Colormunki, Smile or dispaly?

Peter69

Peter69

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Peter
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Looking for some screen calibration.
Wex appear to be the best price to buy them with Color munki Smile @ £67, Display @ £118 or i1 Pro @ £160. At the moment there is a £30 off color passport too.

The reviews I've read say the smile has the best calibration but for only 1 device.
Is the extra £50 worth it for a display?
Is the extra £88 worth it for the display & passport?

I use a laptop only which I sometime connect to a Samsung HDTV (which does its own think with the image profile).
 
Get the Display version. The software is vastly superior. No idea what reviews you've been reading but the Color Munki Display is a superb device and well worth the money. The i1 Display Pro is also worth it, simply because the colorimeter itself is supported by so many other pieces of software, including Eizo's Color Navigator and is in fact the ONLY colorimeter supported by the Dell software that hardware calibrates the latest generation of Dell monitors.
 
I have the colour munki and it does a great job of calibrating my twin 24" BenQ LED monitors. Apart from a slight difference in white the colours on the two screen match exactly to the naked eye.

I also have the Kodak Professional colour management kit and the calibration between the original sample photos supplied by Kodak as part of the kit, my monitors and my print outs are unbelievably close.

Whichever one you go for I would not be without mine now.
 
valb said:
Apart from a slight difference in white
Click to expand...

That shouldn't be happening. White point is one of the things calibrated. Both monitors the same age? LCD panels have a tendency to go yellow in the highlights when getting worn out.
 
Yes both monitors are about the same age but not necessarily made in the same batch (if you get my meaning). Both are LED not LCD. We are talking about very very slight difference and of course there is no white ink in a printer so pure white does not actually print.

It could be down to the difference in viewing angles for the two monitors and how their respective locations might effect their ambient temperature when calibrating. Either way it is not an issue for me as the print outs I get are spot on.
 
Valib, you say you have the colormunki. Which one?
For your monitor have you tried swapping them around? It could be an affect of on psu being near the others control circuits.
 
valb said:
Both are LED not LCD.
Click to expand...

No.. they're LCD. LEDs are just the backlighting. The actual panel that creates the image is a LCD panel.

valb said:
We are talking about very very slight difference and of course there is no white ink in a printer so pure white does not actually print.
Click to expand...

That's true, but there's no real reason after calibration, why shouldn't be identical. Are both screens using the same display modes prior to calibrating? Most screens have presets of some kind, and usually a native, or custom colour mode. Are they both in native/custom?

If you're not bothered... I don't suppose it matters. No offence, but the screens in question are fairly low end panels, so it may well just be manufacturing inconsistency in backlighting. They'll be using cheap, white LEDs for backlighting instead of proper RGB LEDs, or CCFL, so it's probably that. Just cheap monitors. If they're the ones I suspect they are, they might even be TN panels too... which have huge viewing angle issues.
 
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Sorry guys but I don't see how this dialogue is helping the OP with his original post.

Let's leave it there. As I say the difference is very very slight and it does not bother me. So any further discussion is pointless.
 
valb said:
Sorry guys but I don't see how this dialogue is helping the OP with his original post.
Click to expand...


With all due respect... I think it does help the OP. You suggested there's a minor difference between your screens when you calibrate with the Color Munki, which there should not be, so establishing what the cause of the problem is, is actually something he's probably very interested in. If I was seeking advice on what calibrator to get, I'd not want to buy one that can't calibrate 2 screens to look identical.

I'm sorry the conversation may have made me narrow my eyes suspiciously at your monitors... but I've had no such issues with the Color Munki, or it's big brother, the i1 Display Pro.
 
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Hi guys, without knowing what Val's monitor spec is its hard to guess why they off white - I would guess its the back light as what ever this colour is can't be corrected with any calibration but the coloured areas can be made to compensate the slight colour cast from the back light.

Val, what color munki have you got, the display?
 
@Peter69 The Color Munki Display is perfect. We use it at work to calibrate 18x 27" iMacs, and they all look identical when calibrated. Val has a monitor issue... not a calibrator issue. You're assumption is correct.. it's highly likely to be inconsistencies in the back lighting between the two panels.
 
Thanks pokey. Why I'm thinking smile is I only have 1 screen and I'm tight/ skint. But wex display & passport could persuade me.
 
I'm sure the smile will be OK. Just never used it personally so can't vouch for it, and the software looks very basic. If you're on a tight budget though, it may well be the one to choose.
 
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