Another Calibration Puzzle

[Seesee]

Was just about to buy a Spyder 3 Pro calibration set up, but now I'm not sure I should, the more I google on the subject the more confused I become

Cant seem to find the relevant details of my monitor to set up a Spyder 3 properly, all I have found so far is........

ASUS VW 222U monitor
2ms response
Flat Panel LCD/TFT
22 inch
2000:1 contrast ratio
max resolution = 1680 x 1050
brightness 300CD/M2 { whatever the hell this means ? }
Backlit I think ?

Been googling for a while and have found no more info on my monitor than that. Also been searching for comments regarding using the Spyder 3 pro on various monitors and found a couple of comments basically stating that as a general rule Spyder 3 Pro calibration is quite good, but apparently on any monitor valued at under around $800.00 is not going to work well. My ASUS I think always looks dam good, colours always look very natural, comments on forums I post to indicate that, but seems maybe it's a waste of time buying a good calibration tool for this monitor as it doesn't rate in the high price bracket.

buggered if I know .....any thoughts ?

[Tannin]

Strikes me that your monitor (like almost all cheap ones) is way too blue. This would explain why, as a general rule, your posted photographs tend to be too yellow.

You won't get good colour accuracy from a TN Film monitor, especially off-axis, but you can get a very significant improvement by running the Spyder over it.

Indeed, calibration is more important with cheap screens than it is with good ones. For example, I just bought a new Spyder 3 Elite because I've lost my damn Spyder II, which would have done fine, and calibrated my two big photographic-grade Samsungs, Belinda's photographic-grade Dell, and my non-photographic grade laptop screen. The Samsungs and the Dell changed barely at all - because, being fine monitors, they were pretty accurate in the first place - but the laptop screen, a cheapish TN Film panel very like the one in your Asus, has changed a great deal, and very much for the better. i now regard my laptop as usable for revire and post-processing, where it was unusable before calibration.

Short answer: do it. It is absolutely worth it.

[Seesee]

Strikes me that your monitor (like almost all cheap ones) is way too blue. This would explain why, as a general rule, your posted photographs tend to be too yellow.

You won't get good colour accuracy from a TN Film monitor, especially off-axis, but you can get a very significant improvement by running the Spyder over it.

Indeed, calibration is more important with cheap screens than it is with good ones. For example, I just bought a new Spyder 3 Elite because I've lost my damn Spyder II, which would have done fine, and calibrated my two big photographic-grade Samsungs, Belinda's photographic-grade Dell, and my non-photographic grade laptop screen. The Samsungs and the Dell changed barely at all - because, being fine monitors, they were pretty accurate in the first place - but the laptop screen, a cheapish TN Film panel very like the one in your Asus, has changed a great deal, and very much for the better. i now regard my laptop as usable for revire and post-processing, where it was unusable before calibration.

Short answer: do it. It is absolutely worth it.

No one ever told me my images were too yellow....why wasn't I told ?.DOHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!

[Kym]

Colin - borrow my Huey Pro and try that for a couple of weeks.

ANY proper calibration is better than none.
At least you can see the difference and it can be turned on/off is a couple of mouse clicks.
Take 60 seconds to install and a couple of minutes to calibrate.

If you get a Spyder the Huey software uninstalls cleanly.

[gcflora]

Colin - borrow my Huey Pro and try that for a couple of weeks.

ANY proper calibration is better than none.
At least you can see the difference and it can be turned on/off is a couple of mouse clicks.
Take 60 seconds to install and a couple of minutes to calibrate.

If you get a Spyder the Huey software uninstalls cleanly.

Wow. Gotta admire the support people give others on this forum!

[Seesee]

Ok.....I think I'll just buy the Spyder 3 pro and experiment, only one way to work it out and that's just do it.

[ricktas]

it will work and it will work well. The issue with cheaper monitors is they are 'unstable'. The same colour can vary across the screen due to brightness, colour rendition issues. So the exact same colour could look brighter on the left of the screen than the right. This is just purely related to cheapness and quality.

But, a spyder 3 will improve it generally, compared to a non calibrated screen. The trick is to re-calibrate regularly, to counteract any changes in the screen.

[Tannin]

Take Kym up on his offer for sure.

[Calxoddity]

we just thought you liked yellow...

[TOM]

they say that you should calibrate every week or month (i can't remember), but i don't do it. does anybody? you can hire a sypder from Total Photographics. unless you are doing critical commercial work, i don't think that the shift every six months is going to be enough to be concerned about. hiring the sypder for TP would certainly be viable option. at least you could try it a couple of times.

[JM Tran]

they say that you should calibrate every week or month (i can't remember), but i don't do it. does anybody? you can hire a sypder from Total Photographics. unless you are doing critical commercial work, i don't think that the shift every six months is going to be enough to be concerned about. hiring the sypder for TP would certainly be viable option. at least you could try it a couple of times.

if your monitor is constantly being shifted around the studio or office or swiveled, then you should calibrate every 2 weeks

if the monitor remains static and never moved then every 3 months is fine