Is it really worth it I wonder for a digital darkroom? I'm thinking this as I'm looking at a color adjuster. How can you use this more than once only? I might like to get one of these, not this one necessarily, but something similar.

Does anyone have any experience or tips on products like this?

I’m about to put my money down for the Eye One Display. Which is very similar to the one you’re looking at. It will get used quite frequently because the colours on all monitors change over time.

There is a cheaper one from GretgMacbeth called Huey. It’s specifically designed for the budget minded user. Apparently it uses terms like “web use” and “for print” rather than SRGB or ARGB etc.

the Huey is a Pantone developed product and is fine as a budget option - all of the Eye One products are developed from Gretag technology and are generally speaking excellent in most repects as is the Spyder - originally a Pantone product but now marketed under a different brand I understand.

hmm, interesting..... I was considering getting one of these because one of the 8x10's I recently got printed at Black's was alot brighter/saturated than on my screen. Which ended up wasting $6 or so...

Is there one brand/type that is better than another?

I have the Huey that Uncle Phil mentioned above and I like it. It calibrated my monitor and it tells you to re-calibrate about every 30 days or so. Other than that, it just sits there and every two minutes checks the room lighting and corrects the monitor on the fly...so night vs day you should be looking at the same colorings. I guess that's how it works.

ah ic ic, that's really rather a nice thing to have. Does it sit beside the monitor in order to check the lighting?

Yes, right beside the 'ol monitor. 8~)

It has settings to allow what you want to utilize it for; Web Browsing & Photo Editing, Graphic Design & Video Editing, Warm - Low Contrast, Warm - Etc., Etc., Cool - Low Contrast and Etc., Etc., Gaming and so forth.

Just thought i would mention that i have had the same problem with blacks in the past. I'm not 100% sure, but from what i have gatherd they do some image adjusting before they print. I think thats what their vivid prints that they advertise means. I have found that going to futureshop has worked better for me. They come out much closer to what i have on my screen. I think blacks is probably great for those who don't do much to their pictures themselves, but when you have done all the fine tuning yourself, you don't want someone else (in this case probably an auto computer program) to touch your color. Anywho, this has been an opinion based on observations so it might not actually hold very much truth:P.

hmm, interesting, thanks for the tip Milo. I'll try Futureshop next time I get some prints made.

I was also considering just buying a high quality photo printer, but I don't really know anything about printers. My preference has always been Canon (they've always worked well for my regular printing needs). But I remember Epson used to be really good for high quality printing (probably 8 years ago or so). Any thoughts or ideas on a high quality photo printer?

if your worried about getting prints back from the lab that don’t meet your expectations - the easiest route to alleviate this is to ask the lab for the icc profile for their mini lab - usually a Fuji, Mitsubishi or Kodak machine - and convert your images to that profile in your image editing program.

Gretag are the best of the best when it comes to colour calibration but can run into the thousands rather than the hundreds of the Eye One or Spyder Pro products.

I generally don't print anything at home due to the cost. $$$

Mpix.com does a very nice job for online photo order, they give you the option to "color correct" or not. So if you have a good monitor calibrator and like the look of your photos then you'd select "do not color correct". Is that right guys? You could always do a couple test images of pics along with an upload of a GretagMacbeth ColorChecker and see how it turns out. Now where could one find one of these GretagMacbeth ColorChecker thingys? Hmmm..

~taps finger on head~

Oh yeah, I think Uncle Phil gave us one of those RIGHT HERE .

Phil's note about the ICC profiles is spot on too, I's just giving another possible option.

thanks for the tips! I had no clue about the icc profiles, I'll have to give that a try.

How do you use the GretagMacbeth ColorChecker? I don't quite understand what to do with it :S

I think that the Pantone or Gretag monitor profilers are better than the Colorvision......I had a Spider for a while and didn't like it at all. I'm now using the Eye One Display and I'm quite happy with it. Here's a resource for color management tutorials and a database for printer profiles. drycreekphoto.com

ah, icic, thanks for the link it's very informative!

Does anyone know of a reliable review site for printers?

i've had the best luck taking my pictures in calgary to 'Nova photofinishing' they do a really good job, the colours arent messed up like blacks does, and the paper sits flat unlike futureshop prints. the only problem is they're downtown, and cost an extra dollar or two for an 8x10

nuts! I sent an 8x10 to black's to get printed yesterday! oh well, I'll give nova a try next time I want something printed. I don't really care how much it costs to print an 8x10 (unless it's outrageous) because it'd probably be cheaper than me buying a print of someone else's work.

Thanks for the tip about Nova, I'll get the next batch of photos printed their, hopefully I remember!

here's a question from a not very bright photographer. does the spyder help you correct for setting proper and correct lighting. my problem is that all my monitors look different. i have two mac laptops (do those count as monitors?). do i calibrate them as well as my (usually attached) apple monitor? i also have an older HP laptop set up with a trinitron monitor. i guess one of you should come to my house with your correctly adjusted laptop and straighten me out. thanks..................

Yes!! If it's a screen you view, you can calibrate it!!