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Monitor Calibrator Issues

published by Liveengineer on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 10:33am

This question is probably more directed at Rene but anyones views are welcome
The story goes like this, I Have a Dual xeon dell machine with 2 x 19" 1905 dell LCD monitors and a Alienware 7700 laptop for Audio/Photo stuff on the road, Both machines are running Xp. I finally managed to pickup a colorvision Spyder with PhotoCal and OptiCal 3.7.8 software ( not really my choice but it was really cheap). I've followed the instructions perfectly and both machines give me a strong RED image.
During the pre cal process when it asks me to adjust the RGB values on the monitor so there all within a certain box on screen, all looks good. But after that when it does it's calibration and finishes Pink/red is really strong.
Could it be the spyder is not working properly or is it something else..Any ideas?

Cheers
Ricky

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Cameras, Lenses, Lighting, Accessories

Submitted by shooter-boy on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 12:04pm.

Turn off your lights while calibrating.

If the spyder is copping some stray ambient light it will throw it completely.

Or buy a mac :D

Rob

Robert Bell (Rob)
Shooting for the love, but hoping to still eat next week ;)

Submitted by Rene Damkot on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 12:08pm.

Some other thoughts: Did you disable Adobe Gamma?
How did you calibrate before? If you didn't calibrate before, the difference might take some time to get used to (Allthough I don't think it would be percieved as 'Pink/red'.

Submitted by Liveengineer on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 1:16pm.

Thanks guys
I tried the lights out, deleted adobe gamma start up, reset video card color management, reset monitor and deleted all other icc profiles. tomorrow i might take some screenshots of the process and have a look at the images on other machines and see what i come up with.
I've never calibrated before with a spyder, but over time and slight tweaking whilst looking at everyone images i think i had it pretty close

Submitted by shooter-boy on Thu, 06/21/2007 - 7:12pm.

I always think that the spyder has calibrated my monitors wrong, so be careful you are not doing that too.

My main issue with a calibrator (not a spyder, but can't remember what it was) was that it would try to reset the white point. Now i use a Mac display as my main monitor, which has AWESOME whites and blacks, so i couldn't stand it when the white looked a little yellow.

In the end, i just calibrated it, adjust the white point back, and be done with it.
My prints still arrive the same colour as I expect them to, and I don't usually get issues saying that my colour is off when i post pics or anything.

Rob

Robert Bell (Rob)
Shooting for the love, but hoping to still eat next week ;)

Submitted by Liveengineer on Mon, 06/25/2007 - 4:49am.

I was starting to think there was something wrong with the spyder itself after 3 different machines (2 with dell lcd monitors and a laptop) all giving me a strong red hue...so i plugged in a old CRT and it came up beautiful.
As i cant afford a EIZO or something in that range i might have to pickup a sony GDMf520 CRT off ebay locally and hope it still has some life left in it

Submitted by Teemu Juutilainen on Mon, 06/25/2007 - 9:55am.

I'm not aware of your graphics set, but many modern craphics cards (especially mobile graphics cards) are known having issues with VGA signal. If your monitor and computer allow using DVI connection, use it instead of VGA.

Live hard, die hard

Submitted by Liveengineer on Mon, 06/25/2007 - 12:24pm.

Hi Teemu
One machine has low end 256mb 7000ATI card and the other has a 9250 ATI 256mb both with DVI and iv'e tried that as well, the laptop has 256mb nvidia 6800 and it's the same.
However the plate that clips on to the spyder for the lcd readings has a thin film of tissue that looks green to me....So wouldn't that throw out the readings..I'll try it without it.

Submitted by Teemu Juutilainen on Tue, 06/26/2007 - 1:37am.

Ricky Caswell-Liveengineer wrote:
However the plate that clips on to the spyder for the lcd readings has a thin film of tissue that looks green to me....So wouldn't that throw out the readings..I'll try it without it.

That green sounds like oxidation, and then device apparently can not work properly when something (data or something) can not get through the system. If you can, you may use a fine sandpaper to get that green off (concidering it is about oxidation on metal connector). I have used this sandpaper method on my 8-bit Nintedo games connectors succesfully.

Live hard, die hard

Submitted by Liveengineer on Wed, 06/27/2007 - 2:32am.

Sorry Teemu, what i meant was the adapter that attaches to the spyder that raises the suction cups off the screen for use with lcd monitors. it has a cluster of holes that lets the light from the monitor thru to the spyder sensor. Thats what has a semi see through greenish tissue covering.
So i decided to leave the (Lcd) adapter off, take the suction cups off, lay the lcd monitor on its back and sat the spyder on the screen and re calibrated
now instead of monitor looking Red, it has a Blue tint, so this tells me the Green tissue in the lcd adapter for the spyder is meant to be there but possibly has darkened/lightened due to age. thus throwing out the red.

Submitted by walter rowe on Thu, 06/28/2007 - 2:02pm.

Also make sure you are calibrating all of them to the same color temperature, and that your model of Spyder is designed to work with LCD monitors. LCD monitors emit light differently than CRT monitors and the optical sensor has to be able to manage that. I use a Monaco OptixXR and all my LCD panels look excellent (Dell FP's, MacBook Pro's, Samsung's).

Founder, MusicPhotographers.net
www.WalterRowePhotography.com
Columbia, Maryland - USA

Submitted by Liveengineer on Fri, 06/29/2007 - 12:27am.

Welcome to the board Walter.
Basically, i know im doing everything right and the spyder works well with CRT. The LCD adapter im not sure what is going on there so i will have to return to the shop and let them try it.