Are Monitor Calibration Spyders worth it?

[eirenicon]

How much does the existing hardware matter? Quite a lot. Monitors have limited ranges of colour. A lot of them shift colour from light to dark (LCDs that shift blue for dark colours are common). On top of that, you can use a spyder to calibrate your monitor perfectly, and yet it may not display all of the colours you need. Certainly don't trust contrast ratios for this kind of thing. When it comes to colour we always trust our Samsungs in the office, they're excellent. We have a couple cheap LCDs in the office too and we would never even bother calibrating them. They have high contrast ratios, but that's mostly brightness. The colour is just very limited and skewed.

What results I should expect? Accurate colour. That's simply what it's all about. You can calibrate your monitor to PMS for example and they'll be dead on. A good monitor plus a good spyder equals colour you can trust.

We don't have a spyder in our office yet, but we did have our screens calibrated a while back. We're going to buy one soon though so I look forward to what this thread may produce.

[fikret]

it depends on what monitor u're using... if the panel u have sucks not ment doing photo/print stuff calibration wont be much of an option... I have an eye-one calibrator... a few weeks ago i boght a samsung 22bw and it didnt really help... thats also the reason why i returned it :scream:

[mummey]

Sounds like you need a color scientist.

[niva]

They're only worth it if you'll be going to print and want to make absolutely sure that what you're seeing on the monitor in terms of colors is what you'll get out of the printer. Without callibration a shade of blue might look greenish in print for example. I have a friend who does digital photography and he has one but honestly I don't know much about them - he rants all the time, but I can care less about color, if I get in the ballpark I'm happy :)

If you'll never print you have to realize most monitors are not callibrated so your digital images will always look different on different monitors.

Hardware wise you want a good crt as most LCDs are bad ... mostly due to viewing angle constraints. I'm sure there are better qualified people who can say something here though.

[twedzel]

Actually you'll want to calibrate for all mediums. Even if most monitors and TV's are not calibrated properly, at least you know that your baseline calibration is accurate and that you are not working outside of accepted norms. It also aids in studio wide calibration. So you'll know that what your 3D artist sees will be what your comper sees which will be the same as what every one else sees.

Last year we had a nightmare situation where my monitor had slipped badly out of calibration. As luck would have it, I was delivering elements to a compositor whose monitors calibration had slipped equally out as mine. The shots looked great on our screens, but every where else they were horribly dark. We didn't realise it until way late in the game. If you are working in a small studio or on your own, it is very easy to have your calibrations be completely out of wack and never realise it until you deliver the goods.

I use a spyder at home, works great for me. Gives me the confidence to know that my RBG's, white levels, and black levels are basically bang on. As for best ones out there, probably better to ask someone else.

[Voron]

To generally respond to the comments I've received so far, which have been very helpful I might add. I have included the models of monitors which my company uses. We plot (print) frequently and in large sizes i.e. Waste a lot of unrecyclable paper and desired results are never attained. Our visual output generally consist of "acceptable" compromises.

Okay, so this is what I'm working with. We currently have 15 monitors they are all Dells. The models are:

1907FPc (19" LCD), (http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e115/Zetron47/1907FPc.jpg)
2007WFPb (19" LCD Widescreen) (http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e115/Zetron47/2007WFPb.jpg)
Trinitron (19" CRT). (http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e115/Zetron47/Trinitron.jpg)
Dell Inspiron XPS (P4 EE) (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1743468,00.asp)

As I mentioned before we plot a lot. Our plotters are as follows:

Canon Color imageRUNNER C3220 (http://www.ikon.com/products/Copiers/Color/Canon_Color_imageRUNNER_C3220.asp)
HP Laserjet 1200 (http://www.printerworks.com/Images/1200-LaserJet.jpg)
Hp designjet 1050c plus (http://www.tgsoft.ch/German/1050_C_plus.jpg)
Hp color laserjet 4550hdn (http://www.printerworks.com/Images/CLJ4500N-Color-LaserJet.jpg)
Hp laserjet 5000n (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.printerworks.com/Images/5000N-LaserJet-parts.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.printerworks.com/Top-LaserJet-Parts-PrinterWorks/LJ-5000-Printer-Parts.html&h=325&w=400&sz=13&hl=en&start=5&um=1&tbnid=_WxKCFcfYLCByM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHp%2Blaserjet%2B5000n%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4ADBR_enUS209US235%26sa%3DG)

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