calibrating a Dell 2408WFP with the Spyder3 Pro

[rickywck]

I have bought 2408WFP and used it as the external monitor of my MacBook Pro. I've tried to calibrate the 2408WFP with Spyder2Pro but no matter how I tweak the settings (such as reducing the RGB values as well as the brightness), I still cannot get the same color from 2408WFP as my MacBook Pro in Lightroom or PS CS3. For some images, the difference can be quite big, e.g.there is a image I took in night, afterI tuned the WB to get very good looking skin tone in my MacBook Pro screen, it looks yellowish and quite bright in 2408WFP.

Setting aside the the brightness issue, at least I want the monitor to have accurate color. Would getting the Spyder3Pro and recalibrate could help ?

[René Damkot]

Originally Posted by rickywck

For some images, the difference can be quite big

You are saying the difference is different for different images?

I think something else may be going on then. Otherwise, the difference should be constant between images I think... (since both screens are calibrated (although one may be off) and both systems are color managed.)

If one screen were simply too bright and yellow, it would be so for any image I think...

[bunyarra]

Originally Posted by rickywck

I have bought 2408WFP and used it as the external monitor of my MacBook Pro. I've tried to calibrate the 2408WFP with Spyder2Pro but no matter how I tweak the settings (such as reducing the RGB values as well as the brightness), I still cannot get the same color from 2408WFP as my MacBook Pro in Lightroom or PS CS3. ?

The Spyder2Pro cannot calibrate the Wide Gamut Dell. Acknowledged by ColorVision. You could have upgraded the unit to the new Spyder3 earlier this year for a meagre discount. I was also caught out by a calibration tool that was sufficiently damaged so as not to be compatible with newer LCDs (I upgraded to the Dell 2 months after buying the SP2 unit).

Colour on the Dell is good now I have got a Color Munki and matches the printer (also calibrated with the Munki) very well.

[MikeT]

Originally Posted by bunyarra

The Spyder2Pro cannot calibrate the Wide Gamut Dell. Acknowledged by ColorVision. You could have upgraded the unit to the new Spyder3 earlier this year for a meagre discount. I was also caught out by a calibration tool that was sufficiently damaged so as not to be compatible with newer LCDs (I upgraded to the Dell 2 months after buying the SP2 unit).

Colour on the Dell is good now I have got a Color Munki and matches the printer (also calibrated with the Munki) very well.

How are your shadows. I have calibrated mine with Spyder3 and like the others I find that I am losing alot of details in the shadows. The overall picture is darker. Still trying to find a sweet spot to calibrate this monitor at.

[bunyarra]

Originally Posted by MikeT

How are your shadows. I have calibrated mine with Spyder3 and like the others I find that I am losing alot of details in the shadows. The overall picture is darker. Still trying to find a sweet spot to calibrate this monitor at.

The Dell, when looked at from the front, has an inherent issue with shadows. If you move your head to the side, the details reappears. I have not not heard of anyone being able to recover the very dark shadows with any calibration - it is a pain

[rickywck]

Originally Posted by bunyarra

The Spyder2Pro cannot calibrate the Wide Gamut Dell. Acknowledged by ColorVision. You could have upgraded the unit to the new Spyder3 earlier this year for a meagre discount. I was also caught out by a calibration tool that was sufficiently damaged so as not to be compatible with newer LCDs (I upgraded to the Dell 2 months after buying the SP2 unit).

Colour on the Dell is good now I have got a Color Munki and matches the printer (also calibrated with the Munki) very well.

May I know what settings are you using now ?

I've bought the Spyder3 end-up. I have different settings and I'm not sure whether it really give significantly better result than the Spyder2.

So far, I found that if we really want to match the screen of 2408WFP with the screen of MBP, I should set the DELL to sRGB and calibrate it with Spyder. sRGB looks very plain but after calibration, color is ok for all those color manged app. If I set the DELL to custom RGB (I've reduced the value to 80), I can still see some difference on color no matter how I calibrate both monitors (I've even tried to "match" two monitors with the feature in Spyder3).

[MikeT]

Originally Posted by bunyarra

The Dell, when looked at from the front, has an inherent issue with shadows. If you move your head to the side, the details reappears. I have not not heard of anyone being able to recover the very dark shadows with any calibration - it is a pain

So you have a shadow issue even with the Colormunki? According to what you said the only way that I can get past this is by viewing my picture from the side? So are you saying I should view it from a 45~ (degree angle), or am I misunderstanding you? If I read you right, I can adjust my screen by a certain angle so that when I view it I get a correct image? Do you have a guess at the approx. angle at which you can get a correct picture.

Sorry I am at work and cannot test it out atm.

[amorrison]

Those of you using the Colormunki, do you find that the end to end type solution gives you any better prints? Does the Colormunki adjust contrast and brightness, or just color balance? I have the 2408 dell also and my Pantone Huey worked fine for my CRT, but not for the 2408. I will have to upgrade to some other color management device. Was just wondering if the end to end control that Colormunki provides also adjusts brightness and contrast so prints would more closely match the screen in those areas too.

[bunyarra]

Originally Posted by MikeT

So you have a shadow issue even with the Colormunki? According to what you said the only way that I can get past this is by viewing my picture from the side? So are you saying I should view it from a 45~ (degree angle), or am I misunderstanding you? If I read you right, I can adjust my screen by a certain angle so that when I view it I get a correct image? Do you have a guess at the approx. angle at which you can get a correct picture.

Sorry I am at work and cannot test it out atm.

As I understand it (and someone please correct me), this is an issue with the VA panel it uses. All manufacturers offering LCD screens with this type of panel will suffer from loss of shadow details when viewed straight on. No way to calibrate round it - none. Moving your head to the side a bit reveals details and is worth doing before finally saving an edited file.

The upside is that the Dell has one of the best contrast ratios of the current affordable 24" monitors and, once calibrated, offers exceptional colour accuracy.

I had to set up a custom RGB setting of 62/61/62 and then calibrate after in order to get the contrast/brightness right. The sRGB mode was totally unusable for me ; no idea why Dell offered such a useless feature. If anyone has managed to set up the unit in sRGB mode and make it functional under both XP/Vista and Photoshop etc. please do tell me how.

With regard to prints, I am not a fine art person and can only say that I have been happy with the accuracy of the canon i9950 vs Dell 2405. And I use non-OEM inks (the Kyson CiS system) just to complicate matters further

[Bob_McBob]

I recently purchased a 2408WFP in a Dell Days sale, and I'm also having colour calibration problems. I decided to buy this LCD because my laptop's screen is absolutely useless for photo editing. Uncalibrated, colours are dull and ugly, and calibrated, they're garish. However, the main issue that drove me to this is that the blue channel is far enough out of spec that my calibration software generates profiles that make pure blue (0,0,255) look purple. This drove me nuts over the Winter, having all my snow photos come out purple in Photoshop. I just gave up on a calibrated workflow and disabled colour management. I've since noticed this issue on pretty much all 6 bit TN panel LCDs.

I was really excited to see lots of reviews of the 2408WFP that show its wide colour gamut easily encompassing the sRGB standard. No more purple blues! Unfortunately, I've been unable to get my calibration software to generate a profile that covers the blues properly. Pure blue is BLUER than my laptop, but still very obviously purple. I'm using Firefox 3 with colour management enabled, and it's pretty obvious that blue text is somewhat purple. If I compare the profile with sRGB, some of the sRGB standard (blues) falls outside what the monitor can show.

I've tried various combinations of settings, but nothing gets me a nice profile that encompasses sRGB and gives pure blues in colour managed software. I have also noticed the lack of shadow detail noted in this thread, but I think I can live with it. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do about this blue/purple issue? Can I see anyone else's profile examples?

I am using an original Eye One Display with the latest Eye One Match software.

[René Damkot]

Long thread here.

[Bob_McBob]

Originally Posted by René Damkot

Long thread here.

I wasn't asking about profiling a laptop LCD. I gave up on that a long time ago.

[Bob_McBob]

In this comparison from a review, the sRGB plot clearly falls within the range of colours the monitor can display:



When you make the same comparison with my monitor profile, sRGB falls outside what it can display, like Adobe RGB in the previous comparison:

[stillresonance]

I'm using and i1 display 2 to calibrate and get a pretty accurate calibration. In the results screen it shows a very straight plot. As suggested by other posters I did have to tweak the RGB settings to get the extreme brightness under control. I'm using the custom RGB mode and I set Red 62, Green 60, and Blue 62. Then profiled using "native" for the color temp. My prints match pretty much spot on so far.

What settings on the monitor are you using before starting the calibration?

[dragosbrd]

I tried to calibrate my monitor with spyder2. I don't know what i did wrong but in lightroom or Photohop the colors look kind of purple. I downloaded a color profile created with spyder 3 and the same result. I have vista x64 and 9600Gt grafic card.
First image with no calibration(no color profile in color management)
Second after using spyder2
http://www.diginews.ro/forum/index.p...e=post&id=8805