Camera Labs

Hi
Anyone uses any calibration tools for the display or monitor. and why ?
Reason I asked, it because, I just noticed some colour differences when viewing some posts using different pcs.
All the pcs have been set to use the highest 32-bit colour.

Contrast and brightness already set to the minimum (my perference)

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Only thing I use onmymonitor is the Siemens-Stern by D. Bethke, you can download here. It has a standardized gray-scale.
Then I first adjust a white screen in brightness as far up as is comfortable for my eyes (that also depends on ambient light). Then I adjust contrast as high as is possible and still see a difference in all shadows of grey.
As to colors I try to find hints in PC/Monitor forums or a review of that specific make!
But on my monitor I never adjusted the colors from their factory set position.

As to your adjustments, David, I seriously doubt that minimum contrast and brightness is optimal
My own monitor is at 50% both, with brightness down to 25% in the evening but these values difer from model to model: not even 2 different NEC-monitors behave the same

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thanks Thomas
Its a PDF file - tested it on my Apple imac LCD - can see all the grey scales (left) when I adjusted the brightness from lowest (0) to highest 18 steps.
Zero is still my preferences.
Dell Notebook is 50% for brightness.
Though I can still visibly see the grey scale up to 100%
No contrast adjustment for Apple or Dell.

On the PC monitor - brightness is set to 50% and contrast 46%
Visibility of grey scale lost at 95% brightness.

But Thomas, if you do not calibrate the colours , how do you know what you have adjusted in PS or LR or CaptureNX matches what is printed later ?

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

That's easy: I have printed critical material and found that it matched pretty closely. Was more of a fiddling with print-driver adjustments - lots of parameters

You know, there are so many parameters in-camera, in post-processing, in the monitor hardware, in the graphics-card-drivers and in the printer-driver, that I had to take something as a fixed-point. That were the monitor-hardware (plus I never did any adjustments in the graphics-card-drivers). And as pictures at default setting from the D80 looked mostly ok on the monitor I trusted the cam too. Then the only thing to adjust was the printing path.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thanks
I guess I should not worry too much about the colours except for the PC I use to print out.

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Pick up a Colorvision Spyder, they work really well for the price, and have some printer calibration options.

http://www.colorvision.com

Before you do that though, make sure your LCD monitor has 8-bit color depth by viewing this image and looking for banding in the colors.

http://www.visi.com/~leppik/images/bit_test24.png

If it has less than 8-bit color, calibrating it is meaningless.

Also, contrast on your monitor should always be set to maximum in my experience.

Hope this helps!

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I thought that, too. But with time I learned, that many monitor-manufacturers crank up the "standard"-contrast so much to look good right out of the box that chucking them up to 100% makes you lose the highlights and the shadows.
So today I always use a grey-scale to adjust contrast, as mentioned above.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I've just ordered the Spyder3Elite so I may be able to advise on this later.

It's never a good idea to have brightness and contrast set to maximum if you want your CRT or LCD to last.

I have brightness set at 75% and contrast set to 70% but I will see what the Spyder manual says too, as monitor calibration is a new area for me.

I have two Samsung SyncMaster204Bs.

Thanks G
I'll be looking forward to it. your review or input.

My editing software is on my home pc (intel) - but on CRT, and whatever i adjusted there looks okay but once I view it via my ApplePC (LCD) it looks dull / dark. Likewise when viewed thru the Dell Notebook.
I can't install my editing software to my Dell as its company owned.

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

CRT's have been the preferred monitor for photographic work but I use the LCDs now - side-by-side.

I have two Mitsubishi DiamondPro 930 19 inches. They are really sweet monitors too.

I am going to see how I get on with the CRT and the LCD and see if there is still the advantage.

Sure I will advise on the Syder3Elite. I should be getting all my kit soon. Just waiting for some small pieces to arrive and until Monday the 40D had not arrived.

Canon must be knocking them out big time.

Everything related to cameras is knew to me so I have a huge learning curve to overcome.

I just ran adobe gamma but I'm startled... I think in the end it might look better than it did, but It's quite different...

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flickr
Canon 5D + 17-40 F4L + 50 F1.4 + 70-200 F2.8L
Velbon Sherpa 200R

Intresteing discussion!

Thomas, i whent to that greyscale link that you posted, and i cannot seem to download and my german inst tip top? do i need a sign in?

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My Picasa

My Flickr

Is there somebody out there who knows some cheaper solution to this?
If monitor- and printercalibration would cost around €100-€150 I would say it´s OK for me. But for about €85 you get monitorcalibration only. It seems that you have to pay much more for the printercalibration (both together €449). Any ideas?

ngc94227

I've have now used the Spyder3Elite on my two Samsung 20 inch SynchMaster 204B's monitors and it worked great. As well as on an iMac G5 1.8MHZ 17 inch screen with equal results.

Unfortunately while on holiday in Florida I recently lost all my 2.5K+ camera kit including the 40D, Cannon 24-70mm f2.8 L USM, battery pack, two batteries, ThinkTank case, Canon 580 M2 flash gun, TC-83 wired control remote, B+W 77mm Kaeseman CP (MRC) Filter, B+W 77mm UV Haze 010 (MRC) Filter, and 20 expensive rechargeable AA batteries plus other stuff. They even nicked my two new pairs of Timberlands I bought the day before; a Leatherman two days before and a MP3 player. We were cleaned out.

In total I lost 3,500 Sterling or about 7K US. They nicked all my money mid holiday so I was starving and thistly for the last week and no Gitzo tripod and head was possible through Cameralabs as promised – sorry Gordon. I had everything ready for the purchase too until they nick my money too.

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Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 24-70 F/2.8L USM, Canon SL 580 EX Mark II, Canon Battery Flash Unit CP-E4, Canon BG-E2N (Battery Grip), Canon Right Angle Finder C, B+W 77mm Kaeseman CP (MRC) Filter, B+W 77mm UV Haze 010 (MRC) Filter, Canon Timer RC TC-80N3, etc.

Did you have travel insurance? What you gonna do?

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I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro