Which device do you use to calibrate your monitor?

Lately my print photo's have been coming back looking quite a bit darker than what is displayed on my monitor. From what I understand, calibrating your monitor is the first step in correcting the problem. I don't want too spend more than I need to, but I don't want to go cheap and wish I had spent the few extra bucks either. My question is what do some of you photographer's use to calibrate your monitors. Thanks in advance everyone.

Pantone Huey. Requires no expertise and works quickly.

Thorrulz wrote in post #8635412
Lately my print photo's have been coming back looking quite a bit darker than what is displayed on my monitor. From what I understand, calibrating your monitor is the first step in correcting the problem. I don't want too spend more than I need to, but I don't want to go cheap and wish I had spent the few extra bucks either. My question is what do some of you photographer's use to calibrate your monitors. Thanks in advance everyone.

I use Spyder. However, if your prints are dark, the most likely cause is a monitor that's 'way too bright. Most low-to-moderate colorimeters won't correct for that, and unfortunately there are a lot of monitors of a technology that can't be satisfactorily dimmed.

What you need is a monitor that can be dimmed to around the brightness of a sheet of print paper--about 90 candelas per square meter.

I'm not a monitor technology maven, but the lower end monitors touted as "ideal for gaming" are usually very bright (250-300 candelas per square meter) and are of a technology that can't be dimmed without grossly distorting the color balance. It's a TN technology that's both very bright and cheap. In my recent shopping, most "gamers" monitors in the low-to-moderate price range fell into that category.

The top end "professional" or "expert" monitors ($1000 USD and up) are of satisfactory technology that can be directly dimmed as low as necessary, and you can find some "business" and "enterprise" monitors that you can jockey using their brightness and contrast controls.

Generally speaking, if it's bright and quick enough for gamers and cheap (under $500), it may not be a technology that allows acceptable dimming.

The wife and I have both been using Huey Pro for about 1.5 years. Seemed to work well until recently (Mac 10.6 upgrade?) and now won't keep its calibration on either monitor.

Its worked well up until this point though.

spyder3

EyeOne Match - I love it and it's pretty spot on. Used it to calibrate both my laptop and my desktop and they match pretty closely now.

Spyder3 Elite...

I never knew how far off my monitor was until I used it!

I was quite surprised!

We have some new flat panels and I really need to calibrate them. I see our work on other monitors and can't get to a computer fast enough to pull them offline.

Jon.

Have to say i have one of the "cheap" gaming monitors that RDKirk is on about and I have calibrated it pretty well with a Spyder 2.

It is certainly a heck of a lot better than uncalibrated and although it might not be "perfect", the difference between the screen and prints is minimal.

Spyder

Spyder3 Pro. Photos appear on-screen just as they appear out of the printer. I'm super happy.

Eye-one

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=715493

Thorrulz wrote in post #8635412
Lately my print photo's have been coming back looking quite a bit darker than what is displayed on my monitor. From what I understand, calibrating your monitor is the first step in correcting the problem. I don't want too spend more than I need to, but I don't want to go cheap and wish I had spent the few extra bucks either. My question is what do some of you photographer's use to calibrate your monitors. Thanks in advance everyone.

Calibration is really two actions...monitor brightness + contrast, and color reproduction control.

Many calibration tools don't really adjust the monitor, they tell you simply to start with a certain gamma setting, etc. and go from there to adjust the color reproduction via lookup table (LUT).

Use this to adjust fundamental brightness and contrast first...

I'm seriously thinking of buying the Spyder 3 Express in the next few days and will be using it on a new iMac 24" with OSX Snow Leopard which just came out, any comments, should I wait a while because it's a brand new operating system?