I've been spending enough on monitors lately, I feel like it would be a worth while investment to get a good calibration tool to ensure that I'm getting the most out of them. I am not a content creator. I do prefer things to be accurate and not have to wonder if I'm seeing what I'm supposed to. Inaccuracy leads to some scenes looking good and others not.
My biggest concern was with setting up the gamma (or whatever else has to happen) to make sure I'm not losing dark colors, but without washing out the rest of the range. I've mostly tried all the adjustments I can without the ability to create an icc profile. I'm not getting bad results necessarily, but I feel like dark colors are getting crushed a bit and there isn't anything else I can do about it. I've read several mentions of dark color detail being one of the benefits of calibration.
I was considering either the Spyder 5 Elite or X-rite i1 Display Pro. I'm not sure what other options exist. I'm open to suggestions. Another notion would be to get the lower versions of either product and use 3rd party software, as that seems to be the differentiating factor. Many people seem to use the DisplayCAL open source software with their choice of instrument. This apparently would have a steeper learning curve, but should be a very powerful program?
The Spyder 5 Elite was appealing because it's reasonably priced and the software should be pretty easy to use. The Elite version gives a lot of control over gamma and white point. This is sort of what I'm really after, I think. I know I'll be making adjustments to preference based on the calibration. I want more control and a solid starting point. Datacolor say they've improved dark color accuracy significantly with the Spyder 5 over the 4.
On the other hand, others say this is still a weak point for them and recommend the i1 Display Pro. The consensus seems to be that the Display Pro still has a slightly better sensor, especially for dark colors. But I'm not sure about its controls for asserting user preference in terms to gamma or white point?
The i1's software seems to give more choices for the type of screen being calibrated too? I hadn't really thought about it at first, but it makes sense that one sensor may not perform correctly across all display technologies. Right now, both my screens are white LED IPS. I'd tried out the Quantum Dot CF791 (and wrote a really lengthy and round about review here) and am now exited for future technologies such as electro-luminescent quantum dot or OLED. I don't want to buy a tool now that might not work with my next screen.
I currently have an Asus MG279 which has moved to my secondary system. It's using an icc profile from TFT Central that seemed to really take it to the next level. On my main system, I ended up going with the Acer XR341CK. This seems to have *very slightly* lesser color and contrast than my MG279, but better sharpness. Both are quite good. TFT Central's combination of suggested settings and icc profile for the XR341CK looked terrible to my eyes, on my sample of the monitor. I guess this is why we need to calibrate our own screens.
Trying out the CF791 really ruined me in terms of color vibrancy and contrast. In short, I still ended up returning it because of weak viewing angles and problems with Freesync. The biggest thing I notice about the XR341CK is that it seems biased toward yellow. I think proper sRGB is actually pretty warm to my eye, but the MG279 and especially the CF791 achieve whiter whites that I prefer. After tweaking the Acer's OSD quite a bit, I settled on very slight tweaks. But I went in the Radeon control panel and turned the color temperature all the way up to 7000k. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I'm sure it isn't perfect. I kept trying to turn the gamma up a few points in windows to get more dark color detail, but then kept resetting it because it wasn't worth the trade off.
I'm happy to spend <$250 on an instrument that will help me towards the above goals. Especially if it gives me piece of mind knowing that I'll get the best out of the monitors I have now and that I will buy in the future. But I don't want to waste my money if they won't help much or won't work well with technologies (didn't even mention HDR yet!) coming in the next few years. What should I do?
My biggest concern was with setting up the gamma (or whatever else has to happen) to make sure I'm not losing dark colors, but without washing out the rest of the range. I've mostly tried all the adjustments I can without the ability to create an icc profile. I'm not getting bad results necessarily, but I feel like dark colors are getting crushed a bit and there isn't anything else I can do about it. I've read several mentions of dark color detail being one of the benefits of calibration.
I was considering either the Spyder 5 Elite or X-rite i1 Display Pro. I'm not sure what other options exist. I'm open to suggestions. Another notion would be to get the lower versions of either product and use 3rd party software, as that seems to be the differentiating factor. Many people seem to use the DisplayCAL open source software with their choice of instrument. This apparently would have a steeper learning curve, but should be a very powerful program?
The Spyder 5 Elite was appealing because it's reasonably priced and the software should be pretty easy to use. The Elite version gives a lot of control over gamma and white point. This is sort of what I'm really after, I think. I know I'll be making adjustments to preference based on the calibration. I want more control and a solid starting point. Datacolor say they've improved dark color accuracy significantly with the Spyder 5 over the 4.
On the other hand, others say this is still a weak point for them and recommend the i1 Display Pro. The consensus seems to be that the Display Pro still has a slightly better sensor, especially for dark colors. But I'm not sure about its controls for asserting user preference in terms to gamma or white point?
The i1's software seems to give more choices for the type of screen being calibrated too? I hadn't really thought about it at first, but it makes sense that one sensor may not perform correctly across all display technologies. Right now, both my screens are white LED IPS. I'd tried out the Quantum Dot CF791 (and wrote a really lengthy and round about review here) and am now exited for future technologies such as electro-luminescent quantum dot or OLED. I don't want to buy a tool now that might not work with my next screen.
I currently have an Asus MG279 which has moved to my secondary system. It's using an icc profile from TFT Central that seemed to really take it to the next level. On my main system, I ended up going with the Acer XR341CK. This seems to have *very slightly* lesser color and contrast than my MG279, but better sharpness. Both are quite good. TFT Central's combination of suggested settings and icc profile for the XR341CK looked terrible to my eyes, on my sample of the monitor. I guess this is why we need to calibrate our own screens.
Trying out the CF791 really ruined me in terms of color vibrancy and contrast. In short, I still ended up returning it because of weak viewing angles and problems with Freesync. The biggest thing I notice about the XR341CK is that it seems biased toward yellow. I think proper sRGB is actually pretty warm to my eye, but the MG279 and especially the CF791 achieve whiter whites that I prefer. After tweaking the Acer's OSD quite a bit, I settled on very slight tweaks. But I went in the Radeon control panel and turned the color temperature all the way up to 7000k. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I'm sure it isn't perfect. I kept trying to turn the gamma up a few points in windows to get more dark color detail, but then kept resetting it because it wasn't worth the trade off.
I'm happy to spend <$250 on an instrument that will help me towards the above goals. Especially if it gives me piece of mind knowing that I'll get the best out of the monitors I have now and that I will buy in the future. But I don't want to waste my money if they won't help much or won't work well with technologies (didn't even mention HDR yet!) coming in the next few years. What should I do?
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