Monitor Calibration?

Question

Can an LCD computer monitor be calibrated? I had a Spyder Pro2 and went through the whole process three times. Each time, everything turned a not so lovely shade of blue. I gave up and sold the Spyder on eBay. I have since read that you can't really calibrate an LCD monitor.

What's your experience with this?

Thanks.

MoJo, I did it a couple of the three times with the room lights off, but the results were the same. "I got the blues."

Answer 1

Yes you can but not as well on LCD monitors. When I bought a Spyder I went crazy and calibrated about 10 monitor (my 3 computer) and my friends 4 work computer (then few more elsewhere).

What I found was that CRT monitors are fairly easy to calibrate. And even the cheap CRT have very good color space. The LCD monitors are not easy to calibrate at all. I had to play with many settings BEFORE starting the LCD calibration. And if they didn't look right, I would have to play with LCD monitor setting and start the calibrations again. Some LCD monitors never look really good (exact) no matter what.

Then again on my real cheapy (Averatec) laptop, I was able to get top color quality the very first time. I mean the best of ALL the monitors (CRT or LCD).

On my photoshop workstation, I use a cheap $90 CRT because I can't afford a expensive LCD (ex: Apple) monitor. But even the cheap $90 CRT is far superior to most LCD monitors.

So in summary, you can calibrate LCD with mixed result. Some LCD are easier to calibrate but most are very difficult.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

I actually bought the spyder myself, only not the pro2 model, but rather the one just under that one (the $60 version). I bought it to calibrate my laptop screen (hp pavilion 9000 series), and my experience has been very good so far. To answer your question, yes an LCD can be calibrated, and should if you plan to create prints that you want to look the same as they do when you edit them. That's what I've been always told, anyway. Perhaps you didn't use it correctly, the instructions that came with mine told me to do the calibration in an area that does not have a lot of interfering ambient light, or reflections. And there is a special filter that needs to be used on the colorimeter itself. Or you may have just got a colorimeter that doesn't work right.

My experience has been great so far, 4 or 5 calibrations on a monthly basis and no problems. The setup works for me, and I get pretty good results, they may not be the best, but they work for me.

Answer 3

Well, yes and no.

Yes you can calibrate one for photography work, but they are about $2,000 and are designed for it. One of them brags that you can get 95% of the Adobe srbg color space to display. Imagine that!

I have a 19" LCD that I tried to calibrate. I now use it to display the photoshop menus while I actually edit on a very nice, very large, very heavy (85 lbs) 21" refurbished crt with built in calibration that calibrates just fine. $150 on e-Bay.

I haven't seen anyone get an accurate calibration out of the standard LCD yet.

Vance

Answer 4

Hmmm I haven't calibrated mine yet but I've heard that Spyder does have its own issues. Since I'm no expert either, I think you should go to some computer hardware forum and look around - I'm pretty sure you can find some useful information there.

www.hardforum.com should be a good start. Go to their Display subforum and you'll see that there's some expert discussing about calibration.

Also I find that some people at anandtech forum to be knowledgeable. You can try that too.

Answer 5

I couldn't find any other way to contact you.

Is your daughter's astronomy website up?

I read her memorial website. She reminds me of myself, but sounds like she was so much of a whole lot of person in one body.

My son has CF, thats how I found it on Yahoo answers. I love astronomy ... thats why I was asking.