Monitor Calibration help

Ok im lost, looking at all the different calibrators, Which one is recommended? I have a 2012 27" iMac running mavericks.... Budget wise, not really a set budget as such, but would rather not buy the best of the best if it has no advantage for me, I am only a hobbyist

I have a Datacolor Spyder3 that I calibrate my Mac laptop and PC desktop. It has worked well for me. The Spyder4 is out now and they are claiming a bunch of new features and even better performance. I have the Pro model which lets you calibrate multi-monitor systems. It costs about $120 at Amazon.

I use the Spyder3 also. It works well on my iMac 27 running Mavericks. The only issue is the calibration reminder interval doesn't seem to get saved and pops up off and on reminding me to recalibrate.

Get a calibrator that will also adjust the brightness of your monitor. Mine was set for somewhere north of 180 cdm2. Recommended is 80 cdm2. It took my eyes a bit to get used to the dimmer monitor but my prints are looking much brighter.

I'm happy with my Gretamacbeth eye-One display 2 which also claims to be a "professional" calibrator, whatever that means.

Calibrator buying advice

Bringing this back up, I have just calibrated my monitor with a spider 4 pro, And the brightness as suggested was 120cdm2, but after reading Damien's guide whilst setting it up and using his recommended option choices , I went lower than that to 90cdm2 but it still seems really bright, I have sent off some test pictures to see how they come back,

Is it worth re-calibrating again with lower brightness.

Pumba wrote in post #16529346
Bringing this back up, I have just calibrated my monitor with a spider 4 pro, And the brightness as suggested was 120cdm2, but after reading Damien's guide whilst setting it up and using his recommended option choices , I went lower than that to 90cdm2 but it still seems really bright, I have sent off some test pictures to see how they come back,

Is it worth re-calibrating again with lower brightness.

Wait until the test prints come back, and tweak the settings as needed. As to re-calibrating, it's not as much about the brightness but especially about the color-matching.

One thing about the brightness, though: when you check those test prints be sure that you view them in "good" light. This will typically not be the light that you use to edit. Viewing prints should be done in light in which, well, they will be actually viewed, enough light to bring out the details. Now, you can buy lights that will be "neutral" and bright enough...although taking the print outside in daytime but not in direct sunlight can for "normal" uses be good!

And I would think it's not so much colors being off but the brightness of the image on the monitor not matching the brightness of the printed image.

I think most issues stem from LCD monitors that are too bright and the photos are edited to look good on the bright screen. Then when it comes time to print, the print comes out darker than it looks on that bright monitor.

navydoc wrote in post #16529816
And I would think it's not so much colors being off but the brightness of the image on the monitor not matching the brightness of the printed image.

I think most issues stem from LCD monitors that are too bright and the photos are edited to look good on the bright screen. Then when it comes time to print, the print comes out darker than it looks on that bright monitor.

Yeah, to me brightness is a key factor!

What I see, though, is that calibration won't necessarily give the right results, which is why I tone down the brightness right off the bat, then do test prints!

When someone does some prints and complains about the colors, then obviously good calibration comes into play!

Sorry to bring this up from the dead, I didn't want to start a new thread.

Anyway, I recently just got the 30'' Apple Cinema Display and calibrated my screen with the 1iDisplay Pro. Everything looks great!

My question now is when I import the picture to my iPhone or iPad (Retina) the colors are a bit off and the picture is a bit overexposed.

If most of my pictures are being viewed via online (Smartphones, tablets, laptops) how should I calibrate my monitor?

To my understanding, calibrating my monitor is essential when it comes to printing correct?

You're best off calibrating to a standard, otherwise you'll go nuts. Some browsers are calibrated. Some are not. Most windoze viewers are not. A lot of tablets, desktops, & laptops are not. I suspect that those people without calibration won't notice the difference, anyway.

HYPEBEAST! wrote in post #16651331
To my understanding, calibrating my monitor is essential when it comes to printing correct?

I recommend it, unless you're very lucky. ; )

My iPad is not color managed but doesn't look too horrible with sRGB images. Spyder4 has an app that you attach the iPad by USB to a computer with the Datacolor software and it calibrates the app's photo viewer.

Timely thread (resurrection).
Having just got my first iPad with Retina (had a iPad 2 for a couple of years) im finding the same thing.
I have a Spyder 4 and have had great success with calibrating my Dell IPS monitors. I find if i output from LR to JPG i get a good consistent colour.
On my iPad 2 the colours look almost just as good, but on my iPad Air (and iPhone 5S)they seem off. A bit more yellow or green in them, and the blues look more purple.
I cant find anything wrong with the Retina display as such, its even and i cant really detect a colour cast.
Even using the Spyder IOS app makes no difference. I can see a very slight difference between having CM on and off in the app, but the overall look doesn't really change.

dave_bass5 wrote in post #16652413
Timely thread (resurrection).
Having just got my first iPad with Retina (had a iPad 2 for a couple of years) im finding the same thing.
I have a Spyder 4 and have had great success with calibrating my Dell IPS monitors. I find if i output from LR to JPG i get a good consistent colour.
On my iPad 2 the colours look almost just as good, but on my iPad Air (and iPhone 5S)they seem off. A bit more yellow or green in them, and the blues look more purple.
I cant find anything wrong with the Retina display as such, its even and i cant really detect a colour cast.
Even using the Spyder IOS app makes no difference. I can see a very slight difference between having CM on and off in the app, but the overall look doesn't really change.

Are you exporting images out of LR in the sRGB color space? That's about as standard and common as you can get. My iPad Air displays sRGB images just fine in all apps.