Monitor calibration: what am I supposed to see ?

[ericp]

Hi gang, I just got myself a GretagMacbeth Eye-One Display 1, but my question can also probably be answered by those who use other devices like Spyder.

I've done a calibration exercise on my notebook LCD, and after calibration (with iMatch v3), the new ICC profile was applied, and the difference I saw was ... nothing ... or at least, not significant enough to tell.

It could mean a few things ... my notebook LCD was pretty spot-on (debatable, it's about 1.5 years old), my eyes can't tell, the calibration didn't work, or I did it wrong. BTW, I used the "simple" method.

For those of you who did calibration, or had it done for them (eg. by oeyvind), did you see a marked difference ? What was the difference ? Whites whiter, greens greener, reds redder, blues bluer ?

I've got a 17" monitor on my desktop at home which I haven't calibrated yet, but thought I'd ask first. Most, if not all, online reviews do not seem to state how color accuracy was derived at (unless my comprehension of the English language is down the drain as well, and I didn't pick it up :sweatsm: )

 

[espn]

Hmmm mine detected a more contrasty and true-er color feel after calibrating my office CRT, home CRT and home LCD (notebook). Colors were not say richer but I can see some differences in the end results of my images previously produced without calibration.

Btw, I chose advanced mode instead of simple Hope it helps... for all my screens I see a tremendous improvement in 'real' colours.

 

[gooseberry]

I calibrated my laptop LCD using an Eye-One display via the Simple method. I noticed straight away that my LCD wasn't previously displaying highlight detail that well, things were washed out, whereas after calibration, I could see a lot more detail and detect fine differences in off-white colours.

Your LCD might have been using a good profile previously, some manufacturers apply a good profile at the start - others use just a generic monitor profile.

 

[ericp]

Thanks for the input, guys. I guess I was looking for a "wow, that's a big difference" kind of scenario when one probably doesn't exist.

I saw a note on a webpage somewhere that pointed out a limitation with notebook LCDs ... apparently there's a workaround (a configuration file) that will make a difference with notebook LCDs, but will not work for desktop LCDs. Gotta find that reference again ... but I guess the proof of the pudding is trying to calibrate my desktop monitor ...

Will report what I find once I do that.

On a related note, anyone have access to both a Eye-One v.1 and v.2 and can compare ? Maybe when our friends doing the MO get theirs, can try it out ... espn, you bring your notebook to NC regularly, right ? I'll try to join you guys one day ...

 

[espn]

Shouldn't be a problem if I brought my NB. v2 should work with the same s/w so we can see if it calibrates better or what.

Anyway I have no problems calibrating my notebook, after calibration it's results are the same as my CRTs.

 

[vince123123]

I once got someone to do a calibration for my LCD screen. THe funny thing was that he couldn't even adjust my monitor to get the RGB sliders to the centre, each step increase/decrease showed a big jump in the sliders moving. so we tried to get a as-best fit in the centre and calibrated. after that when i went home and applied the profile, the colors look kinda strange after that, not too out of the world strange, but certainly worse than before calibration. strange huh...? wonder what went wrong too.

 

[ericp]

Ok, calibrated my 17" LCD monitor on my desktop, WinXP, driven by Ti4200 ... calibrated on "Easy" mode, and I saw no diff again.

Funny thing was that the monitor originally had no ICC profile, and just for kicks I added the Adobe6522 and sRGB profiles in ... brought up a photo image, and even switching between them didn't produce a difference. Maybe it's the way I'm going about this.

Next step is to try the "Advanced" mode. That's what one website mentions ... skip the "Easy" mode.

This is a bit strange, but not discouraging because I think that the colors produced are fine, just that there's this niggling doubt in my mind on color accuracy based on things I've read. Perhaps ignorance is bliss

 

[espn]

Try advanced mode, it should work fine, I'm using advanced mode for my notebook LCD as well.