Monitor Calibration

[Tabvla]

I would be grateful to receive feedback from Forum members as to the best method(s) that they have discovered to calibrate both CRT and LCD monitors.

The only products (current version) of which I am aware are the "Pantone Huey Pro" and the "DataColor Spyder3Elite". The Huey is half the price of the Spyder but based on reviews that I have read seems to do an equally good job.

Q1. Do any Forum members have practical experience of using these products?

Q2. Are there any other tools/methods/solutions that will provide accurate monitor calibration?

Q3. Do monitor calibrators only calibrate colour? Or can other aspects such as Brightness; Contrast; Saturation.... also be calibrated?

Question 3 is particularly important because I have several monitors and my photographs render differently on every monitor, not only in terms of colour but also in terms of Brightness; Contrast and Saturation.

TiA for your replies.

T.

 

[pxl8]

Only the spyder will let you adjust the brightness so it's the same across monitors, the huey s/w only has basic targets for colour temp and gamma. The Spyder has the option as part of the calibration process to allow you to adjust the RGB, brightness and contrast controls on the monitor to achieve the correct colour temp and brightness in cdm2.

Calibration works by setting the profile of the monitor to match a known standard, the s/w reads a set of grey/coloured squares and evaluates how far away from the ideal they are. The resulting profile adjusts the display in two ways - the "gamma ramp" for the gfx card and also a profile that's used by colour aware applications such as photoshop to fine tune the results.

There are other makes besides the huey/spyder, the EyeOne and Color Munki are 2 that spring to mind.

 

[seriousrikk]

I use a Spyder 3 pro which works just fine on CRT & LCD

They calibrate brightness, contrast & colour - which will sort out saturation too.

edit: and a more complete reply from pxl8