Monitor Profiling Hardware

[BoySpot]

I have been reading through a number of the threads on monitor profiling and I wondered whether there is anything to bring me up to date on the products. I read a website that withdrew its approval of Colorvision due to problems with older monitors. Now there is a Spyder 2 which some of you seem to have. Monaco are also mentioned and they seem to have an old and a newer version of their equipment (not including the stuff that runs into thousands of dollars).

Which ones do you have and would you recommend them to a friend (I figure you are less inclined to upset a friend than a stranger like me!!)? Also, a lot is made of profiling the monitor but how many of you go through any process to profile your own printers? Is this a worthwhile exercise since I imagine all printers of one type are not identical. The same goes for scanners (flatbed and film) I guess.

A complex situation with a simpleton looking for some simple answers.

Thanks

[grandad35]

If you really want to set up a color managed workflow, you should first plan on many hours of a (reading/studying/take headache pills) sequence - repeated many times. It isn't really rocket science, once you understand it. It's a little like trying to learning how to drive a car by just reading a book or having an instructor describe it to you - you can't. You must learn by reading/studying/doing until the entire process of driving (color management) gradually sinks in. There are numerous links on the web to help get you started. Each of those links will point to other links .... Read lots of them; leave lots of time.
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/color_management.htm
http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html

You can have a service bureau periodically calibrate your monitor/printer/scanner. The printer and scanner can be calibrated remotely, but the monitor must be done on-site, so you obviously need to find someone who is local for this service. As it is recommended that you recalibrate your monitor once/month to correct for aging, you might want to consider one of the low cost (a few hundred dollars) systems for your monitor and have the printer and scanner calibrated by a service bureau. Alternatively, you can buy a system that can calibrate all 3 devices for about the cost of a 20D body.

To make an intelligent decision, you have to look at how many paper/ink combinations you will be using and whether you can find free profiles for your combinations on the web. If you need custom profiles, remember that they should be rerun if the printer/paper/ink is changed.

If is amazing how good the print colors can be with a custom profile (even the grays), even with low cost/refilled carts and low cost photo paper. Will your savings on ink/paper pay for the cost of a profiling system? Costco (Kirkland) paper and bulk ink can save close to $1 per 8x10 over OEM ink and paper. Can you afford the time mentioned in the first paragraph to learn how to generate accurate profiles? If not, maybe a service bureau is your best bet. You could also have your critical photos printed by an outside service and avoid profiling your printer.

What program do you use to print? Photoshop is designed to use custom profiles, but it only likes to print one image at a time. There are other "color aware" programs like Qimage that are also designed to handle custom profiles and are which can print multiple images/sheet, but they will cost a few more $$ and take a little time to learn.

There is no single right answer - you first have to identify your color management quality requirements and printer usage to make a good decision.

[stuv]

Hi Check out Gretag MacBeth's Eye One Photo package - not cheap but probably the best on the market!:lol:

[blue_max]

I recently bought the X-Rite Monaco Optix XR (basic).

It is a hardware monitor profiler and comes with a puck that measures the screen and software.

It delivers you an icc profile and works fine. I have no colour printer, so can't test if it is accurate. My intention was to have a monitor that could be consistent no matter what, without my having to make any colour judgements.

If I get a printer, I will get one of the printer calibration packages and that should be as good as it gets.

I may buy one of the Gretag MacBeth colour charts, that you shoot with your digital camera and the software scans in the results and give a profile. I really don't intend to spend a lot and the monaco was the cheapest on the market (and got good reviews).

It all depends on what you require it to do. There are products to do most anything and lots of things to spend your money on.

Graham