Thanks for the tips!
The monitor should be 100% sRGB but that info is from some really dodgy sources.
But yeah, spectrometer it is. Otherwise I’ll never be 100% sure at what I’m looking at and working on. It’s been bothering me for years now and it’s time I put a stop to that XD
Prepare your wallet.
That is the most scary reply I’ve ever gotten xD
I wish I’d have bought a spectrometer instead of a colorimeter now. A spectrometer is important in making these spectral sensitivity function profiles, as you need to measure the power distribution of the light, and a spectrometer does that.
Essentially, you can point one of those things at just about any object, and read its spectral reflectance. You could re-calibrate a ColorChecker, for instance, or even make your own targets. You may not get into this stuff, but if you think you might…
For the money I’ll be dropping on this thing I’ll be damn sure to get into all of this stuff even if I hear about some of these things for the first time.
DisplayCAL allows you to perform verification of the display calibration and profiling. The produced report gives an objective assessment of the deviations. This doesn’t take a lot of time – e.g. less than an hour for testchart with 490 patches (the duration depends on the measurement instrument).
Even if you trust the factory calibration and profiling initially, you still need to check that the display profile is properly loaded in the OS, otherwise the color managed applications won’t take into account the exact color reproduction characteristics of your display.
Thank you all.
Should I buy a spectrophotometer or colorimeter? What model do you recommend?
Bought one 2 months ago along with a new DELL monitor. I picked a cheaper Dell AdobeRGB monitor instead of a bit more costly NEC to save some money for the i1 Studio. For me as a hobbyist it feels a bit like an overkill, but I don’t want a colorimeter with color filters. And there are not so many options if you want to calibrate your printer as well. Before the i1 Studio I used the colorhug I and II, but both created profiles with color shifts if there is no color correction matrix available.
The i1 Studio took me a bit of time to get it working with displayCAL under Debian 10, because of USB device settings. After creating an udev rule /etc/udev/rules.d/90-xlite-color_cal.rules with
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0765", ATTR{idProduct}=="6008", GROUP="YOURGROUP", MODE="0660"
it works.
The i1 does its job and colors look okay to me. The monitor came with a factor calibration sheet, but I didn’t experiment with the shipped profiles. The colors were definitely off without that profiles.
I’d suggest a colorimeter to start with, and depending on the printer you select, go from there. I’m not sure of your intent, but unless you do a lot of printing on a wide variety of materials, it may not pay to do your own profiling. Also, some printers have a built in spectrophotometer and are capable of printing patches, reading them and generating profiles, and uploading them to your computer. Another route is to use manufacturers media and profiles, as they might be adequate for your needs. There are third party providers who can generate a custom profile for you should you need it.
Also keep in mind that a spectrophotometer will also need factory recalibration every couple years, and you’ll probably find that your profiling software will need updates.
I will just use it to calibrate my monitor. Is a colorimeter enough for the job? For example, Datacolor SpyderX Pro (SXP100) will do a good job and work with DisplayCal?
Thanks.
I have read different things on the internet. Some people think Spyder hardware sucks and they swear by X-Rite. I don’t quite know why. I have no trouble using my Spyder 5, and at least I am able to color match my two different displays without effort. DisplayCal should be your goto software.
That should work, just double check compatibility with your OS and calibration software before ordering your hardware.
I’m using displayCal on my Linux system because my ColorSpyder5 is not compatible with NEC Spectraview on Linux. Displaycal seems to work as well as the NEC software.
Metoo. Some issues often mentioned are that gelatin gets old during the years of use and result are not so accurate anymore and sample variation. Maybe more of an issue if you need really precise profiles? For everyday use Spyder Pro can be just fine and reasonably priced.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m using Linux too.
Thank you all for the feedback. I think that I will buy the Datacolor SpyderX Pro (SXP100).
Just dropped 418€ for an Xrite i1Studio spectrometer. Idk if I should be happy or crying xP Let’s hope I didn’t waste it and that my monitor is decent enough to be worth calibrating.
@ggbutcher Is this a spectrometer which can do this below?
That actually seems quite reasonable for a calibration device which handles monitor, scanner and printer! I’ll look forward to seeing how you get on with the Xrite i1Studio spectrometer, @KristijanZic.
Currently I use an old Spyder2Express with Displaycal. It works for my monitor, but no way to calibrate my printer.
I’m considering this to be a long term investment.
It’s on sale on amazon.de for 378eur but with Croatian VAT of 25% it ends up costing me 418eur with shipping. Oh well… xD
I have huge troubles with my monitors not being calibrated and I wanted a great tool for the calibration job. But I’m really afraid that I’ll still have to buy a more decent monitors. At home I currently have old Apple CinemaHD monitors and the colors are waay off.
Unless your monitors are extremely bad in their gamut coverage, you’ll likely be OK. I’ve been doing a fair bit of editing on my laptop, which seems to have less than sRGB coverage, but since it is calibrated, I don’t see a difference between it and my Dell UltraSharp monitors on my editing machine.
Remember that by calibrating, you’re taking the colors your monitor can display and are making sure those colors are accurate.
Yes. This is a good, general purpose light measuring instrument.
I’m trying hard to come up with a way to measure sensor spectral response without having to measure light power, but that may not pan out. If not, this instrument or equivalent would probably be my first recommendation, as I don’t like buying expensive “one-trick pony” devices. This device would work to participate in camera calibration as well as do display calibration by itself.