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toksuede

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 22, 2007
15
0
Everyone who's wondering:

Hello there.

I have searched far and wide and couldn't find one decent thread about how to calibrate the new iMac 27 inch i5 model. Since the panels are the same for the i7 and the Core 3 Duo, I just want to share how I did it. Perhaps there will be others who have done similar or even better, found a better solution to make this display more photography friendly.

1. Buy a calibration device and software
if you already have one, just get the latest software from the manufacturere's site. I'm sure any calibration equipment + software that supports Snow Leopard will do.

2. Install the latest software
Don't install the one that comes with the package as the softwares are usually too old and wont' be supported in Snow Leopard. Download it from the manufactureres site.

3. Calibration
In the beginning, you are given 2 choices, "easy" or "advance". Just because I wanted to make sure that I will get a chance to fine tune it, I chose "advance". It was going smoothly until it asked me to deal with contrasts, white point, and RGB Controls. You obviously cannot set them as the iMac doesn't think you need to change these things. Oh well...

So, I opted to only change the luminance aka "brightness" (set to 120) via System Preference->Displays. The brightness slider gives you a better control over the F1 and F2 button on your keyboard. It takes a lot of delicate touches to get it to your desired "brightness" but eventually, you'll get there.

After luminance was set, I went ahead and let the i1 do it's thing as it measured swatches and voila, it was done.

4. Not convinced
Due to the fact that I could only change the luminance setting, I wasn't really convinced that the whole procedure was done correctly and therefore I went back and chose the "easy" option. I left the luminance alone, as that was the only thing I had control over with the "advance" option. The easy option didn't bother with contrasts and other fiddly things (or so it thinks) and straight to the swatches. Couple minutes later, the profile was set and everyone was happy.

5. Conclusion
After going through both optiions, I feel that the screen is less "red" now that it's been calibrated. It's now cooler, with a slight hint of green. The real test will come when I edit a photo on the iMac and bring it to the printers to see if what I see is what I get.

That's it for now. Any questions/comments/complaints are welcome.

Ryu
 

BobK

macrumors member
Nov 16, 2009
70
9
Calibration

I calibrated my i7 with a Spyder 2 with 2 year old software. They don't have anything for SN. At the end, it shows the before and after. It significantly improved the color balance to a neutral away from a bluish tint. I am fortunate not to have the yellow tint that is so common. I would recommend that those that care about an accurate monitor definitely get a hardware reader/calibrator. My prints are coming out well compared to the monitor color.
 

toksuede

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 22, 2007
15
0
Yes, I read about this yellow tint thing, but fortunatley, I don't have one (yet?).
Did you not download the latest and greatest Spyder software from their site?

In any case, I hope people don't jack up their brightness setting on their iMac, edit their images, goto the printers, and come back with a severe case of underexposure...
 

BobK

macrumors member
Nov 16, 2009
70
9
Update

Yes, I read about this yellow tint thing, but fortunatley, I don't have one (yet?).
Did you not download the latest and greatest Spyder software from their site?

In any case, I hope people don't jack up their brightness setting on their iMac, edit their images, goto the printers, and come back with a severe case of underexposure...

Good suggestion. I just went on Color Vision's website and found that they had a new driver released November 20, 2009 for my old Spyder 2. It supports SL. I will recalibrate my monitor after it gets dark here in California. Thanks for the help.
 
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