What Calibration Kit to Get?

Have been looking around for a few weeks and can not make up my mind!

I have 2x Dell U2311 Monitors.

90% of my editing is done for WEB ONLY. Only 10% or so are print, so I am looking more for proper colour profiles for internet use.

Budget is 250 >

What out there is good for what I am looking for?

There are only 3 complete kits that I would suggest:

X-Rite EyeOne Display 2
Datacolor Spyder3 Elite, vers. 4
Datacolor Spyder3 Pro, vers. 4

Any one of these will do a fine job for what you're describing, but the spyder3 Pro software is limited for setting luminance level.

ChasP505 wrote in post #11783983
There are only 3 complete kits that I would suggest:

X-Rite EyeOne Display 2
Datacolor Spyder3 Elite, vers. 4
Datacolor Spyder3 Pro, vers. 4

Any one of these will do a fine job for what you're describing, but the spyder3 Pro software is limited for setting luminance level.

Okay, I know this monitor is wide gamut and I want to make sure the software can create the profile correctly. Would the Pro V4 hinder this?

crazyfoo88 wrote in post #11784086
Okay, I know this monitor is wide gamut and I want to make sure the software can create the profile correctly. Would the Pro V4 hinder this?

It's NOT a wide gamut monitor, but it does cover sRGB. But if you DID have a wide gamut monitor, the Spyder3's would be my recommendation.

My bad, then what should my action plan be?

crazyfoo88 wrote in post #11784261
My bad, then what should my action plan be?

Eeny meenie minie moe? Rock paper scissors?


All will do a great job. But if you need to hit a specific target luminance value... unless you're very experienced with calibrating monitors, the Spyder3 Pro should be your last choice. If you are very familiar with the tricks of using Spyder3 software, it may be your first choice.

This one.

It's not very hard to get SP3 Pro to measure the luminance, and therefore change it to whatever level you want.

Glad i read this. Price of Monitor. And sp3. MMMM. Just how hard is it to Calibrate. This is coming from someone with NO EXP

Take your time, read everything on every screen before moving forward, read whatever Manual comes with it. It's really not very difficult. A question you may/should have is what luminance to set it to. 90-120, depending. You might start at 120 which may seem pretty dim if you are not used to it (I have mine set to 100) but that's because most people have their monitors set to way to bright and manufacturers usually ship the monitors with the luminance set to max, around 300.

The idea is to get the monitor "brightness" to match your prints, imo. It will never be the same since prints are reflective light and monitors are transmitted light but, eventually you'll find a happy balance.

Let us know how it goes.

If the Pro does everything you'd need, is there any reason to get the Elite?

I use X-Rite's Color Munki. It's a complete system and work very well.

Indecent Exposure wrote in post #11786502
If the Pro does everything you'd need, is there any reason to get the Elite?

Of course not. If 120cd/m2, 6500k, and 2.2 gamma are the calibration parameters you want, it's fine. But if you're an advanced user and need custom settings, the Spyder3 Pro comes up short.

If you're a total beginner, stick to the default presets in Spyder3 Pro.

Just curious why you are spending all this effort. Do you have a large online customer base that will view your work with calibrated monitors?

JakAHearts wrote in post #11795119
Just curious why you are spending all this effort. Do you have a large online customer base that will view your work with calibrated monitors?

You have no control over how an image will appear on other peoples hardware, but if you are calibrated to a "standard" you have several adantages: you know that people who also have calibrated systems and color managed software will come close to seeing things the same way, you will be able to go from one color managed app to another in your system and have things reasonably consistent, and last but not least if you have a color managed flow with printing, you have the best chance of your prints reasonably matching your screen. This can be extended to working with external labs/print shops who provide tools to manage your printing process.

Is it work? Sure. Is it absolutely guaranteed? No, because there is too much variety of monitors, with many people viewing using "consumer" monitors which won't cooperate very well and only a few using top-of-the-line professional monitors (and editing environments) with a huge price tag but very accurate. Then, there is a lot of (most in fact) photo viewing software out there that is "dumb" when it comes to color management. Plus, there is a big "variables factor" in printing -- printer, paper, ink and software processing that can be tough to factor in.

So, as to whether it's worth it, well, all we can say is we ave people here all the time who complaing because their colors "don't look right" either after saving an image and opening it in "some other software" or in print or whatever. Some of this is to be expected, but some can be helped along by good color management. It's up to you whether you care!