Monitor Calibration

[malcolm]

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When I replace my desktop computer, I may go from PC to Mac. Presently use a Spyder for monitor calibration. Would like to know what aspects of iMac or Mac Cinema monitors can be individually calibrated. Do you use bundled Mac calibration software or 3rd party? Are there 3rd party monitors of price equivalent to Mac which are better for digital image processing (Capture One; Photoshop)? All comments welcome.

[andybarton]

I use an iMac (one without the glossy screen)

 

I use a Spyder to calibrate it, but when compared to using the built in calibration tools (in the OS), there is virtually no difference.

[Overgaard]

I use a Pantone MacBeth spyder to calibrate my iMac glossy screen and there's a lot of difference from manual calibration.

 

Which is why I got the calibration tool. The old iMac was easy to calibrate manually.

 

I wrote a blot about it here:

http://thorstenovergaard.uber.com/blogs/I_see_colors__and_I_see_luminance_145_cdm2.html

[malcolm]

Andy andThorsten,

Thanks for your replies. What specific parameters (gamma, white point, B&W luminance, brightness, contrast, backlight, RGB sliders, Kelvin sliders, Kelvin presets) can you individually adjust when calibrating a Mac monitor?

[Overgaard]

As for the Pantone calibration, I first run the "manual" adjustment as that reads the actual luminance of the screen and gives you the recommended value to set it to (which you can then adjust via the keyboard, selecting between 1 and 16 'clicks'). As described in the blog article, that turns out to be 6 clicks for an iMac, 9 for a MacBook and 11 or 12 for a MacBook Pro.

 

Then, in 'automatic' calibration (which is the recommended one), you can accept the recommended Gamma and Kelvin, or change those setting, and then the calibration will run the rest and fix a profile.

 

There's no specific black and white or any other - and there's certainly no buttons on the display itself to adjust (as you have on for example the 'old' tube screens).

 

The iMac 24" is said to have more colors than the 20" by the way. In general, my experience is that all the Mac screens these days are of almost same quality. The laptops tend to be not as clear, but have improved greatly since two years ago where for example the 12" iBook was really off. Overall it's great value for the money. I even considered top-displays some years ago but decided not to pay 6x the price for a 10% improvement. At least for my needs.

[malcolm]

Thorsten,

Thanks.

[pleeson]

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I use the older, slower version 2 of Spyder on my 24" aluminum iMac.

Gamma 2.2, rest is just automatic.

Post-correction image is much warmer, and a little darker -- the baseline setting almost has me reaching for sunglasses....