Monitor calibration with Parhelia 128R

[mutz]

Hi Wy. If you look at the pic above you will see Spyder Pro right next to the mouse. Supporting multiple monitors on one computer usually means Mac OS 'cause Mac has supported that for yonks. Dual head and triple head on a PC seems to be a different kettle of fish. ColorVision states clearly in the manual that it does not support dual head. ColorVision is coming out with Optical 4.0 shortly which will support dual head.

As for a cheap colorimeter + app, dunno, but in this cheap is likely a gip. I bought Spyder Pro 'cause it has excellent reviews and the cost is more reasonable than the equivilant other brands. Dunno about Prove it!, but I don't like its rant of claims.

Calibrating your monitor with a colorimeter is very definitely worth it and a real eye-opener. Depending on your monitor and how precise you want to get it, it's easy. The most difficult part can be getting the precalibration settings over your monitor's controls right.

Whatever. Here is a good link from , of all people, MS!!

[Ashley]

Coloreal supports Matrox triple head - it wouldn't make much sense for Matrox to bundle a program that didn't work with their card, would it? And this is perfectly adequate for most purposes. But Coloreal is a subjective, visual calibrator.

If you want to use a hardware calibrator, like mutz, and the software supplied with it only supports the primary monitor or the Windows multi-monitor API, then connecting each monitor to the primary port and calibrating it there may be your option.

[chaoliang]

I noticed recently a problem and discussed about it with AZ. After some reading I suppose it to be a problem of monitor calibration. My first question is, can you confirm it? The problem is:
I scanned some positives with a film scanner in 14bit colours and 4000dpi. In Photoshop I can only see details and fine contrast in the highlight areas. If I increase gamma using the level tool, the details in the shadow areas reveal (there are much of them) but the highlight areas are overexposed.
My second question is like the one of Wy:
If I must hardware calibrate my monitor, which would hopefully lead to the direct solution of the above problem, what is the optimum sulotion for me (single monitor, non-professional)?
Thanks in advance.

[mutz]

Chaoliang, do I know you from Photography-on-the.net?

I think you have a number of factors there, starting with the scan, but let's just stick with the monitor.

First of all, what kind of monitor do you have, running at what resolution, color depth and refresh rate? What is your graphic card?

The whole point of hardware calibration is to get the full color gamut you out of your monitor that it is capable of, correctly balanced, including all shades of grey. That is where the shadow details and all the fine stuff are. If after calibrating your monitor still doesn't give you what you want, throw it out and get a super one.

If your highlights are blowing out, it can be the photo, the scan and/or the monitor because the luminance/contrast is not correctly balanced and leveled.

I don't understand you question about optimum solution. I am running two Sony GDM-F520 monitors at 1600X1200, giga color and 85 or 100Hz refresh rate. That is professional in my book and is about the best display I have seen. If you mean single monitor because of the dual head calibration complexity, I'd say don't let that get in your way. There is nothing like two 21" screens.

My problem was due to a monitor out of adjustment range, but I just now got it back from Sony and the next thing I'm going to do is Calibrate it!

[WyWyWyWy]

So, heard anything from ColourVision yet?

[mutz]

No borrow beta. It will come out in OptiCAL 4.0 (3.7.6 now). They will announce it in their e-mail newsletter to all subscribers (subscribe on their site). Maybe I get a direct e-mail too. Should come out in Nov. I politely put as much heat on as I could, but I'm only flattering myself to think that will move something.

[chaoliang]

Mutz, I don't know the site Photography-on-the.net. But I'll drop in there since you mentioned it.
I have EIZO FlexScan T766, Matrox P650, 1280x1204@85 Hz, Giga Color.
The highlights and the shadows are in the scan, but I can't see them on the monitor simutaniously. It's somehow too dark to show the details in shadows together with the details in highlights. If I raise gamma or the brightess of the monitor, I can see the details in shadow but the highlights are blown out much. The whole image becomes ugly.
With "optimum" I meant only calibration with good quality but not too expensive.

[mutz]

I had an EIZO FlexScan T57s before. It is a good monitor, but I much prefer the Sonys I have now. What you have certainly is good enough. If you want to get to the truth of what is what, the best thing is calibration with a colorimeter. You could order ColorVision Spyder with the Photocal software, try it out and if you want more, get one of the other software packages too. It's 169 Euro and you can order it here:

http://www.colorvision.ch/english/store/index.html

[zaharia]

If I had a colormeter that only worked on the primary monitor, and I needed to calibrate 2 or 3 monitors, what I'd do is this: I'd hook up only one monitor to the primary port so that OptiCal and the colormeter could "see" it, and then I'd calibrate the monitor. Once the calibration was done, I'd save the corrected color lookup table.

Ashley
I would like the info on how to do this as well. What program will allow you to do this? Does it allow access to 2 different luts or two different profiles for each monitor. How do you assign each profile to the proper monitor in Win XP?
I just found this forum after recently purchasing a Parhelia 128.
For those looking for another good, cheap profiling option, there is another player. BasiCColor Display and Squid Calibrator. $200 introductory price.

http://www.icscolor.com/products/basiccolor/

I just purchaed it to profile my two flat panel lcd's and laptop.

[Ashley]

Try this:

1. Hook up monitor #1 to the primary head on the Parhelia
2. Calibrate the monitor using the calibrator of your choice
3. Save the calibrated LUT as "Monitor #1" (or whatever) as described in this FAQ

Repeat steps 1 thru 3 for your other two monitors.

Then hook up all three monitors again and apply each of the saved LUTs to the appropriate "head" following the instructions in that FAQ.

This, of course, presupposes that all 3 DACs on the Parhelia are the same - which they aren't: apparently only the first 2 allow 10-bit precision. But they are very close for this kind of exercise...