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(More customer reviews)Recently, I've read several books about Photoshop CS2 and digital photography and the general consensus of the authors relating to color management is that calibrating one's display device is essential. The overriding recommendation is to use hardware calibration (colorimeter) or, at the very least, an eyeball method (Adobe Gamma, QuickGamma).
Mindful of this information, I calibrated my home CRT, LCD and laptop and my work CRT with free a software program (QuickGamma) that was recommended by several digital camera and Photoshop sites. Previous to this I had used Adobe Gamma but I quickly found that QuickGamma produced superior results. Another thing I noticed was that it was much easier to calibrate the CRT's than either the LCD or the laptop using either eyeball method. When I printed photographs with my home inkjet there seemed to be a pretty good match between the CRT display and output but when I moved pictures from different computers there were noticeable shifts.
With my interest piqued, I decided to purchase a hardware calibrator the Eye-One Display LT (Light?) to see if I could match images between displays and to determine if I could achieve a closer color match between my printer and displayed image.
The Eye-One was easy to use and set up on all displays once I got the hang of the wizard that explains each step. As other reviewers have mentioned a software update is available from Pantone's site and this adds some functionality to the software and is a recommended update. Depending on your displays capabilities the Eye-One allows the user to optimize the, brightness, contrast, color temp, gamma, and RGB set points and then creates a custom profile for your display. With the LT version the color temps available are 5000, 6500 and 7200 and the gamma points are 1.8, 2.2. The next version up allows greater flexibility in these areas but the LT's numbers should be adequate for most users.
Using the updated software, I was able to compare before and after pictures. I also printed several pictures out using the new profile and checked them against my monitor. The results showed marginal improvement over the QuickGamma profile (approx 5%). So with my home CRT, I was not greatly impressed with the results. After profiling my laptop and LCD, however, my feelings changed. Both displays became more vibrant and accurate and, in addition, there was greater consistency between all my displays with regards to color reproduction.
Overall, a nice piece of hardware and software that is intuitive to use and is particularly effective at creating profiles for LCD's and Laptops.
Note: The calorimeter included with the LT is the same as the one included with the more expensive Eye-One Display 2. The only difference between the 2 packages is the included software, which can be upgraded if needed.
Update 1/7/10: I just recently used the Eye-One to calibrate my Panasonic HDTV. Along with the free software Color HCFR and Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics disc (which I rented from Netflix), I achieved excellent results with little to no hassle. Just Google "GREYSCALE & COLOR CALIBRATION FOR DUMMIES" and you will be provided with an excellent walk through. This additional functionality has made a great product even better.
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X-Rite Eye-One Display LTCompatible with all Windows and Macintosh operating systems except MAC OS10.7 Lion (Lion Compatibility coming 9/2011)
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