Eye one Display/Photo experience?

[Java_Guru]

...hmmm...there seems to be quite a few pple interested in color mgt stuff in this room.

Anyone got their hands on a Eye-one Photo / Display for calibration purposes? Itching to get one buit for the prohibitive price onthe Eye-one Display. sigh. If u have feedback, pls post here.

PS : The only forum I now read on dpreview is Printer and Scanner.

 

[tomcat]

Spyder is much more affordable. CP is having a promotion on this series.

 

[Watcher]

I have a Eye-One Display and have been using it monthly to ensure the profile on my monitor is accurate.

Yes, CP is selling the Spyder. Please note that the Spyder has two grades: Photocal and Optical. Photocal is the lower end one which can only calibrate CRT. The i1-Display can produce profile for both CRT and LCD screens.

Also on DP Review, you have heard people not happy with the Spyder, but never of the i1 Display...

 

[tomcat]

I got the Spyder with PhotoCal from CP. It can calibrate both LCD and CRT monitors by the way. Comes bundled with free original Adobe Photoshop Album 1 disk too. No problem with the Spyder so far. Spyder has been around a long time already and Eye-One is a newer and supposedly more accurate analyser. However if you are just a hobbyist, it might not be worth the price difference to get the more expensive Eye-One analyser. Comments on dpreview about Spyder has not really been adverse about its use but rather by people who could afford the Eye-One but bought the Spyder first and now wish that they had bought the Eye-One because of the better specs of the latter.

CP has both the Spyder and Eye-One series. You can always check out the specs and price difference before deciding. If money is no object, get the Eye-One by all means. If not, the Spyder is more than sufficient for hobbyist use.

I found that how accurate the ICC profile you get depends a lot on the monitor which ever the analyser you get. You would get a more accurate profile if you can adjust the RGB values manually during the calibration. Not all monitors allow the user to do this. Many notebook LCD sceens do not have this flexibility for example.

 

[Watcher]

My mistake, the old Photocal can only do CRT. Please check if CP is having the newer version.

For a comparison, please take a look at this review

Note that software has a bug where the profile generated is wrong if your white point is not D50. According to Dry creek, the patch was in beta as of Aug 03, so make sure that it has been patched. Therefore the preference for the GM i1 on DPReview is not simply your perception of sour grapes like you make out, Tomcat.

 

[Darren]

My mistake, the old Photocal can only do CRT. Please check if CP is having the newer version.

Actually, PhotoCal is only the software portion - the hardware is the piece that needs to be compatible with LCD as there is an additional attachment required for the Spyder hardware to be able to calibrate/profile LCDs.

Used to use the Spyder, but upgraded to Eye One Display and am a happy camper so far with the Eye One.

Eye One display provides (to my humble eye) a much cleaner calibration than the Spyder, and the hardware is easier to handle (the Spyder required you to attach/detach an additional filter depending on what type of monitor you were calibrating).

 

[tomcat]

I am all for Eye-One, just not professional enough to need one or rich enough to buy one. So Spyder will do for me for now. Just don't understand how any one could read 'sour grapes' in my comments though. :cry:

 

[erwinx]

I am all for Eye-One, just not professional enough to need one or rich enough to buy one. So Spyder will do for me for now. Just don't understand how any one could read 'sour grapes' in my comments though. :cry:

I agree...

How times change. Before the eye-one was introduced, everyone was singing the praises of colorvision spyder (go read the earlier online reviews). Now, the Spyder is seen as a 2nd-rate product even by mere amateurs now that a 'better' and more expensive product is out (spyder is US$149 and the eye-one is US$239). [not directed at anyone, just general impression from reading various online forums]

Its the same thing everywhere - new and improved photographic-related products are introduced, but has the quality of the photographs taken increased so as to justify spending on the more expensive product?

Myself? I'm still printing in sRGB because thats the easiest way to achieve WYSIWYG results in an uncalibrated system Eventually, once prices drop, I shall think of a fully calibrated workflow.

 

[Watcher]

I am all for Eye-One, just not professional enough to need one or rich enough to buy one. So Spyder will do for me for now. Just don't understand how any one could read 'sour grapes' in my comments though. :cry:

Aiyah, relax lah Sour grapes not with you, but the way you protrayed the Photocal users eyeing the i1

The US list price (before any special off ) between the Photocal and i1-Display is only US$40. Couple with the report about the bug in the software, I would recommend EyeOne. Most people find D50 too "warm", including myself which are using either D65 or D92.

 

[erwinx]

The US list price (before any special off ) between the Photocal and i1-Display is only US$40.

The official list of Spyder Photocal is US$169. I guess that makes i1-Display's list price US$209. If not, then thats the 2nd fact about the Spyder you got wrong in this thread, unfortunately, the 1st being that Photocal can only calibrate CRT.

 

[Horus]

Boy...just shelved out S$600 for the above from CP. It's very easy to use and I skipped right to "Advanced" mode adjusting the RGB settings and white point balance to create a custom monitor profile. Just note that the RGB values fluctuate wildly while calculating the colour values of the "white point" though. Have to let it stabilize and "average" out to get the right value (you're supposed to match actual values to the pointer indicated by adjusting your monitor). Will know how good it is when I do prints later on tonight

 

[Watcher]

Wow you paid a lot for it!

The price at Colormall is only US$240. The shipping is less than US$50 IIRC. Total is about US$300->S$510.

The price for Spyder is dropping like hell. Now, at US$149. Not too long ago, the list price was almost twice, at US$288 list!. Unlike certain people, I'm not so boliao to chase prices or other's omission...

From your description, you're using a CRT, right?

 

[Horus]

Wow you paid a lot for it!

The price at Colormall is only US$240. The shipping is less than US$50 IIRC. Total is about US$300->S$510.

The price for Spyder is dropping like hell. Now, at US$149. Not too long ago, the list price was almost twice, at US$288 list!. Unlike certain people, I'm not so boliao to chase prices or other's omission...

From your description, you're using a CRT, right?

*sigh...yeah boy. it's expensive. i had the opportunity to get it from a friend visiting the US. But then there's no warranty or service support. WHAT IF it is spoilt? *suay....so I just bit the bullet and got it. Was considering it a long time. Tried it out yest...must say the colours are more consistent and matching to my monitor/printer provided you enable ICM on printer and do no additional color management in the printer software and that you print with the same destination profile and rendering intent.

 

[willyfoo]

Boy...just shelved out S$600 for the above from CP. It's very easy to use and I skipped right to "Advanced" mode adjusting the RGB settings and white point balance to create a custom monitor profile. Just note that the RGB values fluctuate wildly while calculating the colour values of the "white point" though. Have to let it stabilize and "average" out to get the right value (you're supposed to match actual values to the pointer indicated by adjusting your monitor). Will know how good it is when I do prints later on tonight

Hmm... I bought an eye-one display and what you've described seems like what I need (to show me the RGB values so I can tune my RGB on my monitor manually) but it doesn't seem to allow me to do so with the Eye-One... Anybody knows?

 

[scanner]

Hmm... I bought an eye-one display and what you've described seems like what I need (to show me the RGB values so I can tune my RGB on my monitor manually) but it doesn't seem to allow me to do so with the Eye-One... Anybody knows?

You should be able to. What version of the eyeone software you using now?
when doing calibraton, did you chose Advance mode and RGB control?

 

[willyfoo]

Eye-One Match 3.2...
Nah... I just tried again using advanced mode... doesn't show me the live RGB values for me to tweak the RGB values... it just asked me to set R50% G100% and B100%

 

[SNAG]

Eye-One Match 3.2...
Nah... I just tried again using advanced mode... doesn't show me the live RGB values for me to tweak the RGB values... it just asked me to set R50% G100% and B100%

Hi,

If i'm not wrong, Profilemaker allows you to do so...

 

[scanner]

Eye-One Match 3.2...
Nah... I just tried again using advanced mode... doesn't show me the live RGB values for me to tweak the RGB values... it just asked me to set R50% G100% and B100%

Too bad, I don't have my device with me to step through the sequence.
However, you should be able to calibrate via the RGB control.
Do try again using different setting and once you hit upon the options to choose RGB control, you should be right on track.

 

[espn]

Eye-One Match 3.2...
Nah... I just tried again using advanced mode... doesn't show me the live RGB values for me to tweak the RGB values... it just asked me to set R50% G100% and B100%

Don't choose RGB presets, choose RGB Controls when tuning the RGB.

 

[ellery]

Eye-One Match 3.2...
Nah... I just tried again using advanced mode... doesn't show me the live RGB values for me to tweak the RGB values... it just asked me to set R50% G100% and B100%

Willy
u are supposed to use the start button on the lhs bottom to start the measuring, enable the monitor controls to adjust the red green then blue to match a green triangle to a black. read the text in the rectangle panel on the lhs.

the i one seems to do a very good job but the instructions could be a little more clearer.