Wawa Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Just wondering which color calibration device forum members find easiest to use. I just want to check color display, I'm not looking to spend big bucks on calibrating printers, scanners, etc... Keep it low cost as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbimages Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I still use my old Spyder 2 which is excellent with my Eizo monitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Being on a tight budget, I use the low-cost and basic colormunki Smile (silly name but who cares). It gets good reviews and seems to do a decent job. Super easy to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDoug Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 I use a Spyder 3 that I've had for some time, see no need to upgrade to a later model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Chriss Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 I also use Spyder 3 works fine for me. As always budget is the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 None. Just whatever comes with Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 I've got the X-Rite i1 Display Pro for monitor calibration and X-Rite colorchecker passport photo for camera body calibration and white balance setting. IMHO Monitor calibration is much more important than camera body calibration, but I find it useful as I've got Lumix and Canon bodies that now produce closely matched output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyMelbourne Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Just wondering which color calibration device forum members find easiest to use. I just want to check color display, I'm not looking to spend big bucks on calibrating printers, scanners, etc... Keep it low cost as possible. You may be creating a problem to fix. Firstly you do not say what computer you are currently using. I personally use Macs and I have never had a problem straight out of the box and that includes 27" imac and 2 macbooks that I have never calibrated. I have a lot of prints printed out by labs that are always spot on without any lab calibration and pretty much all childrens portraiture so have to be right. Secondly, and more importantly, I have had a look at your portfolio and I cannot see any obvious colour cast so there may not be a problem. In the distant past in the old pc days I often calibrated my screen and tried out various gizmo's and methods and generally created problems one way or another. In short 'if it ain't broke don't fix it". Sorry if it's slightly off of the precise question but hopefully my answer will generate some food for thought. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Gaul Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Also using Spyder 3 pro, but it's working differently on Windows 10 to my old 7 system which died. Not sure if I will be forced to upgrade to a more recent Spyder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Spyder 4 Pro on Windows 10. I will use that version until I need to upgrade to allow it to run on my latest system. I moved to 4 when I could no longer get suitable drivers for Spyder 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Spyder 3 - haven't updated to more recent model. Ought to recalibrate by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 None. Just whatever comes with Windows. Windows default colours are too warm IME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Walker Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Out of interest - how do these calibrators work? ie. Do they adjust what your PC sends to the monitor or do they actually adjust the monitor? John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Out of interest - how do these calibrators work? ie. Do they adjust what your PC sends to the monitor or do they actually adjust the monitor? John It's usually a bit of both. If your monitor has adjustments (brightness, contrast, colour) the calibrator and software can guide you through tweaking them to get the best starting point. Then, in most cases* the final adjustments are made by altering what the PC sends to the display. *I believe some top end displays can store color profile adjustments internally in look up tables. If the display has no adjustment (laptops may only have brightness), then all the adjustments are made by altering what the graphic card sends to the display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 None. Just whatever comes with Windows. Windows default colours are too warm IME. I thought the opposite was true. I found the Windows default display colour was too cool. So, if I adjusted my images so they looked right on an uncalibrated Windows display, they were much too warm when displayed on a correctly calibrated display (as I found out to my cost when I started submitting to Alamy). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 None. Just whatever comes with Windows. Windows default colours are too warm IME. I thought the opposite was true. I found the Windows default display colour was too cool. So, if I adjusted my images so they looked right on an uncalibrated Windows display, they were much too warm when displayed on a correctly calibrated display (as I found out to my cost when I started submitting to Alamy). Interesting. I know virtually nothing about this stuff. With Windows 7, I find that after calibrating my monitor, the "before" colours always look considerably warmer than the "after" ones. I much prefer warm tones, so I always have to be careful when adjusting colour temperature. I probably have a tendency to warm things up too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 I don't use any and I'm usually very happy with the colours Canon cameras produce. Editing on a MacBook Pro also helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeRay Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Actually the current iteration of Apple computers are pretty accurate with their colour calibration. I have a 27" iMac and a MacBook Pro and checking with my Spyder Pro 4 I found no need to make any adjustments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Those who are saying that calibration is not necessary would certainly take a different view if they were doing their own colour printing in a colour managed workflow. This is not about obvious colour casts, it's about getting accurate colours. Sending images off to a prolab is not a great indication that one is doing everything right as the lab will probably do a colour correction unless requested not to do so. The good labs tend to be very good at this so you might never know if your image did not have accurate colour. In my opinion, if you are doing anything that is really colour-critical such as colour portraiture or flower photography, then it is really essential to have a properly colour managed workflow and the only way to do that well is to use hardware calibration. If you are sending images to somebody else, the only way to be reasonably sure that they are seeing more or less what you intended them to see is to all work in a colour managed workflow. And it's not just about colour, it's also about brightness and the only way to get an absolute measure of brightness is by hardware calibration (the raw histogram is helpful here though). Most computer monitors are turned up way too bright leading to images that are too dark when viewed on other monitors. As a Mac user, I don't agree that Mac monitors of all flavours don't need calibration either. For one thing, they are usually way too bright and don't show detail in highlights that is actually in the image and the default profiles that come with Mac monitors are way off in colour in my experience. The eye-brain thing can adapt to anything. I use an X-Rite ColorMunki Photo which allows me to make custom printer profiles as well as monitor profiles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lewis Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Hi All I use an i1 pro to keep things profiled between devices it just take the guess work out of colour management especially if printing .(saves time and waste) I must say I calibrated my new MacBook and can't see much difference between Apples out of the box profile and the one generated by the i1 Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 I use a Spyder 4 which I find very good Kumar (the Doc one) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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