Monitors: Are they a priority for you?

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Name
David
Edit My Images
No
I'm doing some research to gather some data for the digital imaging content of a BA Photo course, so I'd appreciate some feedback regarding computer monitors if you don't mind.



I won't start a poll, because they're too limited, and don't allow the granularity I'd like, so instead, if you could please answer the following questions. No personal data, should it become available, or volunteered, will be displayed, published or used - only the reply data on this specific subject will be used.

Please read read the questions carefully.

1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.

  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment.

7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you?



Thanks.

Feel free to argue, debate, bicker or fight to your hearts content.. all I ask is that when replying, make it a separate post, so I can filter out the chatter from the posts with data.

:)
 
You should of saved this one for a Friday night bun fight :bat:
 
1 No

2 Yes

3 £865

4 £5000

5 £1100, i use an all in one PC

6 3

7 No

8 No, for reason see 6

9 No, dont care as i dont calibrate, my equipment is factory calibrated

10 Not at all, its over hyped, the average human eye struggles to differenciate between a few thousand different colours let alone millions
 
1.No.

2. No.

3. Free gift.

4. Same as above.

5. Believe it or not, a friend bought it for me in return for some work - so free again!

6. 5.

7. No.

8. No. Better things to spend my money on.

9. No.

10. Not at all. 99% black and white.
 
You should of saved this one for a Friday night bun fight :bat:


Only interested in gathering data. I'll save comment for when I have sufficient, if any interesting debates arise :)
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)

Nope

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).

Yes
3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?

Circa £2k
4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?

circa £40. (Although my actual latest lens was actually swapped outright and is more like £500)

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).

I have a laptop, have never bought separate editing monitor.
6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.

  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment.

a 3. Somewhere inbetween, since printed medium is far more important to me than the screen it's briefly shown on.
7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?

Yes, by eye. Calibrators don't work on my screen. so I spend some time making a profile to match my desired output.
8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.

If I was in the position to, and was working on much more critical things than I do now then yes. I'd pay whatever was necessary to get the spec I'd need, but right now, I don't need anything better than I already have.
9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?

Nope, seems to be a very boring techie thing that I just don't care about to be honest!
10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you?

It would annoy the hell out of me if my prints didn't turn out as expected, but I can't say as I'm all that obsessive about it, probably since they do turn out as I expect and I don't really have reason to obsess!
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)

No

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).

No

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?

£320

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?

£3350

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).

£430

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.



    • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment.
2 - I just like have a 'pretty decent' monitor u2410 to view my photos on

7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?

Yes, Spyder Pro

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.

No, my last digital SLR was about £1700 - maximum I would consider spending on a monitor is ~£1000

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?

No

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you?

I don't print much - so I haven't needed to pay much attention to it, but colour inconsistency really would annoy me.


I'd like to add, I am an avid pc gamer so a decent monitor has always been important to me.
 
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1. No

2. No

3. >£2000

4. >£700

5. 17" Laptop >£1000

6. 3

7. Tried it once, but calibration software didn't want to know...probably user error.

8. No

9. No

10. Not important to me, I rarely print my shots and you can do pretty much anything in pp these days
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography) No

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography). No

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera? £1280

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens? £40

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging). £400

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.

  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment. 5
7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how? No

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why. No - I do not need a "pro" monitor

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration? Yes

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you? Do not use it
 
1) No

2) No

3) £1400

4) £1600

5) £500 (laptop)

6) 3

7) No

8) No ( Never placed any importance on a monitor)

9) Nope

10) Never gave it a thought.... (Not entirely sure what the difference is between a fully colour managed work flow and a non fully colour managed work flow)
 
1. No
2. No
3. £1500 approx
4. £400 approx.
5. £400 approx.
6. 1
7. Yes colormunki
8. No
9. Yes
10. Don't print at home so would say moderately.
 
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1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)
Yes

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).

No

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?

1800

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?

749

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).

650

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.

  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment. Agree
7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?
Yes, using hardware based calibrator

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.

No

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?

Yes

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you?

It's important but I try not to go OTT


Thanks.
 
1. No

2. No

3. 380

4. 400

5. Currently using a Mbp retina. Approx £2800. Last actual monitor I bought was a second hand CRT for approx £50 before I got into photography.

6. 3

7. Colormunki

8. Possibly if I print more frequently than I do currently AND if I was flush. But more likely not.

9. Yes

10. I try but I find it confusing despite being a bit of a geek. So many settings in different places!
 
1. No.

2. No.

3. £1000

4. £700

5. £530

6. 1 - However for my use the montior is as important as the rest of my PC as well as camera. I bought it due to the design/style and it allows 3d gaming / movie playback.

7. No.

8. No.

9. No.

10. It's not for me.
 
1. No

2. No

3. £869

4. £625

5. £520

6. 3

7. Yes. Eye One Display Pro

8. Yes, if I thought it brought about a benefit elsewhere.

9. Yes

10. Very, but I don't print - I just like to get it right
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)
No
2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).
No
3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?
£1660
4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?
£480
5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).
£220 (Dell U2412M)
6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.
  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment.
1
7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?
Yes - x-rite i1 Display Pro
8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.
No - I want a better monitor, but think I should be able to get a suitable one (as a non-pro) for less than the cost of the camera
9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?
Yes, but only in general terms
10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you?
It is important in as much as I would prefer to see things as they should be, rather than important as they are going to be printed or used elsewhere.
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)
Yes

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).
No

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?
£2500

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?
£1500

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).
£400

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.
- The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment.
In theory: 1
In reality: 3

7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?
Yes - Colormunki

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.
No - a £2500 24" monitor would be overkill for my needs - do they exist?

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?
Yes

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you?
Moderately important

Additional note FWIW:
I'm aware the quality of my current, carefully picked, monitor is ideally a bit below par. But in all honesty, it's far superior to the uncalibrated monitors used by my immediate clients. Once I acquire higher level clients, who demand higher production standards, I will very happily invest in a better monitor. Until then my money is more usefully allocated to other areas of the business. However, if funds allow, it's on the top half of my list.
 
Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography) No

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography). Yes

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera? £700

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens? £695 (?)

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging). £150

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.
  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment. 3
7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how? Yes - Spyder Express

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why. Yes if I had the money -No because it's not that much of a priority (what I have is 'good enough')

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration? Yes

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you? I'm not sure mine is 'fully managed' , I have printer profiles from the lab and I calibrate my monitor.
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)

Yes

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).

No

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?

Retail price is £1,049

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?

Retail price is £899

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).

£1,500 - I use an iMac

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.
  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment.
1.

7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?

Yes, Spyder 3 pro.

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.

it depends. Like all of my equipment I view it as a tool

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?

Yes

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you

Fairly.
 
1. Yes
2. No.
3. $3,000 (Australian, about £1,600)
4. Don't remember, probably about $1,800 (~£1,000)
5. $2,200 (£1,200) five years ago, but it came with an iMac wrapped around it.
6. 3
7. No, well, not outside very basic software calibration.
8. No. ROI would be horrendous / non-existent for the work I do.
9. Yes.
10. Not overly, within reason. Probably 90% or more of my work is only ever viewed on screens. That which is printed is either in a newspaper (so why bother trying) or in a magazine, where it will be molested by a graphic designer before it goes to print anyway. Long time since I printed anything for exhibition, but when I did, I just checked files on the lab's screens prior to print.
 
No - a £2500 24" monitor would be overkill for my needs - do they exist?

Not 24" no... but you can pay more than that for a 30" That question reaches a limit depending on what you shoot on. It would becomes a redundant question in certain cases... D4, or MF gear etc. It should suffice for most though.
 
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Not 24" no... but you can pay more than that for a 30" That question reaches a limit depending on what you shoot on. It would becomes a redundant question in certain cases... D4, or MF gear etc. It should suffice for most though.
if someone could afford £2.5k on a monitor i doubt they would want one as small as 24" which is pretty much an entry level size these days
 
if someone could afford £2.5k on a monitor i doubt they would want one as small as 24" which is pretty much an entry level size these days

Indeed.
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)
No.

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).
No

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?
£1450

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?
£669

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).
£545

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.
  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment. 2

7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?
Yes. Adjust settings by eye to match calibration print from printers.

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.
No. £550 is as much I'd pay.

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?
Yes.

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you?
Moderately.
 
1. No
2. Yes
3. £988
4. £415
5. £250
6 2
7. Yes colour munki
8. No paid over £3.5k for Nikon D4 would not shell that much out on a monitor
9. No
10. Fairly important as we design albums for printing etc
 
1. No

2. Yes

3. £1500

4. £1200

5. £800

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.
  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment. 2

7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how? I calibrate it very crudely, using a simple test via the cambridge in colour website. It is not perfect, but I've got it better than it was from the factory.

8. £1500 for a screen is heavy, you can get a decent matt green I was recommended for under that. I made the fatal flaw of using a gloss screen and rely heavily on histograms to distiguish from complete black to well, not black but damned dark.

9. Vaguely.

10. It is not unimportant.
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography) retired, life time professional photographer, now amateur

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography). No, None of my work is sold.

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera? compact £450

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens? £860

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging). £350

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.



    • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment. (As a professional) 1 (as an amateur 4)
7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how? with a huey pro

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why. no, as long as I keep the original un -corrected file I do not need perfection on the working file. ( I am unlikely to purchase another DSLR)

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration? Yes

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you? Not very as I do not take it as far as the cheap printer I own. Were I selling my work it would be vital.



( if It were apparent that other peoples work produced on high grade fully colour managed systems, looked sub standard on my system, then I would spend/ do what was necessary to correct the situation.) as very few of my own photographs are ever compared on such setups. I do not feel the investment would be worth while.


 
Pookyhead..
I know that you are teaching aspiring photographers, and I appreciate it is necessary to raise their expectations as far as image quality goes. But the results I have seen over recent years at various degree shows ( not your own), are often more defined by sub standard technical quality, than they are by the subtleties of well managed tones and colour.

Is this new course materiel an attempt to instil more quality awareness in students.
 
Is this new course materiel an attempt to instil more quality awareness in students.

It is, yes. We're rewriting level 4 to try and "unlearn" the amateur reliance on post processing, and part of this is a focus on work flow, RAW quality, and instilling all aspects of quality at an early stage. Hopefully these things become embedded and "normalised" before they move into level 5 semester 2 and level 6, as then, they are concentrating on the concepts of their work and rarely have time for technical training.

Also.. year on year... students are coming to us with fewer and fewer decent camera skills, so every year this gets harder. 10 years ago we hardly taught ANY technical aspects. It was a given they had all that. Those times are gone I'm afraid.
 
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It is, yes. We're rewriting level 4 to try and "unlearn" the amateur reliance on post processing, and part of this is a focus on work flow, RAW quality, and instilling all aspects of quality at an early stage. Hopefully these things become embedded and "normalised" before they move into level 5 semester 2 and level 6, as then, they are concentrating on the concepts of their work and rarely have time for technical training.

Also.. year on year... students are coming to us with fewer and fewer decent camera skills, so every year this gets harder. 10 years ago we hardly taught ANY technical aspects. It was a given they had all that. Those times are gone I'm afraid.

Good to hear it.. I hope other institutions are going down this route as well..


I had an after thought ... The Huey pro is fairly useless at accurately defining greyscale brightness. I keep a Step wedge on my desktop in 26 steps from 5 to 255 which I use to establish that I can see differences between every step. On my cheap monitor it is difficult to determine between the first two and last two steps but there is a visual difference.
It is perhaps necessary to check the actual values in an image (in photoshop) when using less than perfect equipment.
 
That's part of the issue. Cheap monitors, even ones that are calibrated sometimes really struggle to distinguish subtle differences in shadow and highlight levels. Other comments so far are questionable too, such as not feeling the need to calibrate because of shooting mainly B&W. It's the extent of knowledge I'm interested in getting data on. Of course, colour is just one factor in calibrating, and more important, is gamma and white point... not everyone realises this.
 
9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?
What are you distinguishing between software and hardware calibration here? Do you mean Windows calibration tools vs calibration using a hardware device calibrating the graphics card LUTs or do you mean hardware device calibrating the LUTs on the graphics card vs something that is calibrating the monitor response by manipulating the LUTs in the monitor?
 
That's part of the issue. Cheap monitors, even ones that are calibrated sometimes really struggle to distinguish subtle differences in shadow and highlight levels. Other comments so far are questionable too, such as not feeling the need to calibrate because of shooting mainly B&W. It's the extent of knowledge I'm interested in getting data on. Of course, colour is just one factor in calibrating, and more important, is gamma and white point... not everyone realises this.

Any one brought up with film would understand the need to control gama by development. And how to best utalise the straight portion of the curve. Rather fewer would know how to take advantage of the compression at the shoulder and toe.
With digital there is no natural toe or shoulder but photoshop curves allows the production of an equivalent S curve on demand.
While tones are best controlled by lighting and exposure, digital development can be as critical as chemical development.
From my experience we see far more bad b&w, diplaying poor tonality, than we do unacceptable colour.

It is diffficult to find subject matter that is best displayed with out a true black anywhere. Poor differation between tones simply produces muddy and ill defined results.

yesterday I was asked to copy small wartime photograph that had been printed on kodak velox paper, the quality gives tones unlike anything we see today. The shot was taken probably on vericrome (orthochromatic) film. Which always gives the effect of being taken with an orange filter. Producing strong skin tone and deeper skies.​
 
What are you distinguishing between software and hardware calibration here? Do you mean Windows calibration tools vs calibration using a hardware device calibrating the graphics card LUTs or do you mean hardware device calibrating the LUTs on the graphics card vs something that is calibrating the monitor response by manipulating the LUTs in the monitor?

If I explain it, I'll corrupt the data for those yet to answer :)

If curious, PM me.
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)
No

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).

No

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?

1300

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?

1100

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).

350

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.

  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment.
4

7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?

yes, Colormunki

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.

No, not unless I started to earn money from my photography. I feel my current monitor is adequate.

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?

No

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you?

Very. I'm currently having issues with my monitor. In LR pictures look warm, when exported as a JPEG and uploaded to Flickr etc they're much cooler. I want to print and frame some of my shots so its crucial the image that comes off the printer matches the image on my monitor.


done
 
1. No

2. No

3. £400 (x100)

4. £450 (70-200 f4 L IS)

5. £800 (Dell U2711 back in late 2010)

6. 2

7. Yes, i1 display calibrator

8. Yes, good monitor is a pleasure to use, bad monitor is painful to use. Photography is also not my primary hobby, it's gaming and tweaking computer.

9. No, but I know you harp on about it :p

10. Not very to be honest, because I'm not professional. I get my monitor colour calibrated to reduce eye strain
 
1. Are you a professional Photographer? (your entire income is from photography)

No

2. Are you semi professional photographer? (part of your income is from photography, or your income is REGULARLY supplemented by photography).

Yes

3. How much did you pay for your last purchased camera?

~£1200

4. How much did you pay for your last purchased lens?

£60

5. How much did you pay for your last purchased computer monitor? (used as your main screen for photography or related digital imaging).

~£300

6. Please indicate using 1 to 5 whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: 1 is strongly agree, and 5 is strongly disagree.
  • The monitor is at least as important as the rest of my camera equipment.
2

7. Do you calibrate your monitor, and if so, how?

No. I have done, but I don't now. I calibrated my monitor twice, once when it was new out of the box, and again when it was about a year old. I thiink I used a spyder pro, both times it needed no adjustment .

8. Would you pay more for a monitor than you paid for your last digital SLR camera? If yes, state why. If no, state why.

No. No need for anything that high end, and if I did have that money burning a hole in my pocket there are about a million things above it on the list of importance.

9. Would you, if asked, be able to explain the advantages of hardware calibration as opposed to software calibration?

No, not a clue.

10. How important is a fully colour managed work flow to you


No idea what that is. I don't print much myself. Clients buy prints directly from my website and I have never had anyone moan that their prints looked funny.
 
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