Monitor and calibration for colour correction?

[Naim Sutherland]

Hi everyone,

 

I need to colour my last two films, and I'm wondering what people would suggest for a CRT monitor to use for this task. I will need something affordable, of course.

 

And also, has anyone had any experience with hardware monitor calibrators? As in something like this: http://spyder.datacolor.com/index_us.php

 

Worth it, not worth it, any thoughts?

 

Thank you.

[Michael Belanger]

Hmm... can you define "affordable?" SD or HD?

Edited September 1, 2008 by Michael Belanger

[Naim Sutherland]

Hmm... can you define "affordable?" SD or HD?

 

SD would be fine for my purposes I think.

 

I really can't afford too much, but I wanted to see what was recommended. My plan was actually to try to track down something used to save cash. I would only use it to occasionally colour my own films (which is happening less and less, thankfully), my reel and obviously it would be valuable for testing. Not really anything worth a significant investment.

 

Thanks!

[wolfgang haak]

Naim,

 

Let me shed some light on the matter. As Michael has indicated, calibration implies that you know what you are calibrating for. There is a vast number of hardware calibrated, soft-proofing etc monitors around. A lot of the manufactures will blind you with their marketing blurb. You need to do your part of the homework first.

Eizo makes affordable hardware calibrated screen, but most of them (although very good) only achieve an sRGB gamut. Eizo 21CG

This is fine if your output gamut is mostly covered by the screen. But you sure as hell wouldn't want to use that monitor for soft-proofing a ISO Coated v2 CMYK image. (Just to prove a point).

You can check what standards are equivalent (i.e. what gamut your target has) here (pdf)

 

One of the highest gamuts , excellent uniformity, monitors are Quato Wide Gamut Monitors (although I believe they will break your bank)

 

Calibration devices: For the highest affordable standard colorimeters, try to get your hand on the Quato Silverhaze Pro or DTP94 colorimeter. They are improved designs of the Gretag Macbeth colorimeters, and to my knowledge the only UGRA/FOGRA certified "standard" colorimeters. (I know you're not producing print media, but these guys are ultra picky and what's good for them ain't bad for you)

 

Sony seized production of CRT tubes in 2000, affecting the identical Mitsubishis as well. Production of monitors phased out around 2005 when old tube stocks where used up. As of 2008 Samsung is not including CRTs in their product line any more.

 

As it looks, the future (for now) lies with LCDs.

 

Hope this helps a little.

regards

 

Wolfgang