Which device do you use to calibrate your monitor?

Eye One Display Two.

Lowner wrote in post #8642493
Eye One Display Two.

+1.

Very happy with this.

Had a Spyder2 pro before, but that wouldnt accurately calibrate the wide gamut display (HP LP2475w) I got late last year, so I moved up to the Eye One.

Spyder3 hardware combined with ColorEyes Display Pro software. It makes calibrating a non-frustrating, almost pleasant task. Consistently excellent results.

Chas is that Spyder3 Express? I've been looking at that.

Lowner wrote in post #8642493
Eye One Display Two.

yep

neilwood32 wrote in post #8637087
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.

Quoted for truth.

I hate to see people spend more than they can reasonably afford on a monitor, because they've been told that anything less will give poor results. For a lot of folk, an affordable monitor coupled with a reputable calibrator is absolutely fine.

Lowner wrote in post #8642493
Eye One Display Two.

Yep.

Jannie wrote in post #8666194
Chas is that Spyder3 Express? I've been looking at that.

I'm talking about the Spyder3 hardware combined with a software called ColorEyes Display Pro. More advanced calibration software, while the Spyder3 Express package is targeted at non-technical casual users.

If someone was interested in the Spyder3/ColorEyes combo, they'd actually save about $35 USD by buying the Spyder3 Express for the hardware, then purchasing the ColorEyes software alone.

Damo77 wrote in post #8669946
For a lot of folk, an affordable monitor coupled with a reputable calibrator is absolutely fine.

Let's qualify that... An affordable "quality" monitor. As a popular example, the Dell 2209WA. My experience is that many merely "affordable" monitors absolutely refuse to be hardware calibrated and are better off used with only some tweaks of the monitor controls.

ChasP505 wrote in post #8671021
Let's qualify that... An affordable "quality" monitor. As a popular example, the Dell 2209WA. My experience is that many merely "affordable" monitors absolutely refuse to be hardware calibrated and are better off used with only some tweaks of the monitor controls.

I said this earlier, but some people don't believe it. Different display technologies make a significant difference in how well--and even whether--you can accurately calibrate the display. This is especially true with regard to setting the proper brightness and contrast levels (the primary cause of "prints too dark" is a display that's too bright).

You can get descriptions of the various technologies out of Wikipedia, but basically, the most common low-to-mid priced display uses "twisted nematic" (TN) technology, which is very bright and very fast...but very difficult to impossible to control for brightness/contrast. It's almost ubiquitous on the low end (<$500 USD), especially among displays touted for "gamers."

At the high end--displays designed for graphics professionals--you find "in-plane switching" (IPS) technology, which is the ultimate in automatic calibratability. But you won't find many of those displays much below $1000 USD.

Between $500 and $700 USD, you can find "vertical alignment" (PA) screens that can be adjusted manually (trial and error, for the most part) for proper brightness/contrast, not automatically through the calibration device.

It is certainly true that "good enough" various enormously from person to person...

...but if we're talking about people who spend thousands of dollars on cameras, thousands of dollars on lenses, constantly searching for the "good copy," constantly buying the latest camera and lens technology...it's questionable economics for those people to suddenly get concerned over the $300-400 difference between a monitor that can be properly calibrated and one that can't.

I fully agree with RDKirk. Personally, I look for the maximum return for my investment within a frugal hobbyist photographer's budget, often called the purchasing "sweet spot" or "bang for the buck". Not to be confused with the lowest price. That's why in regard to calibration devices, I can't justify wasting money on anything less than an EyeOne Display 2 or Spyder3 Elite, both selling for around $175-200 USD.

Sticking with this philosophy, I intend to Buy the new Dell U2410 as soon as it's available for $479 again. It has features and specs comparable to monitors at twice the price.

Maybe I got lucky by accident, but I've been entirely happy with a "very" cheap Samsung Syncmaster 910n flatscreen monitor bought entirely on price. This is my first flatscreen, purchased as I started to experiment with digital capture and my 30D.

Lowner wrote in post #8681534
Maybe I got lucky by accident, but I've been entirely happy with a "very" cheap Samsung Syncmaster 910n flatscreen monitor bought entirely on price.

The 910n's were quite good as compared to the junk Samsung is selling now. Do we have to dredge up the old topic of the infamous Samsung S, A, and C panels? I happily used both the 910n and 710n for a long time. They are still in use in my company's corporate office.

I tried to calibrate Imac 24" with Spyder Elite and with it's own sofware, but i did not work . The software can not reduce the monitor's brightness under 200ccd/m2, but ColorEyes Display Pro does it.

Spyder 3 Pro on a HP LP2065 (IPS). Perfect.