Monitor Calibration Equipment Recommendations

I'm looking for advice/recommendations on equipment to calibrate my monitor.

My current computer hardware is a Dell Precision M6400 laptop with an NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M 1GB graphics adapter and a 17" WUXGA RGB LED 1920 x 1200 screen. I am running 64-bit Windows 7 SP1.

I would like to calibrate my display for both color and exposure. In fact, exposure/brightness often seems to be my biggest problem. I've manually dimmed my screen to try compensate for what can be a very bright display. I use the histogram in Photoshop when converting RAW files. I sometimes print test images on my Canon printer to gauge whether or not what I'm seeing on the screen is what I'll get in print. But even when the prints off of my printer look good, the prints I get back from labs such as Mpix often come back darker than expected. (Do these labs make automatic adjustments to pictures before printing them?)

Thanks in advance for your help. If anyone has suggestions not directly related to calibration hardware, I welcome those comments as well.

I personally use an Eye One 2 Display unit for all my needs. It will measure ambient lighting as well. You can purchase additional modules for doing printers, TV, projectors and a few more I believe. Well worth the money. You still need to get all color management workflow setup regardless though. Good luck to you.

Spide3 Elite, or a cheaper version of the Spyder3 and different software.

i opted for the spider3 studio sr, which includes spyder3 elite, as i've started to print my own photos. the resulting profiles were excellent. the colors across my workflow were so far off before, and now my prints come very close to what i see on the screen. very happy with it.

Thanks for the replies and thanks to whomever moved my message. I debated between this forum and the "Accessories and Storage" forum and chose the latter since these devices are "equipment".

I have a couple of additional, follow-up questions:

1. According to what I've read, most standard monitors can display 72% of NTSC while "high gamut" monitors will display +95% of NTSC. According to Dell:

How many types of colors are supported on a certain complete subset of colors? 42–45 percent is typical on a standard CCFL panel. Dell Precision laptop panels with RGBLED backlights offer 100 percent color gamut for the ultimate experience in working with graphics and color.

I've read comments that both the Spyder 3 Elite and i1 Display 2 give mediocre results when calibrating high gamut monitors (with the Spyder perhaps doing slightly better than the i1D2). Are these comments/concerns legitimate? If so, what is recommended for a high gamut display?

2. Should I consider the ColorMunki Photo? Frankly I'm a bit confused about where or how the ColorMunki fits into the X-Rite product line. I didn't find any feature comparison for their various products. And, the ColorMunki actually shows up under accessories for the i1 Display 2. Any insight to these matters would be greatly appreciated.

Been using Spyder products for close to 10 years now. They work fine if you know what you're doing. It's accurate enough that I can reproduce fine art reproductions 100% accurately.

http://www.drycreekpho​to.com …rCalibrationHar​dware.html

amonline wrote in post #12623158
Been using Spyder products for close to 10 years now. They work fine if you know what you're doing. It's accurate enough that I can reproduce fine art reproductions 100% accurately.

+1 to this. Most users who have problems are those who ask for advice, receive it, but then don't follow it.

Also, just as an FYI:

http://www.robgalbrait​h.com …age.asp?cid=7-11622-11688

X-Rite unveils i1Display Pro, ColorMunki Display (updated)
Monday, June 20, 2011 | by Rob Galbraith

Kirk