What color calibration hardware?

Michael Solomon

Michael Solomon

Well-known member
Hey guys,

I'm looking to get a colorimeter for my screen. I've gotten my first "legitimate" gig color grading and I want to ensure that I'm as accurate as possible without dropping another couple grand on a monitor (not quite yet at least).

So I'm looking into colorimeters for my screens. One is a 24" DELL ultrasharp LCD and then the other (for clients to have a larger view) is a 42" plasma which I'm well aware isn't the best display for them to be watching off of.

I was looking at the Spyder 3 Elite but am open to any other options. Budget is $0-$300
 
What's the difference between the i1display pro and the colormunki? Think the colormunki is capable of calibrating the plasma at all? (not a dealbreaker in any sense)
 
Mainly different software. The iDisplayPro is faster and you have some more options.
Don´t know if there is also a different hardware (besides the housing)
The specs are somewhere on their website.

If you hook up the plasma to your computer, it should calibrate fine.

Frank
 
Yah, I've just seen such bad reviews for the pro. The spyder had a few better ones from what I've seen. Any other options out there that I'm missing? These seem like the only two in the sub $300 range
 
If you are using Apple Color I wouldn't use the Color Munki as I've read multiple posts of it conflicting with Color and distorting Color's scopes and video display. But, honestly, color probes like these are designed to calibrate for print/graphic work, not video. And computer monitors are designed to display computer video signals, not broadcast video signals. And odds are the software you are using only displays a proxy image in the GUI's player because it assumes you'll be using a broadcast monitor for critical display and evaluation.

The only thing I've seen that can take a computer monitor and turn it into a budget broadcast monitor is the original Matrox MXO but it runs $999 new.
 
I color in DaVinci Resolve Lite, or colorista II in premiere pro when I'm feeling lazy.

So is it not worth to even get a colorimeter? If not, looks like the cheapest option is one of the more expensive NEC monitors that come with the colorimeter an built-in correction function.
 
the Xrite iOne is the best of the cheap probes, and you can get 3rd party software for it that will make it more useful as you move up.

But it doesn't sound like you have a monitor that can be calibrated to the level you're looking for.
 
Don't forget that you'll need a capture card to connect your broadcast monitor. A Black Magic Intensity, a Matrox MXO2 or an AJA Io Express are the bare minimum.
 
i think the most inexpensive option to connect to an hd-sdi monitor is the blackmagic design decklink sdi



arniepix said:
Don't forget that you'll need a capture card to connect your broadcast monitor. A Black Magic Intensity, a Matrox MXO2 or an AJA Io Express are the bare minimum.
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