best amateur calibration system?

[wmmk]

Hi all,
I print a lot of my photos, and sometimes color reproduction can be a bit of a disappointment. anyway, I was thinking that a monitor and printer calibrator would be rather nice. I have a MBP, a Canon Pixima iP4300 (I know, it's not pro level, but it's the best I can afford), and may be getting a Dell, Westinghouse, or ViewSonic 17 or 19 inch LCD some time this summer or fall. Anyway, I'd rather not spend much over $99 for this, as that's how much my printer cost! Also, ease of use would be nice, but if functional products are available that aren't too expensive, I'm willing to deal with any learning curve.
Many thanks,
wmmk

Also, getting my K100D calibrated to match monitor and printer color, then getting DNG Converter to not change color would be a nice little bonus, but isn't necessary.

 

[dogbone]

My gut reaction is that your problem will not be solved by buying an external calibration device. The internal software calibration on my emac is pretty well spot on and I see no reason why OSX would not do as good a job on an LCD. Also you printer will come with a profile anyway and profiles supplied with printers are pretty good these days.

I presume the K100D is some sort of digital camera. Can it use Adobe 1998 as a colour space? if it can use that and use that as your default Photoshop space too.

The result you get on a digital printer is dramatically dependent on the paper (inluding the brand and surface) and the inks you are using. I would attempt to explore some of the other things that could be causing your poor printer output. It can get a bit tricky sometimes as you might be accidentally causing some conflict with the printer's colour management and photoshop's colour management.