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Retina MBP display calibration?
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Every display is subtly different so the cal file from another system may be of little use, then again it costs nothing to ask and try, if it looks better to your eye, it`s all good
SpyderPro is about $170 (from Amazon). SpyderElite is $250, with one of the differences being that you can calibrate and match multiple displays.
I've never downloaded a profile before, but I will look into it.
Would also like to see if we can share some calibrated profiles. There was a thread for it on the old uniMB 2008 I had. Downloading a calibrated file from the tread made a night and day difference when editing photos
I would just upload as .zip
I agree. I actually started a thread this morning asking the same thing as I totally missed this one started last night.
I've used shared calibrated profiles on older MBP and it made a huge difference - obviously not accurate for professional purposes as each display is individual but SO much better than the stock profile.
Tibits: Could you try compressing it as a .zip and upload that (as 01mggt suggests) - that would be amazing, thanks!
I would recommend against buying one of the Spyder kits. The factory tolerances just aren't good enough on their meters for accurate results. That's not to say they won't improve your display, just that it's not necessarily accurate when you compare them to a reference-grade meter.
Personally, the lowest-end kit I'd recommend would be the ColorMunki Design, which is around $450 on Amazon right now. That's the cheapest spectrophotometer on the market, and calibration results are nearly as good as an i1Pro.
If that's out of your price range look at either the ColorMunki Display ($170) or the EyeOne Display Pro. ($250) These are the best cheap colorimeters you can buy, and should give reasonably good results.
The next level above these options would be an i1Pro (or an i1Pro 2, but prices are higher, and the meter accuracy is almost the same) but these are considerably more expensive.
For the average consumer the Spyder series will work just fine.
If you are extremely anal about it being perfect, buy a better system as this poster has recommended.
though i'm nowhere near a pro user, i've been very happy with my i1 display 2 (it's since been replaced by the i1 pro i believe)
- especially because i was given it as a replacement for a bad huey. i bought that just to try out since it was only 99USD and i didn't like spyder.
- especially because i was given it as a replacement for a bad huey. i bought that just to try out since it was only 99USD and i didn't like spyder.
The kits you recommend are in a totally different league, while I agree are finitely more accurate, even "normal" professionals don't need that degree of calibration when price is factored in.
I've worked in studios using some ultra-high-end solutions (true spectrophotometers), and my Spyder3Elite is seriously plenty good bang-for-the-buck. In that case, unless you are working in high capacity print/design, or day-in/day-out for high profile magazines and fashion work... I completely recommend the ~$200 solutions from Datacolor and X-Rite.
I have had plenty of issues with the i1 products, and all calibration systems. None are perfect, everyone needs to do research, read the reviews and make an informed decision. I have been very happy with the Spyder system, as are many pros I know.
For the same money, the ColorMunki Display is much better hardware.
The one advantage the Spyder kits have though, is that they offer the cheapest printer calibration, and have an iPad app for viewing color-managed images.
A colorimeter really isnt suited to that task, but it's probably better than no calibration. For printer calibration from X-Rite, you would need to step up to the ColorMunki Design. It really is much better hardware though.
The i1 Display 2 is a great colorimeter, that was only recently replaced by the i1 Display Pro, and you got very lucky there!
The reason I recommend spectrophotometers over colorimeters is because they are more accurate by design.
As a simplified explanation, a colorimeter works by having RGB color filters over sensors that are tuned to try and match the human eyes color response. The result is that they're essentially only accurate on displays that closely match the color filters they used. This worked very well with CRTs that were all relatively similar. The further a displays gamut is from that response though, the less accurate they are. This is why most colorimeters have you select a CRT mode, LCD mode, LED mode etc before calibration.
A spectrophotometer samples the wavelength of light at fixed intervals (10nm on the X-Rite kit) which means that it is accurate regardless of display type, whether its a wide gamut display or not etc.
For a more real-world example, if you had an older LCD, a new LED backlit display, and a CRT and calibrated them with a colorimeter, even if the software said they were identical, they would look different to your eyes.
If you calibrated them with a spectro, they would look the same. (Or as close as its possible to get them)
It all depends on what your needs are really. The cheapest option for great results, is the ColorMunki Design. As a casual/home user, the colorimeters are probably fine.
I started out with a Spyder 2 Pro kit when they were the latest thing, but ended up buying several more colorimeters after that because I wasn't satisfied with the pink-tinted display on my PowerBook, green-tinted CRT etc. Other colorimeters gave better results, but they still didn't match.
After that, I moved onto spectros and was finally getting the results I wanted. I had to buy an i1Pro because the ColorMunki Design didn't exist at the time, but as long as you dont need NIST certification, it's a much better deal.
In the end, I would have saved a lot of money if I had just gone out and bought the i1Pro to begin with. If youre really serious about what youre doing, I highly recommend the ColorMunki kit. (The i1Pro kit is probably overkill for most people now that option exists)
The Spyder hardware is good, it's that the factory tolerances arent strict enough for them. If youre lucky, and get a good one, you will have great results. Without a reference for comparison, you have no way of knowing whether you got a good one or not. Thats why I recommend the X-Rite hardware instead.
Even DataColor essentially admitted this over the years, as they would sell you a hand-picked meter when you bought ColorFacts, and Spectracal tried something similar a while back, by offering hand-checked meters that had been compared against a reference meter. (A Minolta CS-2000) This was stopped realtively quickly though, because there were too many meters coming in that didn't meet their standards. They now have the new i1Display 3 meter (as used in ColorMunki Display and i1Display Pro kits) as their standard option, and dont even offer the Spyders any more.
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