your brightness/contrast/gamma as well as colours?

Yes

Ideally you should be working at 6500K - Gamma 2.2 to start with....
Ribby
17-Dec-2007, 13:22
Yeah I am more or less but a couple of small prints have just come back and they're not even close to how they look on screen :(
Sysagent
17-Dec-2007, 14:27
Yeah I am more or less but a couple of small prints have just come back and they're not even close to how they look on screen :(


What did u send them in?

sRGB or AdobeRGB and who to / from?
Ribby
17-Dec-2007, 14:41
I sent them to Photobox and their printers strip the colour profile off the image (so it doesn't matter whether you send them as sRGB, AdobeRGB, etc). I've loaded their printer profile now and, while it looks closer, it's still not spot on.
BobC
17-Dec-2007, 16:25
How did you get their printer profile? I've searched around their site but it says it's not available yet?
Ribby
17-Dec-2007, 16:33
There's a link from the page with the calibration picture to here (http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/colour/generic_profiles/)

I'm using the Frontier 35x/37x Generic Crystal Archive Profile (Photobox use Frontier 370 Printers).
milou
17-Dec-2007, 18:08
Personally I'm not a fan of Photobox after having used http://www.colab.com/. Better colour rendition and quality for larger prints - slightly more expensive but worth it. The three submissions for the Countryfile compo were from Colab and the prints were superb.

Alternatively, buy a Canon :D
Ribby
17-Dec-2007, 18:54
Haha! Thanks for the link m8eeeee.
BobC
17-Dec-2007, 19:46
Personally I'm not a fan of Photobox after having used http://www.colab.com/. Better colour rendition and quality for larger prints - slightly more expensive but worth it. The three submissions for the Countryfile compo were from Colab and the prints were superb.

Alternatively, buy a Canon :D

Speaking of the Countryfile mag, did you know there's a picture of you in the latest edition? Just spotted it the other day in Tesco. Nice one!
BobC
17-Dec-2007, 19:53
David, do you go for lustre or gloss from Colab?

edit: and do you use RoesPro or CrystalPix Pro or send them on CD?
milou
17-Dec-2007, 19:55
I went for lustre as it sounded more sleazy. And cheers about the mag - I had a phone-interview and was promised a freebie copy.
BobC
19-Dec-2007, 00:30
Well just bought one of these ione display 2 things to sort out the new monitor and I can't actually say it's made any noticeable difference to be honest. I'd like to say it made a tremendous improvement but it hasn't. Mind you, I missed the bit where you could get a before and after view so I'll try again tomorrow. Thing was we got it new on ebay and I reckon it was year or two old as all the software was out of date and I had to spend an hour or two chasing up updates and new drivers.

I must admit the monitor seemd pretty sparky straight out of the box anyway - after all that faffing around over samsungs and 24" dells and necs, eventually went for a Hewlett Packard W2207h on a cheap deal in PC World. It seems an absolute stonker so far.
milou
19-Dec-2007, 09:08
That's the thing. My old Acer was great straight out of the box but I had to calibrate the Samsung due to a blueish cast on the mono shots.
Jamey
19-Dec-2007, 13:10
Depends what you're expecting as well.

The chances are your monitor might end up looking darker, duller and flatter than before but the point of a calibrator is not to make things look bright and eye-catching, it's to make things look more like they will when printed.

If you were playing games, a calibrated monitor would probably be awful.
*XeR0x*
03-Jun-2008, 16:53
I have two 22" monitors and need to calibrate them both, they are different makes & models, any advice or suggestions?
Jamey
03-Jun-2008, 16:57
What do you need to calibrate them for?

If it's for proper design/business use then there's no real alternative to hardware calibration. Convince your employer to buy a calibrator.

If it's just because you don't like them being slightly different then I dunno what to suggest really.
*XeR0x*
03-Jun-2008, 16:59
For work... It will be for print/web/video/3d, everything pretty much, Is there any particular calibrator to go for nowadays?
Jamey
03-Jun-2008, 17:06
Not really, both Colourvision and Gretag-MacBeth are reputable companies and both have a variety of decent products.

If your printers are in-house then calibrating them yourself might be a very good idea, in which case you can pay a bit extra and get one of the units that will work on both monitors and printed paper/card too.
*XeR0x*
03-Jun-2008, 17:08
ok, cheers Jamey!
Jamey
03-Jun-2008, 17:14
No worries, shout back if you need help.
Sysagent
04-Jun-2008, 09:09
I have the DataColor Sypder3Pro system which is very good, review here:-

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/profiling/spyder3pro.html

If you're employer is paying up for it then the Elite might be the better option as it has more feature's that are quite nice.

(If you do get the elite version pass on the serial mate pls)

;P