Monitor Calibration

[ilya]

Hello everyone!
I am considering getting a new monitor for photo editing and I am a bit lost in regards to monitor calibration. I am looking at either EIZO CS2420, EIZO CS2731 or BenQ SW270C.
Both manufactures have proprietary calibration software that comes with the monitor.
I have one specific question to someone with experience with Eizo/Benq proprietary calibration software with Datacolor/X-rite color meters and another is more general:

1) In terms of calibration devices, if for example I look at Datacolor Spyder X Pro & Elite, both have the same meter/sensor and the only difference between the models is in the software features where Elite provides more options compared to the Pro model (for which these options are blocked by the software). The same thing seems to be true with X-rite i1 Display & Pro models.
Question - If I am going to use the Monitor's manufacture proprietary calibration software, I assume that this software has all the customization options enabled. Does it make sense to get the cheaper Datacolor Spyder X Pro or the X-rite i1 Display because I only need the color meter or am I missing something?

2) It seems like there are 2 schools of thought on calibration in general - one says to calibrate the new monitor right away and do it often. The other (possibly a minority ) says that unless you print your work, calibration doesn't matter for web sharing because who knows what other people are using to view your pictures.
Question - If I am not printing my photos (at least not for now), should I even bother with monitor calibration?

Thanks all in advance for your input!

 

[bleirer]

You have to decide if you want to be able to run a custom printer profile as well as calibrate the monitor. If it is only the monitor then as far as I know the lower cost ones are fine. If you want to run printer calibrations then the medium priced ones are needed.

Also it's worth a double check to make sure the monitor software can recognize that particular colorimeter. I remember I had an issue on my Benq where it didn't recognize the colorimeter until I deleted the Displaycal software I had installed. Then it was all good.

You can't be responsible for what other people's monitors look like. Calibrate about once a month or so.

 

[marklangner]

I don't know the answer to your question, but thought I'd toss out a few thoughts. I purchased and Eizo and naturally calibrated it (simply if you care). But let me pose this thought. I mix live worship music for livestream broadcast...much like we don't know the viewing device of others, I don't know how good/bad the listening device is for my viewers....what I can do is mix the best possible mix, proper balance, and the end listener gets the best possible "source", and the is subject to the limitations of their listening device. I think similarly in photography....you don't want to be fooled by your monitor having possibly an "off" color cast and not realizing it. If your monitor is calibrated, you have be best chance of creating a "properly" balance image that you send out, and the rest depends on the type of viewing device of the end user.....make sense ????

 

[Tibor Hrnko]

I have a SW321C as my main monitor + Cintiq16 and 2x Dell 2007FP as additional displays. I am using Xrite i1 Display Pro calibration device. For SW321 i use Palette Master Element calibration SW, for the rest of monitors i use iProfiler (PME does not support those monitors and iProfile does not support saving calibration values to SW321 LUT tables)

1. For monitor calibration X-rite i1 DisplayPro is good enough (see above post of Bleirer for further details)
2. Definitively it is useful to calibrate a monitor
   1. It gives fairly good approximation of how the picture will look if printed by a professional printing studio
   2. Provides approximately same color on multiple monitor
   3. Provides stable reference point to post process colors

Comments:

• I am working on W11 PC, 128 GB RAM, Radeon RX Vega
• No SW issues with either iProfile or Palette Master Element (downloaded from BenQ and Xrite sites)
• Investment to a good monitor is worth the price as a typical life span of monitor is easily 2x or 3x longer than the life span of the computer.

 

[fcotterill]

I bought Spyder 5 Elite software with Colorimeter that connects via USB, you hold against the monitor while the software checks calibration and advises corrections if needed. The software shows an auto alert for regular rechecks

 

[dabhand16]

I bought an Eizo monitor from a friend when he went for a bigger one. It has built-in calibration sofware which he used. To my eye it was way too warm so I calibrate with my Spyder X Pro that I already had. I've never tried to use the built-in software. I do not have a projector so don't need the Elite version.

It is so true that you can't control what others will see on their devices, but most will say that a calibrated monitor is best.

 

[bleirer]

You will have some choices to make in the software. There are pros and cons to each decision, but the main point of the exercise is to be able to hold up a print in your consistent viewing light and have it look as close as possible to your monitor. The brighness of the monitor is usually recommended between 80 and 120. If your working environment is dark then closer to 80 is better. If it is a normal room with no light directly on the monitor and no direct window light, then closer to 120. The white point is another choice. D65/6500K is the usual even though your print viewing light might be closer to 5000k. This is because some printing papers are not pure white. For print some people say use D50/5000K is the way to go, while others say this is too wam/too yellow and still use d65 even though the viewing light is 5000K. I use d65 because my prints seem to be a good match. Srgb uses d65 in its standard so I'm told so another reason to use it for web display. The black point I don't understand that well. 0 seems to cause issues for me so .5 is what I pick, but don't have a good reason.

It's kind of a rule of opposites, if your monitor is too bright then your eye will want you to adjust your print too dark and vice versa. If your monitor is too cool in terms of white point you will make your photo too warm. Most laptops come too cool and too bright, so prints end up being too warm and too dark. A calibrated monitor even at d65 will look really warm at first since a laptop is more like 9000k out of the box.

Another reason to set the background in Lightroom and Photoshop to white. Your eye won't want you to brighten an image against a dark background so the result can be too dark.

 

[RichF]

I have had both NEC Spectraview (not in your list) and the Eizo. My Eizo has a built-in calibration device while the NEC use a custom one. Both have their own software and use the LUT in the monitor.

I love both monitor though the Eizo is slightly better, but more costly.