Aloha!
And mahalo for the info guys. I've been looking into the Monaco calibrators, and they are rated very highly. I'm curious about the LCD monitors you use, Cris...You refered to them as "inexpensive"...And apparently that's very much relative! I've been doing some research, and I've seen plenty 22" LCDs in the $500 to $1000 range...Then there's a couple "Pro" monitors in the $1500 to $2500 range for the 21" sizes!! Holy CRAP!

I'd love to get a Gateway 22" LCD for $500, the Monaco i One (I think) for $250, and have it all work great! But it's scary after seeing what I did with the Acer 23"...
Aloha,
SPC II

Yo Stan,

I have the EyeOne Display 2, and it has separate modes for LCD, CRT, and Laptop. B&H price is ~ $229. Works pretty well. Windows uses the monitor profile built by the device and the colors are much more sane. They recommend doing this once a week. It's pretty painless--just fire up the app, place the device on the screen and let er rip.

PD

Stan the Monitors i was referring to are both Acer's model AL1913, call me crazy but I really like these little cheapies

The one thing you need to do if you calibrate with the monaco system which i found out the hard way is you need to set the mode to Monitor Native otherwise you'll get some bizzzaaarrooo colors. After much frustration i finally broke down and called Monaco and they are the ones that told me to do that when profiling the LCD displays.

In an ideal world i'd love to have one of those Eizo displays that work in Adobe RGB but i can't justify spending more money on my monitor than i have on my camera

Someday when i'm rich and famous.

Cris...

Yeah...you n me both, Cris! When rich and famous!

Thanks again guys! I appreciate your input...I think I'll go ahead and order that Dell 22" and the Monaco EyeOne. When I get everything and set it up and calibrate, I'll report on it.

I really want to go to previewing via projector! What I've seen tho, is way too soft, and needs a dark room! I know there are plenty studios out there using projected previews, and from what I hear, sales are booming as a result. Especially the wall prints, (where ALL the money is...) But even the best of what I've seen demoed looks flat, (no pun intended), even in a semi-dark room...and costs around $3000!

So, meanwhile, for the past 4 years (since I've been shooting digital), I've been using my 21" CRT. (Of course, that's a lie...that it's a 21"! Even diagonally measured it's only a hair over 20"! How do they get away with that?!) It measues 12" high by 14" wide. The Dell 22" is supposed to be 15.45 x 19.9, so nearly a 16x20. And showing that size will be much better.

Aloha,
SPC II

Hi Stan,

You are on the right track with the Xrite / Gretag monitor calibrator. You will need to set the brightness way down on the monitor, probably about as far as it will go, so don't get scared by that. The software should walk you through all of it.

John

Mahalo!
I have the EyeOne on order as of today. Should have it in a week...they say.
SPC II